Team Roadracingworld.com Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich gave two local reporters and a radio call-in contest winner once-in-a-lifetime experiences Thursday by taking them for laps around the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on his two-seat GSX-R1000 AMA Superstock racebike. “That was the best thing ever. It was the best. That is a life experience I will never forget,” said Ruth Miller, on-air personality for WMFD-TV in Mansfield, Ohio. Miller recently participated in a similar ridealong program by riding in a two-seat IndyCar race car. When asked how her ride with Ulrich compared, she said, “No comparison. This is so different. You don’t have the protection of the machine. It’s just you and this [leathers] and the concrete. I just respect these guys so much. I cannot believe what they go through out there.” After Miller, Mansfield News Journal News Reporter Jami Kinton went for a lap with Ulrich and said, “You guys said it would feel like we were lying on the ground [in the corners], and it did. I think I might have screamed in his ear. But it was really fun. “I think it’s [two-seat ridealong program] great. There’s nothing like getting a first-person experience of it. What they do is amazing. I’m really impressed with what they do.” The final rider was Mike LaVan, an amateur motorcycle drag racer, motocross rider and road racing fan who won his ride in a call-in contest put on by Mid-Ohio and WKNR 850 AM ESPN Radio in Cleveland, Ohio. “I actually got this from my brother-in-law, Jim Luchia,” clarified LaVan. “He actually won the contest, and unfortunately he couldn’t take the day off of work. He said I was the first person he thought of, and boy, am I glad he did because he gave me the gift of a lifetime. What a rush! “Never in my life have I ever experienced anything like that. I’m a rider, but I’ve got to tell you it was absolutely mind-boggling how fast that thing went, how light it felt. Then we dropped down that one hill. What an adrenaline rush!” Thursday was Ulrich’s first day of riding since he broke his left hand in June at Road America. Since then he has had two surgeries causing him to miss two rounds of the AMA Superbike series, but the two-time AMA Superstock race winner said his hand was feeling sore but fine, and his hand and left arm were weak from lack of use. Ulrich’s teammate Robertino Pietri rode his GSX-R1000 in close proximity to the two-seater to give the guest riders a small glimpse into what is like to actually be racing.