Courtesy of www.cdnsuperbike.com:

Calling it a day

After my disaster at the final round of our series, I have reflected on a good career. Severely breaking my pelvis was not how I envisioned closing the book, however, it was much earlier at Mosport that really broke my will. Now, there are several reasons that my ability to compete at the top, has been diminished and it is time to get off the bike.

I really love the sport, and look forward to continuing in some way next year. It is actually very hard to imagine not pushing a bike to its limits, however other priorities are now forefront. With (Tom) Kipp, Pascal (Picotte), Steve (Crevier), and all our fast guys, it was surely my best opportunity to compete. It meant that everything had to be lined up so, and each person on a team had to give 100% to win. For once, I think, my team was better than I was.

Jason Juchau and Gord Bush built and maintained top quality bikes, with no failures, and no loose thing-a-ma-jigs. By Calgary we were jelling very well, and our result helped us within the team. Kevin Graham ran a good ship and my guys got whatever they needed to help me, including suspension assistance from Max McAllister. We had some good runs, however I was generally slower than my teammates on our CBR600. On the new (to me) Pirelli slicks, I made several mistakes on the big 954, resulting in three good highsides this year, each of which broke my HJC helmets. Everyone seemed very understanding, but I started putting even more pressure on myself. By season’s close at Shannonville I was sore, fuzzy headed, and feeling like I had to pull a rabbit out of somewhere.

Well that didn’t happen, and now I’m looking at four more weeks recovering. In my seventeen years at racing, I have encountered so many great people, and gained a wealth of life experience. This ought to continue I guess, however Angie says some part of the ‘people and experience’ has to stop! Gotta cut down on that anyway as my old ‘swivel hips’ have enough metal in them to build a lawnmower now. Rather, I would like to continue to be part of the scene, see all of my friends, and hopefully contribute some of my experience towards someone else’s success. I would also like to be able to kick soccer balls to my kids. Odds at this point are that I have had my three strikes, and then some.

I have maintained that I would like to race until I felt I was getting slow. I can make up a few excuses for some of my season’s results, but if I look at the big picture, next year will only be tougher, will I?

Thank you all who have helped me

Good speed to all the new young guns!

Michael Taylor