This is the best video I've ever seen on RU-vid!!! Awesome camera views. Man, racing is tough. I'd have done the same as you. You don't stop when racing unless you are 100% ABSOLUTELY sure they are flagging you. Imagine how you'd feel if you had pulled off the track and it WASN'T you? I've been a Sammy Halbert fan ever since I saw you back in 2006 at Skagit and Hannegan where you destroyed the competition. I thought you were the best flat tracker I ever saw. I grew up watching guys like Steve Baker and Randy Skiver. I was right. So cool to see you blowing away the competition today on an XR750!!!
Last Year AFT was not worth watching, race after Race. All those fantastic years, and now your back from a bad editor in 2023. Was that just one cell phone Camera last season?
I was there at Daytona when you took that Ol' XR750 out, sucks about the confusion with the black flag, we as spectators didnt know what was going on either, that XR is just a beast, i wish the newer XG750R was as good, alas it is not, cant wait to see you next year Sammy, go #69!!
I am not a HD fan at all but the XR750 was a very good race bike. But that being said, even when the Harleys were dominant it really didn't take much effort from the Jap brand factories to build motorcycles that would soundly beat the XR's at their own game. Yamaha did it in the 70's and Honda really showed the world who was king in the 80's. It was sort of common knowledge that HD was "greasing the palms" of the AMA so that whenever another brand started pounding on the Harleys the rules would change for the next year to favor the XR-750 back to dominance. Yamaha threw the towel in quickly but Honda stayed in the battle for a few years. But by the time HD had regained its race dominance, HD fans that use to pack the grandstands were getting old and losing interest. So the whole FT world started its decline to become the sad state it is these days. You are right about the XG750. I know the suspension tech for the HD factory team and he told me the new Harley was a dog. It could very well be that the XG is every bit as strong as the old XR was perhaps it's just that HD doesn't own AMA anymore so the other teams have more money to spend and use it to be all in. And lets face it, HD, Indian, Royal Enfield have nothing else to compete in that they are competitive at and SX/MX seems to be ruling the motorcycle racing world now. THATS what Harley needed to get into.
tell me again harley couldn't still be running that motor with a few upgrades. i understand the whole bagger thing and i do enjoy it. but i've been following dirt track my entire life. and without a competitive machine from harley it's not the same. may be one day they'll come back or more will do what sammy's team is doing. i know parts and machines are slim though. dougy would be happy to see this though.
That Was definitely STRANGE, I was Watching The Smoke and Sammy Try to Slow That XR750 down with oil on his Brakes and probably on tires/track making it squirrly for all!! Never a Dull Moment with #69 Lovin !E!
Nice finish... BTW the CO2 cops were asking who that was .... We told them it was a Japanese motorcycle. 5th is good points first race. We've all had those throttles for many years... like 60.... LOL
I met you at bulls Gap years ago , told you that you're going to be one of the greatest , and sure enough you are. Great job on your career! Awesome stuff
Uppity track officials, too young to remember when Harleys were praised for keeping the dust down on the track. The ones crying about oil on their tear offs, it called getting smoked by a Harley.
ScumBag Kraut at the head of the H-D table is the reason H-D left racing. H-D has OWNED Flat Track and Pro Sock Drag Racing forever so put a European in charge and first thing done is Shut Down all Racing. Makes one wonder where his priorities lie, H-D or ktm.
HD "OWNED" FT racing for so long because HD was "sleeping" with AMA so to speak...(that is pretty common knowledge...) and every time another brand would come along and start kicking HD ass the AMA would change the rules to get advantage back to HD. Yamaha did in in the 70's, and Honda really did it in the 80's, and quite easily I might add. That doesn't happen anymore an you see the results. The new XG 750, I was told by the HD Racing factory suspension tech I know he races vintage MX as I do, is a dog. And as far as NHRA Pro stock motorcycle...yeah again HD...or should we say Buell... does kick ass. Does the fact that NHRA lets HD/Buell run more than twice the CC engine size (2600) of the Jap superbikes (1100) have anything to do with it??? Gee I'd say absolutely. And I see Suzuki is getting the edge again anyway. Where the hell is HD in the most popular of all motorcycle racing venues SMX??? When Eric Buell was still with HD he was working on an MX bike for HD. Then dumbass HD let him go for reasons nobody knows for sure. Willie G is a brain burned out pothead idiot... and HD motorcycles, except for the XR 750...are big heavy chrome plated pig dogs.
Right hand shift is unique? If not for capitulating to Europe, it would still exist. I find it better than the swapped bull forced upon us. Get a life and a grip narrators. Harley CEO's will f..k up a free lunch. They are proficient in not understanding racing at any level. Look at what they did to Aermacchi, Buell and alost accomplished destroying MV Agusta. Harley , for the most part, sucks.
I went joy/points racing in 2006 kinda like you are this year, and to this day I kick myself for not dedicating my year to the AMA series.. don't get me wrong, I got to race against kopp and a handful of other pro's on tracks that had zero to do with the series, and had a blast, but still, I think I had something special that year, and will always wonder "what if" .. Head down, up on the tank, and turnin left..
