Michael Barnes Heads a List of 3 Other Riders Entered in the Macau GP...

Michael Barnes, who rode for the Richie Morris Racing team this year teamed

with Daytona Superbike Inaugural Champ Danny Eslick on the Buell 1125 bikes,

heads a list of 4 total riders that will compete in the upcoming Macau GP street race

next month. This will be the 43rd edition of the motorcycle part of the GP w/e, and

the 56th edition of the car-related part of the festivities.

Run through the streets of Macau, which is located in southeast China--and just west of

the country of Taiwan, the race is considered to be the epitome of all street races and

circuits. Unlike the Isle of Man event in June of every year that runs strictly bikes,

Macau runs several car classes in addition to the motorcycle race itself. It is also

considered to be one of the most historic of all street races from what I was able to

find on the subject. Of course, as with all street circuits, questions of safety in the areas

of lack of run off, painted stripes in the middle of the track, and solid armco-style barriers

lining the track are only a few of the things that come into play when racing on anything that

is less then a safety-coordinated or homologated track. At least in the minds of anyone that

is comfortable running in excess of 150mph on a 2 wheeled rocket.....

You can read the press release as posted by the great people at http://www.roadracingworld.com/ in

addition to the official website info as well as a link I pulled off of Wikipedia.org that explains

the overall history, gives info on the winners of each respective class over the years, and

talks about the prominence that the race event holds in the Euro-Asian markets, as well.

Americans have historically run this event over the course of the years, but only one man

from the U.S.A. has ever won the bike portion of the event--Kevin Schwantz, the '93 500cc

Grand Prix Champion. He managed to bag the win in 1988.

The shots I have included on this little story are of one Mr. Michael Barnes on the #34

M4 Emgo-sponsored Suzuki GSXR600 while running practice at Road America for the old

FX class during June 2008's event. Michael has been around the racing scene for longer

then I can remember--at least the late '80s. He is a class act on and off the track and has

ridden darn near all types of bikes in a variety of classes over the years. In the shots above

he is on the TeamRoadRacingWorld.com owned/run team of John Ulrich and was teamed

last year with Martin Cardenas. We wish Michael and the others a very big thumbs up

and hope they can go over across the pond and bring home the goods--albeit in one piece,

please! Go get 'em and be safe......

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=38415

http://www.macau.grandprix.gov.mo/app/home/gp56/en

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau_Grand_Prix