4 racers, 8 techs, 24 hours

Growing up in Marin County, California, the hills and roads motocyclists dream of were within 10 minutes of Greg Petrovic's backyard. It was only natural that he would find himself winding down and up and around these roads on his own bike, becoming very familiar with the distant reaches of the hills and valleys. Highway 1, ranking high on the list, drew Greg and a multitude of others to spend weekends threading through the twists and turns and scenic roadway along the coast.
The race tracks of California soon became the new playground for Greg. Becoming familiar with the different tracks (Sears, a tight track requiring different settings for suspension than say Willow Springs), Greg raced while also becoming an excellent bike mechanic. Having raced both sprint and endurance races, Greg found the 24 hour endurance races more exciting and interesting. (Endurance racing, as one web site defined it, is a combination of speed, stamina and careful planning in order to gain as many laps as possible within the time frame of the race. Some endurance races start with a sprint across the track to the bikes. During the race there will be rider changes, re-fuelling stops, tire changes or possibly even total rebuilds.)

Greg made the decision to form a team and he and his brother became part of the pit crew. With the help of John Ulrich (editor of Road Racing World and Motorcycle Technology magazine), the team had bikes to ride as John supplied them with the previous year’s race bikes. The team began racing in the 400cc class; focusing on skill, technique, bike set-up, and strategy before graduating to 600cc level. However, once the team progressed to the 1100cc category, the skill level changed significantly and the previous group of racers found themselves out of their league.
A new team, sponsored by Suzuki, was formed. There were 4 racers and a pit crew of 8; 3 people to work on the front wheel, 3 on the rear, and 2 for the rest of the bike. The bikes they raced were Suzuki 7-11s: 750 frames with 1100 engines. The races were run as part of the San Francisco Int’l Endurance Sprints. Each racer took 1’15” turns on the track until the 24 hours was over.

After a racing career spanning from 1982 to 2000, Greg found that sponsors were becoming harder to come by and decided to retire from the sport. He moved to Santa Fe and is now the Parts Advisor at BMW. His current collection of bikes include: a Suzuki 650 V-STROM, Yamaha GTS 1000, and a Suzuki GSXR 1100 (no BMWs in his collection, yet).

A few other facts about Greg; he’s married to Angelica, he speaks fluent French and has ridden his motorcycle across Europe on, at least, two occasions.

With the help of Greg, Troy, and Shana, I can’t help but improve my skills on the track and on the street!
Thanks Greg, for being part of my posse and, in advance, for helping me become a better rider/racer.