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Motorsports Notebook
By Susan Wade
Special to The Seattle Times
Carl Blake remembers those Saturday afternoons
fondly. He would sit in front of the family TV and devour
entire boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal while gawking
at "The Superbikers" on ABC’s Wide World
of Sports program.
"The roof of my mouth recovered, but my mind never
did," Blake, now 38, said.
As a boy, he longed to be on one of those motorcycles,
speeding, leaning, grinding, soaring, sliding and churning
up fountains of dirt just like those rugged riders at
Southern California’s Carlsbad Raceway.
The Woodinville resident had to wait nearly 20 years
to experience that electric blend of the high-speed
artistry of pavement road racing and the unbridled drama
of dirt-track mayhem. Now, as the two-time and reigning
king of the Northwest in the Super TT American Racing
Series (STTARS), Blake will compete against the world’s
best in the invitational FIM S1 World Championship Series.
It is sanctioned by the FIM, Fédération
Internationale de Motocyclisme, the body that governs
motorcycling racing at the world-competition level.
Blake will travel to Kartenring, Austria, and Cuneo,
Italy, later this month and to Athens, Greece, and Broadford,
Australia, in November. He will join riders from France,
Italy, England, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Spain,
Germany, Australia and New Zealand as he vies for the
winner’s purse of about $10,000 per event.
"It’s like getting invited to the Olympics,"
Blake said.
Both Blake and the sport have changed dramatically
since the made-for-TV series aired.
After a decade, ABC pulled the plug on The Superbikers
in 1986. The French latched onto the sport and renamed
it Supermotard, or SuperMoto for short, and its popularity
spread throughout Europe. In the meantime, Blake attended
Bellevue Community College and Cornish College of the
Arts, married Redmond High School sweetheart Kim, fathered
two sons and made a career starting, acquiring and merging
sports/recreation companies.
When Americans rediscovered SuperMoto, Blake polished
his riding. This daredevil son of a flight-test pilot
graduated from crudely fashioned but inspired jumps
over the picnic table, cars and a bridge and even from
the roof of the house to a resume of regional renown.
Then in the fall of 1998, friend Chuck Sun, the Motocross
legend, invited Blake to a race in Rosemond, Calif.
A second- and third-place showing that weekend convinced
him to take his riding to the next level. He and Kim
started promoting STTARS on the West Coast and still
are stirring support for a "Return of the Superbikers"
in hopes of uniting organizations and someday crowning
a national champion.
Carl Blake changed more than his motorcycle-riding
style. He changed his life.
He and Kim moved from an Eastside gated community to
a smaller, more rural log cabin that had for years been
the family’s rental property. There they built
a paved oval, dirt oval and single track for Carl to
train every day, rain or shine. Sons Hunter, 10, and
Maverick, 9, often join him. The boys and their friends
love to sit by the creek that runs through the property
and watch the fish. The move, he said, "gave us
legend status with our kids."
Said Blake, "We were tired of impressing people
we don’t know with stuff we don’t need. We
quit being yuppies."
He also quit the unhealthy eating habits he had acquired
and began to enjoy tofu and what he can‘t help
referring to as "ridiculous sprouts."
Confiding a love for broccolini and spinach, Blake
said, "I’m living on the stuff I used to make
fun of. I’m looking for 1,500 calories of perfection.
The wok is my friend," he said, adding that he
and Kim cook on a rare six-burner stove that’s
"as big as a Volkswagen."
Of equal proportions are Blake’s passion for SuperMoto
racing and the respect he has for this opportunity to
be the lone American rider in the international showcase
series. The irony isn’t lost on him that SuperMoto
is the sport Americans invented and developed, then
forgot. And with his international debut, he’s
hoping no one will forget him.
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