The top rider is Jason DiSalvo, a Yamaha factory Superbike rider and AMA expert. Here he is pictured in turn 1 at Parumph on his factory-supplied R1 practice bike. Jason, only 22 years old, has already won more AMA races than I care to list here. Obviously he is fast. His athletic posture is at least partly related to his young age, his 5 foot 3 inch height and 125 pound weight.

The 2nd rider is Billy, mid-thirties and the fastest sport bike rider I know who isn't a professional racer. He is on a CBR929RR, pictured here in turn 1 at Parumph. In my opinion, Billy would be competitive with at least some AMA professionals

The 3rd rider is Gene, early-forties and the 2nd fastest sport bike rider I know who isn't a professional. He is on a CBR1000RR, pictured here in turn 1 at Parumph. Gene is fast but I don't believe he is as fast as Billy.

The 4th rider is Jeff, mid-fifties and pictured here on his R1200GS at Streets of Willow. This Reg Pridmore CLASS was Jeff's first track experience and he already looks relaxed and fast.

The 5th rider is the author of this brief narrative, mid-sixties when the picture was taken, and not-so-fast. The bike is a DL650 V-Strom, pictured here in a Jason Pridmore STAR track school. Instructors and an unknown AMA rider passed this rider as though he were parked.

At a glance, the lean angles in these pictures seem similar but in fact the abilities and track experience vary from AMA top ten to first track outing. While most people would easily pick the top photograph on the left as picturing the fastest rider, ranking the other four by lean-angle alone would not be so easy even though the lap-time spread would be rather broad.