Hello,
My name is....drum roll please.......Michael Lueders.
Who am I ?
Motohead
Photographer
Rocket guy
Cook and honorary crew member car #77- No Nitro Hammond
hmmmn...
After reading some of the other posts I feel I could add more info.
I grew up, partly, in Southern California. We used to play and camp at El Mirage..a lot. Rockets, dirt bikes, car surf etc. Some how I made it to adulthood. On several occasions we watched cars run. I spent a fair bit of time working in cabinet shops and building aircraft components for my dad. He worked with many talented individuals in the aircraft world and I grew up in aviation workshops and at airports. I have always loved racing and speed to the point of one of my sharpest memories is a very stern warning from my dad about my propensity for speed and my ultimate longevity in this world. I loved speed, still do. I have always dreamt of Bonneville and as a kid collected models, posters or whatever regarding the salt flats. To the point of when helping a friend move to Provo from Santa Rosa back in 89 and making him stop the rental truck on the shoulder of HWY 80 so I could fill up a 32 ounce cup with "the world's fastest salt". I rode with that 7-11 cup very near to me all the way back to CA and portions of it sat on my desk until 2002. I would play with it from time to time always dreaming of going fast or being a part of the Bonneville experience- the place of greatness.
I always have been somewhat active within the motorcycle scene. I used to compete in trials events..truly as far from Bonneville as any motorsports could get. I also got involved in the local road racing club, the AFM and then off road events. Now bear with me this is going somewhere! I PROMISE!!
During all of my life my family has been very active in photography and image capture. We ran 16mm and super 8 gun cameras on the wings of planes and "buzzed" the Santa Monica pier on several occasions with my dad. I did still photos and more importantly got into video. I developed early on-board camera systems back in the mid 90's and ran the systems with considerable success. I've had some of my images on national broadcast TV and made the cover of a couple of moto mags with some pics.
Now we tie all the pieces together..told you it was going somewhere!
A friend of mine said there is a lady he thinks I should meet. She like motorcycles and is also single..oh, great a blind date!! Well..we meet and started to hit it off. Our second date was dirt biking where I clearly remember being worried if she could keep up only to have her blow by me when I looked over my shoulder..hmmn this could really work. She did the same thing as Sears Point during a track day a while later. I was passing on the outside of T6 on supermoto going around a couple of liter class sports bikes and around me goes this red blur all the way out in the marbles..holy cow what an amazing pass!!..Then I recognized the lady who had just passed me. I laughed, hooted and hollered so hard I missed the next shift coming out..she was gone. The lady?...Jeannie Pflum.
So to tie it all up..met the love of my life..stumbled into my life long love of Bonneville..get to take tons of cool pics..get to run on-board camera systems and get to launch some cool rockets too. Pinch me!!!
To me Bonneville is not just a flat spot on the Earth, a race venue or the best collection of the coolest people you could ever hope to meet. Yes, it is all that...but to me Bonneville is proof that God wants us all to be happy..all we have to do is follow our dreams and be true to our hearts.
Bonneville is truly a special place to me and I am truly blessed to be able to just hang out with everybody...truly blessed indeed. I say my thank you's every morning!
Sorry for the long post..