Keith Pinkstaff; the memory of a great community leader lost to the street:

Still working out the impact of the crashes that Brad and Vincent endured, I was shocked to learn that one of the most positive and influential individuals; Keith Pinkstaff was killed over the weekend on a street ride. Here is the post on sportbikes.ws about his passing, and the community's response: http://www.sportbikes.ws/showthread.php?t=64588&goto=newpost

I met Keith during a classroom instruction at my first trackday in June of 2004. He has since helped me with advice, and personal intervention when I decided to try my hand at offroading at the infamous Cyclone at Thunderhill.
He stopped his R1 on the track to signal traffic around me, while I tried to get my R6 out of the mud. He also was the guy to stop to check on me and and help me get my bike to the wall outside T1 at PIR when I lowsided during a trackday.
He also allowed me a free afternoon session on a later trackday to get my bike sorted out after that crash. I will be forever indebted to Keith for his kindness and the advice and help he's offered me since we met.

I'll never forget filling up the bikes at the 76 station outside the track. We were holding up the line chatting even after our tanks were filled. We both laughed and got in our respective rigs to get setup at the track. He always had a kind thing to say, even when he was joking around. He never made me feel inferior. Even though I will always be to riders like Keith.
I still see him standing on the table at the track introducing the instructors and cornerworkers at the PSSR trackdays he and fellow racers organized.
He was a 1994 track record holder, an influential family member to up coming racers, and a pillar of our racing/trackriding community here in Portland, OR. RIP Keith, we'll miss you.



Article detailing Keith's trackrecord. http://www.motorcycle.com/mo/mcmail/road/trakrec94.html