Dave Roper has been racing motorcycles for more than half a century. The New England native is probably best known for campaigning exotic vintage machinery under the Robert Iannucci-led Team Obsolete banner. He’s fast, too. In fact, Roper won more than half of the races he entered on Iannucci’s 1959 Matchless G50, including, famously, the 1984 Senior Historic TT at the Isle of Man.

“We lived relatively close to Lime Rock Park in northwest Connecticut,” Roper tells “Driven to Ride” host Mark Long. “We used to go up there and watch the sports cars. That’s what I thought I wanted to do.” Once he found motorcycling, however, Roper was immediately hooked. “Motorcycles are more accessible,” he explains. “They’re cheaper, they’re smaller, they’re easier to work on.”

Now in his 70s, Roper has been the subject of many editorial projects, including a documentary film, “Motorcycle Man.” “I don’t feel like I’m all that special as a racer,” he says. “I’ve had some success. I’ve arranged my life so I can continue doing it; I’m not married, I don’t have any children. I love the social aspect of it, traveling and seeing people who you share a very special thing with.”

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Jon DelVecchio came to motorcycling later in life than many riders—as an adult and after starting a family. Yet, he’s accomplished a lot on two wheels, from becoming a Motorcycle Safety Foundation coach and the founder of the Street Skills School to the author of a popular riding technique book, “Cornering Confidence: The Formula for 100% Control in Curves.”

In his conversation with “Driven to Ride” host Mark Long, the career educator cites five previously published titles—“Total Control,” “Proficient Motorcycling,” “A Twist of the Wrist,” “Smooth Riding the Pridmore Way,” and “Sport Riding Techniques”—as the “sacred documents” he studied to develop and hone his own skills and, ultimately, introduce others to those methodologies.

Early on, DelVecchio considered two areas: traffic and corners. He decided the MSF had urban situational awareness well-covered—”Don’t take my class if you haven’t taken theirs,” he says—so he turned his attention to the twisties, and that challenging aspect of motorcycling has become his focus. DelVecchio goes so far as on this episode to share some of the best roads that he’s ridden.

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From a teenage pizza-slinging street racer to a professional National Hot Rod Association-winning Pro Stock Motorcycle drag racer, Steve Johnson understands the value of humble beginnings. He also knows exactly how it feels to reach 200 mph in less than 7 seconds. “I always tell everybody it’s like hanging on to a bullet after it's been shot out of a gun.”

“First to 500” is Johnson’s career calling card. “If you go to all the races in the year that the sanctioning body puts on,” he explains to host Mark Long on this episode of the “Driven to Ride” podcast, “and if you do it for 38 years, you’ll have 500, too.” That is a competition milestone no other NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer has ever reached. In fact, no one has even come close.

Rather than focus on his many racing successes, however, Johnson would rather talk about his off-track efforts. A California native who now calls Alabama home, Johnson is big on helping students achieve their goals. To that end, he founded the BAT-man Scholarship Program (“BAT” is an acronym for “Be A Technician”), awarded at high schools and technical colleges across the U.S.

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