Nate leading the pack at the Czech Grand Prix, BMW Boxer Cup (enlarge image)

It’s just another day at the MOA Headquarters in St. Louis when 2006 Daytona winner Nate Kern stops in to show his bikes. He’s on his way to the American Sport Bike Racing Association 4th round of the National Thunderbike series in Topeka, Kansas. He hasn’t seen the Heartland Park track yet, but has heard that the track should suit BMW bikes quite well with the high-speed corners.

Kern, who appeared on the cover of the January 2004 ON, has been turning heads in the racing circuit on his R1200S and R12R Power Cup bikes. At 28 years old, he has progressed through racing classes in leaps and bounds and found sponsorship with Main Line BMW of Pennsylvania.

He will compete in the 23rd Annual Race of Champions in Daytona in October. After the nine races in two days in Topeka, Kansas, Kern will travel to the Virginia International Raceway.

Nate races BMW bikes, and is a card-carrying member of the BMW MOA (enlarge image)

After wining 9 class championships and 2 overall championships in the 2005 season, Kern has taken the 2006 season by storm and is the current point leader in the American Sportbike Racing Association National Series.

“When you’re leading a championship, you want the season to end now,” Kern said. “I have to pace myself a bit and hang on to my lead.”

He showed up at the MOA on Tuesday morning with #1 plates on his K12R Power Cup and the new R1200S.

“This is my third season on a BMW and the novelty still hasn’t worn off,” Kern said. “I’m still learning about that bike. People think that the bike can’t move that fast because of the weight, horsepower and the wheel base, but it is possible.”

Kern, a native of Mount Laurel, New Jersey, started at the amateur regional level and progressed to regional pro to national pro. In March of 2002, after doing two small races in 2001, he decided to give professional racing a try.

“I used to quit sports a lot because I never had anyone to watch me play,” Kern explained. “The BMW riders that come to the track have become like family. To be able to ride for them on the same kind of bike they rode to the track on is great.” He credits his success as a racer to his grandfather, who taught him to be aware and be able to be coordinated enough to play sports.

“You have to prove yourself on your own money and your own equipment,” Kern said. “That’s what was most fun was showing up with two bikes in the back of a truck and filling up the gas cans at the local gas station – it was great to be able to beat those people with lots of money and equipment at their disposal.” Kern entered eight races in 2002 and showed up at VIR at the second round of the regional amateur series.

“The series director bumped me up an entire class,” Kern said. “It was a really weird, chaotic day. I won my first regional pro race basically out of fear. I led into the first turn and never saw anybody after that. That was the best thing he ever did for me. It saved me a whole season. Running as a regional pro taught me how to go faster.”

He spent all of the 2002 racing season as a regional pro and finished 2nd that year. The first time he rode the Boxer Cup was in practice with guys who have been doing it since 1999.

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When he showed up to a race with an R1100S, other riders laughed at the bike, but he ended up winning Unlimited Superbike in the Atlantic class.

“That bike is unstoppable in the rain,” he said. “The BMW R1100S is so heavy it cuts down to the asphalt. It’s a very forgiving bike. I’ve gotten into some really bad situations in a series of S-turns moving back and fourth and I can run them all over. If I didn’t have those cylinder heads sticking out I’d have crashed ten times over.

“When I first started dragging the cylinder head on the ground, it felt like the first time my knee touched the ground,” Kern said. “Sometimes it’s a little scrape, and once I slid the bike for three feet and then the wheels picked it back up. I thought I was crashing, but I didn’t panic and it performed amazingly well.”

As for the amount of maintenance on race bikes, he commented, “when we’re done with a race, we just load the bikes up and give them some gas. Guys that race the other bikes hate that because they have so much more maintenance to do.”

Kern, a former Suzuki rider, started riding BMW bikes in 2003 in his second season of racing. The next year, he earned a prestigious opportunity to race the full BMW Motorrad Boxer Cup series in Europe.

“To be able to look back to when I got on BMWs, it’s as if God wanted me to ride a BMW,” Kern said. “I had to look at the bigger picture when some other offers came to me. I don’t want to be history but I want to be a part of it.”

Street riding isn’t really Nate’s cup of tea. “You have to stop,” he said. “I don’t like to stop until I’m off the track.”

As far as younger riders go, Nate suggests it’s just human nature to get peer pressured to keep up with other riders and what they’re doing.

Nate straddles his bike alongside MOA deputy editor Mandy Langston and executive director Ray Zimmerman (enlarge image)

“I lost a mechanic a few years ago because he went to work at a Harley dealer and got pressured into not wearing a helmet or gear because suddenly it didn’t look as cool. He’d still be alive if he had a helmet on to prevent his head injuries.” He hopes to be able to have a traveling program that everyone can enjoy. He also wants to wear the patches of BMW clubs that come out to represent at the track on his racing suit.

The 6th Annual CCS Virginia Festival of Speed will be at VIR on June 24 and 25, 2006. Nate encourages all BMW fans to come out and show support for the grand tradition of BMW racing.

“The support I’ve gotten really cements for me why I want to stick with BMW,” he said. “You don’t get loyalty like that anywhere else. To be able to have some BMW folks come up to me after the race – some of them keep their riding gear on in 80-degree weather. They can walk a little bit taller after I finish a race and people don’t look at them quite so funny. That’s my paycheck right there.”

He enjoys finishing a race and looking up in the stands and seeing people with signs bearing his racing pet name “N8!” on posters and cheering with him.

“We invite the enthusiasts to come hang out with us,” he said. “It’s great to talk about the bikes with people who have a genuine appreciation for them.”

6/28/2006 Update: This past weekend in Virginia, Nate Kern won the CCS Unlimited Superbike on his Mainline BMW K1200 and won the GT Lights race on his BMW R1100S. The race was Saturday's Championship Cup Series at Virginia International Raceway, in Alton, Virginia.

6/20/2006 Update: Last week, Nate Kern spent Wednesday and Thursday practicing at the Heartland Raceway in Topeka, Kansas. He entered a sprint race on Friday to get a feel for the track and ended up winning by the entire straightaway. He qualified second behind the current Thunderbike champion. “I have been really impressed with the way the stock R1200S can perform on the track,” Kern said. “It’s an amazing bike and it performs well every time.”