If you could look up “privateer” in a road racing dictionary, you might find Skip Salenius grinning right back at you. He’s a perfect example of the kind of person who comprises the bulk of the AMA paddock; not a factory rider whose future plans include championships, not a young-gun who dreams of a MotoGP ride, but a hardworking guy who’s willing to do whatever it takes to stay on the racetrack, just because he loves it that much. Here’s hoping a one-year membership to www.sponsorhouse.com helps provide more opportunities for Skip to keep living the dream.

When did you start road racing?
Not ‘til 2004. It was in WERA; I had a GSX-R750 and I raced the B Superbike, B Superstock, Formula 1—everything I could race with a 750 in WERA. I’d done a few track days before that.… Actually, I did my first track day in 1993; I used to work with Lee Acree up in North Carolina, and I met Scott Carpenter when he did his first racing school. I went through the school with him, but I just didn’t get into racing then. I ended up waiting forever and pretty much just screwed around in my 20s. But then I started riding street bikes again in 2000 and just knew right away that I was going to get in trouble; you can’t ride one of those things under 10,000 rpms or it’s just no fun [laughs].

You didn’t do any motocross or flat track before that?
Not really. I used to try to sneak away and ride dirt bikes, because my mom would never let me have a bike when I was a kid, so in middle school and high school I used to go ride XR100s at my buddy’s house and not tell her. But that’s about it.

What’s your plan for this season?
Well, I’m racing for Wizard Racing in the WERA national endurance series on a GSX-R1000, and as far as this team goes, No Worries Racing, the guy who owns this team bought the bike we’re using here from the Attack Kawasaki guys last year, and he just wants to go play. This is my first weekend and he’s paying for everything—and I really want to thank him for that—and he just wants to see how it goes, then we’ll go from there. So who knows what’ll happen during the year? But I know I at least want to do Mid-Ohio, Elkhart, Road Atlanta, V.I.R.—the closer tracks.

How’s the bike treating you?
It’s fine; it’s good, but I think Attack might have taken all the goodies out of the suspension before they gave it to us. I rode it here for the first time during promoter practice, and it tried to kill me in four laps. I came off, and then I got Huey, a big mechanic guy, to come up here and try to set the sag and ride height numbers and everything, and he pushed on it—we had the compression all the way out and it was still rock-hard—and he said, “I hate to tell you this, but you’re gonna have to start over.” But thank god I have a buddy at Ohlins; I ran down there to him and he swapped everything out free of charge.

It’s good to have friends.
Oh my god. It’s like, he who has the biggest Rolodex, wins.

Thus far in your racing career, what’s been your proudest moment?
Turning pro. I used to always be the one hanging on the fence, looking over at the hot pit, going, “Man, I want to do that.” I’m 35, and when I started racing in 2004, I was like, “I’ve got to do this as fast as possible.”

Is the collarbone bothering you this weekend?
I showed it to you, right? I smashed it up real good, broke it in four places. It happened about three and a half weeks ago, and I had surgery the Monday after by this incredible doctor—he’s the same guy who put Kevin Schwantz together and who puts Travis Pastrana back together.

If he puts back Pastrana together, he’s probably pretty good.
Yeah, exactly [laughs]. The first doctor I had sent me to him when I said I needed to be riding again in three weeks, and he said, “Well, I can have you riding in two weeks if you can handle the pain.” I told him I could wait three.

What’s up with the other bike under your tent?
Well, that bike over there is the Yamaha that I race; it’s actually Josh Harrin’s ’05 bike from Graves, and it’s an awesome bike, I love the bike; it’s an incredible machine. And this one [indicates Kawi, sighs heavily], well, it’s getting there.

What’s your life like outside of racing?
I’m a personal assistant for one of my best friends; he has a lot of real estate and a lot of toys, so I pretty much just take care of all the stuff he’d prefer not to do. I’ve been working for him for 10 years, and he doesn’t ask any questions when I leave on Thursday or when I come back; he definitely allows me to pretend I race motorcycles. I still don’t consider myself to be on the level of all these other people here, even though I ride with them, because I’m just Skip. It’s pretty tripped out, really, because I’m just a normal person and this is like a dream, being out here. It’s very surreal sometimes. My girl always tells me, “Look, you’re riding with those guys,” but I just don’t consider myself to be that good. I’m getting faster, but I ride like I have to go to work on Monday. Because so much money comes out of my back pocket—it’s just addiction at this point. I’d do it if I had to sell crack on the corner.

You love the sport too much to stay away.
That’s it exactly. As long as there’s not blood coming out of my body and I’ve got all my arms and legs, nothing’s going to stop me.

Skip’s sponsors are:

• Doctor Doug
• Moto R
• The Motorcycle Shop
• Thermosman Suspension
• Arctic Polar Heating and Air
• 1-888-Fastia