10/26/2004: End of season wrap-up - It was a tight nail-biter of a race at Barber with our main class rivals Cherokee Challenge. We were looking good in the first hour and had pulled out about a full minute lead when the red flag flew for a crash in the fast back straight kink involving my personal hero Tray Batey and another unfortunate rider. The red flag gave Cherokee time to re-group and change their strategy and 3 hours later, we wound up finishing about a minute behind Cherokee for 2nd in class, 3rd overall, although we were credited one lap down. Results.

We went to the GNF 11 points behind Cherokee for the class championship, meaning we needed to win the race and have them finish 3rd or worse in order to win the championship. It was not to be. We were doing well in the first hour and were one of the last superstock teams who hadn't yet pitted for fuel in the first hour when the red flag flew, giving us a full lap over everyone else except the bikes in 1st and 2nd overall (we were 3rd). Problem was, we were on our in lap, but not yet in the pits. We figured we didn't have enough gas in the tank to safely take the warm-up lap for the restart and take the start, so we skipped the warm-up. As it turned out, we only had enough gas for half of a lap, and Chris ran out of gas in turn 7. We lost 6 laps waiting for the bike to come in on the crash truck and that pretty much sealed our fate. After running as low as 11th in class, we made it back up to 5th in class, 20th overall. Results.

Ah, what the hell, it was a good season. We won 3 races and made the overall podium 3 times, and had a few good exciting race-long battles. This was our best season ever.

09/14/2004: For NOTB, the news just keeps getting better. YET ANOTHER 3rd OVERALL PODIUM FINISH, but this time we also WON OUR CLASS! Yes, it's true, the sky is falling as NOTB finishes FIRST IN CLASS, THIRD OVERALL at Nelson Ledges! Results. This vaults us into first in the Middleweight Superstock Championship points battle, and third in the overall, with only 2 races left in the season. This is insanity!

08/23/2004: Another hat trick for the three-team alliance: Neighbor of the Beast, Army of Darkness, and Dixie Mafia sweep the middleweight and lightweight classes at Talladega! All three teams ran perfect races to finish at the top of their respective classes after four hours of August in Alabama. Results.

08/05/2004: It's official - Melissa Berkoff is the first woman to finish on the WERA National Endurance series overall podium in the series' thirty year history. Here's a picture of the overall podium from Summit. Zoinks!

08/03/2004: Since the last news update, there have been some big lows, and some big highs. Chris and I ran the 4-hour at VIR without Scott, as he was called home to be with his dad at his dad's final hour. We missed you Scooty. Results. After that we packed up the wagon for our cross country trip, to fabulous Fucktana and the 6-hour at California Superspeedway, where we finished 2nd in class, 6th overall. Results. Then it was back east to Grattan Raceway in Michigan, and the 6-hour and our best overall finish yet - 2nd in class, 5th overall. Results.

Finally, we showed up at Summit Point, West Virginia for the 6-hour in typical oppressive Mid-Atlantic mid-summer heat and humidity and topped our best overall finish. Yes, it's true, Neighbor of the Beast has reached the OVERALL PODIUM! The checkered flag at Summit found us 2nd in class (40 seconds behind William Lindsay and his hired guns, former Summit Point overall track record holder and former WERA National Endurance champion Joe Prussiano, and former AMA Pro Thunder champion Shawn Conrad, whom we traded positions with for all 6 hours), and, get this, 3rd overall! Results. Read about it on RoadracingWorld.com here and here. Notorious P.I.G. rider and regular AOD/NOTB crewman Nolan Ballew penned a special sonnet for the occasion which you can amuse yourself with here.

05/06/2004: WE WIN AT NASHVILLE! Results. We ran three teams out of our pits for the weekend; NOTB, Army of Darkness (Mediumweight Superbike), and Dixie Mafia (Lightweight Superbike), and all three teams won their respective classes. See photo of ebullient teams celebrating after the podium speeches here.

04/23/2004: Yet another late post-race report. One of these days I'm going to have to get a watch. The weekend started out well enough with perfect weather and good company - Chris and Beth Pyles turned out to be not only very adept at this whole racing thing, but also very easy to get along with and fun to hang out with as well. After former AOD and NOTB rider Jeff Walker did fuel maps for both teams at his shop Cooper Performance, we headed down to Jennings for the Army of Darkness track day. The people at Jennings made this one of the most painless and effortless track days we have ever been to, they were superb. One of our Power Commanders gave up the ghost in practice but AOD's newest, freshest blood, young Ben Walters, kindly loaned us the Power Commander off of his R6 for the weekend. Scott got right down to business and up to speed very quickly, and Chris, who hadn't raced a four-stroke in I don't know how many years, wasted no time in getting comfortable with the bike and track and new team and posted some competitive 600 lap times. Things were looking good.

The first hour of the race was very kind to NOTB. Scott got an amazing start and after running down and passing Mark Crozier of the Maxxis Tires Heavyweight Superstock team, was running as high as 3rd overall, 1st in class at one point. Then the red flag came out for oil and crashed bikes on the track and Scott was not quite so fortunate on the restart. He was clawing his way up in the standings and was in tenth overall when he effectively followed a middleweight pinball into a pack of lapped SVs. The pinball made it through the pack in an erratic fashion but Scott got caught up in a demonstration of cause and effect when one of the SVs the pinball knocked into, stood up and bumped Scott off the track. Scott was fine and the bike wasn't too bad but the rest of the race was a game of catch-up and damage control. Chris put together two clean, fast stints, and Scott shook off the effects of his crash to return for a good stint. Me and my recalcitrant still-injured ankle finished up the race for us in fifth place in class, 17th overall despite the arbitrary upshifting and incomplete downshifting that the thing that used to be my left foot kept insisting on. Not a stellar opening to the season, but not entirely unpredictable for us either. Results. Next up on the schedule: Nashville, Tennessee.

02/24/2004: I'm still not sure how it happened (and I'm sure he's asking himself the same question) but Neighbor of the Beast has managed to snare one (1) former WERA 125 National Champ and AMA 250GP racer Chris Pyles for 2004. Chris will be joining NOTB staples Scott Fisher and Melissa Berkoff in contesting the 2004 WERA Endurance MWSS championship because he won't understand what he's gotten himself into until it's too late (cue the ominous soundtrack). Welcome Chris!

01/07/2004: A new day dawns. Neighbor of the Beast returns for another year of grueling punishment in the WERA National Endurance Mediumweight Superstock class. More news shortly.

News from the 2003 endurance season is now here.
News from the 2002 endurance season is now here.
News from the 2001 endurance season is here.

Neighbor of the Beast in Roadracing World Magazine

Letters from the Belly of the Beast columns:

October 2002
May 2002
December 2001
April 2001
December 2000
November 2000
September 2000
August 2000

Melissa tests the 2004 Yamaha FZ6 on the streets around Seefeld, Austria (November 2003)

Riding three AMA Supersport bikes at the Dunlop D208 Press Intro: These Guys Are Nuts (Sep 2002)

Melissa covers the Suzuki Formula Hayabusa Racecar Intro (June 2002)

Neighbor of the Beast teams up once again with Army of Darkness for the 2002 Open Class Racetrack Shootout

Curing Shiftless GSX-R Racebikes (April 2002)

Melissa tests the 2001 Ducati 996R at Valencia, Spain for Roadracing World

Ducati's Automatic Shift System (May 2001)

Neighbor of the Beast teams up with Army of Darkness at the 2001 Daytona 600