Crash kills motorcycle safety instructor /OR

[PeteSC]

Crash kills motorcycle safety instructor
Racing champ - Keith Pinkstaff, 49, of Portland won a national race tour and co-founded a school
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Portlander Keith Pinkstaff, who won a national motorcycle riding championship in 1995 and started a motorcycle safety class at Portland International Raceway, died in a collision Saturday near Scappoose. He was 49.

Pinkstaff, an attorney who graduated from Lewis & Clark College, was vice president and claims manager for Aon Risk Services Inc. of Oregon.

But his first love was motorcycles, said his nephew, Kevin Pinkstaff, 20, of Portland.

Oregon State Police are investigating the cause of the crash, which happened at 3:45 p.m. Saturday on Oregon 47, the Mist-Clatskanie Highway. Kevin Pinkstaff said his uncle was riding his motorbike, which collided with a sport utility vehicle. He died instantly.

Keith Pinkstaff won the 1995 North American Super Bike Series, a national road race series that toured the country. He raced in the unlimited class that included 900- and 1000-cc bikes.

In 2000, he and some friends founded Pacific Super Sport Riders, the first Northwest-based riding school. The idea was to instruct street riders in a controlled environment, teaching them safety tips on the track that they could apply to riding in traffic.

"Growing up I saw Keith as more of a superhero than anything else," Kevin Pinkstaff said. "We'd always go watch him race at PIR. It was a cool thing to be there with him."

When Kevin Pinkstaff was 5 years old, his uncle taught him to ride his first motorcycle.

"The older I got the more riding we did together, both street and dirt bikes" he said. "We took week-long trips to Nevada and California to go riding in the desert."

He said his uncle was as safe a bike rider as there is.

"Keith has been riding for a long, long time and he was never one to be in opposing lanes or riding too fast," Kevin Pinkstaff said. "If something like this could happen to Keith, it could happen to any sport biker."

Keith Pinkstaff is survived by his parents, Howard and Virginia Pinkstaff of Portland; brothers, Brad Pinkstaff of Rainier and Clyde Pinkstaff of Portland; sister, Melina Palken of Los Angeles; stepdaughter, Hillary Laughman of Portland; and partner, Lisa Cipolla of Portland.

A memorial service is being planned.