As a rider myself, and having had the experience of having someone on the interstate try to do the same thing to me (three separate times) as I tried to get by him in another lane (8-lane interstate, 4 in each direction), my reaction to this is that the kid *needs* to have his driving privileges revoked for at least the next 10 years. This is nothing less than attempted vehicular manslaughter (I doubt the kid intended to actually kill the rider).
All that said, the ZX-14 is the fastest road-legal bike *on the planet*, and the rider should have known that the throttle is just as good as the brakes for avoiding idiots. This bike can do 0-100 faster than most performance cars can do 0-60, and 0-60 in under 2 seconds entirely in first gear, and will do a roll-on acceleration at any speed and in any gear that will wrench your arms out of their sockets. He should have been able to gas it and simply vanish into the distance the moment he saw the kid coming over. Now granted, sometimes when the excrement’s contacting the rotary blades when you’re riding, you don’t always think things through properly, but that’s all the more reason to make certain actions second-nature.
I agree with you Little Pig. A ZX1400 can easily become a vanishing point in the distance with little effort. I find it difficult to believe he lost a race with a Ford Fusion.
I also echoing others’ dismay at the simpering hand-wringing judge not revoking this guy’s license.