I'm not going to try and go all 'I know better than you' here as it's all opinion and I've only been doing this racing lark for 5 mins, no malice intended whatsoever, but for what it's worth.....
Go along to a few race meetings and stand at the pit lane entry, ie where the truck comes in with the bikes in bits in the back, spot how many there are for MOST races, follow the van back to the paddock and look at the state of the bikes and then look at the faces of their riders/sponsors. Motorcycle racing is dangerous, loads of people crash every single weekend. I've yet to crash through my own rider error, unless you call not checking that an certain S4R had crappy Michelin tyres, or trusting poor quality second hand tyres, or having the wrong tyre pressures, hitting oil at circuit, or being knocked off by other riders. Point is, you cannot plan it.
Last weekend 7 riders went down in my race as some clown had 'wetter water' or whatever it's called in their radiator and it leaked and it's slippy and that was that. Even the best riders in the world on the best tyres and best suspension on the best grippy GP circuit go down....check this out from Sunday's MotoGP and imagine it's your first race on your shiney road bike with the sump lockwired and there you are the front bike and you think, 'woops going a bit wide here' or you're the guy behind and you think, 'it's my first race I'll just stay out of the way and follow some of the faster guys around'
http://images.motograndprix.com/flas...812.swf&vers=3 I wouldn't buy a damaged bike...what's wrong with it, do you really know, do you want to go flat out on it? It looks ok, but is the frame really straight, is the subframe ok, are there any stress points that are going to break as you pull the brake harder than you've ever done before, what are the forks like, yolks, is the shock bent blah bla......huge trust, potentially a huge amount of time to fix it and a potential money pit.
Or, buy a current race bike for £1500- £2000....there are loads of them for sale in MCN, Bemsee, New Era, Loot, Visordown and even here on DSC. You bin it, you throw it away, fix it or sell it. You keep it upright, you keep racing it cause it's fun, or you sell it for the same money you paid for it the following week., I've never been in one, but I've watched loads and they don't tend to deliberately elbow and push each other off the track like some of the CB5 guys are prepared to do...been there, done that, got the injuries, got the trophies.
In any case, would most road only riders buy a shiney Ducati with a lockwire all over it, or are you going to replace all the bits before you sell it again as a road bike.
Sound of Thunder is not a CB500 race for sure, but I've seen a lot of bent Ducatis in the paddock!
Weigh this up- carefully! But be aware that racing is as far away from track days as sledging is to doing the cresta run.
Whatever you decide, just do it
WeeJohnyB (crash hat at the ready)