The following press release has been posted at former QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Mike Stone's MySpace page:

Riding motorcycles and playing guitar since he was eight-years-old, Mike Stone has melded his life on the stage with his new life on the racetrack, performing his next show on the Saturday of the July 24th - 26th CCS event at Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, Illinois.

A former guitar player for the hard-rock band Queensrÿche, Mike Stone performs with other local musicians in the MIKE STONE ROCKIN' RACE SHOW at all 2009 CCS races at Blackhawk Farms Raceway.

In his last appearance at Blackhawk, guest guitarist and founder of Buell Motorcycles, Erik Buell, joined Stone on stage. Stone said, "Erik and I have been friends for years and he even has his own band. People might not guess it but Erik has lot of punk in him. He can really lash one out."

Bound by their enthusiasm for motorcycles and music, Stone and Buell have worked together on the design of a new guitar, soon to be put into production by Washburn Guitars of Chicago, Illinois. So, naturally, Stone races a Buell XB9, and it's fitted with Pirelli Supercorsa DOT race tires.

Stone said, "I have only ever believed in Pirelli tires so once I decided to go racing it was the only brand to consider. And I have to thank Dustin Boyd and Cycle Path Racing for all their help at the track, mounting the tires and giving advice."

It didn't hurt Stone's choice that Pirelli tires are also the OE fitment for all Buell motorcycles.

(photo courtesy of Jim Lilly)

Living in Wisconsin and free from nearly eight years of playing with Queensrÿche, Stone has recently formed the band SPEEDX with Nick Catanese. Joining them are band members Mike Froege, Josh Sattler and Jason Fowler, all contributing to recording their first CD at the Open Sky Studios in Atlanta, Georgia, which is nearly finished and slated to be released late in the year.

Stone got into road racing just last year, even though he's been riding since he was a child. He does track days with Motovid at Blackhawk as well as competing in CCS races, and he contributes music to the DVDs produced by Motovid that feature racing and riding at Blackhawk. Stone's race team is called Stoneplanet.net, and at that website there is news about upcoming dates Stone will be playing at Blackhawk and news about his band SpeedX.

(photo courtesy of Jim Lilly)

Stone said, "My wife Laura rides a Buell Blast, so we are a motorcycling family. My brother Dave is on our race team and he plays drums in the Mike Stone Rockin' Race Show, and regularly with Erik. I've always had bikes but now I've sold all of my street bikes so that I can concentrate on racing. It keeps me out of trouble too, but I'd like to get a really slow street bike for running around on."