Empty Pockets Racing lives up to its name.

"There's a saying that if you want to make a little money racing, start with a lot of money," Keith Reed, a member of the Westmoreland-based sport bike team, said Tuesday.

Despite the forever-tight funds, though, Reed, of Allegheny Township, and his partner, Aaron Barry, of Lower Burrell, didn't hesitate when they got a call from fellow sport bike enthusiast Mike Seate a couple of weeks ago.

Seate, of Osborne, was organizing a fund-raiser for Hurricane Katrina relief. They'd ride laps at BeaveRun Raceway in Beaver County and get sponsors to pay so much per lap.

"We thought it was an awesome idea -- right up our alley," Reed said.

He has a list of 95 to 100 people who get reports on Empty Pockets' efforts on the club racing circuit, and he sent them all an e-mail asking for sponsorship.

Then it was a matter of showing up at BeaveRun Tuesday, hanging out with some like-minded lunatics and doing their second-favorite things -- taking hot laps around the raceway's north track.

Their favorite thing, of course, would be taking hot laps in an actual race.

Reed wasn't sure of the exact amount his team raised, since he was waiting for some possible corporate matching funds, but he thought the Empty Pockets donation would be about $4,500.

That puts the team well short of the day's champion, however. Larry Grodsky, of Squirrel Hill, raised almost $6,000.

Grodsky runs Stayin Safe, a rider training business, writes a column for Rider magazine and organizes sport bike tours in various parts of the country. The tours will start in a major city and head into the countryside for a three-day back road jaunt -- one from Pittsburgh heads into the rolling hills of southern Ohio.

"I have a lot of generous clients," he said of his large contribution.

The 15 riders in Tuesday's event raised almost $25,000, according to Kimberlee Love, business manager of West Hills Honda and Seate's wife.

Others who participated came from varied backgrounds.

Glen Goldman, of Team Pro-Motion, for instance, came in a sleek trailer from the Philadelphia suburb of Warminster. A former professional racer, he is a successful trainer and organizes track events for riders.

Goldman also has the distinction of having carried a governor -- Tom Ridge, to be specific -- on the back of his two-man racing bike.

He said he carried a number of other big shots that day, though at the time he didn't know who they were.

"Linda, my manager, said, 'These are very important people. Don't mess up,' " he said.

Goldman said when Seate called him, he was glad to find he had a free day between events. "I think it's an amazing event in terms of the goal," he said. "But it's also kind of sad -- doing something I love to help people who are suffering."

At the other end of the speed scale was Bob Hesch, of Cranberry, a consultant for West Hills Honda, who said he hadn't had a bike on a racetrack since 1995.

It showed on the track as other riders yowled past Hesch's little red Honda. Riders went out in 15-minute sessions, with a fast group and a slow group taking turns.

"I didn't mind being passed so much," Hesch said with a grin, after pulling in from his first session, "but it did bother me a little when [Seate] passed me twice!"

Hesch, however, topped the day's list when it came to overall contributions to the relief effort -- he and his wife are taking their recreational vehicle to the Gulf area, where she will work as a nurse and he will work as a mechanic.

"We were going to go south anyway, so we thought, 'Hey, why not volunteer?' " Hesch said.

Hesch is a longtime motorcycle enthusiast who owned Northgate Honda for 18 years. When their children grew up, he and his wife started traveling extensively, and in 2001, he sold his dealership so they could live full time from their RV.

Hesch said when his wife made inquiries into the need for nurses in the Gulf area, "they put her on hold because they didn't have places for people to stay. But when she said we have our own house, they said, 'No problem!' "

He figures he won't lack for things to do either, whether paid or volunteer. "There's a lot of equipment down there breaking, generators and stuff that need maintenance," he said. "If I can find a fire company using a lot of equipment, I'd volunteer anytime."

Seate said putting the event together was an easy decision when he saw what was happening down south.

"I felt paralyzed watching those people on TV," Seate said. A former Harley rider who moved to sport bikes and a former full-time newspaperman who turned to sport bike journalism, he decided to use his contacts within the sport to do something.

"Harley riders do a lot of charity events, largely because they've gotten so much bad PR over the years," he said. "Sport bike riders haven't done that much because they haven't had the bad press. But I thought this time maybe we could."

One problem with sport bike events is that riding them at anything close to capacity on the road is illegal and dangerous. They are blisteringly fast machines that corner like amusement park rides, racing vehicles that are designed to run on racing tracks.

BeaveRun, a 4-year-old facility in Big Beaver, took care of that part, donating track time, an ambulance and workers -- a total value of about $5,400.

The riders were thrilled to get track time and delighted to help a worthy cause while hanging out with other enthusiasts.

"The camaraderie in the club racing scene is just great," said Scott Rosey, of Cecil. "I think that's conveyed in what [Seate] has put together."

Rosey, who just got into the sport after riding dirt bikes all his life, already is plenty quick. And his bike carried dents from a crash the week before.

"He's 6 seconds off the track record," Seate said, as he stood on a hilltop overlooking a horseshoe bend at the track. Below him, riders were leaning until their knees almost touched the ground as they swept through the curve, then blasting out with a terrific snarl.

"And that guy there, Reed, he's 2 seconds off! That's 2 seconds off a track record set by a guy making $30 million a year."

And what is Reed's financial situation?

"I carry a high life insurance policy," he said with a laugh.