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Gino Race Report April 2008
Arrive at the track Thursday Around 7:30. I go to sign in and get my am band. Melanie (one of the best Ambulance crew members) mentions that “someone took your spot and I don’t know where you are going to fit.” I’m a little worried. I knew that the Center Garages were not going to be available but not being able to put the trailer anywhere concerned me. I get thru the tunnel and notice T1A is occupied. Oh well. No one has an assigned spot. It’s a first come first serve rule. So I look for option B. Great it’s available. SMF and StupidGixxa (FKA Stupidhawk) are already there. I get the trailer set and venture over to see who might be in T1a. It’s Scott James (AKA growler; last year’s sportsman of the year recipient) who is a great guy and willing to go out of his way to help anyone out. I bust his chops about taking MY SPOT and have a great time catching up on things. During our conversation I noticed a truck parking in an area that is not to be occupied during racing. This area is between T1 and T1a along the fence. Corner workers need to have a line of sight to T2. Vehicles, campers etc… will block this and obviously will cause an issue so I venture over to talk to the people and realize it the brothers, Alex and Harrison Schmidt. I talk with them a bit and show them where the EX groups are located like CBR and talk about setting things up. It was getting late and I suggested that they can drop there stuff atound the trailer and if they wanted could shack out in the trailer with a bit of heat. They took me up on my offer. Harrison breaks out this old army cot and I wonder if it would fit over the K&L bike stands. It did, sweet. Now I may need to grab a couple.
Friday:
Set up camp. A decision needs to be made. Do I stick with Pirelli OR stick with Miles @ Street and Comp who are now distributing Bridgestones. Stupidgixxa and I venture to the Pirelli trailer and wanted to check out the $. It was something like $395 for a set of slicksthat. We went over to Miles and ended up talking with Quinton the Bridgestone rep. After a long conversation I ended up saying what the hell. I have been racing for 3 year on three different tire companies why not 4 years and 4 different tire companies.
I rush to got the tires off the HAWK and over to S&C only to find out that practice is now starting at 2:00.They are doing this to fit 1 more session in for a total of four @ $100. OK that’s cool but at least let people know about this. I get the tires mounted and make the 1st practice with no tire warmers. 1st session: cruising around the track to bring things up to temp. @ about 10 min in I’m finding the front wheel raging left and right. My take on this is the tire pressure is too high. The Stone mounter supplied the recommended tire pressure of 28 front 27 rear cold. Next session I drop the psi 2 lbs and POOF gone. Front is planted.
Over the winter I did some engine work (Thanks JD) and I would have liked to match the carb to the rebuilt plant. I venture over to Rob’s Dyno and see if he has time, and he did. I mention that I would like to get in one more session then I’ll come over. He mentioned that he would be around to 6:00. After P3 I strip the bike and head over and there is a bike on the dyno and another waiting to be put on. At that time it was 5:15. Yea, I’m not going to make this one. Back to the pit and call it a night.
SAT:
1st practice: Get out, take it easy and have a good time and still just trying to get the feel of everything.
2nd practice: head out with Ryan on the PT bike and Scott for 3 laps. Shortly thereafter my zipper unzips (Winter weight=I’m fat) heading into T3. I circulate, pit out and zip up. On pit out I notice John Tansey zips by. I’m out there doing my thing and notice that I am gaining on him. John usually does pretty well and is consistently in the 19’s. I put the head down and a couple of laps later I’m past him. I estimated I was around 80% during the session. Hmmm. Why did he seem that slow? Afterwards I take a look at my practice times and I put down a 19.9 and change.
Following the last practice I attempt to strip the bike for Rob’s Dyno and find that I have a gas leak. The leak is right where the petcock tube is welded on the tank. Go figure 20 year old tank starts to leak. Who would have thought? I end up sanding in preparation for some slow cure JB Weld.
Following this repair I end up corner working in T1a. 1st pick up is a black EX. Then I notice Keira is flagging in T2 with the brightest red face that I have ever seen. I tell her that l’ll be back with some sun block. Watch out Rob I’m her “track daddy”. Here I meet Denno for the 2nd time for a push
. Later on was a Aprilia Milie. Pretty well bet up.
Night time brings everyone around the fire.
Sunday:
Rain = 0 practice
Race #9: Ultralight Superbike
Grid: 2B
At the start I loft the front wheel about 4 feet in the air and cross that bars to the right to try to steer to the right. OK idiotback off the throttle and bring her down. Bikes got kick. I bang 2nd gear and let’s go. I get to T1 in 4th, T1a in 3rd and T2 in 2nd, and after a drag race into T6 I take the lead under breaking.
2nd lap is where things get real interesting. I get past the apex in T3 and the front wheel is beginning to slide. I’m not pushing it that hard right now. I usually take 2 laps before I begin to push. Why is this happening? Bike leans over a bit more and I end up dropping my knee to the tarmac to keep things up. OK, front wheel is sliding and I’m holding the bike up it’s going to grip soon. All of a sudden the rear wheel snaps right out from underneath me. This ain’t good. My right arm gently rubs the pavement, I realize this is a slow speed crash and I’m going to hold on to the throttle. 1. I don’t want the others to have to choose between me or the bike. I figured one obstacle is easier to miss than having the option between one or the other. 2. I want to try to see if I can slow the bike down before the beach. I ended up 50% 50%. The rear of the bike ends up in the beach while the other was on the curbing the snapped off my frame slider. I get the bike picked up and try to start her up. She is flooded. Thank god for electric starters. One thing I noticed right away is that the right clip-on rotated back a tad. Once I got her up and running I proceeded up T4 and notice the red flag. Did I cause the Red flag? I pit in and see that everyone is in pre grid. I see Graham Patterson and ask him to check over the bike. He asked where I crashed. I mentioned T3 and that the front then the rear just went out from under me. Graham then said that “someone oiled the track and we got the guy”. Then I hear, “Gino, I so sorry that you went down because of me” Huu, What? It was Tony Soucier on the RVF 400 that puked the oil. Grahm tells me to calm down that they are still cleaning up oil on the track. The clip on needed some adjustment so I kicked it to about the right position. The master cylinder must have gotten some air in the brake line so I ended up adjusting the lever out to compensate for the squishy feel. I started to access the right side and notice that one of the zip ties pulled off the tail. Someone on the scooter goes buy and Graham asks if they can get one. 30 seconds later the grid starts to leave at the same time the zip tie comes around. I slap it on and Graham tells me to take it easy for a lap as I have rocks and sand on the edges.
On the 2nd warm up lap I come around T8 and see a waving yellow. As I come to T10 I see Chad’s bike on the ground. I question myself knowing its Chad. Who the fuck crashes on the warm up lap.
Restart.
I remembered the lofting front wheel from last time and applied a little less throttle and little less clutch. T1 in 3rd , T1a Rockwell goes straight for some reason and take 2nd and T2 I’m on Jurgen’s rear tire. I take the high side just past T1a figuring he would let it hang out wide and I would plan to take him underneath. I love it when a plan comes together. Bam, just like I predicted I was under him WFT drag racing into T3. I out broke him for the lead. Form this point on I keep remembering the race we had at the end of last year. Back and forth the entire race. “I’m not looking back. I know he is right there.” Laps 2-3- I keep hearing different exhaust note. Shoot, he is right there. I’m not looking back. I think it was lap 5 I got Pete G in T11. Plan here was to get Pete between Jurgen and me before the straight. “Sorry Pete I’m coming thru. I’ll try to give him some room so I don’t spook you.” Laps 6-7 Still, keep hearing this different exhaust note. He is still there. Lap 8, I come up on Jay going into the bowl. He is trying to make a pass on Stephen Schmidt to the outside. OK, that only leaves me the inside. I end up taking a line to make a really late apex. Steve immediately starts to go to the outside and pinches Jay off and I snake my way easily to T7. There that should do it and hold Jurgen off. I come out of T12 and wonder how close this is going to be. I look back and all I see is Jay and Steve. No Jurgen. “No way” I did not just win my first Expert race. You have got to be kidding me. On the cool down lap I pull a pathetic wheelie, but a victory wheelie nun the less.
In the pits there were cheers and congrats in T1a pits for Scott who won the AM race on a HAWK and Brian took 2nd. I venture over to the postings and see my name on the top of the list and I am ecstatic. I look to see what my fastest lap was. I’m a little confused when looking at the sheet. I start at the bottom and start going up. There are the AM times. OK. Here are the experts, 26’s 23’s 21’s, 20’s 17’s. Wait, something’s not right here. 17 is part of a total time. So I look at the headers and fine “Best Time” and put my finger on the column. Then I go to my name and follow it across to where it meets the other finger. NO FUCKING WAY. I DID NOT JUST DO THAT. GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE, 1:17.2 Once I saw this time I Instantly thought of Gerard. This was his race and you will be missed. This one was for you brother. If you don’t know Gman, he was injured the day before and may possibly be out for the season.
I just shattered the fastest time a HAWK GT has run Louden. This would be a 1:19.00 that I know of on this configuration. I also beat my best time from last year by 2.24 seconds. This is unheard of. The margin of victory was some 26+ seconds. Well my goal of 18.99 is set for the season. I think I owe a lot of people some $ as they were putting bets on me to get into the 17’s for the season. Damn you guys know me all too well. Wish I did. Thanks to everyone who helped me achieve my goal for the year.
DAD & MOM
T1A Racing / MABE Racing Welcome to Turn 1a Racing!
JD @ Hord Power HPR - Hordpower, Art of Twins
Peter @ Boston GMD Computrack G.M.D. Computrack NorthEast
Miles @ Street and Competition Street & Competition
Quinton @ Bridgestone Tires RoadRacing
Vanson Leathers (for protecting my ass) Vanson Leathers - Textile and Leather Jackets, Racing suits & riding apparel for men and women: Vanson Leathers America's leading producer of motorcycle clothing.
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Originally Posted by a13x
(and i'm kinda glad she did)
