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Well, here it goes. I'm tired and hungry but I figure if I don't get it out now I'll forget.
Left for the track Thursday night with my little "icebox" trailer and EX in the bed of the Taco. Was definitly nervous about the trailer, the bike (only ridden it for 1/2 a trackday) and racing in general.
Left the house earlier than expected. Got to Concord about 8:00. Had a tire shred at 75mph or so on 495 on the trailer. Oooops. Turned my lights on in the truck when it started getting dark. POP goes the fuse! Oooops x2. Dark ride from Boston Market to the track!
Pit in next to JimF who was kind enough to explain to me how things work up there. Got him and Trackdog setup with a couple beers. Setup my trailer, EZ Up and air mattress. About midnight I gave up and went to sleep. Still no Impact Armor, supposed to be at the track Friday night with another racer.
Up at 5:30, alarm set for 6:00. Down to the Penguin signup after a brief breakfast and shower. Got checked in and had them tech my bike. No issues, ready to roll.
Classroom session = lotta words, not a lotta info. Coulda been 1/2 hour instead of 2. Left, got the bike ready and headed out for the follow the leader. First session was the instructor, me, a KTM motard and an older ZX6. Nearly sleeping pace around the track and the motard STILL almost bins it a couple times. Actually hits the tires in 3 on one occasion. Every time it was my turn to follow the leader, we'd hit traffic and it was slow. Then every time the motard kid was first, we had clear track but he couldn't go more than 20mph through most corners. Not safe at all....
Next session: Better, but still slow as hell. Looks like rain!
Lunch, pasta, finished cooking it with 4 minutes to spare before next session.
More classroom (why in leathers???? useless). Now for afternoon "practice". Needed to complete two of them for my license. No sweat. First one, boring, so much traffic, people crashing and being dangerous all over the place. Watched a Duck lowside hard coming out of 12. Turns out he tried to bang a downshift at an inopportune time. Kinda weird seeing a crash, i woulda thought I woulda been spooked being so close behind one when it happened. Not really though, just rode right through. One instructor (English sounding guy on a Duck, taller, nice guy) came up to me after and said "Man, you can REALLY ride that thing!". Yes sir I tend to think I can. "Why don't you let me watch you for the next session, do you mind?" Nope not at all. It was rain anyways so he encouraged me to just show him my lines, practice turning my head, etc.
Second one, here comes the rain. It rained HARD. Puddles on the track. Supercorsa's don't like rain! Stayed up and finished the practice with a few slides.
Done riding for the day, final practice was DOWNPOURING. No problem, at least I have an EZ Up to keep my shit dry.....where is my EZ UP!!!??? Oh, there it is, all folded up nice on the ground. And here comes JimF to tell me that it took off in the wind, dented his truck AND his trailer. And then I proceded to feel like a complete asshole. Note to self: try to make good impression on fellow NESR racers who were very nice to you by not sending things into their vehicles. Also put stakes in EZ Up, that's why they come with them.
Head out to dinner with Jersey, Trackdog, Brian, R7 and another guy. Mmmmm, steak and shrimp and margarita.....
Home, one beer, go looking for my Impact Armor. The guy who has it is off premesis at dinner. Oh well.....
Bedtime. Turn in about 11:30. Fall asleep QUICKLY.
Next morning 5:30 comes and I'm up. Alarm goes off at 6:15. I was already racing in my head. Go to pre-reg and get my license. Wait in line for a while. Get transponder, sign up for LW Sportsman, GTL and PTwin. No problems. Head back, time to tech the bike. Miss first practice due to lines at reg. Go to Street and Comp, get number plates, numbers and am convinced by HesSoAGoodTeacher that I may as well get knee pucks. WTF, never put a knee down intentionally ever before, but it can't hurt.
Head back to the pits. KB and Darryl both help to finish safety wire my poor EX. Big help from them, I was rather nervous at that time and needed not to rush. They did a mint job.
Head out for practice #2. I asked if I could tag along with Pete to get the hang of how practices work. We did two easy laps and red flag. And there goes our practices! Guy in a 998 or 996 highsides HARD 7 feet in front of me coming out of turn 12 onto the straight. I wasn't worried, could see it coming and didn't need to change my line at all. That gives me a little more confidence about crashes.
Rookie race comes at noon. I take it easy as do most people. Pass quite a few people easily. Get through it without an incident. Yay! I'm a licensed racer!! WOO!
LW Sportsman comes later that afternoon. Butterflies are having a civil war in my stomach. Grid out wrong (lady says that a 2 is a 12, just missing the 1, no shit, a 12 without the 1 is a 2!!!). Got straightened out, see Chad and Oreo near me, both in second wave. Race starts, I pin it kinda and get a clean run near the front. Only 3 or 4 bikes ahead of me. Oreo passes me, I pass back. Next lap, red flag. Back to the grid, same grid. Another start, not as good for me. Not even another lap and another red flag. This time they change our grid. I'm in the second row of the second wave. Chad is in the first row and Pete in the third. I nearly grab the holeshot except for one motard (they don't count for shit anyways). I turn up the heat and start makin my way around the track. 5 laps left from the restart. Chad goes by me while I'm trying to be nice to people I shoulda just passed. I open it up and keep up with him for 3 laps. I loose him at more traffic but he's still in sight. In turn 9 I lean out carrying more speed than I ever have. Scrape!!!! No surprise, no fear, just a Zen moment of "I am dragging a knee. Life is good. I will continue to!". Confidence =+2. End up finishing in 4th overall, Pete with 5th. Not bad for my first race!!!! Me and Pete check lap times. I nailed a 1:26.462. HOLY SHIT!!!!! On my first race!!! YES!!!
Feeling genuinly mint the rest of the day. Got harped on quite a bit from some fellow EX riders (biggity + beer, ha ha ha). Had a beer that night, shot off some fireworks, chatted shit up for a while then hit the showers and crashed about 11:30. Out like a light. Impressed with myself and very impressed with the bike. Stock suspension other than front springs, old tires, stock pegs and clip ons! No complaints, she treated me well.
Alarm is set for 7:15. I'm awake at 6:30. Get up, have some breakfast, time to practice. Where was the 1st, 2nd and 3rd call for Novice yellow? Eh, I dunno? Me and Pete head out for what we thought was our first practice only to get two laps in. Next practice, red flagged pretty quick. Figures.
GTL time! Weee!
Wow, way too many bikes. Motards just crossing the race line anywhere they want. You'd think with handling like that they would BE FASTER. No? THEN GET THE FUCK OUTTA THE WAY. Too many bikes. REALLY bad start for me, got held up into 1 by someone absolutely parking it. Like as in slow for street riding. C'mon people, this is a race, nap on your own time....Get around traffic finally and start catching up to Pete. He was setting a pretty crazy pace. Right as I get him in sight the lap after the halfway, we get a red. Race is done. WTF, cheated out of another 10 minutes of track time. Finished way back, not concerned though, didn't like the race at all. Went by Brewmaster as he predicted a couple laps in. Hopefully I made a clean enough pass for him!
Ok, PTWIN time! This is what I've been waiting for all weekend. They tell me it's a small race, much less traffic and less idiots. Nice!!!! We grid 6a,b,c Darryl, me and Pete. Biggity is right ahead of us, Chad is up front on an FZR400 (pTWIN?? ha ha). We're in second wave with nearly all EX's, a couple two smokes. 1st wave is all motards and some other two smokes. Looks like fun!!!!!
First wave goes off. Bye bye chad!
Second wave is us. Nail the holeshot with Pete getting a little held up. Never looked back. Started passing first wave people. Then passed more. Passed someone in the bowl, turn 2 twice, turn 10 twice, could in turn 3 and one in turn 4. All clean for the most part. Arg, fuckin motards getting in my way! That's ok, they drop like flies to the mighty EX!!!! Next to last lap, I know I'm doing well, come up to a rider on a Ducati in 11-12. Get a good drive on him outta 12 but miss a shift on the straight right as I was inside of him handlebar to handlebar. I brake late and throw it into 1 with the front end not liking it too much. I see out of the corner of my eye the other rider and some other bike go wide into the Nascar oval. Holy shit! I hope I didn't just stuff that guy.....Keep the heat on, starting to reel in Chad little by little. Final lap comes and I manage to squeak by Darryl lapping him 15 yards before the finish line.
Get back to the pits to find out the two riders who missed turn 1 were Steve (brewmaster) and Oreo!!! Kinda wishing Pete wasn't pushed off track cause we would diced like crazy those last two laps. Next time man, next time
Got the win in PTwin on my first race weekend. Squeezed out a 1:25.98 laptime!!! Pete came in second with a best laptime of 1.26.003 or something rediculously close to 1:25. Got our trophies, lots of congrats and compliments from the NESR guys and went home happy. CAN'T WAIT till two weeks from now
Thanks Pete and Darryl, you guys really are a great help and great guys to have as team mates. Cheap Bastid Racing is raising the bar!
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25s in your first race weekend is pretty impressive
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Originally Posted by bergs
