I popped my racing cherry!

[madkaw]

Well, this past Sunday I raced in the CCS event @ NJMP's Lightning course and finally got to experience what a real race is like. It's really intense but fun fun fun! I still have the biggest grin on my face and it's gunna stay there for a while. I probably look like Jack Nicholson's "Joker." Anyway, I did 2 races. For the first race I started out 32nd on a grid of 34 riders. In the 7 lap race I managed to climb to the 20th spot so I was pretty pleased with that result.

Unfortunately, I totally boned the 2nd race. I pulled a double no-no. For that one I was postioned 20th on a grid of 22 riders. The first no-no: It was a 2 wave race and I jump started when the flag dropped for the first wave. The second (and bigger) no-no: when I realized what I did I slowed down and pulled off to the side of the hot pit. I know now that that was the worst and most dangerous thing I could've done. I think that now this has been permanently embedded into my brain that the next time I jump start I should just keep going. Those 2 stupid mistakes just took the wind right out of my sails. But even after starting dead last and making a "stop 'n go" penalty I still managed to make it up 1 position to finish 19th.

All in all it was agreat day and I sooo can't wait to do it again

[WordTooYoMamma]

Wirelessly posted (Tilt: HTC-8900/1.2 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.11) UP.Link/6.3.1.20.0)

glad you had fun, I hope to have that experience someday.

[Pittenger5]

Sounds painful

[The Crashing Tomato]

this week on America's top 22 .... Madkaw moves up one spot to number 19.

seriously though ... glad to hear you moved from trackday guy to THAT guy

It gets better as you settle in to a routine. it helps to have other seasoned racers around you .... I can't thank the guys up at loudon enough ykwya. you can tape notes to yourself onto your tank " WAIT FOR YOUR WAVE " .... "race 3 , ROW 2 C" ... "loosen up" ... or whatever motivates you

p.s. : for being close enough to NJMSP to race there.

[JRide]

Sounds like you had a good time. Congrats on completing your first race weekend.

I'd love to race there if they raced Thunderbolt. I'm not a big fan of the Lightning course.