763 "The Dark Side" USCRA report
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Paul wrote a great report so I'll just refer you to it and add a few comments.
http://www.nestreetriders.com/forum/race-reports/74275-728-return-racing-uscra-endurance-race-looong.html
Modern 125 - My start wasn't too bad and followed my teammates in 4th into T1. One of the USCRA 125 regulars (Steve Decamp?) got by me later in the lap and I chased him around. He increased the gap on me and I lost sight of him closer to the end. Was happy to finish without getting lapped by the faster 125s!
Endurance - Since this race was scheduled to run after the 20 minute break following the Modern 125 race, I rolled off the track to our setup on hot pit instead of to the garage as usual. As I'm putting on the warmers, the rest of my team show up in a rush and I learn that the break has been canceled, we are about to start!
The only missing piece of info now is our grid position. I run over to Johnny B at pre-grid on hot pit and ask about it. That's when I learn it's first come first serve! Luckily, only BJ's and the Heider-powered teams seemed to be aware of this so I run over to the RS125 as my pit crew gets her de-warmered fast. I peddle over to pre-grid and take the last remaining front row spot, 2A. Surrounded by EX500s, the umbrella girls (and/or guys) join us and my wife Christiana makes her début providing me some shade. She usually doesn't hang out much at the track, but since she was in the area having run the Timberman sprint triathlon that morning just down the road, she dropped in to help me out. Thanks honey!
Johnny B lets us loose for the warm up lap and the excitement keeps building in me more as I go around and settle at the 2A grid marks. Now, launching a 125 is a bit tricky due to 1st gear being as tall as a typical 3rd gear (race control can back me up on that!). Unfortunately, my excitement to finally be starting my first Big Fish Small Pond endurance race totally brakes my concentration and at the green flag, I proceed to bog down bad resulting in my worst launch ever! I come into T1 somewhere close to last, but manage to roll by enough bikes to reach mid-pack by T1A. To my team's surprise, by time I roll out of 12, I back closer to the front of the pack!
Somewhere in the first lap or two, I catch up to Adam (Rada) on an EX500 and since he's struggling a bit, I easily get by and leave him behind. Next bike I recognize ahead is the Cool Bill (Mustang) piloted sister EX500 to the one I just passed. Bill makes it harder for me to get by, not letting lap traffic slow him down enough for me to pounce. After a couple of laps of hunting for an opening, I spot lap traffic ahead as I follow him out of 10. Will he get stuck slowed in 11? Will I be able to sweep around both? Yes and no! As we file around 11, Bill is forced to check up a lot as the lapper slows down a lot and goes wide entering 11A. I seize the opportunity to dive in the inside and make my way around both as I flop to the left driving out of 12. I continue on for a few laps, not catching up to lead lap riders and not knowing how far behind Bill is trailing. Apparently he was on my tail all the time and I didn't hear a thing. The few times I peaked back, he was probably so close I missed him in my blind spot. Well he did make it around me again, and I did finally spot the race leader, the other Bill (the wild one), on his Hawk. The only problem was this Bill was lapping me, not me catching up to him. I saw him improve a few days ago as he worked with the Hawk master Gino at TTD, so it was no surprise to watch him leave me behind without effort. By now my shift should be coming to and I spot my crew chief, Jeff Vader, signal me in a few laps later. Now, this is my first time pitting in during an active race, so I do think it gives me the latitude to stray a bit from the "textbook" pit in procedure designed for riders not in a rush to get back out. I go down 9 at about regular pace, throwing my hand up for a second. Go around 10 and 11 at pace waving that left hand and hold that left turn a bit longer instead of flipping right into the chicane and quickly find myself stopping into Johnny B's box where, to my surprise, I'm greeted with an air horn as my foot touches down. I pin the throttle and slip the clutch to get me going, and quickly come to a stop in my pit box, almost overshooting, handing the reins over to the young Jake Vader. This first pit stop wasn't perfect, but considering it was the first time we ever did this, it went very well!
Now, my goal was to win this thing, so I decided that I wouldn't go out again unless we somehow got in a position where we were leading with enough of a buffer that I could not screw it up. For the rest of the race, I assisted Jeff and crew members Joe Ufnal (LRRS#512) and Drew in the pits, trying to figure out when to add fuel and how much to add. We got better at pit stops, but were still slowed down by various issues: replacing a broken stay, safety wiring the chain master link (I wasn't asked about it at tech and forgot I had to do last time I raced with USCRA) and dealing with a bike that decided to not start until Gino laid his hands on it a gave Shawn Spears a push to start his second shift. The last bit I contributed was trying to convey to Paul Duval at the end of the race that there are only 5 minutes left and that I don't care if he blew the bike up getting us a win as he was signaling to us that he was having serious motor problems. Well Paul and the bike came through taking the checkered giving us the Modern Endurance and Overall win!!!
A big thank you to my team for getting us this win! I usually don't get to visit the podium, so this is very special to me.
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