4
First time back on the bike since round 4 last year, and what a weekend it turned out to be!
Thursday
Stayed up late prepping the bike. Ordered a brand new Armour Bodies tail from Woodcraft on Wednesday, it was at my door after work on Thursday. Definitely nice to have them local. Also nice to have something on my bike in pristine condition, but it only lasted about 15 minutes before I tripped on my rear stand, fell, and had the bike come crashing down on my leg. The subframe poked through and gave me an awesome gash on my shin, along with a nice goose egg that had me wondering if I had broken my leg for a minute (nope). Oh well, good to get the first crash out of the way early, right?
Friday
Got there around lunch, figured 4 sessions would be sufficient. It turned out 3 were enough, as I grabbed the front brake going through 8 during the 3rd session (why?!?) and ended up on my ass in the gravel in 9. Thanks to the corner workers and Penguin instructors Michael Weyant and Adam Clark for helping me pull the bike out (it was about 100 pounds heavier from all the gravel) and then getting me back to the pits safely. The front brake reservoir line was chopped in half and the rear brake was spritzing fluid from somewhere, so it was a bit nerve racking rolling the thing back down off the hill. Spent the rest of the day cleaning gravel out of the bike and fixing the brakes and controls. Was able to get everything working again using only the spare parts bin, which was nice. Thanks to my garage mate Chris Girard #428 for coming through with a spare bit of brake hose.
Saturday
First off, thanks to Jason Martin for driving home and back to grab some gloves after we discovered that I had destroyed one of mine in the crash. Duct tape solved the rest of my gear issues. I went out for practice and didn’t feel great, but at least the bike seemed to be working 100%. Right before the riders meeting, I noticed fluid above my right fork seal. Shit. Ran over to Peter Kates hoping to get an opinion on whether or not I should run it in GTL, which was race 2, and a long one. He came over, popped the dust seal off, and showed me that there was no fluid underneath. Must have been residual fluid from my exploding brake reservoir line the day before. Phew, problem solved. Except then he backed away with a quizzical look on his face. Are the triples pointing straight? Yes… Well the wheel isn’t. Shit, it wasn’t even close. At this point the riders meeting was about to start and I had about 90 minutes until race time. I wheeled the bike over to the Computrack garage, blinked, and Peter and Dylan had the whole front end off the bike. It was seriously impressive, in 4 minutes they did what would have taken me 2 hours. I ran over to the riders meeting, then ran back over to the Computrack garage, and the bike was waiting for me on stands, ready to go. Peter had even popped the fork caps off and added some oil to address a bottoming issue I had told him about. Thanks guys!
AM GTL, Race 2: I had tried to cancel this one in the morning due to soreness and the thought of running race pace for 25 minutes, but registration wouldn’t let me. Had some fun back and forth with Colleen #168 (on a 300) early on, which was probably frustrating for her since I was really just out-motoring her on the straights. Finished 9/10, best lap 1:29.6.
AM ULSB, Race 9: Started to feel comfortable in this one, but was really just holding up my garage mate the whole race and putting down some pretty terrible times. Oh well, it will come. Got a cool picture from Chainweel during this one. Finished 10/11, best lap 1:31.x
Sunday
Rain day! I was in races 5 and 10, which turned out to be full-on wet. Normally the rain doesn’t bother me too much, but I was super nervous after taking such a long break and crashing on Friday.
AM Lightweight Superbike, Race 5: I crawled around in the 1:45 - 1:50 range. Brought ‘er home in 10/11, only because Noel crashed out, but was happy to have kept the train in site for the whole race.
AM Lightweight Supersport, Race 10: The best racing moment of the whole weekend came right at the end! I had a lonely race doing 1:45s, but eventually caught up to Steve Biehl on the last lap going into 6. I wasn’t feeling confident enough in the rain to make a real pass, but figured that maybe if I was buttery smooth on the throttle, he wouldn’t hear my silly-loud hackjob exhaust and I could catch him sleeping coming out of 12. I stayed on his rear wheel through the back section, then set up super wide out of 12a and let it rip towards the wall. Fortunately, he didn’t swoop all the way out, or maybe he saw my wheel, and it was on! We drag raced full-tuck to the the line, and I honestly had no idea who came out on top until I saw the times later. He got me by .006 seconds! Finished 5/6. Next skill I need to work on- unclipping and extending my transponder while fully tucked.
And thats it! Looking forward to round 2. Thanks for the new suit, Kurtz.
Photo cred- nhbubba
Photo cred- Chainwheel