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Been a while since I put one together .........so here it goes.
Well it has been a number of years since I have raced the Classic. In preparing things for the LONG week ahead I as usual have to take care of a number of things to get Henry (the Race Hawk GT #929) and the 04 CBR 600RR ready for racing and three days of Tonys Track Days.
For Henry I mounted up new ABM Full Floating rotors and CL (FKA Carbone Lorraine) pads from my Spiegler braking systems sponsor. The setup is just pure braking sex….. I moved on to mounting up practice tires and loosened up the chain even more because the chain was limiting my suspension travel on the compression side of things and bucking me coming out of T10 hard. I also ended up draining whatever I had in my tank. At the last Race, Graham had tested my fuel and said that I barely passed. I wanted to get out whatever was in there that was contaminating the fuel. The tank had been sitting around for a number of years and most likely had remanence of old dried gas. If I got tested again I did not want to forfeit any positions or be DQ’d.
I did some work on the cbr 600. I had wanted to rebuild the entire front brake system because of the lever travel I was experiencing. The master had good amount travel before it begins to engage the pistons/pads and I wanted to try and resolve this. Upon taking things apart I noticed the pads were pretty well used and could/should be replaced. Seeing I installed new pads with the new rotors on the Hawk I just transferred the used CL pads to the CBR. Love Honda for their consistency in not changing things too much.
Thursday:
I wanted to roll out of work at 3 and did not get out till 4:30. I go thru the usual routine of stopping at W-mart and pick up the necessary supplies for six days. Yup six days, Three days for the Classic and three days for Tonys Track Days. I got the goods and go to one of the checkout lines. There is this odd guy that must be on some kind of budget. The cashier rings some thru and then he asks for a total and begins to pick and send thru a few items to at a time so I guess he does not go over a total. W-mart people……. He then ends up getting to the end and goes to pay with a gift card . The cashier scans it and now she needs the manager to do something. In the meantime the belt is full loaded with all my stuff. WE WAIT FOR 28 MIN before the manager final comes over. I get the “OH my paging system was down”. Me “how about you !@#$ing walk between the 20 registers if you knew the system was down.” I tried calling the managers phone number and OBVIOUSLY no one picks up the phone. I contemplated moving to another register but there were 3 other that needed the same DB to clear things. Well I finally make it to the track where I meet up with Me Ma, Pa and Niece up from Florida to watch me race and to hang out with everyone.
We get everything set up and I wanted to flush out the tank with the new gas I just picked up from the shell station. I wanted it clean for Graham In case I got tested again. That guy has it out for me. I just know it. Things get settled in and my better half shows up. It has been a while since Kate has been to the track. It was nice having her up Thursday night to Sunday night.
Now I’ll get to the good stuff……
Race goal. High 17’s /Low 18’s to keep a comfortable separation from all the tards in ULSB.
My Aunt, her fiancé, and my Uncle show up to watch me race.
I heard rumors that this is a Double point’s weekend. Uhhhhh, I did not read/or hear that one…….. TBD until I look at the final points and standings. Double points screwed me out of 3rd last year and I was not going to give it a chance to do it to me again!!!!!!!!!!! Life gets in the way and sometimes it is more important than racing.
Friday: Practice. Cold- low 50’s. Things start off with Vintage sidecars followed by motorcycles. Well I don’t know what exactly happened but a motorcycle goes down on the first lap and there is LONG period of no riding while there is a clean-up. Lots of speculations, did the Vintage side cars oil up the track or did the downed bike cause the oil slick? Who know but this was not the way to start the day. Things finally get cleaned up and now we are told that we have reduced practice times for the remainder of the day. JOY… I believe it ended up being 8 min for the first session and 6 min for the second session. As usual I use the first session to slowly wick things up and pull in some 19’s. Nice start for a cool morning. Not bad considering there was also a fair amount of traffic. Second session: considering the time we had I wanted to work on JUST GO right out of the gate. I dropped the hammer hard for the 5 laps. And post up a 19 flat and a series of Low 19’s. Good pace considering I tend to drop roughly 1-1.5 in a race.
I roll in and take the tires off and stroll over to Miles at Street and Competition to mount up my Bridgestone Race set and drop off my $250 Contingency money from a race win in April. I chatted with Radu who mounted my tires. BIG THANKS for dealing with a finicky racer. I was also introduced to a NEW front Slick. It is a 125/600R17. Interesting tire with a slightly steeper side wall than the 120/600R17. I can see some benefits with this tire and I may have to try it out some day but I do not want to alter anything to the way the bike is handling right now half way into the season.
Race:
Race 8-P89
Things are warming up comfortably. I eat my Orange…… Tires are all hot from the Woodcraft tire warmers and temps are set. Time to Roll. I’m gridded Wave 2 8A. I’m going to use this as a warm up session to get ready for ULSB. 4 total in this race. As long as I stay up I should take the win. Board 1 starts turning roll up the rpm’s and I rocket out like a bat out of hell. That is what I wanted. Head down for the first lap not looking back. As I roll out onto the straightaway people on the side with their arms wide apart. I’ve got a nice comfortable lead. I take it easy to conserve my energy and tires for ULSB. I roll up on 2 from the wave in front and at about lap 5 the RED flag rolls out. Adam Butler decided he wanted to help me out with a shorter race and tossed it in T12. Thanks Bud. Good to know that you were fine.
01:23.109
01:23.539
01:25.961
01:24.137
01:24.486
I roll in and immediately set up the bike on the stands, toss on the tire warmers, set the tire pressures and try to cool down. Kate set up a nice cool Rag for my face and neck. She is the best. I get some water in me, eat and orange and try to formulate my next plan. I’ll be gridded 2A. I need to nail the start and drag race it to T1 and I should be fine. I Roll to upper pit late is but still in time and we all sit. I believe that there needed to be some clean-up on the track and we had to wait. Well that Tards got the go ahead to circulate to keep the motors from heating up too much. We probably sat for 2-3 minutes. Questions start running thru my head. Luckily I had an UBER sexy Umbrella Girl to keep the sun off me and I can think clearly. Thanks Keith…..There was also plenty of time and I take off my helmet to still try and cool down from Race 8. Finally we get the go ahead and I gear up and roll out at the end of the pack. 2A awaits………
Race 10 ULSB
1 Board turns………… GO…Slightly behind the 8 ball but better than the front group I end up rolling past Pole and 2nd and begin to nicely transition into T1 with clear track. I’m still thinking about sitting around for a few minutes and the possibility of cooler tires. I roll up next to the tires at the end of the wall still with clear track. I should be nice and comfortable from here on out. Out of the corner of my vision there is this tard Faq. Who the hell is this? Someone has the nerve to be trying this on me. “I’ll keep my front right under him.” From the end of the tire wall all the way just past the apex of T1 I kept it under him. We were 12” or less the entire way. Until I rolled off. Yea yea you won this battle…. I wanted to get into his head and see If I could provoke him into and mistake in 1A-2. I settle in behind and notice he is a little wide in 1A. I’ve got him. He will be going wide in T2 unless he slows down. He keeps the pace up and I know just what to do. I set up with a wider entry into T2 for the drive out low. Everything goes as planned he goes way out into T2 and my low entry puts me next to and in front of him. I ended up taking up real-estate into T3 braking by choosing the Middle of the track so they don’t outbreak me on the inside into T3. The only way they will be able to get around me will be to go around me the long hard way. I set it up and still thinking about the possibility of the coolish tires. I bring it on down gently and square up the turn. I can hear the thumping to the left of me but I knew I could interrupt any drive that may try to come around the outside. I roll on that throttle and that is the last time I heard any thumping behind me. I keep the head down for a good ˝ of the race and not looking back. As I come around T2 in lap 4 I see T2 holding up the Ambulance flag. I begin looking to see where the waving Yellow is and I see it up in T5 so I know the incident is in the Bowl. I keep charging hard. As I crest T5 I see that the Ambulance is Straight ahead. OUTCH.. Someone hit it hard. FOCUS----> I ease it up a bit and roll on thru. Next Lap I get a glimpse of a red tank and a white tall. Shoot, I wonder if that is Tom Barry on the AM Hawk GT. Hope it was not too serious. Next to last lap I roll up onto some of the AM I can see them in T8 from T6. If someone is right behind me I need to create some separation. As I prepare the set up in T10 I notice Roland is the one in the back of the group. It is pretty tight group of 4 bikes. Decisions? Inside/ outside? Roland just drops off the 3rd rider and slightly opens up the inside. Without blinking I’m in like Flinn. I get blocked by the other 3 rider coming in the T12 and have to drag race them on the straightway. I roll past them by the start/finish line for the White flag and eventually the win.
As I roll in towards Johnnie B he holds up the sign “GO TO TECH”. Come on NOT again Graham. Guess what, he is testing my fuel again. While in tech JettaJayGLS is in there getting his Fuel tested. He is pretty shaken up. He tells me that he was involved with the downed rider in T6 and could not stop thinking about it. As We are chatting my ECK Racing Team mate Chuck comes over and said that a reporter is waiting of you….. ME????.. Graham gives me the OK and I passed with flying colors. I roll on over and meet the reporter and answer her questions and she snaps some photos. She tells me that I’ll be in the local Concord paper. COOL. Can I get a copy? See mentioned that she would drop off a couple for me the next day. Well the next day came and went and I did not make the papers. Oh well, Shane is more interesting than I was I guess. I’m a sad boy
As I am shooting the breeze about the day Trevor Arvidson rolls in. I ask him how he did in ULSB. He mentioned that he had so much fun with me in T1. “THAT WAS YOU!!! That was so much fun riding soooooo close like that.” Trev is 15 years old I believe. He goes on to mention that he learned so much from that race being behind me he dropped his personal best time. A 1:18.4 ON A MOTARD>>>>>>> Good for him. Now I am thinking.. He helped me in with some points…… This is going to be interesting….Can’t wait to see some results…
01:21.806
01:18.399
01:18.233
01:18.256
01:19.103
01:19.491
01:19.198
01:19.570
How this weekend played out. OH and BTW THIS WAS NOT A DOUBLE POINTS WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!! With 4 weekends to go……
1 879 EX Gendron, Matthew 88
2 280 EX Chiappisi, Trevor 76
3 929 EX Berrio, Eugene 72
4 371 EX Woodward, Peter 72
5 67 EX Cavanaugh, Jason 61
6 298 EX Arvidson, Trevor 51
7 818 EX Oosterman, Ryan 36
8 534 EX Heider, Steven 21
9 77 EX Shaw, Eric 21
10 951 EX Kourafas, Andrew 19
11 294 EX Randall, Jerry 18
12 305 EX Fregonese, Andrea 16
13 525 EX Larlee, Coleman 15
14 719 EX Taylor, Joel 14
15 266 EX Hobbs, Ryan 13
Big thanks to my ECK Racing teammates, Tony of Tonys Track Days, Miles/Radu at Street and Comp, Arcy (I hear there are some Hot Pictures of me) of On Track Media, Woodcraft for still keeping me hot in the game, Motul, Pine Motorparts for the Black and Yellow, Spiegler Performance for stooping me on a dime, All Balls Racing for making me roll so well, and Ryan of AestheticRain for making the team look like Pro’s out on the web.
Biggest Thanks to my father for hanging out and helping me the entire 6 days...