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Race Report - LRRS Expert #434 8/21/11
Pre-Race
Pre-race this time has to go back to Tuesday! I arrived at the track Monday night and busied myself setting up the trailer and generally shooting the breeze with friends and teammates. I was definitely looking forward to three days with Tony’s Track Days and getting some more time on track. I had a list of things to work on and was enthusiastic about gaining some time with practice.
Fast forward to Thursday morning after two days of riding: I crashed hard in turn 10 on a warm up lap! I wasn’t running warmers and so was going very slow and taking no sudden movements to build up some heat in the tires. Consequently I wasn’t running on my race line and I ended up hitting a massive pothole right off the apex of 10 that caused me to tuck the front. I got spat off the bike hard and landed on my head initially and then came down on my side while the bike proceeded to bury itself into the air fence 50’ away. My friend and teammate Mike Kurtz (#810) was riding right on my back tire when I went down so I really appreciate him not running me over. I specifically remember tucking the front and the feeling of being in the air, the next thing I know I am getting up and moving to my bike… sad times for sure.
Special thanks to Shark helmets for making a product that has without a doubt saved my life. I managed to put multiple 4” cracks into the carbon-kevlar shell of my favorite helmet. Well, hopefully JR can paint me up another one when I can manage to scrape up some cash.
Some friends had the audacity to actually choose a race weekend to get married so I was going to miss all of Saturday’s races (just kidding guys! Love ya, best of luck, and congrats to Chris and Amy!)
The ride home from the track on Thursday proved interesting as my right knee started to swell badly. By the time I got home I could barely support any weight on it. I was hoping that it would heal quickly!
Sunday AM practices
It went something like this: wedding, 3 hours of sleep, 3 hour drive to the track, 2 hours putting the bike back together after the crash (rearset parts, windscreen, frame slider, some new exhaust brackets that I made the day before, and a repaired exhaust can), ran it through tech and managed to make my second practice session with a few minutes to spare. I had a difficult time getting my leathers on as my knee was not cooperating. Initially I had to lift my right leg with my hands to get it up on the high rearset but once there it seemed ok. I was hoping that it would be able to support some of my weight.
It became evident very quickly that my knee was going to be a problem. I managed to turn 6 exhausting laps in practice before I pitted in. I had to carry all my weight with my left leg and I felt drained, the right wouldn’t support my weight at all. This was going to be a problem as I normally alternate which leg I carry weight with which allows me to ride longer/further at race pace. Despite this I managed to turn some 21s which was pretty good as I usually average 2 seconds off of my race pace while in practice. I came into the pits early to conserve my strength for the 20 minute endurance race that is GTL.
GTL
I was set to grid in 3D (3rd row, outside) which is a great spot to start from considering how new I am to the expert ranks. My launch was decent and I went into T1 parallel to Glenn Coolbeth (#95) neither of us was giving any ground and I knew that since I was on the outside of T1 I would beat him to the apex of 1A. I also knew that he was faster than I was and that I was also having really late entries to right hand turns due to my injury so rather than cost him time I let him go to 1A first and settled into 6th place.
I knew my laps were slower than normal and I expected to be passed by Bob Poetzsch (#14) at any moment but I didn’t see him. I did my best to put my head down but the front 5 rapidly pulled away from me and were a full straight ahead of me by lap 3. By the time I saw the halfway flag I was fighting to just stay on the bike and I fell back to just focusing on reference points to get me through. Forget the pain, forget the exhaustion, forget everything else. Brake here, tip in here, off brakes here, roll on here, exit there, repeat. It was a long twenty minutes!
I realized about halfway that Bob wasn’t going to be catching me as I saw him rolling out of hot pits, he must have had some mechanical issue. Lucky break for me but still it sucks as he is my main competition at this stage. I knew I was running slower than usual when I didn’t pass my first of the AM ranks until lap 9ish but still I tried to be smart about it. I did manage to slice through them fairly well and did so intelligently, passing late into turns and on brakes to ensure that if anyone was behind me, they would not be able to follow for at least another turn thus buying me time.
I was never so happy to see the checkered flag as I was here. I started the race in 6th and that is where I ended up, I never saw another white plate the entire race.
I barely had the energy to wave to the corner workers as I finished my cooldown lap and I was unable to get off the bike when I rolled into our pits. HUGE thanks to Bill Coolahan (#784) for catching both me and my bike!
Sadly I was so out of it that I forgot to press record on my camera so no video from this round.
Finish: 6th place out of 16
Best Lap: 1:20.443
In Closing
I cannot help but feel disappointed in my mediocre finish and lap times however I recognize that with the condition I am in, having goals other than just staying on the bike and finishing the race were foolish. With that in mind I am pleased with my 6th place finish and hope to be well rested and fully healed for round 6!
Thanks as always to Gregg Spears, my teammates and sponsors, and special thanks to my wife who came with me to the track despite getting so little sleep. Really, I am truly lucky to have a woman who supports me so completely in this crazy sport of ours, even if she still thinks I am a little insane :-p
Also thanks again to Bill Coolahan for saving my bike from dropping twice in one weekend and for Shark for making sure that I was able to be there at all =)
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Originally Posted by Chippertheripper
