 My first (ever) race report
After spending a couple of years hanging around the NESR pit, I decided it was time to take the plunge and get my scooter racing license. I did the Penguin school on Friday, which was an awesome day. The weather was great and the other people taking the class were all pretty cool. I didn’t count heads, but there must have been 40 or 50 people in the class. It was a fun day. The class ended around 7:30pm, which was a lot later than I expected. Kristin and the kids had been waiting around in the pits since 5:30pm with dinner, so I decided to skip trying to do any work on the bike and just hung out for a while with Gerard and his family in the pit area.
Saturday morning was total chaos. I don’t think there is any logistical way that a newbie can get a license, registered for races, get your number assigned, get through tech, and be ready for 8am practice. (since registration opens at 7am and we were not allowed to apply for our licenses Friday night) Oh well, I was able to easily make second practice with some help from Gerard…plus he gave me some good tips to get my bike through tech without any issues (Thanks !). It was raining lightly during practice, but no significant standing water at that point. I signed up for the rookie race and ended up being gridded last in the middleweight class. The track was damp for the race, but the rain had mostly stopped. No one was pushing it during the rookie race, as we all just wanted to finish without crashing so we could get our licenses. I got a pretty good start, passed a bunch of bikes, got into 3rd place, and just cruised for the three laps. Mission accomplished.
I has registered for Saturday’s Middleweight Supersport race (race 4), so after the rookie race, I started to get a little nervous. My first real race, and my goal was to:
1 – not stall or loop my bike on the start
2 – not crash during the race
3 – finish the race
It started to rain pretty hard by race 2, so there were puddles on the track for race 4, especially around turns 10,11,12. I was gridded in 3C, which was middle of the pack, so that was OK. The problem is that when I went out to pre-grid, another bike was in my spot. I figured the guy in 3B was just over to the left a little too much, so I sort of snugged up beside him on the pre-grid. I could see the race officials looking at me and shaking their heads. They came walking over and told me and the guy beside me we were in the wrong places. I was pretty embarrassed, and wanted to say “hey, it was the other guys fault”, but I figured there was no point in that. They just told us to do it right out on the real grid after the warm-up lap. They were pretty cool about that.
The warm up lap had me pretty nervous because it was raining pretty good and the puddles were getting bigger. My visor also kept fogging up and the rain sticking to the visor, so visibility wasn’t the best. I got to the grid (correctly) and they started the countdown pretty quickly. (probably so they could get out of the rain). I was desperately trying to think of all the things I was supposed to do, but I was in overload. It seemed like a split second from when I got gridded that the one-board was going sideways. One thing came to mind...a while ago, Degsy told me to put the tach on 7k during a start and not blipping the throttle. I looked at my tach, I looked up, saw a green flag, and said “oh crap”…here we go. It was a little jerky…but I didn’t stall it and was able to smooth it out pretty quickly. I got by some guys down the front straight, went into turn 1 with a bunch of crazies which seemed to be 3 deep, and came out of turn 2 in 4th or 5th. On the second lap (I think) I took one guy on the back straight, and was in 3rd. I was pretty pumped. I kept thinking of what Degsy (and many others) told me. Follow the guy in front and find his weak spot on the track. The guy in second went into the bowl a little slower that I wanted to, so on the next lap I got a pretty good run out of 3, had a drag race with him up and over the hill (we were pretty even the whole way) and I braked later than him going into the bowl. At this point, the guy in first was pretty far ahead, so I had some catching up to do. I eventually caught up and followed right on his tail for the last 3 laps. He was going at a pretty good pace, and I kind of figured I’d be very happy with 2nd, but then I thought about Gary Silva (“either win or crash trying”) and knew that he’d be pissed if I didn’t go for it. I found he slowed just a little bit coming out of turn 10, probably because of the big puddles by 10 and 11. He was going straight through them every lap which made his bike a little unstable, while I was going just to the right which I found to be a better line. On the last lap he did his normal roll-off of the throttle just before the puddles, so I just went to the right, scooted by him, and held him off for the win. OK…so I wasn’t doing 15s like Kip, but it was raining pretty good and it was my first race. It was awesome to see the checkered flag and no one in front of me. I almost shattered my visor from yelling once I crossed Start/Finish, but the coolest thing was seeing Kristin and my two kids (Lauren and Gary) in the stands at turn 3. They were literally jumping up and down when I came by on the cool-down lap. That was the best.
So...overall, it was a pretty awesome experience. It was great to have so many people stop by and congratulate me. There is no way in hell I could have done it without the help from all of you. I have learned so much hanging around with all of you for the last few years. I picked up little bits of wisdom from everyone (Gerard, Degsy, Gary, Tully, Bob, Dan, Heath, Jay, Scott, Mike, Lou, Kip, etc, etc) and I really appreciate it.
Anyway…you can probably tell I’m pretty jazzed up, but this is getting way too long, so I guess this is enough for now.  |
04-24-05, 09:57 PM
but I'll say it again!
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