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never posted one of these here b/f, but it felt like such a NESR weekend
wow... it was a damn good weekend, but not without a lot of drama for me-n-my little, old hawk. first and foremost, thanks to the gf for putting up with my racing-induced severe mood swings
friday:
got to the track around 2:30, said hi to folks. Doc's up, and back on a Hawk!!promptly got unloaded, things situated. pull the tank off and replaced the leaking water pipe with my spare, it's much happier now. the clutch slippage had been getting worse so I spend too much on oil/filter and change them. decide to get new tires after talking to chris. make the move to pirelli slicks. post-reg again (ick). out to dinner with ziptie alley, doc, a13x, a13x's friend and new-racer-dude, matt (tomato), his wife... maybe a few others. get back. sleep.
saturday:
remove the bridgestone stickers, put on pirellis. tech. practice time.
practice 1: wow. feel like _crap_. bike's popping out of gear left-n-right. tires feel strange. bike feels strange. 1st practice always feels off, but this is a lot worse than normal. wondering about the tire-brand change
practice 2: get back out there, ride around. tires/bike feeling better, still popping out of gear in a few places. oh well. gotta race on it.
race 2, AM GTL: doc talks me into this instead of LWSS... at least I'm legal for the class, but 20min? eeesh... roll up to the line for it. green drops, launch, end up 3rd after a few laps. planning on taking it easy until the 1/2 flag is out. a few more laps go by. Pete Bizanski(? Cynthia's husband) is itching to get by me, but isn't fast in the right areas. I roll out of the throttle on the front straight on about lap 5 to let him by and sit behind him in 4th for a while. 1/2 flags come out. geyer laps me right before the start finish, we cross the line with him in front (this is key). a few turns later red flags come out. after a little bit we get regridded. I regrid in 4th. get a good launch and dragrace 413 (brewmaster) to T1. I know he'll back off first so I just wait for that then let up and tip into 1 in 1st. I know Pete B. is coming for me (among others) so I put my head down and rip off laps as best I can, the clutch slippage was getting worse every lap, but I caught the slow experts _fast_ off the restart and just start throwing them at him every chance I get. in the end I got him by about 5 inches at the line... HOLY SHIT I just won GTL. on a HAWK. with a BADLY SLIPPING CLUTCH!!!!!!!!!!!I'm beyond excited. this is incredible!!! I should've never won this one... not GTL, jesus!!!! If you've ever see the Kenny Roberts Jr, Rossi battle in 2000 where Roberts 'pole-putted' to the win it felt like that, just fast enough in the right places, just enough slow experts at the right times to keep Pete B. at bay. set a new personal best of 1:21.132. I'm on cloud 9.
about an hour later I ask Doc about his laptimes, we BS a bit and he comments that I was listed in 4th... I'm like wtf?? I _won_ that SOB, Pete B. stopped by and congratulated me... WTF?!?! I go down to protest, end up talking to "the man" and get explained that when geyer lapped me I was a lap down. since the red flag happened after that and before he lapped the top 3 in my class (1st was maybe 1sec in front) I was 1 lap down on them... um... WHAT!? I'm not racing geyer! well, apparently I am. and now I shouldn't get out of the way whenever I see an expert plate passing me, which I had been doing. F3CK! I look at him tell him I just destroyed my clutch 'cause I thought I was winning that race. That it would've been great to know I could've taken a casual 4th and _saved_ my equipment and tires. ugh. this left me completely demoralized... and f-ing pissed. got dinner at the BBQ. left the 4th place trophy up in the hands of the LRRS staff. I don't want that f-ing thing.
sunday:
practice 1: talk to doc, I'm going to take it easy to see how the clutch is so he's going to follow/lead for a bit and work out some of his areas. we pit-out. I click 3rd before T2, lean over through 2 pick the bike up, roll on the power and the motor just spins up like the clutch isn't even there... SHIT. yeah. that clutch is TOAST. I do 1 more lap hoping it'll "warm up" or something and fix itself. nothing changes. it spins free in every gear. pit-in. bike-on-stand. leathers off. no replacement clutch anywhere.
after being pissy for about 15min Doc and Gino talk me into pulling it apart and scuffing the plates... ok. good idea. and thankstip the hawk over on some tires. beat the exhaust off with a hammer (on it's side. using a hammer. this is how ryan fixes his duc's. it's not how you fix a honda. wtf?
). pull the cover off. get gino's special clutch removal tool attached. tight the basket bolts (too much) grab socket and breaker bar and go to pull off the big nut that holds the basket in. pull on it pretty hard and hear 4 distinct pops... F3CK!! that's the basket breaking. well... ok... day's done. sit down. weekend over. this was a fun one... yeah. right. gino wanders over. looks at me. says something about how little you can tighten the basket spring bolts. says 'you owe me' and wanders off. 2min later he's handing me a box with a clutch basket and good clutch in it. GINO SAVES THE DAY. get it back together. clutch works, but it doesn't shift into 3rd. after 2 more times of being on it's side, apart we've got the linkages together properly and it's shifting. eeesh. race 2 is starting, my first is race 4. get the warmers on, check fuel and sit down for a few minutes of relaxing before getting suited up. wow. can't believe it's together and working.
race 4 LWSB: there's some fast guys in this one, if the clutch and trans feel good on the warmup lap I'll give it a go. heck of a second practice...green drops. launch. decent start. end up 2nd behind some guy on an sv with gray-ish leathers wondering who the hell he is, and he's pretty quick through T10-T12. rip around behind him for another lap, red flags out. pit in. look over. it's Gaborio! nice! the sv is starting to to click for him
line up for the restart (same gridding.. why? we finished more than 1 lap). oh well. 3rd row in my class. green drops. launch (wow I like how a good clutch launches). work my way to the outside. 413 is 1st going into 1. lets see what I can do about that, knife under him into 1, next to him going through 1a. something sounds really loud and strange from my motor... crap the exhaust came apart - safety wire broke. gas it a little more and throw it under him into T2. walk the throttle on into the back straight. ok. in 1st. they're coming. exhaust is apart. I know exactly where. I hope it's not a clearance issue in right-handers. let's push it a little. hope for no black-flag and hope for no clearance issues. ride a decent clip the rest of the race. never saw anyone. won LWSB fair-n-square. no funny timing BS. just a straight out win
race 9: ULSB, the hawk's race: got the exhaust fixed (took about 45 seconds) line up on the grid. soucier never showed. look around. I'm told I'm the favorite in this one, there's a motard I don't know, #350. I wonder what he can do. don't really feel like pushing a lot, just want to go fast enough to win. green flag drops, launch. 1st into T1. ride through the first lap, exiting 12 glance back and see another number plate a few bikelengths back. looks kinda like Doc... OMG Doc got his DAMN FAST on. ok. need to pick it up a little. push a bit more. lap 2 (maybe 3) take a good long look while full-on throttle exiting 12. it's #350, motard. ok. looks like I have to earn this one. lets see what that 'tard can do. put my head down and start to push it. never looked back again won by almost 5 seconds at the line. set a new personal best of 1:20.941 without a tow from anyone (makes it a lot sweeter
in the end.... WOW. what a weekend!
- thanks to T1a. _none_ of this would've happened without you guys, especially Gino and Doc.
- I now have enough races to bump, going to stay AM until daytona though
- EX next season. Iwhite number plates.
- 20.9 is ok for right now. definitely have a few areas to work on. I want 19's.
- Pirelli's work pretty damn well
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: It was cool watching you win LWSB, sorry I couldn't keep you in sight long enough to see you win ULSB. (Fast Bastard!)
Hopefully we can dice it up in a few weeks! 
Originally Posted by Pookie
