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Well it was bound to happen one of these days, after many trackdays and nearly a season of racing I finally had my first crash at loudon. Ahh but I'm skipping ahead a bit, let's start from the beginning.
Got up to the track at 7am Friday morning, met up with the usual NESR crew and got signed up for the penguin advanced school. Got to do my first track walk with Peter Kates leading, which I must say was a wealth of information, Peter is very knowledgeable and was both professional and eager to answer any questions that came up, by the time we got to turn 12 I was saturated with more information than my little brain could possibly handle.
Got out for the first follow the leader, unfortunately my bike was cutting out on me at times so I pitted out and returned to the pit to find the problem. Seems that the kickstand switch bypass (grounded to the frame) was beginning to fray and come loose. Crimped and reattached it and that was it for bike problems this weekend.
After lunch we got out for a second follow the leader, spent the first session in a train of about 35 bikes riding around the track with no point in passing, then sat on pit road for 25 minutes while the basic school went out. By the time we got back out there I was fried and still suffering from information overload, so I pitted in after just a few laps and went back to the pits for some water and to continue digesting the school in preparation for open practice.
Open practice was great, got some good track time with few bikes out there and got a chance to really start applying some of the penguin lessons, especially the "pre-turn" in turn 1 where you point the bike toward the apex at the three board to lengthen the straight and tighten up the turn, I had always gone wide into 1 and I can see now that this was costing me some precious time straight up and down on the front straight.
After practice we returned to the pits, where Clayton surprised me with a gift from my CBR teammates, a set of chicken hawk tire warmers. Thanks guys, they work great and I look forward to using them in october as I'm sure the track will be a bit cool
Saturday practice came and went, still adjusting to the tight turn ten and can't say I ever really got comfortable but it is what it is (and it is a clusterfuck of intersections out there with novices, I can say that). LWSM left me a bit off my pace and near the back of the pits, but gave me more opportunity to work on the penguin school lessons as well as getting upright more and holding the tank with my knees during braking sessions (thanks to Peter Kates and Clayton for the tip). Go slow to go fast I guess, just wish I was going to be there sept 23rd to start linking together all these lessons and hopefully get the laptimes to start dropping again.
Sunday brought rain, and with it a very light grid, got out there in second practice and felt decent on the rain tires though I'm still tentative on them for sure. PTWN saw a grid of 4 bikes: myself, connor joyce, clayton, and a guy who had just recently crashed in the F40 lights class (we dug into the parts bike some more to get his shift lever fixed so he could race).
With clayton on shagged race tires and the F40 guy having recently crashed, I knew it was just connor and me out there and I wanted to give him a run for his money. The green flag came out and connor and I sat there not realizing we were all in one wave, fortunately they gave us another start and he got the holeshot into turn one. I sat on his tail until turn three where he got a better drive out of four, then I caught up to him in the bowl again and followed him around until turn 10 where I again gave up some distance only to start gaining on him again coming into 1. I was feeling good out there and decided that I would follow him for a few laps before trying to make a pass as I knew he was faster and didn't want to give him too much of a chance to wick it up.
Unfortunately, I got caught up in strategizing and wasn't paying enough attention to my riding, and as I began my braking in the turn three chute all of the sudden the world tilted and I found myself sitting on my ass on the racing line. Fuck. Jumped off the line and over the wall just in time to see the cornerworkers picking my bike up out of the mud, with a bent front bar no brake lever and a screwed up rearset. Ah well, that's racing for you, instead of cruising my way to an easy second place I decided to go for the gusto and ended up on my butt with a DNF.
As for the crash, I'm not sure exactly what caused the front to wash, it was well into braking so I don't think it was too much gusto on the lever. Could be that the bumps in turn three combined with the rain and too much brake pressure later caused the front to lock as the wheel slowed down, or perhaps I gave the bars a bit of unintended input as I leaned off for turn three and sheared the front. Either way, lesson learned, I've still got a ways to go until I'm "rain smooth" out there.
All in all still had a great weekend, thanks to Clayton and Erin for hanging out and lending a hand in the pits whenever I needed one, and for bringing that sweet camper to change in during the downpours. Good to see everybody out there this weekend despite the weather (let it be known that NESR racers are hardcore) and good luck in three weeks, I'll be back in October to finish out the season!
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