kz2zx
Pro
Nobody in Particular
Posts: 1166
|
posted May 16, 2005 08:44 PM
OT - My Fourth Race Weekend
Folks, let me know if this makes you yawn or if you think I'm an ass for posting these lame-assed race reports, k?
This weekend was fun!
I got loaded up with a buddy, and my pitmate (I'll code-name him 'Tyler')and I hooked up with the fastest Amateur racer in the southwest for the weekend (I'll code name him 'Dave'), and off we went - benchracing the whole way.
This was a combined CCS SW and ASMA race weekend, the grids were expected to be larger. This was the reason Dave was coming with us (or we with him, whichever way you look at it - my trailer, Dave's truck).
Dave managed to get a ticket for 93 in a 65 just north of Lordsburg, NM... but the Deputy was cool, and wrote it out for non-felonious speed.
We got to the track, and there were Friday Night Drag races ongoing, so we hung out, then set up pits after the races ended. Headed over to the hotel, and found the two-queen-bed rooms were gone, and we got a single King for three of us... Thank heaven I brought some air pads to sleep on the floor with...
Saturday morning in Wally World getting the raw materials for lunch and after-practice beer-racing, I discovered I'd been food-poisoned by Arby's the night before... fortunately, there were no accidents, but I was purchasing Immodium before I left the store.
Got back to the track, and set up, started practice sessions. I was playing with the track, and not the bike for the first time in recent memory, and was experimenting with entry lines and timing. The bike felt good - the first corner was knee-down, just skimming the tarmac, so I had a good positive faith in my tires to build on.
A word about my new PD warmers (www.tirewarmers.com) - I love them. Feel well-constructed, they warm quickly, stow neatly, stitching and materials seem to be the best, they go on and off easily with gloved or ungloved hands, and they came in my choice of color. What more could I need? I like them enough to plug them - no affiliation with them, yadda, yadda...
So, I spent the day in a relaxed mode, not staying out for all the sessions, skipping a couple to discuss things with other racers and the track owner.
I was pushing the life of the rear tire a little in the early afternoon - it was giving some tear patterns in Vegas two weeks ago, and I was getting more aggressive on it Saturday. Well, I came out of one carusel onto the straight, and about highsided with the tire stepping out faster than I had come to expect from the PR5, but I pulled it back in and gunned down the straight for the next turn, but as I downshifted and feathered the clutch, I got way out of shape the wrong way for the turn, and decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and off-roaded it straight off the track and to the Michelin vendor. I got a few 'Atta-Boy's for the save, I guess it was spectacular.
New tire mounted, and things are good, a few scuffing-in laps, and I shut down for the evening, and headed in search of a porcelain toilet (as opposed to a port-a-potty...) Damn Arby's...
More benchracing Saturday night, then back to the hotel room.
Sunday morning, bright and early, and I had spent the night running to the porcelain potty instead of sleeping... but we headed back to the track after I watched the other two eat far too much food to be healthy (I was feeling pretty sick), and got there under slightly overcast skies and a 70 degree morning temp.
My first race was the beginner race - I get to run that until I win or I place in it three times, so why not? - and there were some stupid beginners this time. Turn one, and some idiot hothead shortened the racetrack a few hundred yards by going off in turn one and slamming his bike back onto the track mid-pack (but 40 MPH slower than everyone else) in turn two, bringing gravel back onto the track and the totally random scattering of riders that ensued was interesting.
Now, a quick aside: I have the oddest sense on the racetrack of being detatched and a disinterested observer, totally aware of the events around me, down to the loose wire tie hanging off someone's superbike tail. Dispassionate, I think is the word. I can watch crashing and carnage, and I can process it while working on how to best get through it to gain some ground on the guy in front of me - I don't feel fear when racing, even if I run off or crash, nor am I bothered by it later. This should put the next thing in context:
So there I am racing a buddy of mine, Mike, and he shows me a wheel at the end of the back straight, and I stuff him hard, and open a gap in the next ess turns. But he is on a 750, and me on a 600, he can catch me again on the straights, and does, and passed me just ever so later on the brakes than I was on the next lap at the end of the straight... and I'm on his back through the esses and not quite getting him set up in the hairpin, but we get through the hairpin, and he goes right and I go left around my pitmate Tyler's bike lying on the track, in the middle of the track, with dusky orange flames and dark soot rising from the gastank, and he gets through the bustop just ahead of me, but I have him set up and I'm hard on the gas leaned over, and, WTF, I'm closing way faster than I should, and then I see him raise his hand, so I raise mine and slow down, and I'm looking at a red flag waving off to the right, and my only thought was 'Damn! I can't PASS him on a red flag'. Then the realization sunk in that it was because my pitmate's bike was ON FIRE!, but I have to go get regridded for the restart...
And Mike left his bike running in the regrid, and it boils over, so he scratches from the regrid. The restart happens, and I go BLOW by the vintage racers (also gridded in the race), but damnit, I can't catch the leaders, but I didn't crash either (three of them did...). Not bad, but not yet a threat to win.
Second race was back-to-back with the first, it was MW Supersport, two-wave start, Experts first. My pitmate had gotten his bike back together for this race (with my other pitmate's help, very minimal damage actually, a tweaked triple clamp, since straightened, and some soot and fire-extinguisher dust), and gridded up. My starts suck - I run out of first gear and have to shift before everyone else with the gearing I have on the bike, and I'm at the back of the pack and I watch dispassionately as a rider runs into the back of Tyler, both wheels locked, and goes down, tumbling. Tyler stays upright, but finishes the race way back. I was doing well, but a gust of wind forced me wide on a wide line I took and three riders make it by me as I flirt with the edge of the track... I hold on, clicking out laps, but not catching the third of those guys no matter what I tried - the gap wasn't getting bigger, but it wasn't getting smaller, either, I'm braking deeper, but getting walked on the straights, and one carusel, I'm losing some time to them - I tried a wider line and it seemed to work, but the race ended...
Third race was a GP-style race, 20 min plus a lap. Here, the whole weekend clicked together. Even though I was dehydrated and suffering chills and shakes from the food poisoning, I threw it together to start putting down my fastest recorded laps on this track ever... two seconds off my previous best, and by God it's noticeable, I'm braking deep and on the gas harder in the corners, being smooth, but still not really FAST on the track. I'm chasing faster riders who I've not chased before, and getting a good tow. I finished the race with my second-fastest lap ever at that track on the last lap of the race - the trips to the gym are paying dividends in endurance if not in weight loss...
Don't laugh at this: I'm getting more competitive, meaning I'm staying on the lead lap for a 15-lap race (20 min + 1 lap), and this means a lot to me. I'm just this side of 40, racing the most competitive classes, riding an older bike ('00 R6) that's down 20 horse on the newer 600's and that has been raced hard for the last 5 years. The bike is a little quirky, and still not dialed on the Michelins, but man, if I can get faster on a slower bike and hang with the majority of the racers and finish in the pack, then when I get a faster bike I'll be a faster rider. I want to be a fast, safe racer who doesn't ride over his head, doesn't crash, doesn't do Bad Things, and brings big trophies home to his girls to play Stitch Meets San Francisco with. So I want slow-and-steady improvement.
After my last race, a rainburst moved through, and there was a pair of rain races to watch - fun stuff, and no one got hurt, though the racers with rain tires lapped the DOT-tired guys more than a few times.
A really fun award and trophy session, then packing up the bikes and gear and cruising home with Dave's kick-ass DVD system in his truck playing the Incredibles DVD made most of the ride fly by.
We'll unload the trailer tomorrow - I'm too sore and shakey (from the food poisoning) to mess with it today (though I'm a lot recovered).
Nothing higher than 4th place - no idea where I finished in some races (results post tomorrow), but I got no awards/trophies, so nothing higher than 4th Smile. This weekend was the kind of thing I wanted when I started racing - steady improvement, good fun, good friends, and no off-track worries. Thanks guys!
____________
ASMA 47
WERA 147
www.dhowellbooks.com
  
|
HOME
NEW TOPIC