The Racing Wade at NHIS, October 2005

The Racing Wade at NHIS, October 1, 2005

Saturday October 1, 2005
I write this week's race report with a heavy heart. But I'll get to that in a moment.

Though I was there in time to make it out, I skipped the first practice as it was just a little too nippy, and the combination of cold track and cold tires didn't strike me as a good way to get up to speed. The second practice went OK, but I never really got into it, running slower than 1:25s, letting the tires warm up and wanting desperately to finish the day in one piece. The clutch cable adjustment fixed the shifting problem I experienced last weekend.

During the rider's meeting under beautiful clear & dry skies with temperatures in the high 60s to mid 70s, it was announced that there were twice as many crashes in practice as usual. For no apparent reason. A bit of foreshadowing, there.

My first race, the half-hour long GTL, Race 3, went OK. I finished 15th of 25 starters (26 entries), and turned several laps in the 1:21s. Though I didn't beat my best time, I did have my best expert-class finish yet. As usual, I was dead last on the grid, about mid-pack by Turn 1 thanks to a decent start. I passed a couple guys in short order, then got passed back by a couple guys later in the race. My passes are getting better, but they are often not as pretty as I'd like. I'm still way slow coming out of Turn 3, but I have been doing OK passing guys around Turn 9. None of the amateurs (in the wave behind me) passed me this time, and though I got lapped by several of the expert leaders (running 1:16s to 1:19s), I lapped a couple of guys in my race, as well as several of the amateurs. Rob Ruggerio, running the Gengras Harley Buell again after a 6-week layoff for crash-related shoulder injuries, passed me a few laps from the end, while running in the mid 1:20s, and I couldn't keep up, crossing the finish line almost 12 seconds behind him. I later saw him replacing his exhaust pipe, having cracked it pretty bad again. So he beat my butt with a broken bike. That's sad. I didn't always deal well with traffic, and had several laps in the 1:25 range while I struggled to get around amateurs. I was glad the race ended when it did, as I was beginning to have brain fade, missing the downshift into T1 once, and into T3 once...I knew I was midpack when I came off track, but had to wait a while to get the final results.

As I settled in to wait for Race 9, there was a big crash at the green flag for Race #4. There was an hour's delay, and one ambulance left in a hurry. I noticed folks packing up someone's trailer not far away, so Connie and I helped a little bit. The story in the paddock was that there was some contact off the line resulting in several bikes on the pavement, and one rider being struck by more than one motorcycle. A Loudon cruiser rolled into the paddock a little bit later (an ominous sign, to be sure), and the officer was observed to have a meeting with the LRRS organizers, everyone looking very somber. After an hour or so, Jerry announced that Race 4 would be run later in the day, that Race 5 was about to start, and that all the sprints for the rest of the day would be trimmed to 6 laps (instead of the usual 8). During the first lap of Race 5, though, there was a crash up around Turn 4 that "demolished" one bike, and took about 45 minutes to clean up. As 3:30 came and went, putting us more than an hour behind schedule, I decided that there was too much bad karma in the air to hang around for 6 laps, so Connie and I packed up and left.

I later learned that as a result of the Race 4 crash, one rider sustained a broken leg and other non-life-threatening injuries, and one rider was transported to Concord Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. I don't have his name yet, and so far the newspapers are not reporting anything on the event, but it has tempered my happiness at my own results. Rumor has it that this was his third race-weekend.

So, the season is over again, I've managed to accumulate zero championship points, but my races and finishes have gotten steadily better, after that miserable start (two crashes the first weekend). I spent some of sunday stripping out my rear shock and forks, to send off to Peter Kates for freshening and some updating over the winter break. I'll probably send the suit down to Vanson for a cleaning as well. The tires still have a couple races in them, but after letting them sit over the winter, I'll probably just buy new ones. I'm using the tread out closer to the edge recently than ever before, and I gain great confidence from new tires.

I guess that's all there is to say for now. My heart and prayers go out to the family of that race 4 rider.

Full lap-time printouts for my two races should appear online at the LRRS site:

And the race results sheets should appear here:

So until next time, Ride it like you stole it, but keep the dirty side DOWN!

SUMMARY:

W&C paddock passes for Sat - $40
Post-Registration for one GT ($120) and one Sprint ($60) = $180
Food - $10 (we bring our own food - waaaay cheaper than that track-food)
Gas - $30
Grand total: ~$260.

-Wade Bartlett, October 2, 2005

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Last modified on 02-OCT-2005