The Racing Wade at NHIS, September 2005

The Racing Wade at NHIS, September 3, 2005

Saturday September 3, 2005
New tires and perfect weather (70s to low 80's, with light breeze and some clouds) inspired me to beat my best-ever time, turning a 1:21.74 in the GTL. I churned out a bunch of 1:22's in that race and the subsequent two races, and I think I can go faster, but I'm really happy. I'm doing better at T3, but still slowing too much for T6...Once in a while I make T9 with good speed, but often I slow for it, even though I shouldn't. Hard to teach that right hand to just stay the heck away from the brake lever as I crest the hill at 8.

Going through the effort of driving to the track on Friday to register instead of going a little earlier on Saturday didn't gain me anything on the grid - I had exactly the same start positions for the first two races, and was almost the same for the third: at the back for all three. Oh well.

My AIM timer worked great for practice, but was recording splits of 13seconds and 1:09 during race 3, leading me to believe there was a second beacon on the track...Johnny B said North Garage 21 was the place to go to speak with Jonathan Burbank about beacons...Jonathan wasn't there, but Scott (whose last name I never got) was, and he offered to show me how to set the minimum lap time on my AIM. He even rode us over there on his scooter. Thanks, Scott!

There were a fair number of red flags early in the race day, with one crash resulting in loads of glass in Turn 4 - apparently someone still had his sealed beam headlight in place. I dunno how that snuck through tech, but I bet it won't happen again.

Going faster meant I was in the middle of a lot more excitement. In the 1/2-hour GTL endurance race (#3) I lapped a few Amateurs, and even passed a few Experts, finishing near the back of mid-pack (15 of 22 or so), and was myself only lapped by the top eight finishers (who were turning 1:16s to 1:19s). There was one slightly ugly pass as I caught someone going up the hill at 7 with a big speed differential, and committed to the inside just as he started cutting right to apex the turn (this is exactly the scenario leading to one of my early crashes when I tangled EX-bars with an MZ), but nothing ventured nothing gained, right? I went completely over the alligator strips on the inside, with all of my bike clearing all of his bike by several inches (I think), and was pleasantly surprised to learn (again) that they feel pretty much like pavement at speed. There were also a couple occasions where I could pull alongside someone under brakes into 1 or 6, but couldn't consummate the deal. _sigh_ I am better in T1 than in T6, though. We had 2 experts and one amateur DNF, but no redflags for this long race. That's a good thing.

I got a mediocre start, at best, in Race #9, because I had trouble getting the bike into first at the grid....I've figured out that the clutch is a little out of adjustment, and it's keeping some pressure on the plates, meaning it's easy to find neutral if I turn the engine off, otherwise, it's impossible. Gotta fix that before next race weekend. The whole race was a little slower for me, too, but I had several laps of good racing with Tony Luongo (http://luongoart.com/race.html), who beat my butt in the GTL having turned several 1:20's, but who was also slower for the sprint. I passed him...he passed me...then I couldn't quite catch him. Then we wound up running with Carlton Sargent for a few laps, then at the last turn of the last lap, Tony got a great drive out of 12 and went past Carlton to grab 12th place by 0.09 seconds. You go boy! I finished 14th of 18 starters (19 entries). And everyone in this race finished except one Amateur.

Me and my essentially stock SV were completely outclassed for the Thunderbikes race (#12), though my 1:22s would have put me mid-pack last time, they were only good enough to stay ahead of a couple bikes this week, finishing 12th of 15 starters (17 entries). I was lapped right at the very end by the race leader from Wave #1, finishing 1-second too slow to get another full lap in. Dangit. I might run it again next week...we'll see. Full lap-time printouts for my three races are 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 two Sprints ($60) = $240
Food - $10 (we bring our own food - waaaay cheaper than that track-food)
Gas - $35
Grand total: ~$320, a cheap weekend. Not crashing is a big plus!

-Wade Bartlett, September 5, 2005

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Last modified on 05-SEPT-2005