The Racing Wade at NHIS, August 12, 2006
Saturday August 12, 2006
Tim's off camping with his GF's family this weekend, so Connie came with me for the day. And what a glorious day it was! Started out in the high 40's before sunrise, but made it's way to the 70's later in the day, unsteady light gusty winds, and big puffy white clouds here and there (see the photos). It was right at that temperature where the breezy shade was sometimes too cool, and the sunny still air was sometimes too warm. Hard to beat, really. The SV was unchanged from last time. I had the same slick tires, so I was down to two races: the 20-minute GTL and the Thunderbike sprint race.
First practice I get into the 1:25s and warm the tires up. I duel with a guy on a Honda a bit (#962)...I'll see him again later. He wins into T3, I win into 6 and down the straight. I later learn he's on a CBR600, so I'm wondering what's wrong with his bike to not be able to pull me down the straight, unless he was just dogging it to practice overtaking into 1. Could be. Maybe next week I'll go talk to him. I think we were both agressive but clean. Second practice is just more of the same, down to the 1:24s. No great shakes. It ends with a redflag and 3 (I think) bikes off the track at 8/9 and gravel & dirt all over the place. Crashing during practice sucks.
Later on, a fella stopped by the pit and introduced himself as Roger, #177, and said he's been racing for years, and not met the folks he's racing with. I allowed as how I'm in the same boat, and that I was glad he'd stopped by. Knowing who you're on track with is a good thing. I noted in the practice times that Roger (on an SV), Doll (SV, I think), and Dana Temple (Riding the wheels off an EX that BJ has advised is Prod-Twin Legal, holy smokes!) are all in the 22s, while Ted Temple and Alan Quinn are in the 20s. Ted tells me that if he doesn't get into the 17s this weekend, he's not coming back. This from the guy who rang his bell hard enough to officially retire three years ago, and again last year, but who is here again...more on him later. I did see an amusing pitbike (see photo at right). It's funny to me that something so remotely related to a Harley might still have some of that marquee's styling cues. It's called a "Baja Heat Mini Bike". Look it up on ebay or google for more info.
RACE #3, GTL
There were 43 entries listed on the initial grid sheet for this race, but the official sheet shows 37 entries [shrug] and 33 starters. That's still the biggest one-race grid I've been part of in years. That meant that when we lined up for the green flag there were 8 rows of 4 bikes, then two empty rows, then 2 full rows of 4, and a last row with 3 of us. I say US because I was the middle of those three, to the inside edge (which I hate). The starter was so far away we couldn't hardly see him! Well, maybe not that far, but the leaders were way out ahead of us before anyone got to turn a wheel.
My shifting weirdness from last time seems to have cleared up, so I get to focus on my start. Bruce Leung is on an RS125 right square ahead of me two rows up, so I'm going to have to go around him because those 2-smokes don't start worth a darn. I don't know what the guys I'll be side-by-side with are planning, but I hope they don't pinch me off. The green flag drops and I go by Bruce on the outside and try to work my way towards the outside, and remind myself that THIS is where I can make up a lot of places. I duel through 1-1A with #498, and win this battle into 2, but he goes by me not too long afterwards, and I never catch him again. He turns out to be a Aprilia RS250, who is slightly faster than me, with a best lap of 1:20.4. I think I came out onto the back straight probably about 28th or so. The rear tire spun up and stepped out a little on me as I exited T3 the first time. This is new. Even cold, the slicks were very predictable, and I just eased off the throttle a bit and let it catch back up. I've noticed that I regularly loose ground to almost everyone exiting T3, so I'm consiously trying to get on the gas a little sooner. There's a marker cone at the apex of 4 - my goal now is to get the throttle more than 3/4 open and hopefully WFO by that point. In the past I've been a-skeered of high-sides, but my confidence in the slicks has helped me get closer to my goal there.
A couple times, I snagged an extra gear on the front straight (making it 4 upshifts to 6th gear instead of just 3 up to 5th and bang the rev limiter a bit before shutting down for 1), and then forgot to make two downshifts either into 1 or one there and one between 1A and 2, leaving me in 5th gear down the back straight instead of 4th, which really screwed me up, and cost me about a second each time. Once the tires were comfortably warm, I ran 1:22s and into the 1:21s for four laps, with one 1:20.88 lap. This slightly beats my fastest lap ever, and backs up last week's 1:20.9, so I'm pretty happy. A few laps from the end, I caught a guy who pits near me, #180, and was starting to think about a passing strategy, when he puts his hand up coming out of 10, and pulled out. His bike was sitting outside his pit area all day, but I never saw him to ask what happened.
I'm getting better at passing, my favorite spot being around the outside in T1. I SHOULD be able to do the same thing around T6, but the proximity of the gravel and the propensity for many riders to swing way wide at the exit scares me usually unless I get a real good run on them into the bowl. I turned the damper adjuster up another 6 clicks, which significantly reduced the little head shakes I was getting under power cresting the hill in 5 and during the transition at 7-8. Last week, Todd Babcock told me he actually hangs his butt out to the right before turning the bike into 8, and I tried that this week, and it seemed to smooth the transition. I'm still hunched forward over the tank to keep as much weight as possible on the front wheel, which means I have to remember to slide back before getting into 9, which is the long left sweeper, where I KNOW I'm losing time to most of the guys ahead of me. I gotta stay on the gas and keep my weight back or else I get a bunch of push on the front tire here and run wide. I'm planting the left knee pretty solidly in several corners now, and will have to buy some new pucks soon. The right almost never gets to to the ground. Occasionally in T11, but only just.
The race leaders were running 1:15s (Ricky Doucette on an SV650 and Brett Guyer on a Ducati SS 1000) and they were about 30 seconds ahead of 3rd place at the end. Alan Quinn (on a Duc DS1000) turned a best lap of 1:19, and lapped me, along with the top 12 finishers. [sigh]. Todd Babcock missed 3rd place by 0.3 seconds, and was really frustrated at that, but having rung his bell as hard as he did last weekend, I was glad to see him out there contending, regardless of the end result.
While wandering around between races, I spotted one of the photographers and asked if he had anything of me. He pulled out one 8x10 shot from last weekend in the bowl (I need to lean more), and one from this weekend (probably race #3) in Turn 1, where I was doing better than I have before. The price was $25 each, but he let me have both for $40. what the heck. They are shown in the main race-reports page.
RACE #10A, Thunderbike
This race was split off from the other half, so we had the track to ourselves this time. The nice part about that is that the leaders in the race ahead can't lap us slow guys, depriving us of a lap of tracktime. The leaders of my own race aren't able to lap me now in a sprint race, but I finished almost a minute behind Ricky...which means he was only 20 seconds from lapping me. Whew! I lined up near #962 (remember him from practice?) The gridsheets show that he's got a cool name: Knight Hui. My start from the last row (again) was middling OK. I stayed ahead of a couple guys (including Knight, who ran a best lap in the 1:24 range), but spent the whole race running just behind four guys who were all sort of dicing it up. Their pre-occupation with each other slowed them enough that I stayed on them, but not enough for me to actually think about a pass. I finished 17th of 19, with a best time of 1:21.3.
WRAPUP & NEXT TIME
I talked with Micky for a while before leaving. Turns out Ted crashed pretty good again, his bike's a mess, but he doesn't remember it. He's retired again. I hope he's OK. Maybe I'll switch back to DOT-race tires which clearly have enough stick to run 20s (and can do 15's, I'm told), it's mostly getting my mental settings RIGHT to use them. That would allow me to run the LWSS race again, where I would probably finish well. Maybe I'll try switching the final drive gearing down a couple teeth and shift more. Maybe I'll enter the Supertwins race on Saturday and the Formula 40 race on Sunday..I actually might be near the head of that pack (but not winning, as Ricky Doucette runs that class, too, and turning 1:15s he's just gone gone gone). I guess that's enough guessing for now. Until next time, keep the dirty side down, everyone!
SUMMARY: Pretty cheap, actually:
-Wade Bartlett, August 12, 2006
Last modified on 12AUG2006