The Racing Wade at NHIS, July 29, 2006
Prelude to 2006
I missed the first several race weekends this year because I was working. Sounds familiar. What a lame excuse. Over the winter, I bought a set of wheels so I'd have a spare set...maybe set some up with rain tires, I dunno. They came as part of a package deal with Pirelli slicks. What the heck, I figured, I've never tried slicks. Why not. So I mounted them on my new silver wheels. Then I realized that slicks will let me out of LWSS, generally my best class. Dangit. _shrug_ such is life. I also bought a bunch of spares off a buddy, as he parted out his SV, including a subframe, some bodywork, bars, tank, forks, and that sort of thing. About a week later, I took my stock subframe off to install the new one, and my buddy called to say he'd sold the sibframe to a guy on ebay,and did I have it? Yes, dangit. So I mailed the subframe off, and found a new one for me online and ordered it...Eventually it arrived, and it bolted up to the frame great, but the bodywork which was supposed to be for this bike wasn't even close to matching my 1st generation SV frame, so after looking at it for probably an hour, I gave up and hacked the front portion of the fiberglass off to fit inside / behind the frame, then drilled new mounting holes and got it mounted up. It's ugly, but it works. I rigged up a cross-bar in the subframe to lock the seat into that worked like a charm, though the mounting tabs on the subframe had to be adjusted a bunch to accomodate my seat. WTF? It was sold as an SV650 subframe. My stock SV seat can't be _that_ different from the ones they have out west (where the item was fabricated). I hate paying good money for stuff that doesn't do what it's advertised to do. A bunch more squinting and holding my thumb out in front of my face preceeded my hacking the stock battery tray and fender-liner to fit inside the new subframe. I was pretty happy in the end, but it was more work than I had expected. Silly me. OK, so that's where the bike's at for the start of this year: New subframe, slightly lighter bike weight (probably making up for me getting back up to 180 again. Dangit), and slicks.
Saturday July 29, 2006
Since the van only has one passenger seat, Connie stayed home today, letting Tim come along. This is his first time at the track since 2004, I think. We left about 5:30am, stopped at Irving for coffee and gas for the Van and bikes. They had NO decent breakfast bakery stuff, so we had to stop again at DD for muffins _sigh_. At the track at 6:45, there's already lines 7 or 8 people deep for registration and transponders. It's early enough that the staff haven't even put up signs telling which window is which. I get in the POST-registration line, and stand there for probably 4 minutes before I remember I need to be in the TRANSPONDER line first. Glad I figured it out when I did. BJ shows up, we chat a bit, he asks, "So how's your son doing?". I point to Tim and say "Ask him yourself." Tim has suddenly become a young man since a couple years ago when BJ probably saw him last. I thought it was funny. And a sad reminder of how infrequently I've been at the track with Tim.
The weather started out mid 80s, climbed to low 90s with high humidity all day. There was often a little breeze, and in the shade it wasn't bad, but sitting in the sun was pretty warm. After parking in the infield where I thought I'd be able to hear the announcements on the loudspeaker, we pulled the bike out, only to find that the battery was Dead with a capital D. It didn't even have enough to keep the engine running if the jump pack was disconnected. Poop. I must have left the key on or something after checking it a couple weeks ago. So I scooted to Street and Comp. They had one, and after an interminable wait for them to scan my card (it was probably less than 7 minutes), I signed away $79 for a battery and scooted back to the pit, where I filled it with H2SO4 and Voila! She's'a Got Fire! Tech had no complaints about the bike. I made it out for the first practice, and did a few laps in the 1:30-1:28 range and came in. Checked the bike over, and all's well. Second practice I started wicking it up a little more and got into the 1:24s and a couple 1:23s. This is pretty quick for me, and not far off my best of 1:22.74, last september. Not too shabby for my first time on track in 9 months.
RACE #3, GTL
This used to be a half-hour race, but this year they trimmed it to 20 minutes. They reduced the price a little, too, I guess to ease the pain. I have always done better in long races, with my fastest laps toward the end. The gridsheet showed 33 registered racers, and 31 showed up. I was gridded on the outside of the last full row, with one bike in the row behind me. Waiting to enter until the day of the race will do that to you. I got a mediocre start, as I was fiddling with the shifter trying to decide if I was in first or second until the 1 board was up...turned out I was in first, but I wasn't focussed well on the start and pretty much sucked wind. I passed a few other slow guys into 1 and came out of 2 probably about 25th or so, then as I got to T3, I pressed down on the shift lever, when I should have lifted it. There was so little compression braking that I thought I had hit neutral so I squeezed the clutch, coasted through the corner, and everyone went by me, while I tried to get my bearings. I eventually did, and started the task of catching everyone. About lap 5 coming into T3 right behind a pair of Amateurs on little RSs, I watch them brake side-by-side, then #556 tips his bike pretty clearly left, nudging the guy on the outside enough that his corner is screwed and he heads for the tires while I cut inside him. A few laps later, I see a bike in the tires of 3 that looks like #556, but I'm not sure. Since the full race-results don't seem to be getting put on the website this year, I can't confirm any of the numbers. _shrug_
Somewhere past the halfway mark, Ricky Doucette (#6) running 1:15s (and a couple other leaders) go by me between 6 and 11. I smile, because I know if it took him more than half the race to catch me, he won't lap me again unless I screw up, and I'm feeling better and getting faster as the race progresses. My lap-timer shows a string of 1:23s, then a couple 1:22s. I have a recurring thing with one Blue/white SV (maybe #83), who I think is the one I drag-raced with through 1a at the start and then let him get away in T3, but I caught him and passed him back sorta mid-race, but then on the last lap, he comes around me in 6, and though I try to give chase, I know I'm not going to catch him in the next 6 corners, and I've lost that place. In the unsuccessful effort to catch him, resulting in a 19th place finish, though, my laptimer showed 1:20.99, while the official scoresheet shows me with a 1:20.96. So I can honestly say I was in the 1:20s. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!
RACE #10, Thunderbike
I got another terrible start, and then as I was coming around T10 on lap 4, I see a guy ahead stick out his leg, and think "he must be pitting - he almost kicked the guy beside him, idiot", then I come around 11 at full tilt, and there's a corner worker on the pavement pointing to pit-in. Oh hell. Redflagged, apparently, but they hadn't got the flags out ahead of me beforehand. The leader had just made his 5th lap, and apparently that was past the halfway point, so we were done. I made a 1:23, probably on my last lap of 4. I felt a little gypped, but that's racing. Final results were not available before I left, but the prelims showed me about 11th of 15, IIRC. _shrug_
Until next time, keep the dirty side down, everyone!
SUMMARY: It wouldn't have been bad for a first weekend of the year, except for the bike work I did over the winter:
-Wade Bartlett, July 30, 2006
Last modified on 30JULY2006