The Racing Wade at NHIS, July 5, 2003
Friday, July 4, 2003
I rode up to NHIS on Friday afternoon to get registrated for saturday's race. This is a really nice perq of living 45 minutes from the track - lots of the guys and gals here drive 4 to 8 hours to come here. Yikes! I again intended to do just one race. I got my transponder from the transponder window. About halfway to the track, Ihad realized I'd forgotten to bring the little piece of paper saying I had paid for another year of AMA membership, and my new card hasn't arrived in the mail yet, so I figured I'd have to buy another year....The woman running the licensing window, Lee, allowed as how she remembered me, and that I should have the person at the registration window check with her for confirmation of my membership. When I got that reg window, though, that woman was fairly insulting, explaining to me as if I were a recalcitrant 4 year old that "that's not how it's done, Wade, and with 100 people behind you in line, there's no way that I'm going to go to another window to check out something you're supposed to have with you right now...." There were about 15 people behind me at that point, but I didn't argue that point. Instead I just noddded and smiled and repeated that Lee had told me to ask her to check with her. She repeated that that's not how it's done. I just looked at her and smiled....and said Lee told me to ask her to check with her....she glared a while, but then leaned to her right and asked Lee what was up...Then came back and grumped about my not having a CCS license (I haven't gotten it in the mail yet - that one's not my fault), and was generally really pissy. It was hot, and she's had a long day I suppose, and I was asking her for a little special consideration (even if it was what I was told to do), and being grumpy to the window people never yields good fruit. Eventually I got to pay $60 for my one sprint race, and received my registration/tech paperwork and car sticker, and headed home. I packed the SV and Tim's TT into my new-to-me E250 along with a bunch of other periperal track- stuff and went to bed. It's pretty cool having all the stuff in the van with no trailer, but it's a little tight for two bikes. I will be glad to get the new hitch installed so I can just put it all in the trailer again.
Saturday, July 5, 2003.
Tim and I were up at 5:00a to get the last of the stuff in the van. At the track, things went pretty smoothly. The fence near T3 was full, so I staked out some grass in the infield. Mike Isabelle and Tommy showed up about 7:45 and parked next to us, and we set up a tarp between the trucks to sit under. I was out for the first practice at 8:15 or so, and while I felt fast and good, I was pretty well stuck in the 1:26s. Same for the second practice, though I felt like I was working much harder...which might be the problem. I had one lap in the high 1:25s, but not near as fast as it felt. The weather was in the high 80's low 90's and MUGGY, but in the shade with a little breeze, it wasn't brutal. Just made me sweat a lot. I drank about three quarts of water by noontime.
Tommy and Tim got a rude greeting at about 9:15 when they headed out for some dirt-riding outside the track - the guard refused to let them exit, saying they had to have street-bikes to leave the track area....I figured this must be a new rule (I had been told before that no race-bikes were allowed out). THey stewed on this development all morning, but after lunch they went to plead their case again, and discovered that apparently the guard had mistook their bikes for RACERS (Tim's has turn signals on it, fergoshsake!), but that their non-racer dirtbikes were fine. So they got to go riding all afternoon. That was a good thing. Walking through the pits I realized how I enjoy the many smells mingling in the air at NHIS: race gas, two stroke exhaust, burgers grilling, and overcooked rubber. Mmmmm.
The corner-working crew was way short-handed so I volunteered to cornerwork, and was assigned to T1. Lemme tewll ya, it was some hot standing on the track! Every racer should give any cornerworker they meet a big THANK YOU for doing that hard, hot, long, sometimes tedious job for us. Without our U.S.Marshalls, we'd be in a tough spot, for sure! About this time, it was announced that due to the heat, the GT races (normally 30 minutes) were cut to 20 minutes. I'm glad I didn't spend $100 on 60% of a long race! During race 4, someone fell down in T6, then was struck by another bike, resulting in a lengthy delay while the ambulance crews did their thing, the helicopter pad was cleared of parked vehicles, and the Trauma-Hawk flew in to take the injured guy away. As of this writing, I haven't heard anything about his status, but I hope he's OK. I helped retrieve the bike that hit him, and bring it back to the garages. Today's tip: Use the REAL STRAP on your helmet, not the little clippy-thing to hold it on your head!
I ran the flag station at T1 for a few races after we resumed, then headed back to the infield to suit up for my race, Race 10. I headed over to the pregrid a little bit after the second call for my race, and was the first one on the pre-grid. Such an eager beaver. Eventually everyone else showed up, and we got sent around for our sighting lap, and to the grid, where I was in the third row, with 8 bikes in the two rows ahead of me, three more in my row, and one guy all by himself in row 4. I realized in the morning that I had never practiced lauches with this bike, so I had no idea what RPM would be good....So I guessed and held it around 6500 as the one-minute board went up...then lofted the front wheel a bit on takeoff, and was near the tail of the pack but hoping to make some of it up on entry to T1, but as I leaned into 1, felt the rear tire sliding out to the right, and realized I had a foot on the rear brake along with my hard use of the front brake. Crazy street-rider habits sneaking in having not been in a race in almost two years. I released the rear brake, gathered myself up, decided I could make the turn, and kept it on the pavement (rather than running around the Oval), but was way wide, and got to T1a dead last. I passed the guy ahead of me pretty quickly going into T3 by outbraking him, then caught two guys who were kinda running together. It took a few laps for the next pass, then a coupld more laps for the next one, then I had wide open track - everyone else had run away from me, so I tried to push harder than I had when behind those two, to try to keep them behind me, and then the white flag was out, and I took the checkers without anyone showing me a wheel, passing me back, or lapping me! WooHoo! That's the first time I wasn't lapped in a long time, probably more because I was in the second wave this time (and so didn't give the leaders quite such a head start) as compared to most of my races on the EX where I was in the third wave to leave
the line.
So, the basically stock SV performed great. Started every time. Ran well. My biggest problem is that damned right hand that doesn't always respond to my desires....I tell it to not brake so soon, but it happens anyway. Sigh. I still need to work on being SMOOTH with all the controls: throttle, brake, and steering. Choppy or non-smooth inputs yeild yucky results. The SV is way more powerful than the EX, and the front tire feels like it bounces in the air as I transition from the sweeping fast left of T7 to the over-the-hill right of T8. T1 comes up much faster than I remember it coming up on the EX. I'm told that fast stock SVs can run 1:18s. That may well be true for someone, but not me. I'll be really happy if I can get to the 22s. We packed and left the track before my race results were available (I had to get to work for an 8pm shift), so I'll update this page when they are available, but I know I wasn't last, and didn't crash, and pulled off three passes without being lapped so I'm psyched. Hope to see everyone out there for Saturday July 26. My race is usually #10, which goes off somewhere between 3:45 and 5pm (depends on what happens on track and with the weather and such). It costs $20 for a gate pass saturday, which gets full access to the stands and infield. Bring the family for a day of loud, smelly, colorful fun! Dirtbikes are allowed access to the dirt parking lots, the little flat-track, and the trails nearby, so bring them along, too!
COSTS SUMMARY: This was a cheap weekend, again:
-Wade Bartlett, July 7, 2003
Last modified on 07JULY2003