The Racing Wade at NHIS, July 10, 2004
Friday, July 9, 2004.
I packed the truck Friday afternoon, but decided to just register on saturday, and spent the extra 3-hours I bought by doing that going all over creation looking for a scanner. Who would'a thunk that Kmart wouldn't carry them? The cheapest scanner the nearest RadioShack had was $100, but they only had the display model, no box, no instructions, and no price break. Phooey on them. I drove to Somersworth to hit Walmart, where the electronics person said they didn't have any either, but I eventually found a low-end Uniden that would do the job, located (intuitively enough) in the car-audio section of the auto-department. I got it home and programmed it with the NHIS frequencies and went to bed.
For something new, I was going to describe a full lap around the track from my perspective, but it turns out that would be like a novelette, so here's my take on Turn 1, to maybe give my non-racer readers a taste of the track. Turn 1 is the first left turn off the front straight, where we exit the nascar pavement, and cut through the infield inside of NASCAR T1/2. From speed, I approach T1 at the outside, leaving enough room between me and the concrete wall on the right so that a FAST guy can just go on through without incident if he's going to pass me on the outside; WFO* and crouched down behind the windshield parallel to the wall until aproaching the brake markers mounted on the fence atop the wall at the outside of the NASCAR oval, where I start to lean it left in a gentle arc approaching T1; Between brake markers 3 and 2 I sit up and squeeze the front brake pretty much as hard as I can - when I do it right, the front tire squirms as the wheel thinks about locking up; with the right arm involved in controlling the brake lever smoothly, I use my left arm more to hold myself upright; after scrubbing off some speed, I downshift once (by lifting the lever, remember, this bike has GP shifting!), when I release the clutch, the rear usually steps sideways a bit until the engine spools up and the rear tire hooks up again; I never use the rear brake on track - I'm just not that good; Until this weekend I have always made it a point to be OFF the brakes before I cross the paint stripe that marks the inside of the NASCAR T1, but this week I've moved that release point back to just after the first pavement transition at the big patch, by which time I've slid my butt off the seat the the left (inside) and stuck my knee out a bit...so now I'm letting off the brakes perhaps 35 feet earlier - this gives more entry speed, so I have to lean more, which was making the front end chatter, but once I tip it in, if I slide back in the seat a bit, and get back on the gas somewhat, I lighten the front enough to reduce chatter, and I can feel a little sliding in the front but it's all good; I try not to apex T1 too close to the pavement edge for two reasons: if I'm that close to the curb and someone tries an inside pass at the last moment, we are going to crash for sure - a little wiggle room is a good thing, and when I'm close enough to possibly hit the curb, I spend too much effort thinking about that, and not enough thinking about the next corner....OK, on to the races!
Saturday, July 10, 2004.
Tim was away visiting grandma this week, and Connie was able to come to the track with me. It was a good thing. The weather was mid to high 80s, with occasionaly gusting winds. We had blue skies to start the day, with clouds rolling in and past all day long, some were kinda nasty looking, but it was all good. No rain all day.
RACE #3, GTL, 1/2 hour race
My race had 23 experts registered for the first wave, and 11 of us juniors registered for the second wave. Two of the juniors in the first row, and one in the second row were not present, though (perhaps they pre-registered and just didn't make it this weekend), so there were only 8 of us on the grid. My saturday registration put me at the outside of the last full row, with one guy in the row behind me. I got a good start, held my line about mid-track into T1, and was third out of T2. I kept the two guys ahead of me in sight for several laps, then we started catching the slower experts, and I wound up dicing with Expert-490 on a black Aprilia RS250, I caught him at 11, passed him with horsepower up the front straight, but he came right back by me on the inside of 1. I stayed on his butt to three, but wasn't daring enough to try the pass. I followed him up the hill, and went around him on the outside entering T6, he passed me on the inside coming out of the turn: clearly I had horsepower, he had a little cornering speed. But I figured that if HE can corner that little bit harder, so could I, so the next time into T1 I pushed harder than usual and stayed on the gas and kept him behind me. That was the end of him, but that was also the end of the two guys ahead of me. I never saw them again. But I never saw any other juniors, either. Until I caught one of the slowest guys and lapped him. Heh. Go figure - Me lapping someone in my race. I know it sounds unlikely, but it really did happen - check the results pages at lrrsracing.com! I determined that if I stayed on the gas moderately through T1 and T9, and shifted my weight to the rear of the seat I could reduce the chatter that I was getting. This improved my confidence enough to corner faster than ever before (particularly in T1), and I actually tagged the ground with my knee in 1, 6, 9, and 11. That's pretty cool. The first 7 experts (including the blazingly fast Ricky Doucette and Eric Yoo, turning 1:16s) only lapped me once. Which is also pretty cool. I am getting a little headshake at 5 where the track crests and takes a little right turn: under WFO conditions the front lightens a bit, I get the same effect (though more dramatically - the front wheel actually comes off the ground during the flick) trasitioning from T7 to T8 - my fix so far is that at both places, I climb forward over the tank so as to put as much weight on the front as I can muster - with my helmet actually going out over the top of the windshield - I bet I look like a goof, but it keeps the front wheel from lofting too badly....FINAL result included my fastest lap ever around NHIS: 1:21.882 seconds. Two full seconds better than my previous record, and a string of 1:22s and 1:23s, netting me a third place trophy. That best time would have put me near the middle of the expert pack, and even steady 1:22s would have put me ahead of several guys in the expert pack - so maybe it's time to move up....
RACE #9, LightWeight SuperSport, sprintrace
13 entries, I think only 11 people showed up though. I was in the last full row again, with two guys in the row behind me, I think. I got a good start and was third out of turn 2, caught the guy ahead of me and tried to outbrake him into T3, was too hot, overshot the turn, and had a dog-slow exit, allowing him to go by me on the inside. But I almost could have made that turn, and so I was confident that I could outcorner him into 6 if I could catch him. I stayed hard on the gas and was able to outbrake him again into T6, but not by so much as to really screw up my corner and passed him on the outside. So I was second for about 4 laps, when Tom Sylvia (#664) came around me in a really nice pass and took it away. I could keep him from running away, but I was never able to show him a wheel after that. I had one small rear-wheel slide into T3, but the tire hooked up again immediately and didn't mess me up, and the front pushed pretty hard through turn 9 just as my knee touched the pavement once - but again, it all hooked right back up and life was good. It's nice to have confidence in your tires. I may actually have to buy tires after the next weekend - the faster times are eating rubber a lot faster than I'm used to. I turned a couple 1:22 laps, and a couple 1:24 laps. Though it is part of life - dealing with *slightly* slower traffic is a skill I have not yet mastered. End result was another third, and a conviction that I should make the move to expert - the way to get faster is to race with faster guys. There's more guys just a little faster than me in the Expert ranks than Juniors now, so it's time to go. I spoke with Don Hutchinson about it, and he said I'd be all set for the next weekend.
Until next time, keep the dirty side down, everyone!
SUMMARY: Is ANY race weekend ever cheap?:
-Wade Bartlett, July 10, 2004
Last modified on 11JULY2004