The Racing Wade at NHIS, August 30, 2003
Friday, August 29, 2003
Living just an hour from the track puts me in a position which most LRRS riders would envy: I ride my streetbike to the track on Friday after work, register for my races, then ride home and sleep in my own bed. Today was no different, plus the bonus that the weather was fabulous, temps in the 70s, light breeze, and a few high clouds. Autumn is just peaking around the corner here, and a few trees in low wet areas have already turned
Racing a basically stock bike has been a joy compared to racing a modified chassis and breathed-on motor, and inspired confidence that it will actually RUN when the green flag drops. As I stood there at the counter waiting for the window to open, and chatting with others behind me in line, I began to worry that I was supposed to be in the LWSM class, and eventually I changed the registration to LWSM. At 6pm they opened the windows, and I paid my money and got the tech sheet (which I folded and stuck in the book I was reading) and headed home. All the way home I thought about that class-switch I made, and pretty well concluded I'd screwed up. It's like taking a test: always go with your first instinct. The SV is not legal for LWSM. Oh well - I'll deal with that Saturday. Picked up Tim, then packed the SV, bicycles, tarp, carpet, chairs, box of spares, and such into the van and got to bed at a reasonable hour. What a novel thing.
Saturday, August 30, 2003.
Tim & I left about 5:45 am, got to the track about 6:45, got our armbands, then I was about the fourth one in line for the registration window. When they opened at 7am, I was able to switch my registration without too much trouble. Yay! COSTS SUMMARY: This was a cheap weekend, until right at the end: -Wade Bartlett, August 30, 2003
We set up our pit area, and I went to get the bike and helmet tech'd…then I remembered I needed a tech sheet….Essentially by chance, and through a strange twist of events which are beyond the scope of today's tale, the book I had been reading had wound up in the van, which meant that quite by accident, I had brought the tech registration sheet with me. Thank the gods. Another thing to put on my list to remember each time I go racing.
Tech went quickly, and I got ready to go out for the first practice. The tires were both carrying just about 25psi, which was a little low, so I cruised the pits and the nice guy at MOTORACE loaned me his airchuck - in fact, he filled the tires to my request (setting them both to 28psi) even though they weren't HIS tires, then he put new complimentary metal caps on there, since he insisted that the tires not leave his control without the metal caps, and I left mine in the van. I'll buy my new tires from him next time!
It had rained the night before, and the track was a little damp under the trees at T7/8 but it was really beautiful weather, and was actually quite comfy in the leather suit. There are three practice sessions based on your laptimes: RED (>1:24), YELLOW (1:20 - 1:24), or BLUE (<1:20). This means I got slotted into the RED session, but I'm running at the fast end of it, so after I got my confidence up in the tires, gradually went faster up to a new fast-lap for me of 1:24.928. I got a little practice passing people. That was kinda new, and pretty cool. The front tire had gained only 2psi, while the rear had gained 4, so I probably ought to run with 29psi in the front and 29 or 30 in the rear next time. I'm hoping to run these tires again next weekend, and buy new tires to start the season next year (from MotoRace).
During the second practice session, I turned 1:25.5, 1:24.8, 1:24.4, and a 1:23.8, during which I had a pretty scary but thankfully short-lived and non-catastrophic two-wheel slide just past the apex of T6, where I was a little too sudden with a steering input and both wheels broke loose briefly, but then caught again, and I continued on my merry way. The next lap was a surprisingly fast 1:25.1, considering how I'd scared myself with that slide. But it was a new lap record for me. I was pretty happy with the results thus far.
LWSS Race #6
The grid position we get assigned is located by row number and a letter, with position A being at the inside of the track and position D being next to the outside wall. I got 12D for this race. I liked that - the outside was where I wanted to be going into T1 with the pack. I'm still suffering from not having practiced my starts, and it showed here: I tried 7,000 RPMs for this launch and lofted the front wheel, I throttled back a little to get back on the ground, and immediately everyone else went past me, so I was dead last going into T1 again.
The LRRS IT guy has done a fabulous job of getting things computerized, and we can now watch the timing/scoring results LIVE as they happen with a wireless card and a laptop, and the results are posted online that night. WOW! So anyway, the final results for this race are available online here:
http://lrrsracing.com/images/pdf/2003%20Stuff/aug_30_31/Sat6.PDF
LWSB Race #16
I drew grid position 11A this time. Way inside. Ugh. I tried a 6,500 launch RPM, which worked better, and when the flag dropped I focused on trying to work my way to the outside, and had just about gotten there, when I realized that everyone else had suddenly turned left. Dammit! I hammered the front brake as hard as I dared and began to lean into the turn, and decided I could make the turn by going wide, and I did, but I was just about dead last again. During this race, unlike most of my races in recent years, I was actually involved in some real racing, there at the back of the pack. I got passed some, and did some passing. In lap 5, I got a great drive out of T2 and was setting up the guy I'd been following for a pass under brakes into T3, and I was pulling him pretty good, when I suddenly saw a waving yellow flag! Damn! I braked hard and followed him through T3, though I never did see any event which would have brought out a flag. Oh well. I out-braked him into T1 next time around, and had a clear track ahead - and pushed hard. As I arrived at T3 there was no yellow flag out, but I saw the corner workers running up the hill, so I looked ahead and saw a bike mid-track about 1/3 of the way up the hill, and a rider on his hands and knees crawling to the left pretty quickly. His bike was off the line pretty good, so I slowed enough to ensure that I'd have traction through the corner, and tooled on by. The open track ahead gave me impetus to push pretty hard, and turned a 1:23.8, and ran away from the couple guys behind me, but didn't really gain much on the guy ahead, so I finished 6th of 10 finishers. This got me another 7pts. This race's results are available online at:
http://lrrsracing.com/images/pdf/2003%20Stuff/aug_30_31/Sat16.PDF
I now have 123 points and 25 races as a Junior. I need 65 points and 13 races to be elegible to move up to expert, so I could move up now, but I'm still slower than the slowest LWSS expert this week, and would have been near the very bottom of the 20-odd expert pack in LWSB, so I don't think I'll move up just yet. Maybe I'll make the move this winter if the next race weekend goes well.
After racing was over, I went to the auction to benefit Rob Hadley (The guy who fell down in T6, got run over by another bike, then got airlifted out during my last race-weekend.) They had a bunch of stuff donated by various suppliers. Some of it was the odd leftover stuff (a pair of nice white/red women's "about size 7.5" alpinestar boots went for $25), some was real nice (new HJC Helmets), and some was very unusual. Johnny B donated his complete, one-owner, titled, street-ready, never-raced, but somewhat neglected YSR50. I bid on a bunch of things (driving prices up a bit - hey, it's for a good cause, right?), and actually won some shirts, a hooded Ducati sweatshirt (Birthday for the boy, ya know?), a gift certificate from Ken Mitchell at Motopix (see my previous race report for some of his work), and after a mildly heated battle, the YSR50. Just what I need! I'll post more on that when I have time to deal with it. I'm open to vanity plates that would best fit the beast -remember NH allows only 5 characters on motorcycle vanity plates!
There's only one more race weekend this year, the weekend of September 27th/28th. I expect to be there, I hope some of you can make it, too. Until then, ride fast, take chances, and keep the dirty side down!
Last modified on 30AUG2003