The Racing Wade at NHIS, August 7, 2004
Friday, August 6, 2004.
I packed the truck Friday night, and hooked up the big enclosed 6x12 trailer - I'd like to sell it, and figured it wouldn't hurt to bring it along. So far no bites. It sure is easier to pack when you've got HUGE volume available. Otherwise the day was uneventful.
Saturday, August 7, 2004.
Tim was over, so I rattled his cage about 4:50, and he got right up. We had some breakfast and got in the van, then I realized I didn't know where my phone was, so I ran back tot he house and hunted for it but Tim found it in the van, then I realized I didn't have my sunglasses. Back to the house....OK, finally we're on the road at 5:50am. One stop to fill the fuel cans and buy an armload of water to complement the sandwiches, chips, and granola bars and we were on our way. I love this trailer - it tows so nicely - I just wish it didn't weight quite so much. The thermometer in Farmington said 50 degrees, the sky was clear, with a few clouds on the horizon and a generally good forecast. MMMmmmmm. Tasty. Weatherwise it was perfect.
Practice
In one of the early practices someone oiled the daylights out of the track between T6 and T7, but with almost no cornerworkers out there, bike after bike just hit it and crashed: 8 bikes total. Patrick was pitted next to me said he was one of the first three guys and they were all standing on the wall up there waving their arms at people to try warning them, but it took a while to get word back to contorl and the flag-people. A 30Meg video filmed by a camera on board one of the bikes involved can be found here http://www.classicbikes.com/racing2004-aug-7-8-2004.html. The wreck has engendered a lot of talk on the NEAR-list about how to make the whole event safer in the future. It took a while to clean up, and resulted in a huge line of the "pixie dust" right on the racing line. My practice went out shortly thereafter, and I was pretty nervous about riding over that line, even though my brain knows that the track is essentially fine after application of the pixie dust, so I tried to go wide (real slow) then I tried to cut inside, and clipped the curbing with the front tire - it caused a little headshake but it settled down quickly....shortly thereafter I pushed hard into T1 and was too sudden with a steering input approaching the apex and the front tire slid sideways what felt like forever but was probably more like 8 or 10 inches before hooking up again. It was developed slowly enough that I was able to think to myself: "just keep trying to make the turn." That way, if you fall down, you lowside, and often you actually make the turn anyway. So I made it. Whew. I didn't even check my laptimes. They were terrible slow, I was sure. The second practice started off with a red-flag before I even got to T3, as a result of #228 (I think) crashing in T8, leaving the bike and pieces (including the battery) laying on the track at the inside of T9. I have no idea where the rider wound up. After the restart, I got a couple OK laps in, then as I downshifted coming into T12 the bike went into neutral, and I had enough time to realize it was coasting but didn't have enough time to process what to do about it before it dropped into gear, sending me halfway out of my seat and set the front end to wobbling pretty badly - I looked over my shoulder and decided the guys behind me were far enough behind that I had a clear track and rather than try to make the turn with the front end all crossed up, I aimed for the grass and shot through to pavement, where everything stabilized and I cut hard left to get behind the pit wall and take a breather. Lessons so far: Be smooth in T1, ride OVER the pixie dust, and make sure shifts are POSITIVE. If the thing goes to neutral squeeze the clutch and stay on track. Fast guys will go around me.
RACE #3, GTL, 1/2 hour race
My race had 29 experts registered for the first wave, with four per row, that put me as the only person on the very last row, at the A position on the left. This is the first time in a long time that I was in the lead wave. It was neat. The odd thing was that of the 29 people registered, only about 21 showed up for the grid *shrug*. A big two-stroke was ahead of me and my start with the four-stroke was way better than his with the 2 stroke, and I stayed on the gas through 1 with no brakes, as I approached the curbing at the apex of 1, I see out the right corner of my eye two or three bikes sideways on the pavement to my right. By the time I round T2 there's red flags out and everyone loops around to stage for the restart. As we leave the pre-grid, I see Dana Temple pushing his EX back to the pits. Damn. I hate when people crash, and I hate it even more when it's people I know, but not as much as I hate it when I crash. Later, Dana crashed hard and most unfortunately reportedly will be done for this season. So my second start was also not too bad, but my being in the 8th row meant that even with a good start I was still way back. I wasn't last through T1, but I was close. Shortly thereafter #490 (the two-stroke ahead of me on grid) came by with a nice clean pass. I clearly had motor on him, and passed him back on the front straight, but his corner speeds were better, and he passed me again and I intentionally let him go - someone's just going to get hurt playing the hirsepower/cornering speed game. Besides, maybe I can learn something, right? All this time Micky #51 is 50 yards ahead of me - I wasn't catching him, but he wasn't escaping, either, so I start to hunt him down. Shortly before the halfway mark, Jeff Wood sticks a wheel inside me on T1a, but I was committed to the turn so I stayed in it, he backed off then came around me on T2 like I was chained to a rock, and waved. I interpreted that as an apology for being late on showing me the wheel - whatever it was, there's no hard feelings on my part. Then Ricky Doucette came by, then Eric Yoo. Then I caught Micky (I can't remember where) a bit after the halfway mark. I started getting tired, and slowed down then (standard for me - I'm slower if I'm not chasing someone), and with about four laps to go, Micky tucked his front wheel up inside me on 12. (Micky later said he thought I knew he was there and was trying to block him which fired him up enough to press for the pass.) Surprised the heck outta me, and I slowed way down, and pressed down on the shifter, instead of lifting it up - and by the time I figured out how to get moving again Micky was 100 yards ahead on the front straight. Ohhhhh I was mad about that - mostly my own poor performance with the shifter- but whatever the cause, such intensity is usually a good thing. I remember thinking as I came down the front straight - "don't crash it catching him" because one of my last crashes was doing just that - though that time I was chasing someone I had no right chasing, someone WAAAAY faster than me who wasn't even in my race. So anyway, Micky motivated me to be faster, and I did my best. A junior passed me under brakes and then slowed too much in Turn 3, so Micky got away some more. I hoped the guy would slow micky down to, to even out the pain, but he didn't - he went around him in T1 and appeared to not slow Micky at all. Dang! I caught him as the white "last lap" flag came out and didn't think I'd be able to pass, but stuck to his tail. We caught the Junior and followed him around T6, and I thought maybe I'd try to pass them both, but then I decided it wasn't worth it....as luck would have it, one of the Yoo brothers (who had lapped me earlier, behind Wood and Doucette) crashed in 12 and we got a waving yellow flag. Micky braked hard to avoid passing the JR under a yellow, and really lost his drive out of 12 - I lined up a little bit better to get out of the corner and gave it the gas, despite being one gear too high (our corner speed was lower than normal for the Yellow flag) I pulled ahead of Micky about 4 bike lengths from Start Finish. What a good race. My laptimes were slow still, with one barely 1:22 lap and the rest two seconds off my times from last event. So I wound up 12th of 15 finishers, and got no points. Results of this race are online at http://www.lrrsracing.com/2004/results08070804/sat3.pdf
RACE #9, LWSS, 15 min race
Again, I was dead last on the grid. I got what felt like a good start, but was still dead last to T1 (which shows the difference in the competition level going from Junior to Expert, I guess, eh?), and stayed there for the entire race. I just never felt comfortable going faster...my front end never got light over T5, the chatter through T1 and T9 were down or gone. I was a rolling obstacle the whole race, and passed a couple juniors, but also got passed by several of them. How disappointing, but I didn't crash. I guess I'll console myself with that, and plan to attack harder next time. Maybe a new set of tires. The results are online at http://www.lrrsracing.com/2004/results08070804/sat9.pdf
Until next time, keep the dirty side down, everyone!
SUMMARY (Cheap all in all):
-Wade Bartlett, August 10, 2004
Last modified on 10AUGUST2004