The Racing Wade at NHIS, September 2003
Friday, September 26, 2003
We packed the van, but I decided to just register on Saturday.
Saturday, September 27, 2003.
We were up about 4:45am, on the road at 5:30am, bought 2.5 gallons of gas for $4.50 at Cumby's, and arrived at the track at 6:30. Registration opens at 7am, so we were early, but we were able to buy our infield pass-armbands, and I was first in line for the transponder, while Tim went back to the van and slept...while laying across the two front bucket seats with big open space between them....How do kids sleep like that? Anyway, by 6:45 there were a half dozen people in each line (Pre-entry, post-entry, transponder, licenses), and the lines just got bigger until 7am. I got my transponder and hopped over to post-entry, where I was about 5th in the line which was moving pretty quickly. My options for racing included one LightWeight SuperSport (LWSS) sprint (7-laps) which costs $60 to enter, and one half-hour Lightweight race (GTL) which costs $120 to enter. I thought about the intermittent misty-drizzle I'd had to drive through to get to the track ("take it easy"), about this being the LAST race weekend this year ("go for it"), about my bike having the same tires on it that were on it when I bought it this spring ("go easy"), that it was supposed to be good weather ("go for it"), that GT entry fee is pretty steep ("go easy"), that I was still picking up speed each weekend and extra laps would help that ("go for it"), and decided at the last moment to sign up for both.
Tommy and Mike were already there, having camped at the track Friday night. I skipped the first practice, as the ground was still visibly damp, and we got Tim's TT out so he and Tommy could go riding....but his battery is still pretty dead (gotta fix that this winter, for sure), and there's some weird thing going on with the starter clutch....we tried bumpstarting it a bit without much luck, then a fellow next to us said "Hey, you want to start that on the rollers?" He had an AxleJax electric roller set. He finished starting the bike he was working on, and the relay got stuck once, but he hit it with the screwdriver and it released (I call that "percussive maintenance"). Then we rolled Tim's TT up there, and spooled it up a couple times, but it didn't want to start, then the relay got stuck good and proper, and caught fire. Yikes! No more roller-starting today! Turns out that fellow was Mr. "Catfish" who makes occasional appearance on various north-east email race-lists. He said he had a spare relay, and that he didn't need help to get it taken care of, so we left him alone to get things going for his race. We eventually got the bike started by having Tim & Tom push me along in 3rd gear - that was high enough that the rear wheel kept rolling. After that, the starter worked most of the time, and Tim got some riding in.
By the second practice, things looked drier, so I went out. I quickly discovered that the Dunlop DOTs the SV is wearing slide predictably under power out of Turn 2 and under braking into Turn 12, which was a little scary, but good practice, I suppose. I slowly wicked it up, and eventually turned a 1:25 before coming in. Given the conditions, I was pretty happy with that.
GTL Race #3
This was my first long race in about 3 years. Our race was the second wave, behind the Expert GTL race, so they got a 15 second head start. I was gridded right at the end of 5 rows, but on the outside, as I prefer. We had more than 15 entries for this race (which is why there were 5 trophies), but there were only about a dozen riders on the grid. Maybe the drizzle scared the rest of the players off. It had sprinkled ever so slightly just as we got to the grid. I had practiced a couple starts, and found that 5500 was a good RPM for me to work with - and I had an OK if not stellar start, didn't miss the turn, and was about 7th out of Turn 2. The track didn't seem to be too wet, and I kept finding good grip everywhere, so I pushed hard. The string of faster guys ahead of me were still in sight, so I had some moving targets, which I slowly chased down, and passed. Beyond the halfway point, I had some concentration issues, and consequently had a few really ugly runs through 10 and 12 particularly, but then I got my head back on straight and focussed a little better. I eventually started catching the back of the expert pack. That was pretty cool! I passed a few of them and got passed by another Junior on a black FZ (maybe)...I followed him a while, but I think he got away from me. The track was completely dry by mid-race, which was good for us guys on DOTs, or people with slicks, but not so good for the guys with rain-tires who had gambled on things getting worse...One of those guys was Ted Temple, who I passed between Turns 9 and 10 about lap 10 or 11...It's VERY cool to pass a guy who can do 1:17s!!! Even if he was on tires that had more or less melted away. About lap 16 I passed Micky Curry, from whom I'd bought this SV, but he was on an EX, so it's not really a fair fight. After that, though, I had clear track ahead, and could only just see the next set of guys entering T3 as I came out of T2, which meant that I had to work with my own braking markers - I couldn't just chase someone else. Someone crashed
into the tirewall at the end of the front straight about lap 17 or 18, and though that's not a bad place to crash generally, it disturbed the tires which were full of water, and I got a really good scare when the rear broke loose coming around 1 as it slid through the water running down the track, then hooked up and tossed me just an inch or two off the seat before I settled back down. Oh boy. Combining the open track thing with the water in T1 thing slowed me down by 2 seconds a lap to 1:26's. Micky told me later that he had almost caught me before the checkers. I thought I'd gotten maybe a 6th, but this turned out to be my first trophy since October 1998, and my best finish ever - a THIRD!! WooHoo! with a best lap time of 1:23.18, for 11 advancement points. Nine riders finished the junior race and 16 finished the expert race, and between the expert and junior races, there were 11 DNFs. Yikes - some over tire issues, some for crashes. Full results online at http://www.lrrsracing.com/images/pdf/2003%20Stuff/sept_27_28/Sat3.PDF
LWSS Race #10
I was gridded 10A, inside at the very end. Yuck. As with the earlier race, there were about a dozen bikes on our grid, with several grid spots empty, and an expert race ahead of us. I got an OK start and was about 6th into T2, part of a train of bikes that headed down the back straight. I passed a couple guys, a couple others passed me, One of whom I was able to hang with and was thinking of trying to pass when he got caught in someone else's mess in T1 just ahead of me. Two experts ahead of us were coming in almost side by side when the guy on the outside tipped it in and tagged a front wheel against the other guy's back tire, which caused him to crash and he collected the junior I was trying to catch. I stayed out of the fray and took a 4th of 10 for my second trophy of the day, 9 advancement points, and a best lap of 1:22.456. Again, I say Woo-Hoo!.
Footrace
Yes, you read right. There was a charity footrace with a $5 entry fee, in full leathers and gear held after racing was over, from Turn 10 to START/FINISH....They had two classes listed - LW and HW (over 200lb)....but when they didn't get enough entries for the heavyweight class, on the starting line, they dragged two of us in the 180-lb range back to the HW class. The other guy who got dragged back kicked my butt - he was just steadily a little faster than I was, and as I rounded T12 I looked back and had probably a full second on the other big guys, and decided not to try to catch him. I passed a few of the slower LW guys and gals (yes, we talked at least one female into running). I settled for second. Full results online at http://www.lrrsracing.com/images/pdf/2003%20Stuff/sept_27_28/Sat10.PDF
I now have something like 130+ points and 27 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 my best times only put me in the bottom third of the pack in most of the Expert classes, so I might stay a junior another year and practice chasing people. I'll think it over over the weekend.
Next year's race schedule is not up yet, but I anticipate racing to resume in late April. I'm planning to be there. I'll buy some new tires, and heck, I might even change the oil in the SV between now and then. Maybe some of you can make it, too. Until then, ride fast, take chances, and keep the dirty side down!
SUMMARY:
-Wade Bartlett, September 28, 2003
Last modified on 01OCT2003