Wade's Second Race Weekend, May 1998
Living within an hour of the race track has its benefits. I just wish they ran the one-hour endurance events....Say-La-Vee, eh?
Friday, May 1, 1998
I opted out of spending the $60 on practice with the Penguin school, but drove to the track anyway to tech the bike and register. I decided to run just one race per day, and I vowed to make both 15-minute practice sessions each day. They comprise a big chunk of the track-time I can get after paying my entry fees for a race. I registered for the Production-Twins sprint race Saturday (about 15 minutes, 8 laps), and the GT3 (1/2 hour endurance race) for Sunday. I shot the breeze for a while with a fellow pitted near me who was renting an MZ for the weekend, and headed out a bit after 8pm. I got home by 9 to sleep in a warm comfy bed, while most of the folks there slept in their vans or rented a room.
Since the last races, I put a new chain and a 14/44 sprocket set on, per the suggestions of a variety of people. This was a big change from the stock 16/42 I was running. I tried but failed to get to the dragstrip with the beast to practice my starts, and my inexperience with it showed in the starts of both races. The master-link on this chain is a typical clip-type and the tech guys said that was ok, but that I should check it after each race to verify that it was still there. I am considering buying the nice peening tool to do solid links.
Saturday, May 2, 1998
I was there early. Well, it felt really early, but I just barely made it out to my first practice. Here at Loudon, they have 3 rider groups: Amateur, Junior, and Expert. In each group we have RED, YELLOW, and BLUE (Slowest, mediumest, fastest) classifications. I have run AM-RED so far. My lap times (2:02-2:06) in the morning's rainy practices were near the fastest for the AM-RED's, and overlapped a bunch of the AM-YEL group, so next time I'm going to run with them. I have heard that there's more to learn from following fast riders than passing slow ones. I think that is true, even though I have enjoyed the passing part.
So anyway, it rained. and rained. and rained. I remembered a rainsuit (to keep my leathers dry) which was BRIGHT-ORANGE, and blinded everyone near me. Maybe that's why my times were comparatively good-noone else could see (g). I tried pitting inside the fence of the south garages, on pavement this time. I am still trying to find a good cheap way to get some protection from sun/rain by tying a tarp off the fence onto my truck. Sunday's attempt was much neater looking than Saturday's. Garages are $100 per weekend. I should find someone to pit with, especially on these rainy weekends. There were still garages open...
My race was #7-the first wave was Senior Sportbike, then the second wave was something else, then us production twins as third wave. Given this setup, I got lapped about lap 4. Thus those guys got 8 laps, I got 7. Oh well. I was way slow at the drop of the green, but I was near the back of the grid, so at least I wasn't in anyone's way. I ran ok, the Metzler tires seemed to slide a lot, but it was raining, so I guess I ought to expect it. I'm getting better at the power-driven wet-pavement tail-slides, but I like dry better. I never did get a groove going with my shifting, but ran consistent times of about 2:02 typically. There were what seemed like dozens of standing or waving yellow flags, and at least three ambulance flags. Someone seemed to have driven straight off the front straight into the tire barriers. Witnesses said it was a spectacular crash, with him plowing straight into the tires, and the bike coming over onto him. Yuck. All I saw was a cornerworker carrying tires back to the lineup... Several guys slid into turn 3 one at a time over the course of the race, one MZ slid across 8, leaving a long scrape that remained there Sunday (witnesses said he created a big cloud of smoke or steam, too), then two guys collected each other in Turn 10, one soil-scooping event in turn 11, I think, and one hard high-side in turn 12. Those are the ones I saw. What a mess. 17 racers registered for the Production Twins race, I don't know how many actually gridded. I was the 7th PTWN of 10 to finish. By virtue of the fact that I finished basically, I got 6 points toward moving up to Junior. I went home and slept very nicely, thank you.
Sunday, May 3, 1998
My son and pitcrew for the day, Tim, and I left home at 6am. He was sleepy. It looked like the clouds might be moving out. I made both practices, but LRRS changed the order of the practices, so AGAIN, I just barely made it for my first round, but I made it. I lowered front and rear tire pressures to 27psi as an experiment. The track was variably moist through the morning, so I don't know if the tire pressure thing helped or not. The rear seemed looser, especially around turn 8, but that may be because I'm trying to go through it faster than I generally have. Just because I can't see the track ahead doesn't mean it's not in the EXACT same place it was before.....I'm still trying to convince my throttle-hand of that, and keep her open just a bit longer. I did a lot of sliding, and feeling really choppy, but much improved since the first rainy practice session last weekend. Rain provides great incentive to be *really* smooth with downshifts, braking, and turning. But I knew that. I thought I knew how to do it, but I have improved, so I guess I needed the practice. (I'm better now, can we have some sun?.... Pretty please?) I ran mid-to-high 1:50's both practices.
It looked like maybe we would get to race on drying pavement by my race's start around 12:20, but no such luck. After the warm-up lap, raindrops fell very briefly on the first lap, then a very slight drizzle came and went for the next 7 laps. It was dry enough that my lap times went steadily down from 1:52 (on lap 2) to 1:40 (lap 7), then the rain really started, and lap times hovered around 1:57 by the end. Of 22 registered riders, 11 finished the race. I was 7th. Do I detect a trend here? But this was the GT3 race, ostensibly with a bunch of more powerful bikes, so I don't feel bad. I matched my best lap time of last weekend (1:40) on a partially wet track, so I'm doing ok. I'm happy. So happy that I forgot to turn in my transponder before leaving the track. I noticed it 5 minutes out (when I pulled over to snug down the bike one more time) so I had to go back, or they would have fined me $100. Glad I noticed.
Summary
one sprint race = $50
One GT race = $80
Pit passes = $45
Gas truck/bike = $15
Food = $25 (mostly from home)
Two seventh-place finishes, each paying 6 points
I have 5 races and 16 points toward the 10 races / 45 points needed to move to Junior.
BIKE SETUP:
New final drive (14/44)
New standard chain
rear tire=fairly beat Metz
front tire=fairly new Metz
27psi both tires...never did check em after I set em, again....D-oh!
mesh air filter screen, airbox fully assembled
Progressive front fork springs
15W fork oil
EBC green front pads
rear preload slightly reduced from last weekend, seemed a bit loose now.
No forkbrace
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Last modified on 05/3/98