Friday August 29th 2008-
As usual, I perform the final checks per my Pre Race Check List to ensure that the bike and gear are all in good working order.
Friday afternoon rolls around and I load the bike and gear into the pickup and park it in the garage for the night. It is nice to get everything done before hand instead of working on your bike at the track….
Saturday August 30th 2008-
Practice Session 1:
The one and only practice session was almost uneventful. The bikes performance was as expected, outstanding. Just the rider needs some work. Turn 3 of lap one somebody crashed right in front of me on the outside. I almost made the novice mistake of “looking” but I remembered to look where I want to go, as I thought I nearly ran the rider over. Eric A # 913 passed me on the inside thru the incident.
Went a few laps and brought the bike back to the pits, and on post inspection at track exit I killed the bike. The bike doesn’t start. Dammit! Battery is almost dead. I end up pushing the bike back to the pits and had to scrounge up a battery charger. Now I’m sweating bullets hoping that there are no delays at race time where I may have to turn off the engine.
Race 1:
I grid in row 7.3, at least I was supposed to. Turns out to be a total cluster. There were bikes gridded all over the place, some even five per row. I guess that’s what you get when you have a bunch of novices. Live and learn…
Anyways, green light and the front half launches, three seconds later the flag drops for the back half of the grid and we are off. I was not very aggressive on the launch and ended up dropping back a few positions. The green lighted front of the pack was gone. There are some fast people up there. Turn one and two are uneventful, but going down the hill into turn 3 I get passed by two bikes. I’m definitely braking way to early and taking the outer line. I must stop that. Out of turn three and into 4 I’m right on somebody’s rear wheel. Must have been a liter bike because as we headed down the back straight they ran away but I was on their ass going into turn 5 where it seems they mash on the brakes. Turn 6 and 7, out seven the liter bike just flys up the hill into 9 and 10.
As the field spreads on lap two I ‘m able to make some passes pre death chute and pre turn 1. my confidence builds and pass a bike on the outside in turn 2, down the hill into 3. The next few laps were uneventful and six laps goes by quite fast. I finish 25th with a best lap time of 1:41.382.
Race 2:
Before the race I hunt down Mark DeGross as he is the expert on my bike. I told hime about my turn 3 “problem” and he asked me how I was taking the turn. After a small discussion, Mark pointed me in the right direction on how to take turn 3 as he sees it. Thanks Mark!
Once again, I’m sweating bullets, hoping for a zero delay due to my battery issue. The horn blows and
Heidi provides assistance with removing the tire warmers while I disconnect the battery charger and reinstall the seat. I get on the bike and Heidi drops the rear stand and off to the gate I go.
All the bikes line up at the track entrance and wait. And wait a few more minutes. All the while I’m looking at my temperature gauge. 155, 160, 172.
Finally in what seemed like eternity, we are released for the warm up lap.
With the warm up lap completed, we grid. I’m gridded in row 6.1. gridding seemed a bit more orderly this time. Green light, front pack is off. Flag drops and the slackers in the back half are off. I get a horrible launch and immediately fall back near the back! Wake the fook up I think to myself! With the parade of bikes safely thru turn 1,2 and 3 the field starts to spread out, with me further back than I really wanted to be. I start to make progress on lap 3 by passing just prior to the Death Chute. Gotta love that Rockwall Motor! I took and used mark’s advice on turn 3 which seemed to work out much better for me as I was able to actually make a few passes in there, but really not enough to make much of a difference. A six lap sprint is over quite fast. I finished 29th with a best lap of 1:40.149
Notes: this was really the best time ever. No rookie mistakes by anyone. No red flags and I learned some new stuff.
Kudos to the WMRRA staff to pull off this day due to the Endurance races on Sunday.
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