LOUDON, NH (June 14, 1998) - A raining weekend greeted Team Daemon
Racing.  Adam and Crystal were still on the west cost and Paul was
stuck in Detroit at a friends wedding (Friend?  Who gets married on a
race weekend?).  So Kevin, was the only racer from TDR that week, and
Kit carried the TDR banner.


The short version

At first the rain seemed to agree with Kevin, Coming out of Saturday
with his first, 1st place finish, and a 5th place finish. Unfortunately,
his luck did not carry over to Sunday, loosing the front end of the bike
in the closing laps of the race, while pushing it in the rain.  Luckily,
Kevin was OK, and there was minimal damage to the bike.


The long version

Friday morning, 6/12/98, 2:00am. AKA late Thursday night :-( Kevin left
NYC and arrived at Loudon at 7am. Bleh.

Loudon in the rain, what fun! Actually once committed to the fact that
you're going to be running (boating?) in the wet it's really sort of
fun.

Kevin opts not to practice on Friday, since he was operating on zero
sleep since Wednesday night.  He just took his time setting up,
confirming the races he has pre-registered for, and relaxing.

Saturday morning dawns gray and rainy. Kevin decides that he's already
paid the money so he's going to go out and play and see how it feels.
Kevin ends up with wet boots, but everything else stayed relatively
dry.  He soon realizes that he's lapping the track faster than most of
the other riders in the amateur yellow practice, even those on larger
bikes.  Kevin comes to realize that if you're loose and relaxed when the
bike is sliding around, it really doesn't matter.  Staying loose, and
letting the bike do it's thing, rather than fighting, allowed Kevin to
pull some pretty good lap times, and avoid meeting the pavement.

The first race is race 4a, LW Sportsman. After some minor problems with
the grid sheets, Kevin wasn't on it, things get squared away and Kevin
found himself in grid position 2E Good spot, no one in front, and a
clear shot to turn 1. The green flag drops, and Kevin is off, first into
turn 1. Lap one goes by, lap two, okay where is everybody? Enter the
straightaway for lap 3, Kevin takes a glance over his shoulder, the next
bike is over 10 seconds behind him! And that's the way it ended.  Kevin
went flag to flag in first place, in the rain no less!  Kevin's first
win!

Next race,  #7, LW Superbike. Still pouring. Kevin debates if this race
was a good choice, as he was going up against a lot of FZR400's EX's
with 17" rims, and a lot of rain tires. Kevin gets a good start from the
second row and goes into turn 1 in 3rd place. Two bikes on rains, blow
by him, so now he's in 5th.  The first 3 bikes disappear from the rest
of the pack, but Kevin stays on the 4th place bikes wheels. In the 4th
lap he makes a pass for 4th, and stays there for the next 2 laps.  But
then two bikes get tangles, and the red flag comes out.  All that work
for nothing.  They re-grid in their original positions. 

The green flag flies again and the pack heads for turn 1. A bike cuts
across Kevin's line, be brakes and downshifts, one too many times, the
bike gets sideways.  Kevin regains control, and downshifts **again** by
mistake, bike goes sideways yet again.  By the time Kevin gets this
sorted out, he's in 6th. He works his way through the traffic, but can
only manage to pick off one more place, and finishes in 5th.  Not bad,
and he got a trophy to boot.

Sunday dawns.  It's mostly dry, but there is still a lot of water on the
track, and it doesn't look like it's going to dry anytime soon.

Kevin's first race was amateur LW Sportbike, paired with amateur HW
Sportbike (why these two races were paired together is beyond us). 
Kevin is gridded in row 10A, the fourth row of the LW group sportbike
wave, and the same FZR's on the rain tires from yesterday are right
there next to him. The green flag drops and Kevin is off entering turn 1
in 5th place.  In front of Kevin is the guy in the next garage to him on
a Hawk and the 3 FZR's.  The battle ensues.  As the next few laps pass,
it is obvious that Kevin is faster than the Hawk, but he is not able to
get past him.

Kevin shows the Hawk a wheel several times and attempted a pass him
entering turn 12, but the Hawk slams the door on him. Kevin could have
probably made the pass stick, but realizing this is just club racing, he
didn't want to risk going down over just on position. Besides, Kevin
knew he was faster, and could make a clean pass going into turn 1. Kevin
took the low line entering turn 1, and he and the Hawk went through 1
and 1a side by side.  Kevin had the inside line going into 2, and made
the pass stick!  As an added bonus, both bikes had passed other several
other riders during this exchange, putting Kevin in 2nd place! 

With two laps left, Kevin manages to pull out a few bike lengths on the
other bikes going through turns 5 and 6. Throughout the race, Kevin had
been careful going through turn 11, where there was still water across
the track, and he thought he still was.  However, as he entered turn 11
a little wider than normal, he crossed onto the new pavement. The front
end of the bike started to wash out.  Kevin tried to regain control, but
it quickly became obvious that it was a lost cause.  Kevin loosened up,
and let the bike do its thing.  Kevin and the bike parted company, and
the race was done for Kevin.

Overall, a good weekend for the team and Kevin, leaving the track with 2
trophies. One small mistake on Sunday cost Kevin a 2nd place finish, but
that's how the game goes!