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Race Report for Week 6: August 19 - 20, 2000

Find all of the weekends race results at the LRRS website here.

I was running a bit off pace this weekend despite the near perfect weather but I came home in one piece and had a blast racing with Brian in my last race of the weekend so it was an OK weekend overall.

It's raining as I'm loading up the truck on Friday night.  The weather forecast called for brief, passing showers so I hold off loading the bike and a few other items hoping the rain will stop.  By the time I finish everything else I need to get done it's 11pm and still raining. I decide to go to bed and finish loading in the morning.

A little before 4am one of my dogs, Misty, wakes me up.  She isn't feeling well and over the next hour proceeds to throw up at various spots around the house.  In between puke cleaning sessions I manage to finish loading my truck.  Other than barfing and not wanting to eat anything, Misty seems active, alert, and otherwise OK.  I decide she'll be OK and leave a note for the sitter to call me on my cell phone if she still isn't eating in the afternoon.

I get to the track a little after 7am and I'm through the lines and unloading by about 7:30am.  I could definitely use a nap.  I get through tech (this time with my lowers off) and get ready for my first practice. I'm assigned to the yellow practice which gives me a little extra time. According to the posted cut-off times I should still be in red practice and while I'm definitely on the slow end of the spectrum for the session I'm not the slowest one out there.  Still, it feels funny being in the same practice with Jerry and Jeff Wood and Rick Doucette.  Of course, Jeff and Rick are only in this practice because they have multiple bikes and are on their "slow" bikes.  Practice goes OK but I can tell I need more rest as I find my turn-ins to be too lazy, too often.  I come in and plead my case with tech to be reclassified to the red session.  They allow me to run red the rest of the weekend.

Second practice is OK but I run into slower traffic.  Every time this happens I come in saying I really need to work on my passing (which I do) and yet I'm reluctant to push too hard in practice.  Jerry is always reminding us that we're out here with our friends.  I'm a little too conservative but I do need to get up and go to work on Monday and there aren't any trophies for "winning" practice.  This *does* come back to haunt me in races but so be it.  What's that saying?  "Nice guys finish last."  Crashing sucks and taking someone else out in the process sucks even more.

Some friends of mine from Natick showed up with their girls and I spent some time with them explaining the goings on at the track.  I've been working on getting my three nephews hooked on motorcycles so it was good to have the chance to work on getting a couple of girls hooked too.  :-) Chris had his video camera with him and put a few frame captures up on their website http://people.ne.mediaone.net/clmcn/ (see Others-Bruce Racing).
 

Race 6, GP Singles - 9th
I'm gridded close to the inside of the third row in 3B.  I get a mediocre start and as the field sorts itself out I find myself chasing Nick.  About the third lap, just after I've tipped it in for T2 I see a bike coming underneath me.  I stand it up, as I know there's no room, and Larry squeezes through.  Next lap around he stands Nick up in T3 which allows me to get by Nick.  After the race Larry came over to apologize and I tell him he redeemed himself by helping me get by Nick. :-)  After getting by Nick I set my sights on Brian who is a couple seconds ahead.  The gap between us shrinks and grows but basically remains the same.  I finish a little over a second behind him.  No juniors got by me.
 

Race 9a, LW Sportsman - 13th
Ugh.  That which does not kill us makes us stronger.  :-P  An interesting race.  As the field settled out I found myself in a pack consisting of Chuck and Bob on YZs, Mickey and Brian on EXs and myself. Early on there's a waving yellow in T3 and I come around the corner to see teammate Kevin crawling off the track.  Damn.  Turns out he was fine and was just doing the smart thing and getting off the track quickly and without standing up.  Mickey is the first to get by Chuck and Bob but can't pull away.  Brian makes a few attempts but either gets pushed wide or pinched off.  In the meantime Bill on a Duc gets by me.  He's holding me up in corners but I can't get back by (what was that about working on my passing...).  He gets Brian (I think) but Brian gets back by and also gets by the dueling YZs.  Meanwhile I continue to move backwards as Nick manages to get around me as do two juniors.  Not one of my better races.
 

I call my sitter and check on Misty and it seems she has eaten food and is doing fine.  I make sure I get to bed at a reasonable hour and get a solid eight hours of sleep.  Wake up Sunday to another beautiful, if not a little chilly, day.  First practice I run into a lot of traffic and back off.  Second practice I wait for everyone to head out first and then take to the track.  I have a much better practice and even get to practice passing with an SV as we swap positions a few times.  I feel a lot better than yesterday.
 

Sunday, Race 9, Super Singles - 7th
I'm on the outside of the front row, my favorite spot.  Unfortunately, after starting us in three waves the past few weekends, they decide to start MW Sportsman and Super Singles as one wave.  I get an OK start and I'm about 5th through the first turns.  Galen motors by me coming out of T10 but I'm managing to keep the tail end of the lead group in sight.

On the second lap I grab my downshifts for T1 and the bike makes noises like I just left my transmission lying in the middle of the track.  I bail out around the NASCAR oval.  I poke the shift lever and everything seems OK.  I reenter behind Brian and proceed to give chase.  He has a little gap but I slowly close it up.  He gets balked by a slower rider in T2 and come out underneath both of them.  Brian out brakes me into T3 and retakes the position.  I show him a wheel going into T1 just to remind him that I'm there.  I come up on his right going into T3 but I'm not sure he knows I'm there and back off.  White flag is shown and I need to make my move soon.

I remember watching an expert race early in my rookie year and seeing two racers go side by side into T3, inches apart, and carry that formation through the turn and up the hill through T4.  I remember thinking those guys had a lot of faith in each other and there's no way I would ever do that.  I was wrong.

I come up beside Brian in the T3 braking chute.  As I tip it in I see out of the corner of my eye that Brian is right there beside me.  We go through T3 and up the hill, leaned over and inches apart.  He has a better drive and slowly inches ahead.  He crosses over to the right as we go through T5 and as I come up beside him on the left thinking "Yeah baby!" he sticks out his hand and gives a thumbs up.  :-)  As we crest the hill I inch ahead but I brake too soon (I can hear Eric telling me I can brake later and harder for the bowl) and Brian beats me through the bowl.  I'm right on his tail through the back section.  I briefly consider an outside pass in T9 but don't think I can make it stick before T10.  Brian gets through T12 a hair better than I and I cross the line less than 2/10ths of a second behind.  If the finish were 10 yards further I would have had him.  As we come out of T2 onto the back straight Brian pulls up beside me and we give each other "five" and thumbs up.  A good ending to an otherwise mediocre weekend!

Paul's Report

I got an early start to the weekend, heading up to the track on Wednesday to help out with the Penguin Racing Track Day. This was really good, because it gave me a chance to show street riders the correct lines, and reinforce them in my own mind.

I was back at the track on Friday, helping out with the Penguin Racing School and working on my own lines and body position.  I was feeling good, and was confident I would be able to break into the 17's this weekend.

Kevin showed up with his friend Chris, and a little later Kit arrived. During the early sessions of the morning, I had noticed a very bad noise coming from the F4's engines.  So once the day was done, I pulled off the case guard, and discovered it was just the clamp holding the stator wires out of the way ever so slightly rubbing the flywheel.  A few minutes with a file, I put everything together, and everything was good again.

I had forgotten to pre register, since I was off on the Rat Pack 2K, so I had to run out and register and get teched at the end of the day.

We all headed out to the local pizza joint for some food, where we ran into just about every official from the track, head tech inspector, race director, head corner marshall, etc.  We pretty much took over the place and had a great time.

Back at the track, I finished up working on the bike when it started to rain.  Great.  Here we go again.  ut it let up after only a short while, so I took advantage of the break, and made for my tent.

Saturday:
Wake to beautiful day.  The ground and track are wet for the rain the night before, but I was not worried, they would both dry quickly. I went out for my first practice and felt good.  Everything was clicking and I felt smooth.  I did miss a shift going into turn 1, forcing me to take to the NASCAR bowl, but that was the extent of the excitement.  Second practice went much the same way, only I was getting faster, since the track and I had both warmed up a bit.

Late morning, Jodi showed up to offer her support to the team! She brought along a friend who went to spend the day working a corner.

Race 1, GTU
I was gridded on the fifth row, with a lot of traffic ahead of me.  I got a good start, and went into turn 1 mid pack, gaining quite a few positions.  That is one thing I've been working on, my starts, and they are finaly starting to get better.  I put my head down and started to make my move forward, trying to not loose touch with the lead group.  I could see Tony (#35) and Peter (#505) in a pack of 3 or 4 ahead of me.  My goal was to get to them and pass them.  :)  I got around a few slower bikes that were hold me up a bit, and started the task of making up lost ground on Tony. As the laps started to click off, I was staying about 2 seconds behind Tony, but just could not close up on him.  Every time I came out of turn 2, I saw him in turn 3, etc.  As we go further and further into the race, i started to loose touch with him.  I found myself all alone, something that often happens in the race with me, and I don't like it.  No one to race with and push me.

We got into lap traffic, and I was hoping that would help me catch up to Tony and Peter, but it didn't.  With about 6 laps to go, as I was exiting the bowl, I saw another bike entering the bowl.  Uh oh, someone is catch up to me.  So I put the hammer down, determined not to loose a position.  On the second to last lap, Scott Greenwood (#28), the leader, laps me.  He was the red bike.  I jump on his tail, hoping he'll tow me around for some fast laps.  He is the only one to get by me, so I didn't feel that bad.  I finished in 9th, running a 18.55.

Some of you might now, Tony and I have a little personal bet going on.  Whoever gets the fast lap of the weekend get the point for that weekend.  The person with the most points at the end of the year, get dinner and drinks from the looser.  We checked the time later, Tony pulled a 17.33!  Holy cow, Batman.

The rest of the afternoon, I helped out around the pits, and then went out to turn 12 to work a corner for a while.  While working the turn, I watched Tony in his other race of the day, LWGP. I was timing him, just so i knew what time he was running, and had him in the low to mid 18's, pretty normal for both him and I. Then I witnessed him miss turn 12.  He missed a down shift, skipped the chicane, end went right onto the straightaway.  Sure enough, that was a 17 lap.  Hmmmmm.

After the races were all done, I went over to see Tony.  Say, you didn't happen to miss turn 12 during our race, did ya?  You did?  Ah.  Let's go look at those times again.  We got printouts of both our times for GTU, and Tony agreed to throw out his 17.33 lap, since that was the lap he missed turn 12.  Whatta a guy.  He still had the low time of far, a 18.23, but that was doable!

After all the races, the pit bike wheelie contest took place. I forgot my camera, but it was very, very entertaining.  We have to get Patrick out there, and show them how it is done!  :)

After the day was done, we all headed into town for some diner.  And them back to the track for an early night.

Sunday:
Woke to a crisp, clear morning.  It was actually chilly! Both practices went well, I felt good, the bike was working well, and all was right.

Race 2, MWGP
Once again, I was gridded in the back, since I had not pre-registered.  I was right next to Pete (#505), so i knew it was going to be a fun race.  I goat a great start and beat Peter into turn 1, but he got me back in turn 1A.  But going into turn 3, 2 bikes get together and go down.  Pete was not in the accident, but he was forced off track to avoid it.  I just sailed right by, and worked on getting around the bikes ahead of me. I was held up for a bit by two slower riders, and it took me a few laps to get by them cleanly, but finally did.  I set my sights on the next bike, but with one lap to go, it was obvious I was not going to catch him, so I backed off just a notch, not wanting to throw it away. Going into 11, I took a wide line, just in case there was someone behind me, and made a run to the finish line.  Out of nowhere, I see a bike next to me!  It's Pete!  It is a drag race. He beats me to the line by .05 seconds.  Doh!  If only I had known he was there!  I will not run without a pit board again!  Ended up 10th, but only just!

After the racing was done, I started to pack up.  Also took time to take pictures of the rest of the team, and help them get ready for their races.

Overall, a great weekend.  I know I have 17's in me, I just need to figure out how to get them out in the open.  Thanks to the whole team and to all of our sponsors, especially Jodi for coming up and chearing us on!

Getting ready to head to Pocono, now, to run the FUSA race! Stay tuned!

Rob's Report

Arrived late friday night to find everyone except Bruce there and unpacked. And Kevin worried about where the hell his bike was. :)  While unpacking, found that I had forgotten my number plates. Called home, Ann-Marie verified that they were indeed where I put them so I wouldn't forget them, on the garage workbench. Helped Kit out with a chain adjustment on Dane's FZR400, met Chris, who would be sharing Kevin's bike this weekend, and headed off to bed. Around 11:30 that night, half asleep, I hear my wife calling my name looking for me. Poke my head out, she hands me the number plates. No, she doesn't have a sister, and no, we can't clone her.

Saturday morning practice, feeling rusty. Spent first practice finding braking markers, turn in points, and shift points all over again. Track was damp through turns 7-8-9 from a rain last night, so took it easy. Next practice, go a little faster, but still slow.

Race 9A, LightWeight Sportsman
On the pregrid, I see two other juniors on modified dirtbikes, an RZ350, and Paul Conley on his MuZ. Make it my goal to keep all of them behind me. I'm on the last row of the grid since I entered late, but I'm on the outside where I like to be. Get a great start, pass a few riders on the outside of turn 1 and the inside of 1a, ending up 5th. The RZ350 was in front of me, but the two dirtbikes and Paul were behind me. I ride my ass off, trying to keep it that way. A few times through turn 2 I could see another riders shadow trying to pass me on the inside, so I roll on a little earlier and go as fast as I can into turn 3. Second to last lap, I'm starting to catch back up to the 4th place rider, Kevin Kennedy, and concentrate on him. Last lap, another EX500 gets me on the inside of turn three. I try to cut back underneath him in turn four, but he close the door on me. Up the hill I'm right on his tail and try to cut to the inside of him for turn six, but he sticks way to the left, covering his line. I mess up and downshift once too many times, run wide on the exit of six, and Paul gets by me on his MuZ. I stick right on Paul's tail, and just can't make a clean pass into 12 to get the position back. Finish seventh.

Well, at least I lowered my best lap time to 1:27.351, but need to pull 1:26's in order to be competitive in the Sportsman class. Spent the rest of the day helping out in the garage, and fixing up Kevin's bike after his crash so Chris could use it for his race.

At last call, Chris heads out to the pregrid and stops right outside the garage. Seems we missed a footpeg bracket that barely holding on. Without thinking ( a common problem for me ), I offer my bike, and we quickly throw on Chris's number plates and send him out. We went to go watch the race in turn three, where Chris made a bunch of great inside passes. Until he just didn't come around one lap...

Dammit. Go wait in the garage while Bruce peddles around looking for him. He ended up taking a few sod samples from turn one, but got up and finished the race. The Kawasaki EX500 has got to be the sturdiest bike I've ever ridden. Replaced a grip and the clutch lever, poked the sod/dirt out of the nooks and grannies, and it was good to go.

Sunday practice was fun. First practice, get passed by Bruce into turn 10, and spend the next few laps trying to catch him. Kind of hard to do when you get a great drive out of turn 12 onto the straight and he gets held up by traffic, but still motors away from you... Second practice, Kevin and I played follow the leader so I could see his lines and he mine.

After practice, hang around to watch Chris's GT race and Paul's race, then head home to do chores that I've been neglecting for the past few weeks. Which was a mistake, as I look at the results from the Junior Production Twins race. Based on the lap times, I would've had a second. Oh well, next time.

Thanks to everyone for their help this weekend. Hope that Jody didn't get lost in Walmart and found her wonder-chair. Thanks to  Kevin for the race-line help. Looking forward to next race weekend!

Scott's Report

Did not race this weekend.

Kevin's Report

In other words Chris, alias "The Pilot", Leach comes to New England to display his flying, and landing :-), skills... Read on to hear the amazing tales of Chris, Kevin and the rest of Team Daemons weekend of high flying action.

Sunday August 20, 2000 8.00pm and I'm sitting in a rental jeep on I90 heading back to NYC from New Hampshire International Speedway.  Laptops are wonderful things. Well I wasn't going to talk about this but since Chris brought it up (he was wondering why I'm typing real time rather than telling the tale from the beginning) we just came from a, how shall I say this nicely, ahem disappointing Mexican restaurant in the boonies in Massachusetts.  Just that fact should have told me better.  Okay on to bigger and better things.

<Chris> You may have heard of Tex-Mex and Cal-Mex, well, I've now been introduced to Mass-Mex.  Um, yeah - It's everything you'd expect :P

<Kevin>Some of you may know that back in April I went out to Northern California, which is the place from whence I originally hail, for some corporate training, a family visit, and some of that wonderful No Cal riding.  Chris Leach, whom I'd never met before then, loaned me his Goof3 site unseen.  Well, this weekend was the payback for that favor.  Actually we had quite a blast despite the fact that BOTH of us, hence I can't just rib Chris, were clearly gravity challenged this weekend.

The Tale...

Thursday night Chris arrived at my house from California.  The plan was to get up Friday morning and head for the track at around 9-10.  Okay so we didn't leave the city until noon.  Typical J

We arrived at the track at 4.30 and I proceeded to show Chris around the track.  I think his first comment was "this place is tiny"  Well yeah it is. 1.6 miles and 13 fairly technical turns but I'll let Chris give you the newbies eye view of NHIS.  I introduced Chris to those of the TDR folk who were there already and then we went for a track walk, which I'll also let Chris tell you about, and then out to dinner.  About a half hour after we returned from dinner Rob showed up with my bike which Chris and I would be sharing for the weekend.  We immediately set to work checking it over and mounting Chris' number plates since he would be out in the first practice in the morning.

<Chris>  The track is pretty small and highly technical.  It would definitely take me a fair amount of time to get reasonably fast here.  It looks almost as if they took a normal circle-ish track and squished it. There are two 180 deg turns causing the track to double back on itself twice w/ elevation changes thrown in to keep it interesting.  NHIS is a NASCAR track w/ a road course carved out of it - hence the pavement transitions between the NASCAR and road courses are fairly abrupt.  Also, the track owners have changed the layout of a few of the road course turns resulting in even more pavement changes.  In all fairness, despite what the locals say - if I was running a factory RC-51, I wouldn't want to race Loudon in the rain either.  But thankfully, the weekend's weather was absolutely beautiful.

<Kevin>Saturday 7.30am I get up and find that Chris has already taken the bike to tech.  All Ok. Chris heads out for his practice.

<Chris> Amature Red Practice 2 -   So here I am heading out onto a new track on a borrowed bike on cold tires on a cold racetrack.  I'm surprised I didn't get passed by a blue hair in a Buick :P  My first session out I was just trying to get my bearings and pick reference points.  The track walk I did w/ Kevin helped a lot and I was able to pick up a fairly good set of reference points fairly qiuckly.  I was surprisingly loose on the bike and I had a pretty good session.  Only turning low 1:40's.  I came in and we swapped transponders and Kevin headed out.

<Kevin>Jr/Ex Red Practice 1.  I'm feeling a little rusty but all goes okay. Just basically trying to remember which way the track goes...let's see left,right,left...drift left...RIIIGGGHT..drift right...LEFT,rt,Right<lot o squirming going on here>, leeefffftt, right...leftleftRTleft...brea(the) rinse lather repeat(tm-Bruce Lueng).  Not bad for the first time in 4weeks. 1.26's. On old tires but don't worry this will come back to haunt us later.. well actually sooner.

Some of you may remember my jet kit problems from the last weekend. Well, Street and Comp had managed to get the new kit shipped up for Saturday morning so we swapped in the new needles before our next round of practices. WOW what a difference.  Nice smooth power delivery once again.

<Chris>Amature Red Practice 2 - 2nd practice out.  Feeling better - the track is warming up and the tires are getting better.  Now a quick sidebar on bike setup.  I'm used to racing Brad Holcomb's '97 YZF600R which makes nearly double the BHP of the EX, has a beautifully setup suspension, EBC full floating brakes, and runs modern race rubber.  Kevin's EX-500 on the other hand sports fairly well worn stock suspension, 16" wheels and bias ply tires.  Not to mention EX-500's aren't exactly known for their chassis rigidity and brake systems.  It was definitely a learning experience.  You can't imagine how much 'brute force and ignorance' you an get away w/ on a modern sportbike these days.  Well let me tell you, the EX will gladly show you all of your bad riding habits and punish you for them.  During the session I was feeling good and quickening my pace on each lap.  I was having a hard time fighting the urge to take Turn 1 much deeper than I was supposed to.  Based on how it looks it was just begging me to run it up in there.  On one lap I was carrying a lot more corner speed than I had before and by virtue of the entry speed carried Turn 1 wide which required me to flick the bike back over pretty hard for Turn 1A.  -<FLICK>-  Mental note - this bike is very light.  The bike started coming over.  Knee down...toe down...Peg down...peg folding...case guard. Not expecting to drag hard parts that quickly I wasn't prepared to hold it w/ my knee or anything.  Oh f&ck I'm crashing. Dammit!  I was fine and I got the bike upright.  It started rt up and after cleaning the grass out from the engine ran fine.  I wandered back into the pits.  Kevin was really cool about the whole thing.  We checked the bike over and other than rashing the bar-end slider and adding a few more scratches to the already scratched bodywork the bike faired well.

<Kevin>Jr/Ex Red Practice 2.  Jeez, what a great practice.  Chris falling down must have knocked something back into place.  I'm feeling really good this morning and with the exception of 2-3 folk nobody is running as smoothly and comfortably as I was.  Hit every reference point spot on and ended up a .5 seconds off my best time @ 1.25.03 without really feeling like I was trying.
 

Saturday Race 9 LW Sportsman
This is a class I've been running very well in the last few weekends.  Well, at least until the bike broke each time. Well...Rinse, lather, repeat with slight variation.  I'm gridded in postion 4c which I like because it makes it much easier to run up the outside into T1.  I get an excellent start and clear out of T2 in 5th. On lap 2 I passed Doug Scheer on the brakes going into T3.  I saw Doug coming up on a substantially slower rider and I tired to pin him in there.  We ended up going into three fairly tight and he had to stand it up just a bit.  The put me in third and I put my head down and road my ass off for the next 2 laps. On lap 3 Doug passed back late on the outside of T9 (entracne of 10) and once again I was back in 4th.  We chatted about it later and he said he wouldn't have done it if I hadn't stuffed him in 3 but the truth is he made a really nice clean (albeit a bit tight) pass.  I can't really run Dougs pace on my bias ply metzelers on an open track but I can sure go to school for a short period.  Coming back around in T3 on lap 4 I'm still about two bike lengths back of Doug  and going really good.  There have been several times when I've gone into T3 hot and known that I was over the edge.  This time, even though I was going a tiny touch faster than ever, I was feeling great. In fact I had gained on Doug on the brakes!!!  NO small feat.  I hit my brake maker spot on, trailed off, hit the Turn in reference point perfectly, dropped my knee on the pavement, hit the apex perfectly, and started to roll into the throttle.  Well, there's a kinda "dip crack" in the pavement between the apex of T3 and the the transition bump that denotes the beginning of T4.  Truthfully it's taken as one long turn.  The bump usually causes ones suspension to work pretty hard.  Combine that with my older tires and the fact that I was haulin' and you get a very good illustration of the laws of inertia or rather what happens when inertia over comes your traction.  For those of you who need a refresher.  Inertia is that law that says items going in a straight line wish to continue to go in that straight line. One second I was picking up a length or two on Doug and the next second I was looking at the "pretty team daemon logo" on the top of my gas tank from a vantage point that I had never seen before "hmmm...how'd I get her...ground, sky, ground sky...gravel, gravel, gravel, crawl, crawl...wiggle, wiggle yup all parts are working.  I crawl a little further of into the gravel trap and stand up.  The bike is laying over the curbing, half-on half-off the track.  The cornerworker (thanks Mike- no sarcasm even giving the following) and I preceed to heave the bike up and drop it on the other side.   No biggie, I wasn't re-entering anyway, since I had snapped off the brake lever, broken the right peg bracket and bent the handle bar to the extent that it looked like "your favortie limp weenie".  I was pissed but to tell the truth I would rather crash, without hurting myself of course, and while trying hard and running a good race, then DNF because something on the bike crapped out.  That's just really frustrating and I'd had about as much of that as I could take this season.  This race reaffirmed the fact that I know I can run with the fast guys in this class.  According to some of my teammates I had gotten into the 24's on that lap but none of the official sheets showed it. They were timing at Start/Finish so that doesn't surprise me but I would liked to have seen it.

<Chris>
Race 12  Amatuer Production Twins
After Kevin crashed in race 9 the push was on to get the bike put back together for my race.  We got the bar, lever, and throttle replaced, swapped number plates and transponders and I headed out during second call.  Unfortunately as I was riding down pit row I stood up on the pegs to adjust my leathers and the right footpeg bracket gave out.  Doh!  Figuring I was done for the day I came back to the pits only to have Rob offer me his EX-500 for the race!  Now this guy just met me late last night and is offering me his race bike - knowing that I just crashed Kevin's bike the practice before.

We swapped the plates and xponder and out I went.  Now recall that I'm an endurance racer by trade, not a sprint racer.  This was my first sprint race ever and aside from a couple of red flag restarts during an endurance race I've never even started a race before.  But here I was - out on the starting grid of a still-new track on a twice-removed borrowed bike.  Ok, I can do this.  Just stay relaxed, breath.  The flag drops and off we go.  I get a terrible start and am near the back as we head into Turn 1.  Knowing the tires are still fairly cold (only 1 warm-up lap) I take it easy on the first lap then wicking it up.  Before I know it I'm passing people.  On the outside of 1, on the brakes in 3.  Wow, this is kinda fun.  Each lap I felt faster and I was steadily reeling people in.  On lap 6 I was tearing down the front straight, set to pass someone on the outside of turn 1.  I braked late and turned it in.  Ruh-roh, I'm going faster than I thought.  Keep leaning it over, stay loose.  Here's the transition bump….  The suspension compressed, pogo'd, and when I came back down the front washed.  No, not again!  Into the grass I went.  Argh!  I was fine, picked up the bike, cleaned the grass out and after getting the nod from the cornerworker finished the race.  I did get a 1:32 before I fell down.

As I roll into the pits I can only imagine what everyone's thinkning. Here's this guy that we've never met before hanging out in our pits and has now crashed 2 out of 3 times on the track.  Of course everyone was very cool but I was ready to just hang it up for the weekend.  Rob was so cool about it it made me feel worse.  But Kevin talked me back.  "Hey, it's racing right? You don't get fast w/o falling off every once in awhile".  We also decided to put new tires on Kevin's bike.  He had been running the same set all weekend and they're getting pretty squirrely.

Sunday 7.30am Re-teched the bike and went out for our morning practice sessions.

Amature Red Practice 2 - Ok, the last 2 times I've been on the bike I've fallen down.  BRAND NEW, cold tires, cold track, tight rider.  Tiptoe'd through the proverbial tulips this session.

<Kevin>Jr/Ex Practice 1: I felt faster that I'd ever gone before.  That should have told me something right there.  Whenever you feel real fast it's because you're tight and going slow.  1.27's bleech!!

<Chris>Amature Red Practice 2 - Back out, tires are scrubbed and the track's warming up.  Just stay loose.  Not setting any speed records here - just don't fall off.  I actually felt pretty good that session.  I felt very slow but I was running 1:37's by the end.

<Kevin>Jr/Ex Red Practice 2.  I spent this practice towing around one of my teammates.  As much as I like doing that I really shouldn't do it on the day of my important race.  It's difficult, it makes you think to much, and it takes away from your concentration and practice time even if you do it right.

<Chris>
Race 1 Amatuer GTL
Ok, a 30 minute race.  Now we're talking J Again, no heroics here.  Just get out and enjoy the track.  The flag drops and I (again) get a terrible start.  No problem, I have 30 mins to make up some time.  I was able to put my endurance face on and felt really strong. Before I knew it I was passing people.  I was still skittish through Turns 1, 1A but I was able to pass people on the brakes into Turn 3.  The weather was beautiful and cool - perfect for endurance riding.  Before I knew it the white flag was out.  In the end I finished 15/25.  I was the first EX w/ only SV's, 2-strokes, and 600cc bikes ahead of me.  In all a great time.

Thanks again to all the TDR folk - I had a blast.

<Kevin>
Race 6 LW Production Twins Expert
I'm gridded in row 9d 2nd wave.  Actually that is really the second row of my race the first wave was the expert LWSBK folk.  I get a great start and get into T1A in 3rd place behind Bill (FOG) Martovich and Doug Scheer. (All due credit goes to old man Bill who is one of the toughest old curmudgens I've ever met.  He's fast and riding with a hurt back from a crash on Saturday where he was taken out by a Junior in T6.)  Doug starts to pull a bit of a lead but is still in relatively close for the first lap.  Lap 2 and Micky Curry pulls past me going up the hill into T4.  I stay stuck ON his tale all the way down into T9 where I take him on the outside and hold him off through 10,11and 12.  Coming into T1(left) Micky gets underneath me and I let the bike roll hard into T1A(right) where it starts to slide the rear very heavily.  I think had Micky been just a bit tighter with me on the right I might have take us both out.  As it was I managed to hold the position.  Keep in mind that during this whole dice we were within striking distand of FOG and that fact that we were pushing each other so hard had brought us right up on his rear wheel.  Going into T3 Bill was trying to protect his line and cut off the inside pass by running a little more towards the center of the track.  I stayed left thinking I could get around Bill and Micky drifted to my right and late braked up behind Bill (basically he got in on my right) in order to tuck in behind Bill in the hopes that he could run it up underneath and follow Bill up the hil.  Well as it turned out they left me enough room with which to take the standard (read higher speed entry) and I managed a very nice outside pass for second exiting T3. I held that position for the next two laps until Bill made a very ballsy outside pass going into T1.  It caught me so off guard that I lost my line and ended up overshooting T1 and running around the bowl.  It was a good pass but not a smart one.  It could have taken us both out big time.  I ran around the bowl and even though I had made eye contact with the cornerworkers and had the go-ahead I slowed ever so slightly to give the "highway workers" (of which I've been one for 13years) a break.  Had I stayed on the gas a little more I might have maintained my position.  Or at least have come out closer on the tail of Micky and Bill.  Instead I came out about 5 bike lenths back and started pushing really hard.  The tires, which were new BTW - but there's more story than that, were just not doing well and although I was catching up a bit they were really sliding around a lot and I just couldn't maintain the pace.  4th Place and my best finish this season.  It'll come.  All in due time it'll come.  I'm long out of the points for this season so it's just practice now.

Hmmm and that brings us back to <head up> Oh wow we're back in NY all the way down on the Saw Mill Parkway!  Shower and sleep soon.  Night folks. J