2009

Another Season

VIR June 20-21, 2009

June is a little late in the year for the second event of the season and while other competitors are at mid season form I am just getting the rust knocked off. Saturday brought temperatures in the high 90’s and high humidity. The sun was blazing during first practice and after about five laps the brakes felt a little strange. I decided that with the heat and brake irregularities it would be prudent to pull in. Upon inspection it appeared that the brakes rotors had a slight warp but were not a serious problem that was dangerous. I decided to finish the morning practice on those wheels and tire and see how things felt. We got a little cloud cover for second practice and things felt better so I decided to leave the same wheels and tires on for the 25 minute mini endurance race Saturday afternoon. I was disappointed when I looked at the qualifying results. I was last among the experts even though my times were comparable to previous visits to VIR.

The start of the race was very unusual. At the 2 board, Mark Evry on row 1 pushed his bike to a safe spot in the grass. At the 1 board someone else on row 4 started to push off towards the wall on the right. As I was watching this, the green flag waved. Everyone but the racer next to me and I left. We both hesitated, as the rider pushing was sideways two rows ahead of us. We left a split second later and of course stormed into the congestion of turn one from the rear. Fortunately we all cleared turn one but as we came to turn 3 the red flag was out. The amateurs behind us did not make it through. The red flag ate a good chunk of our timed race shortening it to only 6 laps. Every rolling lap of the race I ran at a new personal best 1 to 1.5 seconds better than my previous best. I still finished last among the experts. I have podiumed there before so I do not know what was different other than everyone was fast. I finished about 23 of 36 overall.

I was father’s day weekend so after swapping over to the new spare wheels with new tires we had father son time. We ate a big meal, played cards, guitars, and just joked around.

Sunday had a single morning practice then a long wait until race ten. Morning practice went well and the other wheels fixed the brake problem. With the long wait we played more cards and more guitars and had lunch at the concession stand where Yustin loves the chicken sandwiches saying they are second only to CMP"s. I always have a problem getting going after long delays. Some friends suggested a Red Bull about 20 minutes before the race. I had tried one once before and it made me very jittery so I was reluctant. I decided to go with half a can.

About 20 minutes before the race I drank about 2/3 of a can of Red Bull. By the time I got on the bike I was fighting indigestion. At the start of the race I caught my boot on the peg and missed a gear allowing the entire field to get away. It took two laps to get by the slowest amateurs and by then the pack was gone. I ran the rest of the race as a practice session. I did feel more alert and did not have that lull I usually have after a long wait, but was also a little sick to my stomach. I think I need to experiment with different brands and find one that works for me.

We hurriedly packed up and headed out, getting home about nine. Fathers’ day dinner was Dominos but we had a good father son weekend and set personal best lap times.

CMP April 17-18 2009

A death in Cathy's family forced the cancellation of the annual season opening VIR trip in March. The April trip to CMP became the season opener.

Saturday brought beautiful weather and a good turnout considering all the economic doom and gloom in the news. Morning practices were not pretty, as I have not been on the bike since last September. I entered the 25-minute GT lights race on Saturday morning hoping the extended track time would help get me back to speed. That plan fell apart when there were three crashes in race one that required three ambulance trips effectively shutting down the track due to lack of medical coverage. A two-hour hit to the schedule shorted all races to six laps for the remainder of the day. So much for extended track time. Once our race started I was behind a pair of bikes that seemed to be determined to occupy the same spot. I was only looking to get some track time and decided to back off and let them have some space. It was a good decision because as I exited turn 12, there they were tumbling down the track in front of me. That brought out another red flag and another ambulance delay. When the race restarted I tried to make the best of the laps by getting reacquainted with the bike. I kept thinking the front end did not feel right but thought it could also be me. After returning to the pits at the conclusion of the race I notice oil on the bottom of the fork leg. The fork seal had started to leak. That brought back memories of the wet spot on the garage floor that I could not explain. I planned to run my afternoon race and then take the forks for repair. When I looked at the front end again I saw that it was leaking quite heavily. After discussing the situation with my soon Yustin, he convinced me it would be stupid to race with a known problem. We tore the bike down and took the forks to CTR for repair and cleaning, scraping the rest of the afternoon. It was the right decision and I thank him for being the smart one. We got the forks back after about two hours and reassembled the bike, ready for Sunday.

Due too the excessive delays on Saturday some of the schedule was carried over to Sunday. This compressed the Sunday schedule to one practice group for experts and one for amateurs. It can be a little scary being on an 80 horse bike sharing the track with 160 HP bikes but it is also allows you to watch and learn from a new group of riders. All went well in practice and the bike felt much better. The Ultralight Superbike race was run with 3 other classes so there was a three wave start with us being in the last wave. The GP bikes left first and didn't make out of turn one for another red flag. The restart went well and I settled into a fourth place battle with one other rider. After three laps I had just started to establish a break and out comes another red flag. After a short delay we had a second restart. I stumbled on the start and found myself behind the rider I was battling with and two others. We had a great time passing and re-passing each other with positions changing at multiple times per lap. I found myself behind this group to start the final lap. By the halfway point of the lap I had passed all three and put my head down trying to establish a break. I never looked back but made it to the line in fourth ahead of the three I battled with. It was a great way to end a weekend that started out less than perfect. I hope we all see each other next round because we all rode a hard clean race and respected each other. It was what racing is supposed to be.

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