This weekend (June 11) was another OMRRA race weekend. OMRRA only had
the track on Sunday so there was no Saturday practice sessions. Saturday
for me consisted of buying a Pit Bull front race stand (visible in some pit
pictures) and a nice E-Z-Up canopy for my pit. Very necessary since
sundays outlook was for rain and I cooked in the sun at the first race.
(And it did rain!) I also changed the oil in the bike and made last minute
checks to make sure everything was in good condition for the track. I
finally got everything loaded up around midnight and was asleep around 2
am. At the time I went to bed everything was dry as there had been no rain
since early in the day. I was up about 6 am on Sunday and grabbed some
breakfast and headed for the track. Unfortunatly it was raining when I got
up so the first order of business at the track was to find a pit area that
would not flood with puddles. After finding the high ground I set up the
new canopy and unloaded the truck. Put the bike up on the stands and
foolishly decided just to mount a good street rear tire and not go with the
full rain tires. I had the tire and wheel in to the Rose City Cycle folks
at around 7:20 am. I though I would wait about 20 minutes to get the rear
changed over so that I could mount it and take the bike to get safety
teched. While I waited I picked up my rider registration and got my riding
gear teched. (they make sure all your safety gear is in good condition and
that you have all your medical forms in you leathers). I was hoping to get
the rear wheel back on the bike and get it teched before the 8:30 riders
meeting (miss that and they don't let you race for the day!) I finally got
the rear wheel back about 5 minutes before the riders meeting. I started
mounting it up and had to stop to go to the meeting. At the end of the
riders meetings the whole novice group got called aside and got a little
lecture about why there were so many red flags (bad) at the last race with
our group. Damn! I was in the first warm up session at 9 am and that was
now only 15 minutes away and I still had to get my bike back together,
teched, put the fairing lowers on (must be removed for tech), and then get
into my leathers to ride. So much for getting here early so I could relax!
I got the rear tire on and started to wonder if I should have mounted the
rains as I watched more rain come and everyone else walking there rain
tires over to be mounted. I finally got thru tech w/ 5 minutes to the 1st
warm up session and ran the bike back to my pit to jump into my leathers
and put the fairing lowers on. As I hear last call for the session and was
pulling away from my pit I noticed that I had forgoten to zip tie my right
side fairing to the bike and it was flapping around. I should have stopped
and put it on but knew that it would be OK for the session.
Morning Warm up
I got out on the track with about 3-4 minutes of the session already
gone. I did a few laps just getting used to the slippery conditions.
Usually turn one is a 90 mph right hander. I think the fastest that I ever
went around it was about 40-50. It just didn't feel right going that slow
but any time you tried to go faster the rear end would slide out and I
could already feel both ends dancing around just putting around anyway. On
about the 3rd lap I was coming thru turn 4 and one of the corner workers
came out to the edge of the track and pointed at me as I went by while
clapping his hands together. I knew what he meant. My right side fairing
was flapping around. I exited on turn 8 and went back to my pit and
grabbed a zip tie and zipped the fairing on without even getting off the
bike. Oh well...there went another 3 minutes of practice. I went back out
and got around 3-4 more laps in before the session was over. Kind of a
wasted session but at least I knew how slick the track was going to be.
Melissa was at my pit when I got back so we hung out and watched a few
races and just stayed dry by hanging out under the canopy. I was very
happy to have bought that canopy. I kept debating wether or not to mount
the rain tires as I watched more and more people mount theres up. I
finally decided that it took so long the first time that it wasn't worth
risking missing the 1st race to mount them. As I watched the people w/
rains pass everyone w/out rains I decided I would definatly mount them for
the afternoon race.
Morning Novice Race
The start of the 1st race was had me all the way on the left side of
the grid 3 rows back. When the green flag dropped I did a really good job
of not slipping the rear end and getting a good drive. Unfortunatly the
people ahead of me did not and they boxed me in and I had to slow my drive
until enough space opened up between them for me to squeeze thru. It was
still a decent start by the time I got to the end of the straight. I think I
had passes about 7-8 guys and was probably about 4-5th. We all worked our
way around the track slipping all over the place. I managed to pass a few
more slow guys thru the race but also got passed on the front straight.
(turn 9 rain june 11.mpg video shows the start of this pass. A guy behind
me in the corner gets a better drive out and you can see him start to pull
by me as we go down the straight) I think I did alright but probably
finished around 4-5 in my class. Hard to tell for sure with the way
everyone was spaced out so much. It was fun to feel the bike sqirming
around in the run but I decided that I wished it was sunny out so we could
all go fast.
Back in the pits I got out of my wet leathers and into some warm dry
clothes. I immediatly set out on my mission to change the tires. I had to
borrow a few tools from some racers from Spokane and even managed to get
Melissa a little bit greasy helping me pull axles. I took the tires over
to have them changed and began waiting. Rain tires apparently are very
hard to get mounted right and it took something short of a miracle to
finally get the rear tire seated on the rim correctly. Luckily still
plenty of time to spare. I mounted things up and got it all back together
with enough time to go get some food and watch a few races. Amazingly no
red flags were thrown at all on saturday. This baffles me becuase someone
managed to drop a whole lot of oil all over the track in turns 1 and 3 and
the overall conditions made the track like a skating rink. When we had
perfect conditions a month ago we managed to get 2 red flags every other
race w/ the novice group and even the experts had a whole lot of red flags
thrown. (they stop the race completely for red flags) I certainly wasn't
complaining. I figured the slickness just made everyone who wrecked just
slide all the way off the track rather then stopping in the middle of it.
A few guys proved me right and I got to see them wreck at about 50 mph and
slide about 150 yards further than they ever would have in the dry. They
all got up walked away too.
Afternon Novice Race
As the second race came around the rain seemed to be letting up just
a little. This worried me since it would destroy my tires if they got to
dry and heated up too much and it would also give the other guys less of a
handicap. Well it did remain wet enough. On the warm up lap I could
immediatly feel the massive advantage the rain tires offered in the wet. I
should have mounted them up in the morning race so I could have taken two
1st place finishes instead of just 1. With rain tires you can brake later
and harder, you can carry a ton more corner speed and accelerate earlier
and harder out of corners and down the straights. .I lucked out and got a
front row grid position for the afternoon race. As you can see in the
hole shot movie I nailed the start. I immediatly set out after the big
boys on the bigger bikes who started out about 20 seconds in front my
middle weight class. The race was just too easy. I didn't feel like I was
pushing the rain tires at all. There just seemed to be tons of traction to
be had with these things. By the end of the 3rd lap I had caught and
passes all of the big guys on the fast bikes. The next 4 laps I just kept
it upright and avoided being taken out by anyone else. It was great to be
able to scream down the front straight and get hard on the brakes (hard for
the wet that is) and then throw the bike into the corner and be able to
rail around with out slipping all over the place. It was especially fun to
be able to follow someone thru a corner, watch them slip sideways when the
accelerated out of the corner, see them hang there head and nod in
disbelief as they chopped the throttle to get it back in line and then get
to grab a good amount of throttle and accelerate past them leaned over in
the next corner. Many people thought I was a madman asking for certain
grassy crashing doom ass I screamed past them. All were severly
disappointed as they watched me tear thru the corner and accelerate on to
then next corner and out of site. The race line seemed to be drying and I
was worried about my tires overheating and I liked them so much I did not
want to destroy them so I spent the last 3 laps searching for large puddles
to splash thru to cool the tires down. It was a great feeling to be the
first one across the line getting the checkered flag. It's hard to see in
the movie but I have my left hand in the air in excitement. The people I
am passing in the last turn are lapped trafic and just getting in my way.
You can see the speed diference I get using the rain tires. I am actually
going slower than I normally would on the rains in the movie because they
are holding me up. The movie is great and you can even hear the announcer
say my name as I cross the line.
Post race
After the race I took the bike back to my pit and jumped around and
couldn't stop talking about the race and how great the tires were. I even
had to go around and talk to some of the other novices about how I had laid
waste to them. As I was walking around I heard a few guys talking about
this crazy fool that came screaming past them into a turn and how sure they
were that the guy (refered to as dumbass) was going to eat #&*@! They
were all amazed that the fool stayed upright and was able to run away from
them that fast. I (being the fool mentioned) had to pop into the
conversation and was happy to point out the advantages of rain tires.
From there I got out of the wet leathers and riding gear and luckily
the rain had lightened up quite a bit and I was able to take down the pit
and pack up with out getting soaked. Melissa was a big help getting
everything loaded up and ecstatic about my win. I was happy that she had
bought a digital camera and it was great to see the movies.
I made it home around 6 o clock and unloaded the truck while Melissa
cooked some pizza. After dinner I crashed for a couple hours before
heading to work for a very long nite. I had a smile on my face all nite
though!