2006 Race Season v2.0

It’s the end of an era.

Ok, I guess two race weekends followed by a resounding “screw this,” isn’t exactly an era, but still…the R6 is gone, and my foray into the C Novice classes is officially over. At first I felt defeated and weak, like a scared little leaguer who quit the team when faced with the daunting prospect of actually playing. While there is an element of that in the reality of my course of action, for me it really boils down to one simple idea…this is supposed to be fun.

I’m in no danger of making money at this racing thing, nor do a have delusions of glorious victories in WERA’s most competitive classes. I race because it’s fun. If I’m not having fun, it’s dumb to continue, which means  that I had a choice: quit racing, or figure out how to have fun again with racing, and do what it takes to make it so. Bye bye meat grinder, hello heavyweight twins!

As I type this, there is a 2002 Suzuki TL1000R in my garage, courtesy of a generous leasing arrangement with my good friend Jason Coleman. I’ve raced this bike before, and it is supremely fun to ride. More importantly, the classes I’ll be racing are fun to ride in. Wahoo…or something.

The TL is in dry-dock right now, and over the next week or two it will be getting some basic maintenance done, and of course, it will be getting the Fasttrack Motorsports graphics treatment before it breaks cover in a few weeks at Talladega.

See you there!

I just got these pics of the Barber weekend from Vicki at VHS Photography. VHS is one of my generous sponsors, and you can see why I'm grateful...she's a genius when it comes to making the old and fat look fast!

Vegetarians Unite

5/5 – 5/7 – Barber Motorsports Park

Barber Motorsports Park is my favorite track. The whole place feels like an exclusive country club, except instead of a golf course, it features a race track…and what a track it is. Fun stuff. If you like motorcycles, make the time and go to Barber. The museum alone is worth the trip, but if you’re so-inclined, the track is one of the best in the country (maybe the best).

I arrived Thursday night after a short 180 mile drive from my new home in Nashville. This move to TN has revolutionized my commute to every track, lopping around 240 miles off to every track I race. This is particularly cool in light of $3/gal gas.

Luckily for me, Gil Cutchen, Ryan Nelson, and Tom Lees had saved a pit spot for me, so once again I’d be able to pit with my friends. This is a Good Thing on many fronts. Not only is it more fun that way, but if help is ever needed it’s right there.

The weather was to be a factor once again. Friday dawned wet and cool, but the weather report said that we could expect clearing and even some sun in the early afternoon. The forecast for the weekend was as follows:

Saturday: perfect in every way
Sunday: building an ark might be a good idea

Ugh…rain again on race day. As I mentioned before, I’m ok with riding on rain tires, but I would really rather race in the dry…it’s just more fun to ride on a nice sunny day. Saturday was looking good though, so at least the Solo would be dry.

The weather did dry out on Friday afternoon, allowing a couple of dry practice sessions. I was comfortable and I felt fast(ish) so all good there. I don’t have a lap timer, and the WERA timing setup wasn’t yet operational, but I guessed I was lapping in the 1:42 area. Not great on a 600, but ok for me. I knew I’d have to pick up the pace on Saturday if I was to run at the front in the solo. This turned out to be both true and false.

Saturday was, as predicted, a beautiful day. I had a good practice, and the time sheets told me I was running 1:43 laps. They also told me that I needed 1:38’s if I was going to run in the top 5. I felt that cracking 1:40 in the race was definitely doable, but 1:38 seemed like a stretch. But, regardless of my lap times, I would get my shot at running at the front of the pack. How can this be?

The Middleweight Solo 16 was a 4 wave race, with over 60 entries. I was gridded on Row #1, in the center. Yes, that’s Row 1, as in, one position away from the pole…with 62 ravenous maniacs behind me. I held out hope that I, The Worst Starter Ever, could leap off the line and hook up with a fast guy, and away I’d go to glory and beyond…and that’s exactly what happened.

Well, it’s exactly what happened, if you substitute “leap off the line” with “nearly stall and have the entire first wave pass me.”

It was ok though. As it happened, my friend Scott Unger was one of the passers, but he didn’t’ get away. I re-passed him on the way around T2, and he, in turn, re-passed me into T5 when I got held up a bit in traffic. It was, as they say, on. For the rest of the race I gave chase, and we dipped into the 1:41 range. I never was able to pass him, but I had a great time trying.

One highlight of the race was catching and passing our friend Alex on his TZ250. We both passed Alex around the outside of the T13-T14 complex, significant only because of the relentless smack talk we’d endured the preceding week re: 600’s carrying no corner speed, etc. Sweet.

Sunday morning I decided not to race the C classes, and instead changed my registration to B Superstock and B Superbike. Much to our delight and surprise, the morning rain cleared off and the rest of the day was dry. This combination of class change and weather improvement served to lift my spirits considerably, and come time for BSB, I was ready to go out and have a good time riding.

Due to my class change, I was gridded in the 3rd wave. This didn’t bother me, as I was content to gradually work my way through the pack as I was able, and I wasn’t at all worried about the result. This attitude was part of my overall ‘this is supposed to be fun’ scheme, and it worked out nicely. I eventually caught up to a guy on a new Aprilia, and we had a great battle to the end, which he won by about 2 bike lengths. Oddly though, even though I felt like I was riding loose, happy, and fast, it turned out I was almost 2 seconds off of my Saturday pace.

BSS was the last race of the day, and because I was seriously thinking of selling the 600 when I got home (I’m still thinking about it), I decided not to run that race. Instead, I packed up and went home.

If my lack of enthusiasm is apparent in this post, please read the one from last night and you’ll see why. My Number 1 mission from this point forward is to do whatever it takes to bring the joy back to my racing, and I will be doing exactly that, in short order. Solong Meatgrinder, hello fun.

Don’t give up on me…I’ll be back!  (

Notables:

Harry “Mr. Wu” Wolle: first race weekend on his new Ducati, second race weekend as an expert…didn’t’ stop him from winning the DSS race after a great battle with Tom Lees. Congrats to both!

Scott Padgitt: First year on an 05 R6…12th in CSS Expert, turning 1:35 laps. That, friends, is no joke. Scott is a Fast Guy, and he’s super cool to boot. CSS Expert is the single most competitive class in WERA racing, just so you know. On the track in that race were Josh Hayes, Josh Herrin, Brian Stokes, and more fast dudes I don’t remember. 12th in that crowd is something to be proud of, and is a true accomplishment.

Steve Breckenridge and Augusta Triumph Ducati: Steve put the new Triumph 675 on the box on the Expert Middleweight Solo 16 on Saturday. The bike is virtually stock (stock shock, no motor work) and its speed was impressive. Steve has been The Real Thing all along, and now his bike is The Real Thing too. When these guys get that bike sorted…look out.

Simple...don't _do_ that.

“What’s wrong with you?”

I heard that question no less than four times over the course of the weekend. Here I was, at my favorite track, and my favorite race of the year, and apparently I didn’t look too happy about the whole thing.

I was pitted with my (now) good friend Harry Wolle, who was there to race his new Ducati 800SS for the first time. Harry is a super cool guy (who gets around a race track alright, thank you very much). While we’d chatted at a few races last year, we never had the chance to hang out. On Saturday afternoon, Harry looked at me and said, “Man, ya just don’t look like you’re having fun.” It hadn’t occurred to me up to that point, but sadly, he was right.

Aside from my crash at Tally (these things happen), my year couldn’t have been going better, so it seemed. I had a great bike, unfathomable support from a very supportive and enthusiastic group of sponsors, and hey, I was racing motorcycles. I absolutely love riding the R6. It’s really fast, it handles superbly, and the challenge of learning to go fast(er) on it is supremely enjoyable. What, then, was the problem? Not to put too fine a point on it, I’m a wimp.

If you’ve been reading this blog all along, you know that I had some misgivings about racing in the ‘C’ classes. I love the competition, and it’s great in the sense that you’re never alone…there’s always someone to race with. However, with each track session, be it practice or a race, my paranoia increases, to the point where every braking zone I enter feels like a spin of a roulette wheel. Will an over-zealous youngster knock me down from behind? Will this guy I’m passing on the outside lose it and take me out? Am I freaking nuts to be out here with 64 twenty-somethings, all of whom seem to be hell-bent on whatever a twenty-something racer is hell-bent on? Will the ball drop on the 00?

Please take note that I chose the word ‘paranoia’ carefully. I am well aware that lots and lots (and lots) of people race the 600cc classes every weekend and live to tell the tale. Fear, however, is by its nature irrational, and as such I feel powerless to control it. This overwhelming dread had succeeded in sucking pretty much all of the fun out of riding, and I didn’t even see it coming.

What to do?

Remember that old joke that goes ‘Hey Doc, it hurts when I do this?’ You guessed it…no more C class racing for me. For the remainder of the season, I’ll be entering alternate classes on the bike…probably the ‘A’ classes. The ‘A’ class is for 1000cc bikes, but the number or riders on the grids is much smaller, so I think I’ll be a lot more comfortable there. For next year, I’ve decided to return to my first year roots, and go back to a smaller bike. I’ve got my eye on one of those Duck 800’s and a return to the ‘D’ classes.

After all, I can’t let Harry have all the fun.


Race report to follow...

Music City Madness

Nashville. It’s my new home, and it was the home of round three of the WERA Mid-Central region Sportsman race series. This was my first race back after my…recent unpleasantness at the Winterrific Tally round. I’d done a track weekend since, and the bike was back to 100%. My body had healed to the point where I didn’t think my injuries would be a factor for the races. My confidence was ok, but I’d be lying if I said I had no pre-race weekend jitters.

My Dad and Step-Mom came to town for the races, arriving on Friday afternoon towards the end of the practice day. I’d had a few good sessions, and I could feel my confidence slowly returning. It was clear though, that I had a longer row to hoe than I had thought in the days leading up to the weekend. I was more tentative on the brakes, and much less confident when it came to passing slower bikes. It was great to have my family in town, their presence going a long way towards keeping things light and fun. Also, I pitted with Ryan Nelson and Gil Cutchen, and having friends around made the whole thing…better.

If you haven’t guessed by my tone, I wasn’t my normal jovial self, and I was feeling a little bit stressed. I wrote it off to a general lack of confidence, and continued on with my weekend…more on this in a future post.

Anyway, practice went pretty well, and while my times weren’t great, I got down to 1:12’s which is faster than I’d ever gone there by a couple of seconds. Of course, the only other bike I’ve ridden at Nashville was my old 400, and I did 1:14’s on that, so I was hardly ecstatic. But, I was riding well I thought, and I was confident that I’d have more come race time.

The Saturday race schedule held just one race for me, the Middleweight Solo 20. This is a sort of mini-endurance type of thing…really, it’s just a 20 lap sprint, but it’s got a different name to differentiate it from the 10 lap sprints that are held on Sundays. I like solos because the longer race distance provides some useful track time. I generally do my best to not worry about ‘racing’ per se, and just get some quality track time, and this race was no different.

To that effect, I didn’t bother with new tires, as I was pretty sure the ones I was running had plenty of life left in them. It turned out that they did…for about 8 laps. After that, I had a few slides, culminating in the longest rear end slide I’ve ever had, while exiting the long left-hand sweeper that leads up onto the tri-oval.

Remember my mentioning the whole ‘I’m all healed up’ thing? Well, Nashville has a unique feature to it. Because the track uses both the tri-oval of the NASCAR speedway, and an infield road course, there are transitions one must deal with to and from these disparate surfaces. The transition off of the front straight/tri-oval is taken at something North of 135 or 140 MPH, at a slight left turn angle. This transition was like a little hammer whacking my still-healing left ankle every time I crossed it. By the time I’d run 7 or 8 laps of the solo, the ankle was starting to hurt enough to be a distraction. That, combined with the slides, told me it was time to pull off, which I did. At the time I was running roughly 9th, and I’d gotten down to 1:10’s, so I was pretty happy with that.

Sunday. Rain, and lots of it, it would turn out. The morning was one of those annoying rain/dry/rain/dry times where you have no idea what tires to put on. I got one damp, useless practice in on DOT’s, and then the skies opened. Luckily, I had a set of brand-new Bridgestone rain tires ready to go. I’d never ridden on rains though, and the warm-up lap for C Superstock would be my first time.

The traction generated by rain tires is astounding. Unfortunately, by the time I convinced myself of this, the race was almost over. I started to reel in some folks, and finished 12th I think. With each lap being about 2 seconds faster than the one before, I was bummed out that I didn’t’ get to practice on the rains.

Curiously, my lack of experience on the rain tires led me to have the most relaxed, fun race on the 600 so far. Why was this? Well, I had absolutely no expectations of placing well, and simply road around and enjoyed learning the tires. In any case, I’d always prefer dry, but in a way, I’m looking forward to my next rain race, just to continue to explore the whole rain tire thing. It really is amazing…I’m sure that given a few more laps I’d have been dragging a knee in several spots. In the rain. Cool.

After the race, I had little time to prepare for the C Superbike race. But, as the rain continued to fall, it occurred to me that I’d be really sad if something silly happened and I got hurt, what with the Barber round coming up the very next week. As that round is my favorite on the calendar, I decided not to risk it, and I packed up.

As I drove home, I wondered why I was so tense. It was like I could remember my unbridled enthusiasm for racing, but I wasn’t experiencing it. I chalked it up to my still-smarting confidence, drove the rest of the way home, and made it in time for The Sopranos.

On to Barber.