Tactical Racing

We drove all day 13 hrs and got there late friday night. Stewart Aitken-Cade, president of USGPRU, had my bike in his van so we all saved some valuable gas $$ to get there and back. big thanks to him. friday nite put the bodywork on the bike, sat AM showed up and got ready for practice. stupid me forgot all the printed out maps and such that i was going to look at when driving out there. sweet!

well got out for practice OMG its bumpy. i figured the layout quickly but a few turns i still couldn't find a decent way thru. there are a few bumps which literally almost threw me off the bike in the first 2 practice sessions. anyways first practice i ran 1:45, :43, :40 and lastly a :39. i knew i could make up a lot of time quickly in certain areas also. plus, i was running SHAG tires from my shed that i used at the VIR trackday i did in july. with stock rotors on the front. anyways second practice session i did consistent 39's and hit a 38. feeling better but the bumps are terrible.... although there are some fun turns the ripples are bad in places still.

well as usual the CCS/FUSA races ran SUPER late on saturday so there were 5 qualifying sessions that did not get to run! and they couldnt complete a sprint race (AM mw ss). they competed about 2 laps and had 3 red flags. anyways, i made a bunch of suspension changes setting the bike up like i did last year at Roebling to deal with the bumps and ripples. put the A wheels on with Brembo's and the rear Marvic, and had slicks that had 7 laps on them from Road ATL in july.

sun practice i went out riding angry just to try to get my times down as i knew the leaders of the LWGP race from saturday were running 34's in the race. so i knew i had to pick it up or i was going to qualify horribly. so sun warmup i got about 4 laps but i turned a 1:36.7 - knew i had more in me also since my front brake lever was bent a bit because the bike fell over in the pits (gnarly paddock gravel). well --- thats a total of 12 laps I had going into qualifying!!!!! this whole weekend was wham bam thank you ma'am.

put new brake lever on and got out for qualifing. the suspension was much better and was behaving although i could tell i coudl light up the rear at will if i wanted to. its a point and shoot track, although with a few nice sweeper types where i could carry hella corner speed. my gearing was good but in qualifying i was wringing the bike out silly at the top of 6th over-revving before braking at the bus stop. its a short track though, i was one rear tooth up from my Barber gearing! so i figured in the race i could drop a tooth in the rear. i rode ok but i got a total of 5 laps including the out-lap where two guys got tangled up right in front of my and killed that lap, and also one lap i hit the bump braking for turn 1 so hard the bike stoppied and my left foot came off the peg so i made NO down shifts and totally blew turn 1, had to make two downshifts mid-corner and bogged like hell, so i only ran a 37 for that. anyways i was happy to see that somehow i managed to turn a 1:34.18 which put me qualified for 5th place!!!!! that was most likely due to Nobi Iso crashing in quals on the out-lap, because i bet he could turn a 33. i was really stoked for that, came in and had the bike weighed. i had about zero gas in the thing, no more than 2 units left i would say and i think the bike was 244 lbs ----- not bad for a bone stock '94 tz250 --- the only weight saving thing on it was the rear Marvic wheel.

well race came i went out on the warmup lap last after doing a practice start on hot pit lane since i put a new clutch in, wanted to feel the clutch lever on launch. had my leathers unzipped partially but they wouldnt zip up on the warmup lap. got to the grid trying to zip them up, oh well theres the 2 board, one board lets go! i got out well and was running in 3rd position, had a few great battles with Mark Stiles traded 4th with him a few times, then Bruce Lind came by me and then Mark so i was running5th or 6th. anyways then the debris flag started to get pointed at me. i shouldve just stayed out there, but i was worried about them black flagging me. so i came in, zipped the goddamn things up, and launched like hell on hot pit lane. i almost looped the bike twice trying to launch fast as hell, NOW i was ping hot mad because i was such an idiot and was running well. i got back out there and was riding very angry, not good. started to get sloppy. damn toes kept dragging. was sliding the rear on the gas in a few places - but i started to pick the bike up with my upper body and at the same time screw on the gas quicker every lap. anyways passed a few people buyt then was just riding around by myself. i saw a 1:34.00 on my timer but thats all i looked at. probably turned a 33 but i didnt see it on my timer. tried to catch up to a bike i could see in the distance, i would get close on the brakes in some places, but i kept screwing up and i also kept missing shifts. tranny has to come out and everything has to be gone over with a fine tooth comb this winter etc. anyways i could've risked crashing trying to catch this one guy, so i just kinda brought it home the last 2 laps and finished 10th.

came back to the pits hot as hell and very tired, 16 laps of the race doubled my entire track time there!

got off the bike, tried to lift it to swing it around, and it fell over. i was so tired since i was riding very angry i used my upper body way too much. oh well.......... ce la vie