Successes and Failures, May 1-2, 1999


I got to the track late again this weekend. I'd been hoping to leave work
at 2:00, but didn't manage to leave until 4. It seemed to turn out okay,
though. Route 3 to 495 was the expected parking lot, but Nashua traffic
was almost nonexistent, compared to my usual dose of parking lot all the
way past Nashua to the part of Route 3 where the tolls start.

Much to my surprise, when I signed in at the front gate, Kevin was already
signed in, and fairly high on the list. Later on we figured Kevin and Joey
must have been aiming to get there for Thursday's practice, and that's why
they'd gotten there early on Friday. ;) In the garage, I found a decidedly
large number of bikes and over in the corner, Paul spewing oily stuff all
over the bench. What he *said* he was doing was working on the goped, but
I think he was just enjoying making a mess. I unloaded my metric buttload
of gear and again marveled at how much stuff it is, yet how easy it is to
move it around when it's essentially in eight medium- to large-sized
containers. I'd managed to arrive early enough to get all the unpacking
done in time to go to registration for the weekend, so Rob and I spent a
half hour in the burning sun wondering why the heck our line wasn't moving
before we registered for our respective races.

Rob and Paul and I headed out for pizza and groceries, and when we came
back, Scott had arrived (with my bike) and was setting up his tent. Long
after we'd all puttered around, set things up, and then gone to bed
relatively early, the drag racers showed up, only waking me up slightly as
they set up their respective camps.

Saturday morning was bright and beautiful. Unfortunately, it was a vintage
weekend, and the track got *well* oiled during my first practice. It was a
little unsettling to come into Turn 3 and see oil all through the exit,
and then come into Turn 6 and see oil all through the exit, and to come
into the chicane and see a path of oil across the exit and onto the front
straight. I dropped anchor coming onto the front straight on that last
one, and was very surprised to see people blowing past me coming out of
the chicane; I'm assuming they didn't notice the oil all over their track
and tires until they hit Turn 1. It took a long time to clean things up,
and in the end, we wound up with about 5 minutes of practice, what with
all the stopping. Second practice was better, and I was feeling pretty
good about riding, and about achieving this weekend's race goals.

I corner worked in the afternoon. All during the day I was thinking hard
about racing and riding, and what I was going to do when I got out onto
the track. Much to my surprise, I was gridded in the middle of the pack
since I'd registered for races Friday night, so my customary hanging back
at the start (so I can survive the pack of amateurs heading into Turn 1A)
wouldn't be an acceptable strategy. As a result, I figured I'd give the
competitive mindset a try for the afternoon, and see how that worked for a
change.

The race was good. The morning's practices and the day of thinking had
really put me in a positive frame of mind for the race, and it showed. I
got an okay start (my first one) and I dropped 7 seconds off my fastest
time ever, according to timing, and 8 seconds, if you count from Turn 2 to
Turn 2 (corner captain timed my race for me ;). I came out of this race
feeling like I could really do this again, and with some things to
practice for the next day.

Sunday was... interesting. We split up the practices so that the vintage
guys could oil the track early (ha-ha), and without assistance from a
bunch of novice riders on bigger/newer bikes, and I figured I'd get some
of my previous day's lessons worked out during the morning. The first
practice I was practicing racing, and although I seemed to be running
faster, I made a couple of really awkward mistakes, like downshifting into
neutral twice in Turn 11. It was creepy, feeling like I couldn't actually
steer the bike if I didn't have power, but I wound up blowing the chicane
entirely as a result of exactly that, twice. I also locked up the rear on
the way into 3, just by downshifting, and after some fishtailing, hooked
back up and continued around the turn with my heart in my throat. After
practice, I realized I was thinking, "well, I didn't crash 'here', and I
didn't crash 'here', and I also didn't crash 'there'" and decided I'd
better work on riding instead of racing for the second practice.

Second practice didn't feel too comfortable, and although I was practicing
smooth riding, I realized that until I deal with my rear shock, I'm not
going to be smooth anytime I hit a slightly uneven surface. Since the
wobbling of the rear end of my bike is also preventing me from practicing
hanging off, I expect before the next race weekend, I will have to deal. I
came out of this practice a little demoralized, after yesterday's big
progress, but I figured I had a little more track time during the
afternoon's race to get a good feeling back.

Little did I know...

I came back from corner working in time to settle down a bit before my
race, but as I rode the bike back from my corner, I noticed a nasty
grabbing sensation in the front brake, which I hadn't noticed during
practices. I showed it to Rob and asked him to take it out and see if he
observed the same thing. He confirmed that there was a problem, although
he thought that as long as I was going fast and squeezing, and not going
slow and grabbing, I shouldn't see any problems on the track. There wasn't
time to change the worn pads before the race, and I'm not much into the
RUSH RUSH RUSH thing right before a race, anyway; it makes me way too
uptight. I was weirded out to begin with by a Very Bad Feeling about this
race (unrrelated to the brakes; just vague foreshadowing of doom). So, I
figured the brakes were probably fine for one race, and I'd just be cool
and mellow going around the track.

Unfortunately, this particular race was Race 10, Heavy Weight Superbike
and Light Weight Supersport: first wave of Very Big Bikes under Very
Novice Riders, and a second wave of Little Bikes under Very Novice Riders.
Ugh. I didn't like this race last race weekend, and I was less psyched
this time around. First lap was okay, but I wasn't feeling okay with the
bike. The suspension issues and the insecurity about braking made my first
lap mildly uncomfortable, and in the second lap, I got the bejeezus scared
out of me when I entered Turn 1. The brakes grabbed the second time I
applied them coming off the front straight, and I lost all confidence in
my ability to navigate the track safely. (The two heavyweight bikes that
had just gotten mauled in Turn 1A didn't help, either. Someone exercised
some pretty poor judgement there.)

I went around another lap, and as I came through Turn 5 that time, I could
see the first wave of heavy bikes entering Turn 2, and I knew that the
situation was getting really risky. As I came into 11, I pulled off into
the pit to see if I could brake safely, and every time I touched the front
brakes, I locked up hard. For a moment I considered letting all the
superbikes pass me on the front straight, re-entering, and taking the
checker as slowly as possible, but a couple more tests of the brakes (and
a look at a couple more superbike riders) and I knew it would be a Bad
Idea For Me. There was no way I was going to ride well, feeling like I
couldn't brake safely, so I went into the paddock and got my first (and
hopefully last) DNF of the season. I was pretty bummed.

Oh, well. At least I didn't crash. 

Thanks to Rob for all his support during the weekend, and to Scott for
bringing the bike up and helping in all sorts of ways, big and small.
Thanks also to Annette for timing me from trackside.

Looking forward to a working bike and a long track day in the near future.