The Final Farewell - October 2-3, 1999


Out of context quote for the weekend: 

	"Don't mess with me Scott; I'll keep you up ALL night!"


Friday

Friday afternoon, the traffic was nasty, and I was taking a different
route than my usual Route 3 from work. I'd stopped at REI on the way to
the track to pick up a couple of blankets and some luggage. Forgot to buy
either of them and wound up with windproof pants, hoping to high heaven
they'd fit under the perforated leathers (they did). 93 was a parking lot
all the way to Manchester, and I spent most of my daylight hours wondering
why I never bought a helicopter for commuting purposes.

When I arrived at the track, I found Dave S. and Kim M. in the TDR garage,
decked in leathers and talking animatedly. Kim was in my leathers, since
I'd let her borrow the chicken hawk and the leathers for Penguin Race
School, and she and Dave had done the spur of the moment Loudon trip as a
result. I had to laugh at the confusion generated, when the girl with the
red hair on bike #858 with the obvious bumble bee leathers took Penguin.
Kim got a lot of over-friendly enthusiasm from a lot of total strangers,
before people figured out she wasn't the droid they were looking for. ;)
Despite the mixups, it was obvious that Dave and Kim were having a great
time, and they totally set the tone for the weekend with their excitement.

Scott showed up a while later, and after bringing some of my bedding
inside to dry from its week out in the rain, the four of us went out for
dinner at the famous Brookside Pizza. After stuffing down as much garlic
bread as they could turn out, we headed back to the track to turn in for
the evening. I tried to convince Kim to run her rookie race and do
practice in the morning, but she resisted my persuasive skills. (Next
time, I'll have to *break* that arm, Kim!)

Dave and Kim decided to get a hotel, and I decided to schlep my tent into
the garage to dry it more, and eventually sleep there. Scott had some work
to do on his bike. A couple hours later, however, when I was finally
getting settled in, and Scott was nearing completion of his mechanical
fiddling, Dave and Kim reappeared, with a "Hi Mom, we're home!" from the
next garage. Turns out the area hotels were booked with wedding guests and
leaf peepers, and there wasn't a place in the area to stay. So, we divvied
up my impressive stash of blankets, and Dave and Kim played Chinese Fire
Drill until they both fell asleep in Kim's car.

I awoke around 3 am to the sound of the garage door being opened, and the
step of race boots on the concrete. I wondered vaguely wtf was going on,
but I was pretty asleep, so I eventually took a brief look outside my
tent, to see Patrick's smiling face. Whee! Patrick came to play again!
What fun! :) I think I mumbled something to him, and then promptly passed
out again.


Saturday, Practice 1

This morning's first practice was cold cold cold, and I had to get
re-adjusted to riding again, since I hadn't ridden all week. Also, the
bike, having been totally torn apart last week by Patrick, was a different
animal. Hey, it works so well now, uh... how do I ride this thing?! It
shifts so smoothly, I don't know what to do half the time! This paralyzing
fear I used to feel when downshifting is just... not supported by any data
anymore. Need practice practice practice!


Saturday, Practice 2

Hrrrm. I appear to be getting faster. Faster every lap, even. I never lost
the people ahead of me this time out, but I did get held up by a (literal)
sight-seer who got in front of me in Turn 1A, for almost three laps. Who
would believe that someone would be holding *me* up!? I thought I was the
slowest person out here. Guess not. This guy was in my way in the turns,
faster than I wanted to be passing on the straights, and then there was
traffic passing both of us, which prevented me from trying passes I might
otherwise have attempted. Finally, on the checker lap, I got fed up with
the guy. I'd noticed I had the better line in Turn 3, and despite my
dislike of that transition, I figured I'd go for it. He kind of cut across
the turn, so I didn't make it entirely past him until the exit of 4. I was
so psyched to get around him, though, that I wound up dragging my peg in
Turn 6. Woo. I tried not to panic and stand up the bike or drop too much
throttle, but I didn't have 100% success with that. When I got back to the
garage, Patrick told me I'd been within two seconds of my fastest time
ever, on that practice (at least before I got behind the tourist - ahem).
Damn. This is getting fun. It was really nice to have someone timing me on
a practice, too. A little personal touch I'd been missing this year.

I had such a good morning hanging out with Patrick, Kim, Dave, and Scott,
that I forgot to register for a race, until the announcement that grid
sheets were out. D'oh! I dragged Patrick out to corner work with me, and
showed him a little side of racing he'd never seen before, which is a very
good thing. He was bored a lot of the time, but I believe that perspective
is often just as important as constant challenge, so I wasn't too upset
that he didn't love every second of it. ;) Of course, when I left him by
himself for just a few minutes, I came back to find four bikes down in
Turn 4, and three ambulances parked in the track. (Jeez, Patrick, I leave
you alone for ONE MINUTE! Durned hooligan. ;)

Dave and Kim left sometime during the day. In the evening, Scott cooked
the remaining food from the previous weekend, and Patrick and I reaped the
benefits of his fantastic grill technique. After that, the three of us
headed over to the corner worker dinner in the Checkered Past, and had the
second meal of the evening. Plus, we got cake, which was prepared for the
soon-to-be-married corner worker couples, Ann & Rob, and Barry & Ava.
After dinner, we did some work on my bike, while counting down the minutes
until our own corner worker couple, Adam & Crystal, busted out the vows
and the champagne on the left coast. Scott decided to sleep in the garage
this evening, so we had a slumber party. Patrick and I giggled far into
the night while listening to drunk racers at the other end of the garage
tell The Same Old Race Stories we all tell, and Scott snored obliviously
the entire time. (Aren't ear plugs wonderful devices? So many excellent
uses!)


Sunday, Practice 1

This practice was just solid good. No impressive speed, but real practice,
in all the ways that count. Also, it wasn't slick on the track, even
though it was wet. Thank you, NASCAR, for not coming around lately.


Sunday, Practice 2

Better! Faster, too! This felt good good good. And exhilarating. Decided I
should probably get times for today's practices, just to see how I was
doing. I was finally beginning to really push in this practice. Of course,
things were going so well, it had to start raining, just after my coolest
and fastest entrance into Turn 3. I downshifted, the bike was totally
smooth, I felt totally confident coming into the turn, and then *SPLASH*
on my helmet's faceshield. Just then, the corner workers came running to
the edge of the turn and pointed at the sky. I gave them the thumbs up to
signify I got it as I turned through 3, only afterward realizing that I'd
been going one-handed through T3 in the rain!!! (What am I *doing*?!?!)
Heh. One thing I noticed during this practice is that I was not riding
nearly as well through Turn 1 as I used to, probably due to having no clue
about shifting points any more. I kept wanting to chicken out of Turn 1
because I thought I was going too fast, but I managed to avoid that trap
all weekend, somewhat to the detriment of my formerly stable lines.


Sunday, Race!

Patrick rode the Gold Wing home in the rain and his somewhat tatty gear,
and I decided to go out to corner work. Lisa showed up to hang with Scott,
and we'd invited Paul Conley into the garage for the weekend, so he was
around a bit, too. After it started raining, I also dragged Makoto and
Yukio in, when I'd put my tent away to make more room in the garage. Being
wet all day is no fun.

I popped back in from corner working after the first race to get ready for
my Race #3, LWGP (as usual). I was gridded in the third row, which isn't
quite comfortable for me, but I figured I'd live through it, if I wasn't
stupid. I went pretty fast, for me, in the warmup lap, and I was happy
with that, because I didn't feel like I was holding up the crowd (even
though I might have been ;). I got a bad start when the green flag came
out, because I just didn't clutch right, but it was okay, because I hate
getting tangled up in Turn 1, anyway. A bunch of guys were starting from
pre-grid, since they didn't hear the first, second, and third calls (I
didn't either), and I was a little nervous about having so many people
behind me. It didn't turn out poorly, however. A few guys passed me right
away, but I knew there were some folks back there; I just didn't know
*where*. My first lap I was just trying to stay with the people ahead of
me. I had some success with this, and for two laps I kept ahead of all
those invisible guys in the back. At one point, someone showed me a wheel
on my left side, and I got intent. (No WAY are you going to pass me. Where
the heck have you been? If you haven't passed me by *now*, you don't get
to. *Roll on the throttle a little bit harder. Wheel vanishes. Ha!*)
Eventually, Chris Pouliot got around me, which was okay - I know he's
running at least 20 seconds faster per lap than I am, so I wondered where
he'd been all this time. Then I was alone for a couple of laps (with the
feeling of wolves at my back). The front runners started passing me,
obvious by their speed and because they'd been in front of me on the grid.
As I came into Turn 6 I saw an amublance flag coming out in the corner of
my eye in Turn 5. There was a waving yellow in 8, and an ambulance at the
edge of the track in 9. I saw some red leathers, and thought, "is that
Chris down there?". I slowed down a little bit because of the incident,
and then got on the gas again hard on the front straight. White flag.
Whew. I came around again, and spent another second gawking and confirming
that it *was* in fact Chris getting an oxygen mask strapped to his face
while lying there not moving. I bolted past the finish line, and got into
the garage as fast as possible. When I pulled in, I ripped off my helmet,
gave it to Scott, and went racing to infield medical on my bike. I got
there just as they brought Chris in on a backboard, and waited for about 3
minutes until they wheeled him right back out. One of the ambulance guys
who knows me from corner working made the transporting EMTs stop so I
could talk to him. Chris said, "Hi, Kit!" in a kind of chirpy voice, and
then they took him away. I was psyched that he was talking and moving, and
relatively oriented, and I got the phone number of the hospital so I could
check on him later.

I helped Scott and Paul get out for their race, and then I went searching
for the remains of Chris' bike, and for anyone who might be at the track
who knew him. The workers brought his bike down from Turn 4 for me between
races, and I brought it painfully back to Chris DiTrani's garage, where
Wade Bartlett helped me put it in the van it came to the track in.
(Thanks, Wade!) It was kind of hard to push, since the handlebars were
bent and the clutch needed to be in to roll, and it wasn't quite going the
direction I was pushing it. It also had a major break in the left side
case, which was fun to look through, but probably won't be fun to repair.
The frame was also filled with gravel and bigger rocks, which is going to
be a blast, too.

I checked my lap times for the race, and they really made me happy. Of the
real lap times, my first lap was one second faster than my previous best.
The next lap was one second faster than that.  The next lap was one second
faster than that.  The next lap was one second faster than that.  Then was
the ambulance lap, in which I gained a second. Then the gawking at Chris
lap, which added another second. Still, four full seconds dropped in this
race, and the two slower laps were *still* at least two seconds faster
than my previous fastest. And it didn't even feel out of control, like I
expected it would. I was pretty psyched, circumstances notwithstanding.

I finally made it back out to corner work, as Scott was preparing to leave
for the weekend. Between races, I kept calling the hospital, and every
time I got the information that Chris was still in X-Ray. Finally, the day
was over, I was mostly packed up, and I managed to talk to Chris DiTrani
when I called the hospital. Everything of Chris's appeared to be packed
up, so I left my bike (whine) for yet another few days, and headed into
town.

I had dinner with Barry & Ava, at a place in Concord I've never seen
before, but which has good barbecue and steaks. After dinner, I spent the
evening in Chris's hospital room, getting acquainted with his brother and
sister-in-law, and just hanging out talking, until the hilarious hospital
staff threw me out. Chris was pretty mellow from the drugs, and completely
entertaining as a hospital bed host.  I completely forgot how bummed I
usually am at the end of the race season, although I'm hoping Chris won't
feel the need to crash next year so that I won't be depressed.

- - - - -

As I look back over the last four Loudon weekends, I realize that I've
dropped fourteen seconds in that time. Wow. I'm not ready for the season
to be over. I want to keep going and going and going. Now that my bike
runs better, I'm Really Ready To Learn More, Do More, and Ride Faster. But
I will have to wait.

Many thanks to Patrick Burns for his tireless work on my bike and for all
the laughter during the weekend. Also to Scott Lilliott for his unswerving
support and words of wisdom from the voice of experience. To Dave, Kim,
and Lisa, for being great fun at the track, and to Wade for being such a
great neighbor.

Also, thanks to our sponsors and their people who've made this whole
season so awesome: Jodi Solomon of Jodi F. Solomon Speakers Bureau, Peter
Kates of GMD/Computrack, Eric Wood of Woodcraft, Maggie, Steve, and Matt
of Vanson Leathers, Myles and Dan of Street&Comp, HJC, Fog City, Lockhart
Philips, Parametric Technology, Knee-Dragon, Factory Pro Tuning, North
Reading Honda Kawasaki, Spectro Oils, Sharkskinz, Mark at MCE Signs &
Graphics, and everyone on Team Daemon and in the US Marshalls. It was a
great season!


------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1:49 in Sunday #1 practice, according to Patrick

Sun #1		Sun #2		Race 3		Joey
--------	--------	--------	--------
1:56		1:50		2:50		????
1:57		1:49		1:46		1:57
1:54		1:48		1:45		1:55
1:53		1:55		1:44		1:50
1:53		1:54		1:43.79		1:47
		1:48		1:44		1:47.741
				1:45		1:49