Penguin Pro School & Nationals - June 14-19, 2000



Oy, where do I begin?

First off, I have to say that Pro School is the smartest decision with
regard to riding on the track that I've ever made. I spent the evening
after doing it just saying "wow" to myself, and anyone who would listen,
over and over.

I decided to take the basic class instead of the advanced class, since I'm
so slow and because I really just needed to get myself sorted out with
regard to the bike. Fortunately, the basic class was quite small, and I
got a lot of individual attention that way. It probably worked out well
that I skipped the first day, since I think nobody else in the group had
actually raced yet. It would have been a waste of time and money for me to
stand around learning flags and how the track is laid out.

The track walk was really excellent, and I got more out of it than I have
on any previous such excursions. I was struggling to write everything down
and still look at it all, too. The other chick in the class talked too
much while we were walking, but she was Very Blonde, so I can understand
the predisposition.

The riding bit was awesome, and I got to work with Peter Kates almost
exclusively all day. (Like I said, it was a small class.) I was really
happy to follow someone around for a few laps, and I was also ready to go
a lot faster pretty quickly. Of course, with speed comes suckage, but
after some pointers from Peter, I got a fair bit of the suckage out of the
way. To quote Peter, "When you started, on a scale of 10, you were a 2.
Now you're a 6."

Tooling about on the little dirtbikes was *really* informative, although I
never did get my knee down.


Things to remember to write about later:

	- passed lots of people, even people who were faster than
	  I am on the front straight

	- being unable to walk after each riding practice, because
	  of hanging off, and fighting the leathers the entire
	  time

	- getting practice time by myself, because the other 
	  basic course students were too enthralled with the
	  dirt bikes to realize we were supposed to go out 
	  again

	- downshifted into neutral in Turn 3, that was fun,
	  was certain I was gonna crash into the air fences. 
	  Managed to pull it off because of lessons learned
	  in the dirt bike section of the class. Yay!

	- ran out of gas in Turn 3 at the end of the last practice


. . .



Wednesday night after showering, Kevin Glick and I wandered up to Weirs
Beach to have dinner and maybe catch some of Bruce Marshall at the Naswa
Beach Resort. I figured everything was over by the time we left the track,
though. The Weirs was packed with people, but not nearly as nutty as I've
seen it on weekends. We got parking with no problems, and wandered a bit
looking at bikes and jewelry and boots. On the way back, I saw Bruce
playing through the window of the Naswa, so we pulled in to hear 2.5
songs.

We were so tired going back that we drove really slowly, and already the
campers were lined up outside the track, not able to get in. Turns out,
Patrick was one of them, but we found him later that night, and I helped
him set up his tent.

Thursday, Kevin and I went to Concord and did some Stuff & Grocery
shopping. I bought a tool box and made Kevin carry it back on the bike. It
looked silly on the seat in front of his Givi top case, but touring bikers
can make anything fit on a bike. ;) In the afternoon, I took all my tools
to the parts wash and scrubbed last winter's rust off of them. Then I
organized them in my nice little drawers. (Yeah, this is going to last.)

On Friday, I corner worked in Turn 12 with Keith and Susanna. I was a bit
late getting my act together; fortunately we started at 8:30 instead of 8.
Funny of the day: Aaron Yates bailing out on Turn 11 and driving through
the swamp. He looked thoroughly disgusted, as well as covered in mud.

Saturday I was going to sleep in and wander around the pits a bit, before
corner working in the afternoon. However, Ann caught me in the shower and
told me I'd been assigned to a corner already. D'oh!!! I wound up in Turn
4 with Mike, and flagging for the afternoon. I got to watch the air fences
at the exit of Turn 9 blow across the track in Turn 10 during 750
qualifying, but because of the imminent red flag and ungodly force of the
winds, I couldn't tell anyone. The storm that followed was so intense that
we dragged the corner workers off the track, and nearly every canopy in
the place was destroyed. (Ours wasn't so bad - it was lashed to the Team
Daemon canopy, and there were about 30 strangers under them holding them
down in self-defense when I got off the race track and came to look.)

Sunday was the fateful "we-won't-race-in-the-rain" day. 'Nuff said, for
now. I'm still kinda mad about the whole thing, and, well... I haven't
dried off from my three hours in the rain waiting for the AMA to either
call it off, or run the damned thing already.

. . .

Okay, I'll say a little more about Sunday. The Pro Thunder race in the
rain was just FANTASTIC! Brian Kent rocks my world. I just wish he hadn't
crashed in Turn 1, because he would have won that race. (His lap times
were amazing, and I think he caught up with all but 6 or 7 guys by the
time the race finished.) I was limping up to the scene, yelling "rip it
off! rip it off!" because his fairing was preventing him from leaving,
post-ouch. When I finally got there, he must have been saying the same
thing, 'cause the guys who beat me to the incident were finally just
shrugging and doing it. All in all, it was a good and entertaining race,
and our local guys made us proud. The crowd loved it, and so did the
corner workers.