Finally, Progress - August 18-19, 2001



Okay, long hiatus on Real Race Reports. Maybe it's time to try another one 
again, for a change.

- - - - - - - - - - 

So, I guess I got tired of not making any progress.

Dane and I decided to do Thursday practice this weekend, and I got him
Advanced Penguin for his birthday. Figured we'd make a long weekend out of
it. It was really nice to travel up with someone - after Dane crashed last
year, I was all by myself most of the time, and this year we hadn't
managed to travel together even once until this weekend. Pretty cool.

When we got to Thursday practice, we ran into Dave Spragg in his car. Too
bad that guy can't fit a bike in the trunk and practice all day. :) 

The first hour we were out, there weren't very many people, so everyone
was out together. Later they split the sessions between amateur and 
expert, which was okay, but I kind of wanted to follow really good riders 
around. Oh, well. I wound up going 10mph faster in just about every 
location I could manage to look at the speedo, and I was dragging pegs 
and toes in Turns 1, 1A, 2, 6, and 10 with some regularity. Really weird, 
but really good. I was psyched. I finally had to make myself take a break 
and chill out. I figured if I kept dragging hard parts and didn't settle 
down, I'd wind up tossing myself down the track.

Dane's CB-1 failed to suck on Friday, so I gave him my bike for Penguin, 
and skipped Friday's open practice. The Dial-A-Bounce feature on my Fox 
Shock is really handy. 

Saturday and Sunday we shared my bike, which was a little hard on my 
tires and my cooling system, but it worked out okay. Poor little chicken 
hawk got run *hard* this weekend.

I slowed down a *lot* once the Penguins were on the track with me, but I
finally broke a 1:40 this weekend. JHTDC it's about time. Man, oh, man
was that like pulling teeth. I still think I was at least 5, and maybe
even 8 seconds faster, in Thursday's practice.


Some notes from the weekend, to maybe write more about later:

	- Thursday practice: Martire, the Rock & Roll Welder, 
	  told me when I come over Turn 5 that thing on the 
	  right is the throttle. "Ah. So."

	- Passed a bunch of penguins in practices on Saturday

	- I really hate them for stealing my lap times - they
	  scare me and I lose whatever I have gained because
	  of their shoddy riding

	- Refresh rate is shorter - when someone scares me, I
	  bounce back quicker, and it doesn't blow my entire
	  practice or race

	- My lap times must be changing, because all of a sudden 
	  my tires really feel different when cold, even tho I 
	  don't think I'm gonna fall over

	- This weekend was the first time I ever drafted anyone 
	  or got drafted by anyone - felt funny, but neat

	- Riding the race bike home on Sunday night was... 
	  probably unwise.

	- Pat Fournier called back to the track to say there was
	  mondo traffic on 93 - thought I'd stay for awhile and 
	  have dinner with folks, but didn't

	- Left track, realized I was out of gas, went down the main 
	  road in Concord to find a gas station, and saw Rob & Ann
	  at Applebee's, so stopped in and had dinner with them

	- Jeff Haole and I were talking about slow shifting, and
	  he told me to shift without the clutch - tried it on the
	  way home, but could only really do it from 4th to 5th

	- I was totally hyperaware of things like suspension on 
	  the drive home - things like, the bag I had strapped to
	  the back of the bike really felt different than the 
	  riding I'd been doing all weekend

	- Traffic was hypnotically slow, because of the speeds
	  I'd grown accustomed to over the weekend

	- Drafting an SUV is not like drafting an EX500, at all






Saturday		Sunday
--------		--------

2:06.673		1:51.680
1:50.293		1:47.871
1:48.828		1:51.143
1:52.228		1:50.368
1:49.152		
1:49.573		
--------		--------
1:52.791		1:50.266



2:04.155		1:55.244
1:50.656		8:15.607
1:48.369		1:45.197
1:44.748
1:48.587
--------		--------
1:51.303		3:58.683


Race 5 
--------

99.565