Tales from a female racer's perspective...

June 23, 2002

Read up on Jeff's rendition of this weekend...my view is exactly the same - "amateurish" mistakes. Hey, I ran out of gas - it happens, right???

Tales from a male racer's perspective...

June 23, 2002

Part 1: Amatuer mistakes? Pathetic? or Seriously ill ?

hmmm, where to start?...all three captions above sum up one aspect or another concerning our first race weekend in nearly 9 months....We drove up to Roebling early Friday morning to shake off the accumulated rust on our skills and equipment by taking advantage of the all day practice session ($80.00), We opted for the half day session because of the extreme heat (103 degrees) and the deteriorating track conditions. Since this was my first "true" outing on the 02', my main concern was just getting comfortable with a 30 lb lighter bike and fuel injection. First lession I learned is that my "regular" race lines using the 96' were now null and void, prompting a serious re-evaluation of where the "correct" lines may be. I give a great deal of thanks to Rick Croly and Pat Mooney for leading me around in tow. Suspension wise the Traxxion front/rear ends appeared to be working well at moderately high speeds and thank goodness for the ease of adjustment on the Techlusion TFI for a nagging partial throttle hesitation. A quick turn on one of the 4 "fuel pots" remedied that issue. Overall the 02' is worlds ahead of the 96' in nearly all catagories. I believe my quickest time was @1:19'64. Nicole on the other hand...

Nicole was primarily interested in getting as much track time as possible, her bike ran well and with the exception of a minor fr/re gearing change, all was well in her camp. Come Saturday morning my "pit mate" Ray Silka from NC asked how many heat cycles had the Pirellis' had, I responded 2 track days and yesterday's practice session. He advised that there are shot for racing purposes. A quick test taught by Pat Mooney, where by you take a screwdriver or car key and poke the outer edge of the tire in order to see if a "impression" is left in the rubber is a good indicator of the the tires remaining life. My tires showed little ot no impression meaning the tire rubber has "hardened". I went out in the Expert Formula 40 regardless casting Pat and Rays advise aside and gave it a go. Needless to say 2 laps later I retired from the race with..you guessed it... tire issues. They were toast. $340 later a new set of Super Corsas were residing on the 02'. I also then learned the importance of installing tire warmers at the end of a practice/race session enabling a longer tire life. Nicole was up next in the 30 minute GT Lights race and placed 7th out of 11 entries. She was disappointed because her lap times were a solid 4 seconds off from last year (1:26's vs 1:22's). Next installment : Day 2 "Amatuerish mistakes cost Draganee heavily".

Part II

Come Sunday morning after a good rest at the hotel room (1st time in 5 years) Nicole and I were determined to put yesterday's antics aside and start anew. I began the day with my first Unlimited GP money paying event gridded on the second row behind Rick Croly. One carryover from the 96' was the clutch action is nearly identical to the 02' which gave me a great off the line start. As I approached Turn 1, I balked, freaked/chickened out or just got plain spooked and 12 riders bid me farewell, I found myself in 14th out of 15 riders. I struggled to concentrate on my lines under racing conditions and eventually made it to 9th place which paid $70.00. Overall a positive learning experience being lambasted by the seasoned Experts and realizing that they are infinately much more considerate then the Amatuer ranks. Ah....the comedy or horror show begins.. you decide with this next lil' ditty. Nicole is known for her less then desirable starts with the Aprilia, it takes a special touch... alittle finesse' to get that chain saw amovin', but to no avail she gets a bad start in the Middle Weight Sportsman and finds herself dead last going into turn 1. (6th out of 6) she then puts her head down and starts turning some fairly decent lap times and by lap 5 she is in first place....the second place Aprila is a solid 5 bike lengths behind. Come the last lap , victory is in sight until the final turn (#9) leading to the finish line. The 2nd place guy is all over her and passes her at the finish line and beats Nicole by 1/2 bike length. We are STUNNED... after the race Nicole said she was being cautious as not to screw up any lines or make any mistakes so she backed it down a bit allowing #2 to become #1.. oh well, it's her second season and the learning curve is still very steep.

Part III

I'm up next in th Expert Heavy Weight SuperSport, 13 riders are gridded and I'm on the "pole" position (based on entry date NOT lap times) meanwhile Ray hooks up his My-Chron timer thingy and I give it a go. The race starts and I'm with the lead pack...yee haa... I can hang with these guys... i'm doing ok.... just follow them around, and then the first red flag. The crash happens directly in front of me as we enter turn 4. I believe I have the riders correct, if not so SORRY, #110 has the line going into the turn, #981 tries to stuff it on the inside and t-bones #110 sending him off the track....From my vantage point #981 was in the wrong, #110 clearly had the line...oh well the red flag comes out. Start number 2, did I mention the HEAT?....it was extremely hot/humid. Again a fairly good start. I pass #981 (i think) at the entrance to Turn 9, #981 in turn crashes somewhere in turn 9. Red flag number 2. I lean the bike against the wall waiting for the clean up crew to finish and my legs feel like spaghetti...very weak...did I mention the HEAT...I drink plenty of water when the track marshall announces a 6 lap race. The flag drops and I finish a respectable 5th place, but the good news was that I did my fastest lap of a 1:17.47 during that race...I'm very satisifed with that lap time....Nicole heads out for her final race the Light Wieght SuperSport, she got a killer start by pinning the throttle and feathering the clutch, she was running her best lap time of the weekend only to have her Aprilia come to a crawl on lap 3 near Turn 8, she came into the pits via the crash truck and thought she blew the motor....nope....she ran out of gas...ARRGGGHHHH. So there you have it folks our first weekend. Yes there were many amatuerish mistakes made by both of us, and yes the turn out was PATHETIC (@100 riders) resulting in teeny weeny itsy bitsy grid sizes and more importantly we have a SERIOUSLY ILL sport in need of immediate assistance....next outing July 20/21 at Roebling....I will be flying solo that weekend so any help would be appreciated....