Fastrack itself was hot. hothothot. Like Africa hot. Like your brain might melt hot. We ran into Chad and his friend Ray, as well as Jay from Interactive Motorcycles (http://www.activebike.com). I got the multi-session pass, only to find out that I was given stickers for Intermediate A, B and Formula ... wait ... FORMULA??! Even if _I_ could go that fast, the _BIKE_ doesn't go that fast.
Anyway, I ended up going out in mostly Intermediate B sessions, even though I was fast enough to be in A. The fact that 70 people would line up to go out in the A sessions would make me feel like I was in rush-hour traffic. Tom Sera would split up the session, but he wasn't being consistent about it.
The best moment in the Intermediate B sessions was definitely when someone on a GSXR750 blows by me in Turn 7, takes an odd line into 8 and I hold my tight line. I notice he's not pulling away (heh). I keep up with him as he tightens too early for T9. He comes out, looks back and the look of utter dismay on his face as he realizes the chubby chick kept up on a GS500 causes him to roll off the throttle. I hunched down and blew by him.
I don't think I'm getting what I need out of Fastrack for 'race practice' and I may not go back, unless I take my streetbike out. The good news is that I'm getting faster and smoother, and that's all that mattered.
The exciting part of the day happened when Jay McDaniel showed up,
completely flustered. He'd decided to take the New Racers' School, but
his bike wasn't ready to be teched and a host of things needed to be
done to get it race ready. To begin with, the safety-wiring job was
not up to Squidboy's standards. So the next thing I know, we're
wiring up Jay's bike while he runs off to class. Well, OK, Squidboy is
wiring the bike, I'm getting the Band-Aids and disinfectant as he
pokes a hole into his finger and scrapes his hands...
Wow! With the amount of water we drank I thought I'd be miserable having to pee, but I sweated a lot of it out. The problem with this was that in the one practice Squidboy and I ran together he passed me and slaps the back of his bike (meaning I ought to follow him). Unfortunately, I end up getting the worst cramp in my thigh and miss my private lesson. :/ That hurt in a bunch of ways. I was so tired and so tight from the cramp I couldn't get off the bike when I got back to the pit. Luckily, someone saw me having trouble getting off the bike, ran over and put my bike up on the rear stand. I fell off of it and huddled on a chair in the pit, rubbing my thigh.
(Ow. Ow, ow, ow!) Next month, not only am I hydrating the week before, I'm also going to start making sure I'm eating stuff high in potassium -- bananas, carrots, V-8.
Squidboy ended up taking a carryover for his Saturday night endurance race -- he was wiped out. I'm actually glad he did that because it made the tire changing we had to do much simpler. We ended up watching the 'Tour De Willow,' the bicycle race around the track --Turn 3 must be MURDER! And then we found out that Joe Hammond's pit was offering us free food and Team Hypersports was having a cookout with BBQ chicken, steak and salad!
Someone was trying to get a small model plane airborne and then we were buzzed by a small plane (maybe a Piper) from the nearby airport. I also think I saw one of JPL's missions launch, or at least the vapor trail of the rocket heading up. It was pretty neat getting to hang out, eat good food, talk to the turnworkers and the other racers. I was left to wonder what White Power meant; a number of the racers have tattoos, and one guy had this on the base of his back.
Joe Hammond noticed my tattoo -- I was wearing shorts, which is not something I do that often -- and commented that it was really nice. I told him my next one would be of a motorcycle racing, possibly based on one of Squidboy's pictures turned into a graphic that would make nice skin art.
I'm not one to say no to free food, but it meant we ended up getting back to the Essex House Hotel kind of late. No offense to the hotel, but I'm not staying there again: I'd asked specifically for a non-smoking room in a quiet area, and we ended up in the section where some group was staying that were allowing their children to run up and down the hallways at 10 pm. Not the recipe for a good night's sleep.
A bunch of people I'd met through Joe Boyd, the LABiker list and now the CompuServe Forum had said they might show up -- and they did! Our little sunshade was crowded with friendly faces. Denise showed up on her VFR800 with her partner Mark on his BMW R1100RT carrying their dog Shadow. Russ and his wife Jane rode up later on their VTR's (1000 and 250). The only cage to show up was an Ovlov, driven by Squidboy's friend Gracie (who someday may get to show up on her Ascot single). Having everyone there was so distracting that I didn't realize how quickly time had passed and suddenly it was time for my race! Good thing Squidboy had written down my grid position on my tank or I would have really freaked. It was fun having everyone taking pictures and making sure that I was OK, and cheering me on. It's really very exciting for me having so many people being so supportive of something like this.
I head out for the pre-grid and then out to the track. I'm just looking to warm up the tires and get around as soon as I can.
Fortunately, we're not gridded as a second wave like last month, so this will be the full six laps and we're up first. Or last -- it's the last race of the day and I know everyone is packing up.
Shift into first, head out towards turn one, shift into second, third -- don't brake, just lean over and head toward T2, gotta warm those tires up. Don't bother braking for T3 this time, but check where the brake markers are going to be. Go through Turns 4, 5 and 6 as quickly as I can. Coming out of Turn 7, I stick out my hand to let the guys behind know I'm slowing down. Head for grid position 4. I'm on the front? Wow! Last time that will happen.
Squidboy managed to confuse me just before I headed out with comments about heading towards the outside of turn 1, across traffic, to avoid getting pinched. I had other plans. My goal was to attempt to get the holeshot (yea, right) and head into Turn 1 ahead of everyone ... and then let 'em get by me. :)
I'm not successful. Even though the throttle is just about wide open, I do something wrong feeding out the clutch and the bike bogs. I'm doing OK though and end up in last place after Turn 1 (those two-smokes are slow starting too). I keep Jay in sight through Turn two, stick my knee out and peg the throttle -- come out of 2 nice and wide. Aim for the brake marker in T3, downshift once, hit redline/revlimiter for about 50 feet, brake, clutch, downshift (hard! I've hit a false neutral here), feed out brake and clutch just in time to throw it into 3 (woooo!!!) Up the hill I go. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm supposed to do all that other stuff and also hang off, so I settle for keeping it at redline in 3rd and LOOKKKK look through the turn. When I see pavement heading down the hill, I twist the throttle and upshift. Straighten the bike, brake just a bit (gotta brake less!), lean it left into Turn 5 (scrape a toe!) and aim for the top of 6. Upshift just before the crest (redline redline redline is your friend), crest the hill, upshift again and peg the throttle. Head for Turn 8 wide open (sometimes I back off, sometimes my intestinal fortitude is enough to keep it open). Don't do anything but keep the bike pegged and lean and start to look for Turn 9...
(Where is it, where is it? Damn it, damn it, damn it...) And just at the last minute, when you think you are gonna fall off the goddamn track into the dirt, you see the marker for the apex of 9. Sit up, downshift once. I always dive too early for it and mess up the drive ... did it again and came out in the wrong part of the powerband. Damn! Downshift again and scream down the straightaway. Scrunch, scrunch, small, tiny. Upshift, upshift again as I pass start/finish (only 5 more to go!) and sit up prior to braking for turn 1.
I hadn't realized there was so much breeze or I could have either not bothered braking or not bothered sitting up. Downshift twice, apex Turn 1 like a classic race turn, upshift coming out toward 2 and keep it pegged (though not always) into Turn 2...
Repeat at least four more times until I get lapped by the race leader coming out of Turn 8 into 9. the only reason he passed me there was that I saw a standing yellow flag coming into T8 and they still make me nervous. So I rolled off -- bad idea on a GS500 -- and totally lost any drive in the turn. I saw a bike off of the outside of Turn 9, but the rider was walking around trying to pick up his bike. At least I beat him! (We saw him later: The bike and rider were in remarkably good shape and I hope to see him out next weekend.)
I don't really remember most of the rest of the race as I was trying to just keep everything smooth and consistent and see if I could keep the guys up front in sight (I did for two laps).
Some of the best moments were coming off the track and having everyone cheering and clapping, even though I came in in last place. It still means a lot. I hope there are people here when I come in first, too!
A big huge thank you to all our supporters -- Denise, Mark and Shadow, Gracie, Russ and Jane (and scared puppy dog). A special thanks to Gracie for helping take some of our stuff home (I have no idea how it multiplies) and also to Russ for videotaping my race. Watching later I can see some of the mistakes I'm making in Turn 9 as well as Turn 5. Hopefully I'll be able to make some changes in those places and pick up more speed.
Thanks again, everyone, and I'll see you next month!
-- --HREF="mailto:gayathri@world.std.com">Gayathri, WSMC #701, --> --1999-06-29
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