Well I figured I'd post up about my first race weekend with WERA. I took the Roger Lyle school down at Summit earlier in April but since it was sleeting and rivers were flowing across the track and me with no rains I decided not to take my chances. So I set my sights on Nelson to pop my cherry. There was an open trackday Friday that I was hoping to get some good laps in following around some fast guys since the previous open evening that Motoseries put on was not very productive for me. Friday morning it was raining and 42 degrees. By noon it had stopped for the most part with temps hovering around 48, my buddy Jeremy and I decided we'd try to get some track time in. The track was drying but was too cold to really hammer it. The most excitement of the day came when a robin failed to react in time on the back straight and managed to lift high enough off the ground to glance my right fork leg smash into the radiator, scatter parts, blood and feathers everywhere and come to rest in my belly pan. From my perspective I saw feathers and then as I slowed for 13 smelled burning something and promptly pitted.
Saturday weather was amazing. Sun and 65 was the forecast and it delivered. I felt really good in the practice sessions and had registered for the Heavyweight Solo. That's the drawback of the 750, Saturday I have to race liter bikes (although 600's enter). I checked the timing sheets posted and it seemed odd to me that most of the times were in the low 1:20's high teens and wondered if everyone was knocking the rust off. My best Nelson time last year was a 1:17.5; my best time in practice was 1:21 I wasn't pushing hard but I was concerned.
After the practice sessions I was bored off my ass. From 11ish when my second session was done until I think around 3:45 I sat and BS'd in my pit, watched several boring vintage "races", watched Jeremy do well in the MWT solo, watched Sam Gaige demolish the rest of the experts, learn that I was pitted across from the CEO of ChickenHawk Racing and ate some chicken chili that my wife made. Then it was finally time for my first race.
Man was I jacked up, I was so excited I had to tell myself on the warm up lap to breathe. There were 4 novices and I think 9 or 10 experts so I had a pretty good shot at a podium
. I had been watching the flag man all day so I could figure out the timing of the green flag and I nailed it, that is until I almost 12 o'clocked it and the front end came crashing back down leaving me in dead last...I can't believe I did that, I was so excited I just dropped the damn clutch. After I recovered I set my sights on the novice in front of me and by turn 12 of the second lap I passed her (yes I said HER) on the brakes. I passed two experts on older bikes of unknown make and then spent the next 15 laps wondering where everyone was and what times I was running. I was literally all by myself. My legs were burning and my right wrist was losing strength fast, 20 consecutive laps at Nelson takes its toll. Wrist exercises have been added to my workout regime starting today. Anyway after the start I was in open track, I got lapped by 3 experts and never even caught sight of the two other novices. I finished third, the other novice I passed didn't finish, not sure why. I checked the scoring sheet and the other two novices were running 1:13's, I was circulating in the 1:17's at the beginning ran a bunch of 1:18's by myself, a couple 1:17's after getting lapped and then a 1:17.009 on the last lap which was my fastest of the weekend.
I had a good time but would have preferred to be battling for a position than circulating by myself. Its also a bit demoralizing to think about how many times I've been to Nelson and wonder where I'm going to knock 4 seconds off a lap to be competitive. I decided against racing Sunday since I hadn't paid and the forecast said 80% chance of showers and thunderstorms. According to Jeremy it was a constant, put the rains on take the rains back off kind of day.
Lessons learned:
1. Don't drop the clutch
2. Work on wrist/forearm strength. That was a weird one because I've never had that happen and I was purposely keeping a very loose grip.
3. Buy a transmitter - I had no idea what lap I was on or what my times were, both of which would have allowed me to decide to push harder or not.
4. Bring movies or something because there is ALOT more down time than trackdays.
5. More throttle, less brake
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, this was either on the way up or down:
