Best Day Ever
Posted: June 13, 2011 Filed under: Ride | Tags: 426, 50, AMA, Belleville, bike, crash, daughter, dirt, family, father, girls, Honda, Illinois, Kawasaki, kids, motorcycle, race, scramble, TT, TT-R, weekend, Yamaha, YZ 1 CommentI had a motorcycling day so momentous that I probably can’t do it justice in this little blog. I took my daughter racing for the first time. She asked me if she could do it. We put together the things she needed, and I gave her every opportunity to back out gracefully, but she had made up her mind. She was going to race.
Leaving for the races
At the track, there was a significant rain delay. Helen had lots of time to make new friends. Finally, the track was prepped for racing, and the kids got to go out and practice. Helen had a ball, and rode around waving at her parents and other people she had just met – She was having fun, but only taking it so seriously.
Helen at the riders meeting
Helen relaxes in the pit with her new motorcycle friends
Helen and her new friends await their main event
Then she had her first heat race, and something happened: She realized everyone was ahead of her. So she picked up the pace. And kept picking it up. By the last lap, she was gaining ground on the bike ahead of her, and she succumbed to the “red mist”. She blew through the corner after the downhill part of the track with more speed than she expected, and she lost her nerve – she target fixated on the outside of the corner and drove herself right off the track and very nearly into a straw bale.
To her credit, she popped right up, got on the bike, and finished her last lap. But she was furious. Nothing we could say would make her happy – she was determined to beat somebody.
She got her wish in the main event. She caught and passed one of her new friends, and was very proud of herself for the rest of the day.
Helen was awarded a trophy, and she was delighted. She retired the day with great satisfaction.
Helen was so pleased with herself
My day had just begun. I stayed at the track for the night racing, and raced in the Open C Class, which had the largest field of any class that night.
View from my pit between races
I had done a bunch of work on my bike in the week since the last TT Scramble: I put on a new hard terrain rear tire, rebuilt the front and rear brake calipers, replaced the brake rotors, and installed a 14 oz oversize flywheel – the goals were to have better traction, better brake feel, and to avoid stalling the motor on corner entries with too much rear brake. It all worked – I did not have a single stall all night, and my lap times came down consistently. I placed 4th of 7 riders in my heat, which qualified me for the last slot pick on the front row, and I finished the main even a very honest 8th place out of 13 riders. I don’t think I have ever had that many riders behind me before. It may not sound like much, but It was an improvement in my racing, and that’s the kind of thing that makes a bad racer like me very happy!
Heated
Posted: June 5, 2011 Filed under: Ride | Tags: Belleville, bikes, crash, dirt, dust, friends, IL, motocross, night, race, ride, scramble, track, TT, weekend, Yamaha, YZ426F Leave a commentI spent the evening racing dirt track at Belleville Enduro Team. I met up with my old racing friend Matt Pursley, and his fiancée Amanda.
The weather was unbelievably hot – My thermometer said 98, and the track had a problem: An errant driver had knocked down a nearby power line, and the track had no electricity. This meant two things: No night racing, and not enough power to pump water into the track watering trucks at a reasonable rate. The result was a super dusty, slick track, and an accelerated program.
I got in two practice laps. It was slippery. There were several crashers in just those two laps.
On the gas
Righty tighty
Lefty loosey
Matt did a fabulous job in his heat races. He won the Vet 25+ race and finished third in the Expert Class, behind two guys on bikes set up purely for dirt track. I like to watch Matt race.
Matt gears up
To staging - exit stage left
My heat race wasn’t so great. It took a long time to start because the officials weren’t sure how many riders they could put on the front row. We had a big class. They tried to put as many riders on the front row as they could. It didn’t end well – or start well. There were two riders down in turn one. The guy who fell the hardest hit me on his way down. I took his bar-end right in my forearm. It smarts.
The race was re-started minus the rider who hit me – he must have got the wind knocked out of him – he was attended to by the track ambulance crew. I think he was OK though.
Racing went better. The power came back on just before dusk, so they were able to turn on the lights and run the full program. I was happy about that. And, in my main, nobody hit me. Matt won his Vet 25+ race and finished third again in the Expert race – he battled well with a guy on a DTX bike and was going to catch him, but the DTX rider fell ceding the position to Matt. His winnings more than covered his entry fees. Yay Matt! My race was OK. I could tell I was riding better than I had during practice or the heat race.
Matt and Amanda and I packed up and had beers together in the pits before heading back home. It was fun to race, but even more fun to spend time with great people like Matt and Amanda (who are getting married this week! Congratulations!)
How much longer do I have to keep it before its eligible for the vintage class?
ride, cheese, click, repeat. 