Well i've go tthe trailer packed, and im off.
To my first race weekend !!! yeaaa yeaa yeaaa
Wish me luck. Ill be at BHF about 10 pm tonight.
Cant wait to meet ya all. !!
Good luck! See you tonight!!
Well I would, but I need to know what kind of bike you're running first! ;D
Dawn :)
Kick a-s-s stevie!
Have a good time. Hopefully my first race weekend will be soon!
QuoteWell I would, but I need to know what kind of bike you're running first! ;D
Dawn :)
The info at the bottom of his message says his # is 281 amateur.
Quote The info at the bottom of his message says his # is 281 amateur.
I know, but he is in the MW and so are we. If he runs in the same classes - - Well, I wish him good luck as long as he finishes behind Paul. ;D
Dawn :)
QuoteI know, but he is in the MW and so are we. If he runs in the same classes - - Well, I wish him good luck as long as he finishes behind Paul. ;D
Dawn :)
Ooops, my bust. Thought you were refering to the "can't wait to meet ya all" statement and were wanting to know how to recognize him, but you were actually refering to the "wish me luck" statement.
http://www.racemotorcycles.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=ccs1;action=display;num=1048812682;start=0
He rides a GSXR, so you don't have to worry about him. Just me ;) :D
Steve, you did really well. I'm pretty happy with how you did....especially considering the weather. Nice job. I think you should be happy with how you did.
Don't forget, class is one day...by you and I still have work to do, so keep in contact.
I MADE IT HOME !!!
Hi guys, I finished my first race weekend !!!
OMG I really really really had a lot of fun.
I'll add more to this but i've really got to take a shower and get some zzz'z
But some impressions.!!
Thursday running in the rain for the first time. Yikes, but hey i was a trooper and did all the sessions!! in the wet with DOT tire. I really needed to learn the track, unfortuately there was noone else on the track for me to see where the line is. And there wasnt one since it was brand new asphault.
Fridays practice, Ok still a wet track, actually it was snowing for a little bit, just when the track starts to dry off during lunch, RAIN RAIN RAIN, I went out 2 more times, but skipped the last 2 hours cause it was really raining hard.
Saturday, did ok in practice, still trying to figure out the line.
My first race AM GTO ( and i pre-entered so i got gridded 1A), omg was i nervous, but i made it and finished 7th out of 31. OMG OMG OMG, still need to find where the line is.
Sunday wasnt as good for me. 1st race HWSB CRASH .. :( kept braking way way too late for 7 and missing the turn in by like 20 feet. Did it like 4 times but the last time got too far off "line" and hit the sand (which was mud on thursday) slid the front and landed in some nice soft dirt.
Well no damage done (just a few scratches and some race on the exhaust) get re-teched, and show up on the grig for the AM ULGP. I had a !A grid again but i started from the back (Gun shy) still i managed to pass a few people and finish 11th out of 18.
The bike was still not feeling good (fel like it wasnt stiking at all) so someone sugested to drop the air pressure so i went down 1lb in the front and 1.5 in the rear (i started the day with 29 in both). Went out for the next race (grid 1A again) and the bike felt alot better, finished 9th out of 19. HWSS
I got some confidence back and went down on air pressure a bit more for the last race ULSS (grd 6A frist AM again. man i thought more people pre-entered, i would have been happy with a mid-pack grid) Well took a slow start cause i didnt want to try and keep up with the leaders (too fast for me and my stock suspension) And the last race my bike finnaly felt like it was supposed to. All grip and no slip, finnaly was able to get my nee down in 3, 4, 6, 7 I had the most fun following the two guys in front of me watching them battle #40 and #?? I stayed with them and thought i was a little faster so i entertained the idea of last turn pass on the brakes, but almost bothed it and went off in the same place i had crashed once (hehe), but i saved it and came in 8th out of 14th !! yeaaaa yeaa
oh yea did i say it was reallly really really cold !!! I slept in a tent !!!
Thanks to everyone that helped me, i pitted inbetween two other first time racers so we all kind of hung together and helped each other. I was all by myself so i owe the guys that helped me a few rounds at RA !!
I also did this on a street rear and a rennsport sc2 (hard) front. Why did i get a hard and not a soft 1! silly me !! And totally stock suspension !! That i thought was close for setup, but it wasnt ever in the ball park. Mark S. from the Visionsports school atleast helped me get some reasonable sag number for the front. He's proable still laughing at what it was set at!! Thanks.
And of course theres Dave, rushing to get his brand new bike finished so he can go have some fun, and hes still anserwing all our questions, and even asking if we need help. THANKS DAVE !!!
Oh man i stink like wet dog !! gotta go !!
Steviebee --- You weren't draggin knee till Sunday, but you were finishing mid-pack? Dang! I was last all 3 of my races, and I was running mid 1:40s. I think I'd drag knee in the low 140s. But, the SV Ams were all experienced Ams that are all kinda fast to begin with. Some of them ran other bikes, too, so they had lots of past track time.
Ah well, maybe in May there will be fresh meat for me to run with in the LW classes.
Congarts to all the first timers, you guys did good in the bs conditions so hold your heads high and you will get faster as time goes by. Nate, don't worry about finishing last we all had to start from the bottom and hey you have no where to go but UP ;D, so keep up the good work.
Craig
QuoteBut, the SV Ams were all experienced Ams that are all kinda fast to begin with. Some of them ran other bikes, too, so they had lots of past track time.
Ah well, maybe in May there will be fresh meat for me to run with in the LW classes.
Don't always be so apt to put it down to experience. In the 600 stuff, we had an amateur that was at Blackhawk and it was only his second time on the track. I won all but maybe two of his races. With the times you're doing, you might just have some real set up issues with the bike that is giving you feedback that is making you slower.
And nice job again, Steve. Wish we had different weather on Thursday. Showing you lines in the rain doesn't do much...gotta get in, stop, turn and go in the wet.
Congrats on a great first weekend! Isn't this sport a blast!!! Way to go.
SD: I was only having feedback issues through the kink a bit, and a little bit in the carasouel. 90% of my slowness was ME. I KNOW the bike w/ the current setup can be much faster comfortably, I'm just not riding it fast enough. I guess my comfort zone was lower than I thought it would be. I'll be putting in stiffer springs, and a different brand of 20 wt oil in the front, after talking to Ed from Trackside Engineering. So, that should help the setup a bit.
My goal was to get into the high 30s lap time-wise if the weather was nice, and given how my progress went from my race on Saturday to my last race on sunday, I think I could have.
I just found out that I have a lot more work to do than I thought. I know of guys on all stock SVs who were doing mid 120s at BHF, so, I KNOW the bike can do it.
I think that what I have to do is mostly raising cornerspeed, and staying on the throttle more in the front straight and the back straight.
QuoteSD:
I just found out that I have a lot more work to do than I thought. I know of guys on all stock SVs who were doing mid 120s at BHF, so, I KNOW the bike can do it.
Nate:
Paul was doing 1:30's this weekend and last year on a hot track about 1:23'S
Really? OK so, I'm only about 10-12 seconds off from being able to be competitive w/ the LW AMs? By competitive I mean racing someone, not just running around the track alone in last.
That's not bad then. I think I could do at least 5 seconds faster pretty easily in May even if we had the same temps/weather.
Don't worry Nate. When there are a few more people on the track you will find someone to race with. Paul had the most fun in a race when him and a Ducati were battling for 7th and 8th place.
Dawn ;)