What are your favorite memories of 2003?

[EX#996]

Throwing down wood today gave me an opportunity to relive some of my favorite memories of the 2003 race season.  Here are some of them in no paticular order...

Dave Vaughn's laugh.  Watching and listening to Dave give Chris a hard time; his laugh is so genuine that every time I hear it, I smile.

Kim's hug after she got her first wood and the look on her face when she realized she won the "On the Gas Award."

How emotional Paul felt after he got his first win.

The look on Renee's face and the excitement in her voice when she got to experience something new for the first time...  Seeing the Mississippi River, the Arch, experiencing different cultures in different states.

The look on Heather's face as she is walking to the shower at BHF.  ;)

Mark Bernard for being so much fun, even when he's given a hard time for riding a Buell.

My father-in-law almost loosing his lunch when he saw Dave Rosno in his 'umbrella girl' outfit.   :o

Standing on the bridge with Mike Bird during Rosno's school, Mike over the radio states "They are going to be practicing their starts so they should be pretty hot into one, and maybe two, but then that should be it."  Obviously, Mike didn't consider who was in that start practice.  K3, Billy Casper, Paul, Andy, and two others that I cannot remember, all lined up at the line, green flag drops, the sounds of in-line fours, and twins fill the air.  Turn one, turn two....  Coming though turn four and five you can still hear the sound of engines straining fill the air, coming around turn seven and onto the hot pit lane all were neck and neck trying to see who would get pole position.  I heard over the radio:  "Hey Mike, these guys are racing out here."     ;D

Making bets with Paul as to how many times that Springfloat was going to mention the 'Bowflex' commercial.

Larry in tech.

Ed Key after I told him I was just talking with his wife and he said "What ever she said I did, it was all my fault."  I though I would have to have Paul hang out with him more.   - - Ed was such a good sport when signing Paul's first place trophy when Paul actually beat Ed in a race (it was raining).

The look on one of the tech guy's face when he realized what I was truly saying by there is a lunch break after the super sport race, and then the reaction of everyone when a person tore off out of the tech area when it was announced that they are checking air boxes.

Kevin Clark, you still talk funny.  

Tom Mason is so patient with all the questions being asked of him.  I felt bad one morning asking what the tire pressures should be (it seems like I asked him this question a million times already), but he happily told me again with a smile on his face.

Bill Fehrman playing "Revelry" over the PA at BHF on morning and Paul waking up saying, "What the hell is that?!?"

Phil S (the referee) and how patient he is and always has a smile on his face.

The one memory that touches my heart the most, is after Paul wrapped up his seventh championship, he gave me a hug, looked into my eyes and said, "thank you."


What are some of yours?

Dawn   :)

[Steviebee]

I could say EVERYTHING ! as this was my first year but the best one that hit me.

After all the nervouseness i get when waiting for a race to start.

Barber,  after the start, going into Turn 2,3  (This is a long turn that seems to take forever, lots of time to think while cranked over at full lean.)  With a bike 5 inches on the inside and one about 6 inches on the outside and two bikes in front of me.  I think to my self "hey im about third".  and then it hits me and i get a little smile.  "I wouldn't trade this for anything else!"

I won that race !

[StumpysWife]

The look on Heather's face as she is walking to the shower at BHF.

Yup, that's called blind before contacts.  Out in the fuzz I can hear K3 making his strange growling noise and I know I'm not the first one up anymore.

Heather

[Litespeed]

Racing in the rain for the first time ever was my favorite experience.  I was very nervous since I only had slicks for the 125 but found that they worked incredibly well and you could actually brake as hard in the wet as you could in the dry.  I did manage to pass the only guy using rains so that made it even better.  

The second most memorable racing memory from 2003 but definately the most important was finishing a last minute motocross season with 3 firsts, 2 seconds and 2 thirds after having not ridden on dirt for over 3 years.  (Sorry that wasn't exactly road racing oriented but you weren't specific on what you asked for.)

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

Standing on the bridge with Mike Bird during Rosno's school, Mike over the radio states "They are going to be practicing their starts so they should be pretty hot into one, and maybe two, but then that should be it."  Obviously, Mike didn't consider who was in that start practice.  K3, Billy Casper, Paul, Andy, and two others that I cannot remember, all lined up at the line, green flag drops, the sounds of in-line fours, and twins fill the air.  Turn one, turn two....  Coming though turn four and five you can still hear the sound of engines straining fill the air, coming around turn seven and onto the hot pit lane all were neck and neck trying to see who would get pole position.  I heard over the radio:  "Hey Mike, these guys are racing out here."     ;D

That would be one of the best for me too.  You forgot the part about "Giggling like schoolgirls!"

Saturday afternoon at the last Gateway, they offered some extra practice.  After all my troubles this year, my championships were in the bag at last.  The pressure was off.  Finally I could just ride.  My teammate Dave Vaughn was going out too, so this was sure to turn into an all-out race.  As we pulled off our warmers, Paul Buxton said, "I'll bet ten bucks Dave kicks your ass!"  Well, it was one hell of a thirty minute dice, but I beat Dave across the line.  I spent the rest of the night arguing with Paul about whether or not it had been a bet.  (never did see that ten bucks... ;D)

Finding out that Ike was still alive...

The hug I got from Megan Styles while I still thought he was dead...

Twisting Rosno's wrecked bike back together, then watching him win money with it, totally trusting our repairs and riding like a demon!

Any time I got to spend with Dave and the Buxtons.

Craig Schock telling his brother Mike, "Hey, if K3 pisses you off, quit whining and go beat him!"  Ooooooooooh!  Mike didn't like that a bit! ;D

[tigerblade]

Meeting a lot of good people: The Buxtons, K3, Ike, Dave "The Mick Jagger of Roadracing" Rosno, Tom Short, the Schocks, and others.  Met a few like Kim Olsen after the racing was done.

Oh and I met Kevin Clark too.  Not sure I'd classify him as "good people" though.   :-* ;D

Getting two pieces of wood (5ths, but still wood).  

Hanging out with the rest of my Columbia racing addicts (Cabbage, Corey and Jeremy).

[EX#996]

 (never did see that ten bucks... ;D)

I thought it was only five bucks  ???  ;)

Dawn

[StumpysWife]

Again, our first season...where do you start?  

The thing everyone HAS to understand is Stumpy didn't do a year of track days before racing or anything.  He did a half a day at the end of 2002.  That's it. Next thing we knew he was racing in 2003.  We were racing virgins with no background besides knowing he could do it if he tried.    

So we show up at BHF the first weekend in April...

We started off with being happy if he was top 10--well his first race he got 9th and we were tickled.

This brings THEE most memorable moment of the year for me...Stumpy's first wood...his second race MWGP, he got 4th after dicing with DRU2 and Chris Johnson,  I believe.  I was sooo happy for him.  That did it.  We were hooked.

Now the rest of the short list...

2nd weekend Road America - Stumpy promised when we happened upon the CCS race there in 2002 (we didn't know what CCS was) that next time we were there we'd be on the other side of the trees (the pits).  We were.  That weekend turned bad when Stumpy went down at over 100mph in the kink.  Thank you everyone who made the airfence possible.  Oh yeah, he got wood there, too.  RA is still the biggie for us.

3rd weekend BHF - Stumpy won the MW Superbike race in the rain ahead of the expert and amateur field.  The announcer thought he was a backmarker.  Fun stuff.

Lap times - I remember when we were so excited for him to break 1:20 at BHF.  Next thing you know, we're looking for 1:13.  Crazy.

We did a total of 7 weekends.  We've probably made more friends for life in those 7 weekends than our whole lives put together.  That's the best accomplishment by far.  

Now he's going into 2004 an expert...didn't really expect that so soon so the outlook has changed.  He'll just get to grid up next to the people he admires a little sooner is all.  Heck, he might even beat some people he admires.  

We'll just start over again in March knowing a little more this time.  We'll probably look back in December and say, can you believe what we did last year?

Heather  

[Steviebee]

yea it would have been nice to do a year of track days before we started racing !

[stumpy]

 Lots of memories for sure! The best is when I got that overall 1st. After passing half the experts wondering what happened, Then coming up on Super Dave thinking I can't pass him he just taught me this stuff. ;) Then as I had my last expert to pass(Jeff Purk) I was thinkin' I love the rain! 8)
 good memories....good memories..... Afterwards Ike came up to me and said" After You Did That 360 I wasn't gonna follow too close"

Stumpy

  

[TiffineyIngram]

See, how the preggo hormones make me cry when I read stuff like this...

But I have to add my list of favorite things too...

Marrying the goofiest guy in racing.  Even though he has more gray than blonde, even though people sometimes ask if he's my dad, even though his mother froze all of the wedding flowers, even though my puppy disappeared this morning, and even though he broke up with me a month into our relationship saying that he didn't "know where it was going .  I guess we know now.

The way Amy and Sara look after a night in St. Louis.

The way Linda and Larry shake their heads when they see Amy and Sara after a night in St. Louis.

Dave Adam's impression of Christmas Poo.

The note I wrote in Dave's notepad that his wife found.  Priceless.

Meeting and becoming great friends with Buffy.

The way that no matter how sweaty you guys are I still can't turn down a hug.

The look on Benji's face when he won not one, but TWO national championships.

The look on Ed Key's face when he blew up not two but three bikes at Daytona ROC.

The paleness of Eric's face when I said "I'm not kidding".

[Super Dave]

Leading my day's final race after wadding and getting help from the Buxton's and K3 putting the bike together.

Waving Jesse by me in GTU to see how he does (he was mad 'cause Gordon and I were screwing around, and he knew it....)

Seeing Kim get "gunfighter eyes" one day...I knew that it was all starting to make sense...and now she wanted to go faster.

Sneaking by Doc Purk at the line...even after he got his motor overbored.

There's more...  and years of it... ;D