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[cornercamping]

What's your worse racetrack experiance?  Why am I asking?  Cause it's winter and this sucks.  I'm trying to convince the wife to move to Florida.  In the mean time, I have to find something to do or I'll go crazy.  Anyways..

Mine:

Bought a new 749S.  The next day, we went to Grattan for a track weekend.  Never got to ride the bike before this.  So, we show up at the track, and we pull the bikes out of the van.  So... when we opened the door to the van, my 749 was leaning over rubbing against a 916.  One of the tie straps came loose and the bikes were rubbing.  The mirror was all scratched up.  So, I overlook that one the grounds that I'm at the race track, and you can't be miserable at the track.  
We pull the bike out, and on the way down the ramp, I go to hit the brake, and no brake.  Almost dropped the bike out of the van, but I saved it.   So, I start it up and start heading for the tech shed.  Going slowly, luckily, I grab the brake, no brake again.  Come to find out:  Front rotor is bent from the wheel chock in the van.   Now, on a Sat. afternoon, I gotta find a brake rotor for a new generation bike, and in stock at a dealer.  Uhmm.. yeah right. So, I spent the whole weekend watching everyone else and being the pit b....
Never rode the bike yet.  Get back home, waited 3 months for a brake rotor before I could ride the bike.   >:(

[brian213]

Damn.  That sucked...it's Italian though, so... :)

My worst, brand new sparkly paint job, no pics yet, crash in practice, nearly destroying the bike with cartwheels and 2 months without racing because of a broken collarbone.

Next worst, different bike, fresh paint job, no pics, turning my best lap times ever and lowside into a highside on the cooldown lap...hurt collarbone and bike enough to miss the race the next day.

Argh!  Paint and pictures.  :)  :P

-Brian

[Xian_13]

Topeka 2nd round there...

2 crashes, one Mechanical @ Road America... Mechanical @ BFH weeks after.... miss 2 rounds and buy a new bike.

Rushed to get the bike ready, knowning it had an Electrical problem but did think it was going to be problem...

12 hours drive, register for the races and prep for practice.

Get the bike in Hot pit lane, bike will NOT rev over 6K

wait for practice to end, get back to the pits, decide that problem was fixed after a few passes in the paddocks.

Next practice take the bike back out... still will NOT rev over 6K

swap out everything electrical and then give up.

2 weeks later, I find a Vaccum line off :(


XIII

[cornercamping]

Ah common' the rest of you gotta share so we're not the only asses  ;D  ALL of us have had a bad weekend on the way to, or at the racetrack.  Share, we got all winter   :'(

[cornercamping]

Alrighty.. I'll also share my absolute worse experiance on a motorcycle, but this time, it was on the street.

I live in near Detroit.  Myself and two other guys decided to go up north to Mackinac Island (Stumpy's part of the state, the UP) which is about 4.5 hour ride from us.  So, me and 2 other guys rode our bikes up there, and the wives and kids left later in a car.  So, we spend the weekend up there.  Going up to the UP requires crossing the Mackinac bridge, which scared the living hell out of me because it''s a grated bridge.  So, we go there and spend the weekend.  
We get ready to leave, and I stop for gas.  At that time, I had a 748S with a twist off non-locking gas cap.  So, I fill up and the wife is filling up the truck.  So, the wife want's me to buyer her some stuff and I'm talking to her and not paying attention.  I get back on the bike, and head across the bridge.  Because I'm literally scared of the bridge, I tuck down into a full tuck while crossing it because it's grated, and your getting blasted by all kinds of wind and it makes the bike sway from side to side.  So, I get back to the lower part of the state, and all of a sudden, my uhm.... boy parts..... are on FIRE.  I mean I'm like OOHHHHHHHH.   So, I pull over.  I get off the bike, look down.  I forgot the gas cap ontop of the pump and there is half a tank of gas on my leathers.  All over my mid section (i.e. boy parts).   So, I run inside this diner, and I strip down to my boxers in the bathroom and start rising off.   Unfortunately, the wife is no where to be found.  Since we're in BFE, her cell phone doesn't work.  Long story short,  I was wearing only boxers and a t-shirt under my leathers.  I had to ride all the way home soaked in gas.  So, I rode back across the bridge, fillled up again, this time grabbing my gas cap this time.
This time, I blasted all the way home.  100 + mph all the way home.  I made it from St. Ignace to Detroit in 3 hours and only stopped one time for gas after I got my gas cap back.
Then, I get home and call the wife.  She still has two hours to go before she's home.  I search around, and I can't get into the house.  My keys for the house were in my jeans, in the back of the truck.  I had to call my brother and wait almost 45 minutes for him to come let me in with his spare emergency key.   While waiting for him, I stripped down to my boxers and sat in the back yard on a lawn chair.  When I finally got inside the house, and got in the shower, my "boy parts" were beat red.  So, I went to the doctor.  He gave me a cream, called me an idiot, and told me to go home.

I'll never buy a non locking cap again (no key cap.)

 :-[

[khanson]

Pikes Peak AMA round 2003.

Arrived at the track for practice sick with bronchitus and it's hot as heck.  Promptly go out in the afternoon practice, highside at 120-130, badly separate my left shoulder and destroy bike A.  Setout one session and continue practicing the rest of the day.

Friday ride, thanks to Vioxx, and promptly crash again in turn 2 and slide into concrete NASCAR turn 2 wall with my body, ricochet off and amazingly don't break anybones.  Promtply yard sale bike B.

Take 2 destroyed bikes and make one.  Mini tornado comes through paddock and rips my 37 foot canopy off the trailer into a pretzel.  Manage to race the rest of the weeked.

Get altitude sickness and feel like I want to die on the return 18 hr. trip back to Chicago while my good buds drive.

Work for 2 days straight all night on about 4 hours total sleep rebuilding bikes to leave on the 3rd day for Road America while sicker than a dog and sore as heck.

Rains friday night, track is dry for qualifying saturday.  I go out for qualifying, due a boneheaded move and run the rear tire out over the alligator strips in turn 3 on the exit in 3rd gear wide open on a 1000.  Rear immediately spins up and ejects me to the moon while I watch bike flip end over end 10 feet in the air for about 200 feet.  Yard saled again!!!

I can hardly move, mechanics get bike together with 30 seconds to go before the Superbike race, but we make it.  Thanks Bill and Brian.  I'm running pretty well until I run out of gas on the last lap in turn 8!

That my friends is a rough 2 weeks!!!!!    8)

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Ah common' the rest of you gotta share so we're not the only asses  

Not gonna go into it but it was back when I ran cars. Brings back too many bad memories.

[Sunny]

2004 WERA CYCLE JAM at VIR:

Drove down on Thursday night from Michigan with my buddy Ryan who came to support as he's recovering from an injury suffered at Grattan round (went straight off at the end of straight due to no brake lever pressure; he forgot to pump it after change front tire/wheel).  More than half way there on a highway, one of the trailer's tires went "KA-BOOM" all of the sudden in the middle of no where.  Got no spare (lesson learnt).  Luckily, we are very close to an exit.  Got off, and sleep in the SUV for the night.  Woke up and went to find a spare trailer tire.  Took like 2-3 hours, and went on our way.  

Got there on Friday afternoon (some 12 hours later than planned), and as soon as we set everything up, the wind picks up (like 25-30mph), and rain starts to come down hard.......  So we pack up everything again..........  This weather condition only lasted like an hour or two, so we roll everything out and set them up again.  

Met up with Max finally.  Comfirmed that both my forks and shock will need work.  Decided to get the shock spring replaced first as it is way soft and the forks already got the right springs in them. But had to wait in line to borrow proper stands for the job (almost everyone is working on their shocks with Max) and the sky is getting dark very quick.  Won't have the stands 'til Saturday morning.  

Got the shock spring swapped and confirmed it is the correct spring (thanks Max and your crew!), but then the spring somehow didn't seated squarely after the installation and was pointed out by Penske's Bruce.  Had to remove the shock again..............  Anyway, once all that is done, there is no time left to work on improving forks' compression which is lacking badly.  Fork work will have to be done after the races.  

Went out to practice as I have never been to VIR.  The shock improves the bike, but the front moved a lot due to the lack of compression and a much harder rear than before.  Tried to balance front and rear the best we could with no time left to practice and play.  Decided to ride as is.  First race, the front tucked on lap 2 exiting T1 while I was on gas following an Aprilia RS250 (my first and only race crash).  Neither of us were pushing the pace, so I had no idea why I went down while on gas except thinking that there may be a greasy spot on track as there were numerous accidents throughout the day before my first race which didn't start 'til like 4PM.............  Bike suffered some cosmetic damage and a bent rear brake lever.  Max fixed it for me for my second and last race of the day (Thanks Max!).  Race got postponed to Sunday due to running out of time as there were many red flags throughout the day.  I couldn't stay for an extra day as I need to be back to work on Monday early morning, and never planned to stay after Saturday's race.  All these and got nothing to show for for the race weekend.............

Expressed my opinion on how the races were run and controlled on WERA BBS later.  Got one of the biggest "band wagons" on my tail in WERA history for expressing personal opinion that is negative about WERA.  The end result is that most WERA members now hate/dislike me and me got banned from WERA BBS (of course, I deserved some of these treatment, but not all).............

[cuda]

/quote]

Common, you begged for it.   ;)  They just didn't want to dissappoint.

[Sunny]

Common, you begged for it. ?;)  They just didn't want to dissappoint.

I disagree.  I may have picked the wrong time and the wrong wording to begin with.  But I am simply expressing my opinions from my point of view and plenty who doesn't know me nor have anything to do with the actual race weekend jumped in for an easy ride...............  I don't mind WERA thinking that they are as good as they can be and they don;t need to be better, but something is wrong if all their customers think that way.

[cornercamping]

Please take this to the WERA forum or somewhere else.  



Don't screw up my thread with this BS  >:(

The thread has been going good. Don't ruin it.

Thanks.


 :)

[Super Dave]

Dunno?

Always seems like bad experiences are pretty funny to laugh about.

Topeka 1992.  Couldn't sleep all night.  Finally had a race close to home, and I was stressing.  Went out in first practice and backshifted the bike.  Started making noise.  Decided it was a rod.  Done on my bike.  

Brought the bike to engine builder...generator rotor came loose from the back shift...was knocking on the crank.

Went to Laguna Seca in 1992 with my evil girl friend from hell.  Drove 1600 miles, she made me so angry that in San Francisco, I got off I-80 turned around and started going back home.

She pulled her act together.

Practice, practice.  Qualify.  I missed the cut off.  Needed to go faster.  I was 43rd on the grid of 40.  Needed .75 of a second.  Pleaded my case, as did a guy from New Zealand that came there.  He was behind me.

I was able to practice the next morning, and I made the gearing change that I had thought about the day before but decided not to do...I got an extra second a lap that would have put me in the field.

Raced at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1991.  It was a Thurs-Sat AMA event.  There was a race at Grattan on Sunday.  Decided that it was about 600 miles, and someone gave me some money to take their bike there...they would fly up.  900 miles later, I made it to Grattan...it was 645AM.  Practice, sleep, practice, sleep.  Started raining and I highsided coming onto the straight.

1990 - AMA 750 National Supersport event.  I qualify on the second row behind DuHammel, Russell, James, and Chandler.  In the Three Hour Challenge before the final, I fall down and get run over.  Raced, but in pain.

There's more...  

LOL, where does it end?