Kurt'sSV
Wed 12/1/04, 3:28PM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 11, November 21, 2004
There’s not a lot to report this month because I was only able to do one race and after the first lap, it was pretty uneventful. The weather was awful as the wind blew with gusts up to 40mph and the ambient temperature only being in the low to mid 40’s. I think Shandra only left the cab of the truck to help me get my bike on and off the rear stand and go to the bathroom twice. We were pretty miserable.
Besides the cold, WSMC was running way behind schedule due to oil filters failing on two bikes and dumping oil on the track. Both bikes had catch pans which prevented oil from being dumped all over their rear tires and crashing right away, but instead they left long lines of oil dribble all down the front straight and through turns eight and nine. Besides these two problems there were several crashes, including the bike that oiled the front straight, which caused the ambulance to roll. The first two races were red flagged and restarted and it wasn’t until 12:15pm that my first race, the third race of the day, was called to pre-grid.
Of course now it started to drizzle. The drops of water were drying almost instantly when they hit the ground so I wasn’t worried about racing on slicks. DOT’s and rains only help with standing water anyway. As we went out for the warm-up lap, what did present a problem was visibility. The wind was blowing from the Northeast so when you came out of two you got blasted with rain in the face. I could hardly see anything going over four, but once on the back straight the water cleared off pretty quick.
I had the last spot on the grid, two over from Zoran’s rider, Kurt Spencer and behind both Steve Slaughter and Ken Ritchie. The two of them turned around and gave me a wave. They both looked as miserable as I was. The rain and cold didn’t hamper my start, though. I got a good launch and headed for turn one as fast as my bike could go. Just as I was tipping the bike in I noticed a yellow bike on my outside trying to beat me to the apex. It was Kurt Spencer and I wasn’t going to give him an inch. He backed off because he was expecting someone to crash and didn’t want to be taken out. On the short straight he motored past me and cut me off going into turn two.
Big Kurt stayed low and got stuck behind some people, but I stayed wide and began creeping around them. Exiting two I was head of Kurt and planned on sliding past the two guys in front of me going into three. Lack of race experience killed me here, though. With the strong head wind the bike slowed down way faster than I expected once I let off the gas and sat up. I didn’t slide by anyone, and when I saw Big Kurt go by all of us on the outside I knew that should have been me as well. So just like last month I got hung up on the first lap and lost touch with the leaders.
I didn’t expect to make a pass on the first lap in nine due to the gap between myself and the bike ahead of me, but the rider slowed so much entering the turn that I had to swerve around him to avoid a rear-end collision. Even with the cold temperatures and moisture in the air, the tires stuck fine and I never had a problem with grip. The wind was more of the problem and slowed everyone down. Everyone was about five seconds off their normal pace except Kurt Spencer. He was able to out ride the two leaders on Ducatis and hang with them throughout the race. He kept getting out motored though, and took third. I, on the other hand, had a lonely ride the rest of the race. The bike that was in front of me had about a 2 second lead and even though he would gap me on the straights I could tell that I was chipping away at him. But I needed more than just a chisel to catch him and by the last lap I knew that I would have to settle for 6th.
I did have fun out there, though. The wind made things really strange. It helped me take turn six because it blew you back into the turn, the same with eight. I was hardly leaning the bike over in the big sweeper because of all the wind pushing from the outside. Everywhere else it hurt. Two was the worst. It would push you into the turn from the back and then made it hard to hit the apex on the exit. I thought I was going to blow off the track when entering two on the second lap. The visibility between two and three improved with the race, though. I thought the rain was letting up, but what happened was that it turned to snow flakes instead. The flakes did not stick to my visor like the drops did, so that helped. But once race direction saw the snow flakes they canceled the remainder of the day.
I never actually crossed the start/finish line on the last lap because this race was red flagged as well. I made it to turn eight before I was signaled to stop. Once back in the pits, Shandra was ready to get the hell out of there. It was a rotten day to be outside and I was glad to be back in the truck cab with a heater blowing on my feet.
Big thanks to Shandra for sticking it out with me. I know you hate the cold.
Thanks for the help I get from my sponsors: Jadeblue Creative, Tustin Martial Arts, Galfer, LP Team Privateer and SoCalSVRiders.org.
There’s not a lot to report this month because I was only able to do one race and after the first lap, it was pretty uneventful. The weather was awful as the wind blew with gusts up to 40mph and the ambient temperature only being in the low to mid 40’s. I think Shandra only left the cab of the truck to help me get my bike on and off the rear stand and go to the bathroom twice. We were pretty miserable.
Besides the cold, WSMC was running way behind schedule due to oil filters failing on two bikes and dumping oil on the track. Both bikes had catch pans which prevented oil from being dumped all over their rear tires and crashing right away, but instead they left long lines of oil dribble all down the front straight and through turns eight and nine. Besides these two problems there were several crashes, including the bike that oiled the front straight, which caused the ambulance to roll. The first two races were red flagged and restarted and it wasn’t until 12:15pm that my first race, the third race of the day, was called to pre-grid.
Of course now it started to drizzle. The drops of water were drying almost instantly when they hit the ground so I wasn’t worried about racing on slicks. DOT’s and rains only help with standing water anyway. As we went out for the warm-up lap, what did present a problem was visibility. The wind was blowing from the Northeast so when you came out of two you got blasted with rain in the face. I could hardly see anything going over four, but once on the back straight the water cleared off pretty quick.
I had the last spot on the grid, two over from Zoran’s rider, Kurt Spencer and behind both Steve Slaughter and Ken Ritchie. The two of them turned around and gave me a wave. They both looked as miserable as I was. The rain and cold didn’t hamper my start, though. I got a good launch and headed for turn one as fast as my bike could go. Just as I was tipping the bike in I noticed a yellow bike on my outside trying to beat me to the apex. It was Kurt Spencer and I wasn’t going to give him an inch. He backed off because he was expecting someone to crash and didn’t want to be taken out. On the short straight he motored past me and cut me off going into turn two.
Big Kurt stayed low and got stuck behind some people, but I stayed wide and began creeping around them. Exiting two I was head of Kurt and planned on sliding past the two guys in front of me going into three. Lack of race experience killed me here, though. With the strong head wind the bike slowed down way faster than I expected once I let off the gas and sat up. I didn’t slide by anyone, and when I saw Big Kurt go by all of us on the outside I knew that should have been me as well. So just like last month I got hung up on the first lap and lost touch with the leaders.
I didn’t expect to make a pass on the first lap in nine due to the gap between myself and the bike ahead of me, but the rider slowed so much entering the turn that I had to swerve around him to avoid a rear-end collision. Even with the cold temperatures and moisture in the air, the tires stuck fine and I never had a problem with grip. The wind was more of the problem and slowed everyone down. Everyone was about five seconds off their normal pace except Kurt Spencer. He was able to out ride the two leaders on Ducatis and hang with them throughout the race. He kept getting out motored though, and took third. I, on the other hand, had a lonely ride the rest of the race. The bike that was in front of me had about a 2 second lead and even though he would gap me on the straights I could tell that I was chipping away at him. But I needed more than just a chisel to catch him and by the last lap I knew that I would have to settle for 6th.
I did have fun out there, though. The wind made things really strange. It helped me take turn six because it blew you back into the turn, the same with eight. I was hardly leaning the bike over in the big sweeper because of all the wind pushing from the outside. Everywhere else it hurt. Two was the worst. It would push you into the turn from the back and then made it hard to hit the apex on the exit. I thought I was going to blow off the track when entering two on the second lap. The visibility between two and three improved with the race, though. I thought the rain was letting up, but what happened was that it turned to snow flakes instead. The flakes did not stick to my visor like the drops did, so that helped. But once race direction saw the snow flakes they canceled the remainder of the day.
I never actually crossed the start/finish line on the last lap because this race was red flagged as well. I made it to turn eight before I was signaled to stop. Once back in the pits, Shandra was ready to get the hell out of there. It was a rotten day to be outside and I was glad to be back in the truck cab with a heater blowing on my feet.
Big thanks to Shandra for sticking it out with me. I know you hate the cold.
Thanks for the help I get from my sponsors: Jadeblue Creative, Tustin Martial Arts, Galfer, LP Team Privateer and SoCalSVRiders.org.