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 Socks and more..is all I need to say. |
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 We did see lots of rocks on the drive there and back, so that was nice. |
| March 25 - 26 Firebird East, AZ USGPRU First race back since August. I broke my hand in September and didn't know it. Actually, I broke it in two places and had to have a ligament reconstructed...but I waited until the end of November to have it checked out. I had surgery and was in one cast or another for ten weeks. I got the first one off and went dirt biking and was a little distraught and my lack of range in my movement, so the doctor put me in a hard cast for three more weeks! Fortunately it was a fashionable camouflage hard cast that was even washable. (Not that that helped any). The bike also had demon in it that we could not figure out. After crashing in September, the bike never worked quite right. unfortunately this was due to several overlapping things. The crash actually was caused by some bad fuel...the drum had a leak in it or something, and the octane, which needed to be 110, was at about 80, and grenaded my cylinder. After that, there were several problems (for those of you who know JM's involvement with one of them, let;s just keep that between you and me). The last of which was a wiring harness, which happened to be brand new, and of course was the last thing we checked. We discovered Sunday with the help of Ben Solis and a dyno that the wiring harness was faulty on the Wednesday before this race weekend .However, it was such a relief to have the bike working and ridable, I was just happy to be going to a race and...well, racing. I had never been to Firebird East, but it was not a difficult track to learn. What was difficult for me however, was relaxing on the bike, especially going to the right. I guess because I was favoring my right hand, I held all my tension in my right shoulder. It happened to be a right hand track too. It was pretty damn sore after three practice sessions on Saturday. I did a couple of the CCS races the USGPRU weekend was run in conjunction with, which gave me a little more practice.(and doing pretty poorly I might add. One of them was the 25 minute lightweight race and goddamn if I wasn't happy to see that white flag). Then it was time for qualifying. I qualified pretty dismally, considering how fast the bike
was on the top end. On the bottom the bike had about a one second
lag even if I snapped the throttle open, but I'm sure I can
tune it to where it's responsive and quick on the bottom too.
This is a very tight track with lots of shifting, and I no longer
had a quick shifter on my bike. Closing the throttle every shift
took a toll on my right hand, making my shoulder stiffer and
stiffer, as did braking hard into the couple of slow corners
on the track. Regardless though, I braked too hard into the
corners, entered them far too early, couldn't get off the bike
to the right, and was pretty pathetic in general. BUT...I was
racing again and NOT wondering what was wrong with my bike -So
it was definitely a relief over any of the struggling I may
have done. The USGPRU race was 18 laps. After three practice rounds and the day before, I was already tired, but now I was nervous on top of it. Things finally felt like they came together that morning. I had changed my gearing and was pretty close on my jetting. The delay was still there under 10k, but felt slightly better. But I was disappointed to see I was only one second faster than my mid pack 1:05 qualifying time. I felt faster and much more confident, but I wasn't going much better. I was gridded 7th and got a decent start despite the fact I was totally unprepared. I don't even think I was in gear. I think I was 4th into turn one but Alex Welsh passed me on the first lap, and Deb Kuick was pretty close behind him. I saw early in the race that Welsh had a mechanical, so that put me in 5th. After the fourth or fifth lap, I didn't see anyone for a while until I hit lap traffic. After the halfway flag, Kevin Murray snuck past me and while I out braked him in a few turns, I was completely pitiful through the entire 180 right hand turn halfway through the track. I also sucked terribly in the left/right kink onto the back straight, mostly because I had to be in a gear lower than I wanted to get through it so the bike would pull, but also because I entered far too early and went waaaay too slow through the dang thing. After Kevin passed me, the race was pretty uneventful for me until the last lap at the start/finish line, where Phil Krenn tried to draft me and used his hand on me to assist the draft. I think it surprised him that I pulled him pretty well, so he let go, lest he pass me at the start/finish. I finished 6th, which didn't thrill me, but I was back racing and that enough made me ecstatic. Thank you JM, for helping me all weekend. The drive home was filled with crazy buildings and landscapes, so I took lots of photos, some of which I included here. |
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