peanut, britt bohannan, peanutbritt, britt arechiga, 125gp racing, wsmc, littlebig racing, little big racing
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Sept 24-26 USGPRU Finals, Virginia International Raceway Arrival This was a long, long weekend, as it started for me Thursday morning when I caught an 11am flight to Raleigh/Durham airport, with a layover in Ohio. I arrived at 8:15pm in North Carolina, where a fellow 125GP racer, Michael Santelia and his wife Rebecca picked me up and took me out to meet other visitors to Virginia for drinks. So instead of dinner, I had wine. Michael and Rebecca hosted me that Thursday night and we talked and drank more wine until very late that night. (My reasoning was that they were three hours ahead and I needed something to help me go to sleep that night. It worked pretty darn well.) Michael drove my gear and me to the track early (oh, 3:00am by my California watch, 6 by North Carolina time) in the morning the next day. Friday Practice I found my bike, which had been driven out by Joel Manes of Apex Predator Racing, dropped off my stuff, paid for the practice day, and went out to learn the track. VIR is amazing. The track is 2.5 miles, FAST, with grass runoff, 17 corners and big elevation changes. The back part of the track is called the rollercoaster, and it is: hard right to fast rolling left, right, left corners, very fun. Then there are the facilities: classrooms, showers, good food made on site, ride through tech garage....my only complaint was the fine grit ground cover used in the pits that covered tires, knees and anything laid on the ground. Most locals had some kind of cover for it but we were not so prepared. USGPRU was teamed with the CCS regional finals was well as the 125 Can-AM series. The CCS regional workers were friendly, helpful, and seemed genuinely happy to be there. The whole organization was run extremely well. We even got to register and tech bikes the night before. The first practice session
out
I was convinced I would never learn the track in time to be fast in
qualifying, first thing Saturday morning. Contrary to what I thought
would be my fate, the track sort of came together for me by the end of
the day and I was
able to have a really good time just riding. They also modified the
schedule the next day so that I would have a 25 minute GT race before
qualifying. I changed my tires that night. We went out for pizza that
evening and I had the worst glass of wine I have had in my life. It was
red wine, and it was chilled, and the waitress was clueless when I
asked for some NOT from the fridge. I was exhausted and jet lagged, and
really wanted to sleep right away. A drink would have helped; I had
trouble falling asleep and more trouble waking up due to the time
difference. I woke up even more tired. |
All
racing action photos courtesy of Laura Roach of Larracephotography.com
) Michael and Rebecca Santelia ) Right turn into the roller coaster, this corner causes quite a few crashes, as you can see ) Our pits at VIR graced by Melissa's butt. |
| Saturday
qualifying I signed up the night before for the 25 minute GT
Lights race to get some more time on the track. Today I had a
transponder so I could see what kind of times I was doing. First
practice session out I was doing 1:46's and still getting comfortable
on the track. (I really need to learn a method to learn a track
quickly, because it takes me forever - suggestions anyone?) This had 31
starters and probably 20 of them were SV650s, my least favorite bike in
the world. Since this was a fast track two SVs kept passing me on the
long straight and I would pass them in the corners, until the straight
again where they would get me near the end. I finished around 20th. Qualifying was next and it was a disaster. Bike overheating as 50 125s jammed the gate waiting to be let onto the track. Finally they let us go and we got a red flag after 2 or 3 laps. The clock was still ticking for the 15 minute qualifying as we waited to be let back out again. I got a few more laps in but nothing great. I think my fastest time was a 1:44, putting me in the second wave of the race, row 11. Sheesh. I felt terrible. The only respite I had was that I always go 3-4 seconds faster in the race than in qualifying so I was planning on getting to a 1:40 in the race and placing much better than 35th or wherever I was. I heard that some of the Can-Am riders threw fits about the short qualifying session, but it affected everyone. I walked the track with some friends that evening, My radiator was leaking a bit, from the top left corner. That night I bought stop-leak for my radiator on the advice of a two-stroke mechanic. I skipped dinner to go to bed early, but still couldn't fall asleep, as there were noisy people in the room next to us, and out in the hallway. Finally at midnight I flung the door open to find a group of 14 year old girls sitting around, gabbing loudly in the hallway. I told them to pipe down and didn't hear a thing after that. Sunday Race I registered and teched put stop leak in my radiator, ran it for a while and then went out for first practice. I got halfway down the entrance road, twisted the throttle hard and water shot straight up into the inside of my windscreen! I had a fountain spouting in my bike, so I made it through turn one and pulled off the track. No practice for me. I was going to use this morning to get to a 1:42, but no such luck. John Hjelm of Hjelm motorsports had a bike that Carlos Neves borrowed for the finals. He crashed in qualifying and broke some ribs, so he wasn't riding. I borrowed that bikes radiator for the race. USGPRU wanted all the bikes on their grid positions in pit lane for the warm up lap. We carted our generator and tire warmers to the grid and waited for the calls to begin. I got a push start on third call and went for my warm up lap, found my grid position and waited for the first wave to go before I shut my shield. While my hand was still closing my shield the green flag went. I had forgotten it was going to be a fast second wave...so I put my bike in gear and went around the outside of a bunch of people into turn one. This worked pretty well but before turn 8 the red flag came out. We went back to the hot pits and waited for the calls again. This time I was prepared for the flag, but it didn't help my start any. I think I passed even fewer people into turn one than my previous, late start. Everyone just bunched right up into turn one and I was stuck behind a handful of slow riders for a couple of tight corners. I made my way through the back of the pack, each lap picking off a few, until I felt my foot slipping a bit downshifting from the front straight into turn one. Uh oh, did I have oil on my foot? Turn one is a tight, first gear left off the long front straight, so you need to downshift 5 times for it. I swore that shifter felt very slippery and it worried me a bit. My concentration broke, and I considered coming in. I would have hated to come in and have it all in my mind, so instead I reached down to my shift lever on the front straight, felt around, then looked at my glove to see if there was oil on it. It was dry, so I decided to keep on going. There were two guys ahead I was faster than, so I pushed to catch them. Entering the rollercoaster, I lowsided my bike and slammed the right peg into the pavement, breaking the bracket. I rolled and hit my head, luckily the runoff here is grass, so it just bounced. I thought I broke the tips of my left index and pointer fingers, and was afraid to take my glove off for a bit. (Turns out I didn't, but I got a nice black fingernail out of it.) I checked my bike and sure enough, found oil. But it was high up on the seat, on my knee but not low if it were coming from the engine. I rode the crash truck back, slightly baffled. Back at the pits, I pulled grass out of my bike, and Eric from Apex Predator found my steering damper had blown and leaked all over the bike, and probably the tire, causing my crash. Disappointing. To add insult to injury, I am listed in the official results as finishing 47th out of 49, when I never even finished the race. I guess if you complete over half of the 15 laps, you are placed accordingly. I'd rather take the DNF. The trip was definitely worth it though: I rode an amazing track, learned more about my bike, made some good friends, found some inspiration, and am more determined than ever to take my racing to far higher levels. The entire weekend damage totaled 9 broken bones and around 12 crashes (several people more than one). Many of those crashes got back on the track, as did some of the broken bones! Stu Aitken-Cade rode with a broken arm from an earlier crash (and crashed again in the race), Darrel Baker rode with a broken collar bone, Carlos Neves broke his ribs in qualifying, and Scott McNew entered turn one on the first lap of the 250 race, with no brakes whatsoever. He exited the track at ~80 MPH and broke his left clavicle, left shoulder and right hand. And it was on a borrowed bike. But that's racing, isn't it? I want to thank the following people for letting this weekend happen and for supporting me: Joel from Apex Predator Racing - for driving my bike out and back, helping me with my bike, food and hotel, providing comic relief, and for leaving me some interesting photos on my camera. Michael and Rebecca Santelia - for picking me up from the airport, hosting and entertaining me Thursday night, driving me to the track, and helping me get back to the airport on Sunday. You guys are the best. John Hjelm - For the loan of the radiator. Sorry it came back a little dirty.... Eric from Apex Predator Racing - for helping me with my bike, for the encouragement and for supplying the cutest, sweetest dog in the pits. Jay Pilster - For the loan of the rental car, the racing inspiration Melissa Paris - For sharing a hotel room with me and being the coolest racer girl of the weekend JM - For supporting my trip out there while he stayed home, tolerating very few phone calls from me, and for the encouragement from across the country. All racing action photos courtesy of Laura Roach of Larracephotography.com |
) I forgot my helmet and gloves in the hotel saturday, so I borrowed Freddie Spencers
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