A gentle lowside crash in Saturday practice sapped my confidence, but I qualified third for BOTT LW, then did poorly in the Rookie 600 qualifier. Endurance race went well. Rain Sunday, so got some practice on the rain tires, then switched wheels again as it dried for the afternoon races. Was running second in BOTT when I lost a footpeg (!) and had to retire. Skipped the Rookie 600 race.
Round Three
SOAR Round Three took place July 11, 12 and 13 on the "Long Track" configuration at Grand Bend. A few days out the weather forecast looked a bit ominous, so quite a few regulars decided to sit it out. Their loss! By late Sunday morning the track was dry and we had some great racing.
I hadn't run on Long Track for over two years, and so had no useful memory of any of the braking points etc. There are a couple of challenging corners, including what they call OMG corner where you brake hard from a medium-length straight into a slightly decreasing radius slow 180° right-hander with very poor visuals. I definitely could have benefited from doing the Friday practice day this time but it wouldn't fit into my work schedule. So, I stuffed a sleepy 9-year-old girl into the car at 4:45 am Saturday and headed off. What a good sport she was!
Saturday Practice
There was about 1.5 h of free practice Saturday morning split into three groups, so I made sure to get out right at the beginning of my group's first session to try to start learning the track. After less than two laps while coming down the side straight into OMG corner I discovered there was no place to put my left foot - the footpeg had come off! So, I put my hand up and putted around to pit out, put the bike on the stand and started rummaging through my bins of parts to find the spare (OEM) pegs. No dice - I had left them at home. Then began a tour of the pits, asking every Ducati rider and a few others as well if they could help me out. No one had the parts I needed, but as luck would have it someone who had been behind me when the peg came off overheard the conversation and told me exactly where I could find it beside the track! Ken the race organizer gave me a lift on his scooter and sure enough, there was the missing part lying in the grass right where we were told it would be. Awesome. Back to the pits, peg reinstalled (with Loctite and a pile of torque), other peg reinstalled similarly....and now it is 15 minutes until my last practice session and the tires are cold. Put the warmers back on....
With only 15 minutes of heat in the tires I went out for final practice. I was starting to get the feel of things when, after about five laps, for no apparent reason I had a gentle little lowside crash in the middle of the triple apex turn they call Big Daddy. The bike didn't flip and came to rest in a mud puddle on the grass. Minimal damage, but my leathers got a little dirty.
I set about trying to get the bike and my equipment back into shape. It really wasn't hard. Straightened the fairing stay a little, cleaned the mud out of the frame sliders and the clutch, that kind of thing. Total damage was some new scratches on the exhaust and fairing, ground down sliders, broken brake lever guard, and a hole in my glove. Lucky. I borrowed the brake guard off the endurance bike, got out my spare gloves and had things ready in no time.
Meanwhile during all of this Steve and Allen were wrenching like maniacs trying to get the bodywork fitted up to Humpty Dumpty the endurance bike. You may recall that substitute rider Brodie Coveduck smashed it all to bits for us last round at Shannonville. To add insult to injury, turnout for the endurance race at the Shannonville round was so poor that they decided not to count the points! Anyway, Steve and Allen pulled off a miracle sourcing parts and getting it back together mechanically in under two weeks. The final product was ready to roll but not up to our normal aesthetic standards (which are pretty low to begin with).
Jeff Waller Memorial Ride
Before the qualifying races we had a memorial ride around the track in honour of SOAR member Jeff Waller who had passed the previous week from a longstanding illness. I didn't know Jeff personally but he was one of us so I was proud to put a #77 sticker on my windscreen and parade around the track in his honour. RIP Jeff.
The Round 3 event itself is named the Steve Shreeve Memorial, in remembrance of a dear departed friend of SOAR principal Ken McAdam. It has as one of its traditions a silly pit-bike race where people dress up in outrageous costumes and race about on scooters and minibikes. Great fun. On this very special weekend there was also an amazing free BBQ, a super band (the Checkerboard Floors, with SOAR rider Tyler Wilson as one of the musicians), and even some fireworks. What a blast and what a way to remember and honour SOAR members who have left us.
Qualifying Races
Since I don't have a pile of points so far, I was gridded seventh for the Battle of the Twins Lightweight Qualifying Race. I was really looking forward to this race, because Bob, who is on a bike with the same motor as mine (Ducati SuperSport DS1000) was back in action after suffering a knee injury in Round 1. He was gridded right next to me. Unfortunately Alex, with whom I had had a great battle in Round 2, was not on the grid because he crashed his 748 earlier in the day, in the exact same place where I had my incident. Even so, we had a nice-sized group with 11 registered I believe.
The 5-lap qualifier was a pile of fun, as you can see from the video. Bob and I thought we were battling for first, but in fact young Jordan Bauer an a Kawasaki 650 Ninja (I think) was miles ahead of us. Sometimes things get confusing when they have two classes gridded together. In the end I finished third behind Bob.
It seems I was pretty accurate with my estimate of what kind of times I would need on this configuration. 1:35 flat was good enough to keep up with everyone except Bauer.
As in Round 2, my qualifying races were back-to-back, so I came off the track from BOTT LW, did a U-turn and came back on for Rookie 600. I was at the back, 8th out of 8 riders. This class has really shrunk since the beginning of the season, as it often does. I had a pretty awful race honestly, and the video below highlights my various screwups. I passed one rider early on and was making up time on the next guy, but then had some kind of scary juddering front tire push entering Big Daddy, not terribly far from where I had crashed in the morning. That was enough to sap all of my confidence and so I fell back, eventually being passed on the last lap to finish dead last. Yuck. However, on the one occasion that I did string together an entire clean lap, I managed a 1:33.6 - a good improvement over the previous race.
Saturday Endurance Race
The Prairie Dogs had a pretty good round on our cobbled-together ride. Steve in particular was looking very racy. There is not much in it between our lap times anymore.
During my first session on the bike I absolutely hated it. There was way too much play in both the brake lever and the throttle, making everything feel loose and imprecise. On the plus side, the lack of a steering damper didn't seem to affect things at all. Eventually by my second stint I was starting to figure out how to ride around the bike's oddness, and began using the opportunity to test braking points etc. That led to me running off in OMG corner once, and at the entrance to the carousel on another occasion. No problem - I just got back on track and kept going both times.
We ended up logging 103 laps, but had two screw ups. One time, Steve saw someone who looked remarkably like Allen holding something that looked remarkably like our pit board, and so dutifully came in on the next lap. We sent him on his way. Later, only a few laps into my third stint, I got a complete hamstring cramp in my left leg, causing me to run across the grass at about the entrance to Big Daddy. I put my hand up and rolled into the pits screaming for a replacement with my leg still camping, but of course it took Steve 30 s or so to get his helmet and gloves on. Personally I blame my teammates for my cramp, because while I was waiting to run my last qualifying race they took my canopy and all the water to go set up the endurance pit, leaving me to dehydrate in the sun like a raisin. It had nothing at all to do with a lack of fitness on my part. At least that is my story and I am sticking to it.
Man we are good looking. Check out Steve's Kramer hairdo.
Sunday Practice
The weather report proved accurate and late Saturday evening it started to rain. There were some torrential downpours over the night, and the Prairie Dogs (including the two kids we had brought along) were grateful to be sleeping in Allen's trailer rather than tenting it.
In the morning everything was soaked and there was standing water everywhere. Even though it was supposed to clear up later, I decided to mount the rain tires to get some more practice in. I don't have my bike set up with quick clips and such, so changing wheels involves cutting the safety wire off of 10 different fasteners, removing the fasteners, swapping the wheels, re-installing and re-torquing all of the fasteners, then safety wiring everything again. 45 minutes minimum, if I rush, and of course I am constantly puncturing my fingertips on the safety wire (they should call it danger wire) and bleeding everywhere. At one point while kneeling on the wet ground, hungry with grimy hands and blood dripping down to my elbow, I was starting to question whether or not I was actually having fun.
By the time the wheels were on there wasn't much time left in practice, but I did get about 10 laps in before there was such a dry line developing that I thought I was going to tear up the tires. By that point the sky was clear as can be. So, cut off the danger wire...remove fasteners...put the wheels with the slicks back on...put the fasteners back in and torque...rewire, bleed....etc. I did have some help though - here is Caterina torquing my caliper bolts.
BOTT LW Race
The twins race started off well enough. Sorry, no video but let me try to describe it. Alex Radecki had put his 748 back together, so it looked like he and Bob and I could have a good race, although Alex was starting from the back of the grid having missed qualifying. I started better than usual and caught up to Bob after a few laps and managed to pass him, putting me in second behind only Jordan. Unfortunately a few laps after that I outbraked myself into OMG corner and went onto the grass. Before I could rejoin, Alex passed me, which put me in third. It was great fun following Alex for several laps. I was turning better laps than I had all weekend, really feeling in the grove. I was gaining on Alex and was just about ready to make a pass attempt...WHEN MY FRIGGIN FOOT PEG CAME OFF AGAIN!!!!! This time it came off just after the kink on the front straight. Since I was so close to the pit entrance I just threw my hand up immediately and left the circuit.
In retrospect I probably should have tried to finish the race without my footpeg to salvage as many points as possible, and if I had had a few more corners to make that decision I may have chosen otherwise. However, it may not have been too safe, and besides, I was pretty disgusted at that point.
Someone retrieved the footpeg and brought it to my pit, but rather than get the bike ready for the Rookie race where I didn't have a great chance of doing well anyway, I decided to call it a day, pack up and get my daughter home at a decent hour.
Summary
With half the season gone and only one points-paying finish, any hope of taking the BOTT LW title is now completely gone. Actually, I don't think I was going to find anything for Jordan anyway, so that is probably a moot point. From here on in I will just concentrate on getting more experience, improving where I can and logging the best finishes possible. Overall I am still pretty pleased with my pace and progress. But man, is there ever a lot to learn if you want have any success at this game!
How did I do with respect to my goals for Round 3? Let's review:
Don't crash - Oops. Nope.
Improve my race starts - Maybe, just a little.
First place in BOTT LW - Nope, wasn't going to happen. Because Bauer.
Mid pack or better in Rookie 600 - Uh uh.
Show Caterina enough of a good time that she wants to come again - Only time will tell. It sure was fun having her along.
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