Subject: Grattan racing (longish)
Author: Ken Pitts
Date: Jul 2, 2002, 5:12 AM
Post ID: 1710529129
I apologize if you have already seen this, I sent it out during the Topica
problems & on my end it never showed up on the list.
Once the lightening passes over, they open the track for practice. Its
stopped raining by 1:00 but the track is still wet, having never been there,
I choose to let the other bikes dry the track off before I get out there
myself. My first lap around the 2.2 mile 12 turn track scares the crap out of
me, blind turns, down hill off camber turns, even one blind down hill off
camber turn. The track still has a few wet spots & one turn with water
running across the exit, I begin to wonder why I drove so far just to scare
myself silly. The track dries for the most part & slowly I begin to get use
to the idea of leaning the bike over & start turning before the turn actually
comes into view. A couple of hours later, I'm having big fun & my lap times
are down to 2 minutes flat. Now I know why I drove so far to get here.
Saturday morning greets us with cloud cover but no rain. We get two practice
sessions in the morning before the races start & I'm hoping the running water
in turn one dried over night. We get out for the first session & sure enough
turn one is dry. With the dry track & a little more time working on braking &
shifting points, practice ends with my lap times running a consistent 1:50.
The waiting is the worst part, I'm in race five & I have plenty of time to
wonder why I do this. Final call for race five, with butterflies bouncing off
the sides of my stomach I ease the clutch out & work my way to track. The
starter waves the green flag, no time for butterflies now, all I can think
about is getting to turn one before anyone else. I reach my braking point
with no one ahead or next to me, down shift twice & roll on the gas....holy
cow.....I did it.......I exit turn one in the lead! Assuming my competitors
are right on my tale I hunker down & ride as hard as I can. Several laps
later without a challenge to the lead I cross the finish line for my first
race win, "now" I know why I do this. Back at the pits, Katherine informs me
I dropped another two seconds off my times & as it turns out the second place
guy was 3/4 a lap back.
Sunday rolls around & I know as long as the bike makes it through the race &
I don't crash then I can take home a second win. I tell myself I'm not going
to ride quite as hard, just go out & work on my riding. So much for that,
although not in my class a small Yamaha two stroke passes me. For a couple of
seconds I thought it did not matter, why risk crashing to chase someone down
that was not even in my class. We had a great race, before the race was over
we had each passed the other three times, with me making the last pass in
turn 10 of the last lap. We each took home a first place in our class. My lap
times for Sunday dropped another two seconds to 1:46, not that fast compared
to a lot of riders but I was happy to make the old loop frame get around that
well.
Like the song says, what a long trip its been. Even with the travel time &
the pouring rain for half of our practice day, it was well worth it. It was a
great weekend for the marquee with seven wins for Moto Guzzi. Thanks to
everyone that came by & said hello, Darrell, Darren, Kevin, Jeff, Sam &
Holly. I enjoyed meeting & chatting with you.
Ken
Asheville, NC