Jetbdude

Well, history repeats itself. Mother Nature did not make our life easy this week-end either.

Friday practice: Got to the track late Thursday night and was 100% ready to ride. Bike was all good to go and I was looking forward to ride the long track at Shannonville with the loooooooooooooooong straight. I was the first out on Friday morning. As soon as they called the track open I was out there. Took a few laps to figure the track out, I just rode the Nelson configuration 2 weeks before and it was confusing sometimes. It was open track all morning as most riders came unprepared and worked on their bikes in the pits instead of riding. Good for me, I had plenty of track time. In the afternoon they had 3 groups, but still plenty of seat time. I decided to work on my body position in the afternoon and stop riding like I had a stick up my a$$. Since my accident I’ve been real stiff on the bike and real easy on the gas exiting turns. Well, after a couple of turns getting off the bike more I started to feel pain in my back…. So I putted the stick back where it was and decided to work on something else. Here's two pictures, one with the stick and one without....

Saturday qualification: Weather is nice! Morning practices are going well and I get to go out both session and I feel really good on the bike. I worked on my suspension settings with the guy from Pro 6 cycle and I can really feel the improvement. It feels like I’m not pushing at all and that I’m just flying. Really good feeling and it really gives me confidence for the afternoon qualification. I walked to the control tower before lunch to go look at my lap time and I was in fact not pushing because I’m down 2 seconds from my yesterday time. DAMN IT, here goes the confidence. Don’t understand why I felt like I was going faster though.

It’s now qualification time and the freaking weather is turning from nice to dark real fast. They called the day over 20 minutes before our session, thunder, hail and strong wind made it sound like a wise choice. No qualification again this week for me. At least I’m not going to start from last freaking row as they are going to take the championship point standing to place everyone on the grid. For me, this means that I’m going to start from 9th place. Third row, second left from the inside.

Race day: Weather forecast is rain, rain and some rain, but it’s not raining and we ran both morning practice session on a dry track! I’m trying to work on my lines and braking point but I seem to be stuck at 2:02 . I know I have more left in me, much more but can’t seem to get it out…. Never thought my crash would affect me that much. Need to get my confidence back! My race is schedule for 2:30. Every racer in my class has their wheels off their bike. No one knows what to put on, rain or dry? I have my wheels off as well and the guy at the Dunlop trailer told me he would have both my wheels change in 10 minutes at 2:00Pm if I want, he’s saving me a slot. Really nice of him! 2:00 Pm arrives and looks like the weather will hold, I’m putting the 209’s back on! At 2:30 we all get to the pit lane on dry tire, all 37 racers. Well you guess what, it started to rain while we where waiting to go out for our warm up lap. You got to be kidding me! We go out, the track is still dry and I’m trying to get some eat in my tires. By the end of the warm up lap the rain is already stronger. We all get to our position. I’m on the third row, and there are 11 rows, so by the time the 11 row is all set up a ready to go there must have been a 30 second delay, maybe more maybe less. For me it felt like 2 freaking hours! It’s now pissing rain and here we are, 37 novices on slicks! Everyone in the pits is running to the grand stand because they know it’s going to be a mess. Veronique is in the stand and all she ears is guys going “Hooooo man this is going to be nasty!!!” Everything to make her feel better.

Red lights finally turn off! Here we go! I have a good start again! I’m shooting for the space in between the 2 guys ahead of me, I have the speed but they close the gap coming to one and I have to let go of the gas not to get squeezed in between the 2 of them. Damn it!!!!! By turn 3 I don’t have a clue of where I am! I think I passed a few guys but also got passed. By turn 4 things started to get nasty, guys where falling one after another. It was really hard to manage all that was happening. I wanted to pass the guys ahead of me but did not want to fall like so many where doing. Traction was something rare at that point. I passed a few guys, mostly out braking them. I think I was in third place when I lost control; I locked the front coming into the tight air pin before the front straight. The steering slapped into the tank with the wheel still being locked. With a dirt bike kinda move I put both my feet on the ground to unload the bike a kept control that way. I don’t know how I save it but I did! People told me they could see the water fumes coming out from under my boots from the stands. I came close to a full stop before I could got back on the gas, 3 guys passed me right there. DAMN IT!!!!! I was working my way back to them when I saw the red flag. They stopped the race after 3 laps, there was so many accident it was not even funny.

I was pissed about the situation but also really happy it was over. I finished in 7th place.

I’m really looking forward to a week-end with nice weather to really see what I can do. I have yet completed a qualification session. Maybe next race week-end? June 22, can’t wait!

Shake and bake!

Attached Thumbnails

 

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NorthernRR

Congrats on another good finish. You'll be creeping up in the points for sure now.

I am GOING to make it out to at least one of your races this season. Sounds like that new 600 and you are a good fit.

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See you at Indy

Jetbdude

Official results online

NOVICE 600 - Results

Race point standing:

NOVICE 600 - Official Points Standings

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The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best everything that they have.

slickwill

Sounds like it will definitely be nice to get that second set of wheels. Congrats on keeping it on two wheels for another good finish.

If I send you a "slickwill" sticker will you put it on your bike?

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If it has wheels, I've crashed it, and some things that don't skis, snowmobile, card board box, giant tube, sentra, dirtbike, lawn tractor, grandmas bread tray, kayak, canoe, raft, bicycle, waterskis, tobaggan, horse, ATV, Now my CBR (women)

ONEvcs

Sorry you didn't get to enjoy it as much as we all would like. But think about it this way. You learned a lot and picked up invaluable experience. More importantly, you're in a very good position in the general classification.
It's just the beginning of the championship. Paced and steadfast wins.
Remember to enjoy yourself.
Great job, dude!!!

phobe

Sounds like a real horror-show. A little of the old "ultra-violence" eh?

My first race is this weekend and the weather forecast is sketchy... I think there will be a lot of guys in the pits with the wheels off their bikes 10 minutes before the whistle.

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TornadoB8

Way to keep the rubber side down, you can't build points with a DNF.

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CCS#27
Dunlop, Vortex, Vesrah, Silkolene

CBR929RE

well you made some nice foot roosters. I hope someone got some pics of it. way to keep it upright

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if you can't fix it with duct tape, you haven't used enough.

bwhip

VERY glad to hear you kept it upright and safe, and I'm sure VS is relieved too (and I hope she's feeling much better!).

The whole grid on 600's is on slicks? A few guys do in ours, but most are on DOT's. Last year in my one semi-wet race, we had the same issue of not knowing what tire to run. I wound up using some Michelin Pilot Power 2CT's, which are a street/trackday tire. They gripped extremely well in the wet, and I wound up placing very well, as many of the really fast guys were very timid in the wet.

Thanks for the report. Well done. I hope your next race weekend brings you excellent weather, so you can see what you can do under more normal circumstances. Congrats on continued success!

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seamus

+1. Glad to hear you kept it upright. Even in that, everything is a learning experience.

Wish you continued success.

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Richard Herald, The Gentle Giant

The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.
--- Thucydides

HondaGalToo

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Shenders1

It looks like you've participated in 2 of the 3 races so far? And you're already in 9th place?

Not bad at all - I'd be very proud to post these kind of results so quickly.

Jetbdude

Not a fun situation man, there's enough happening without having to worry about that. That's part of racing eh!?!

Don't think there's any picture of it but quite a few saw it and where all asking if I ever rode a dirt bike

Everyone was on DOT's, slicks are not allowed in our group. My mistake

I did not race the first round, I was just not ready for it and was not feeling like working on the bike in the pits.


Thanks for all the kind words guys!

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The happiest people don't have the best of everything, they just make the best everything that they have.

DrHall

Really good job, Jet! Glad to hear you handled the unexpected well. Hopefully, you will get a dry race soon!

You are only ging to keep doing better!

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