phobe

Wow I'm exhausted... the last 2 days have been a trip.

Saturday

I arrived at the track early, thinking I was the only guy who was ready to go. I'd changed to my rains the night before, wired up, gassed up, stocked up on supplies. Everyone else was changing tires, fixing busted shit from last year, and in what seemed like a general state of disarray.

The track was wet. Very wet. Race City was (literally) constructed in the low spot of a bog between 2 landfills and it doesn't drain particularly well.

Saturday was to be a practice day, with a single race in the afternoon for the novices. At the rider's meeting, the officials announced that they had taken a vote and decided to close the track due to standing water on the racing line and a poor turnout of volunteers in the poor weather. They decided that the events would go as scheduled for Sunday, and basically we would race with 2 15 minute practice session. This seemed counterintuitive because

A: the weather wasn't expected to be any better for Sunday ie the track wouldn't be any better, and
B: a great deal of the entrants had never run in the wet and wouldn't get much practice.

The decision was met with much protest as everyone was ready to go with rain tires and the puddles were not the worst they'd seen.

So... a few guys rented some pumps to drain the really bad spots and we started into the beer at about 10 am.

Sunday

I show up at about 0700 and there has been a break in the rain for the last few hours... there's even some sunshine in the east. The forecast still calls for rain, and there are some nasty clouds so we're still expecting wet racing.

At the riders meeting they confirm that everything will go as planned, but with shorter races and a little extra practice time. They will include a make-up race for the novices for the one we didn't get yesterday.

The novices are asked to stay after the meeting. All this time I'd been thinking that I'd be up against a handfull of very green track riders and that I would do pretty well... now I'm looking around, sizing everyone up. There are a lot of guys I've never seen before and I start to wonder if I've been too confident...

Practice is to start at nine... it's 8:30 and it still hasn't started raining. It's drizzling and pissing a bit but not really wet. Novices are the second race after practice and there isn't much time left. I feel like it's still too dry for rain tires so I make a last-minute decision to put my DOTs back on. I think I broke my personal record for a wheel change and banged it all together cleanly in a few minutes. I have enough time to go out for the last 15 minute practice session so away I go.

The track is not wet, but moist and there are shallow puddles here and there. I wobble around for exactly 3 laps and it finally starts to rain so I exit back to the paddock. I have about 15 minutes to get my rain tires back on before the novice race starts. This time I'm panicked and I'm fighting the back wheel to the point of absolute frustration. I finally yell for help, and three teammates rush in and get it together for me. (Trayr, Colin and Scott I owe you guys big time)

My bike is back together with literally seconds to spare and I join the warm-up lap late. I almost bin it in turn 2... this is my first time on rain tires.

I'm the last to get in position. I'm gridded in 8th spot but they wave me up to 2... must have been a DNS gridded there. The red flag leaves and the start flag comes out. I don't think I'm ready. I haven't even had a chance to be nervous, I've been so preoccupied with fucking tires. The flag goes up. For some reason I'm hearing Frank in my head... "when the flag drops the bullshit stops when the flag drops the bullshit stops when the flag drops the bullshit stops....." The flag drops. I spin and fishtail for a moment then the tire hooks up and I blast out in front with the holeshot. Yes! I'm first to turn one and I make my way around with cautious determination. I lead the first 2 laps and start to wonder if anyone else is even close. I put an amber "Fog City" liner in my visor before the race but I don't think I installed it right. I don't think I remembered to open the vents on my helmet either and I'm starting to fog up my helmet pretty bad. I ease up a bit on the front straight and WAAAA WAAAA a Yamaha and a Suzuki go by me. Now we're racing! I hang with them for the next lap, and almost re-pass at one point, but my visor and the fog city liner are giving me blurry tranlucent vision at best. I slow down drastically and completely lose them. Over the next 2 laps I start to seriously debate exiting the track. I can't see anything. I'm guessing where the pitlane wall is. I'm turning my head every which way to find a hole to look through. I crack the visor open but it doesn't help. I can't see the brake markers until I'm on them. I'm basically blind and I don't feel safe anymore. Then I see a red flag. I open up my visor completely, coast to the next flag station and come to a stop. The race is over after 6 laps. The guy who passed me on the Gixxer smacked the air fence hard coming out of the chute. Poor bastard probably couldn't see either! I get second place.

I watch my mates' races and start to get ready for my second race after lunch. This time I've had a lot more time to think about and dwell on it, and I'm pretty screwed up. I can't sit down, I'm pacing madly and I have to concentrate to breathe.

Time to race.

I run the warmup lap and take my grid position, this time back in number 12. The front straight doubles as a dragstrip and the traction compound they use turns to grease in the wet. My position is right in a puddle of it,,, not ideal. My heart is pounding. The flag drops. I spin like mad, back off the throttle, spin some more, boot it into second and shoot out like a rocket past all but one guy. I outbrake him into 1 and I'm back in first again. I try not to think of the guy on the Yamaha that beat me in race one and I settle into a nice rhythm. This time I just polished up a clear visor with Plexus and ran it open one click. It's way way wetter than my first race but I can see just fine. The puddles from yesterday are back. I go around the big ones and ease up on others after a few sketchy hydroplaning moments. I'm shortshifting and staying in 3rd gear in parts where I'd normally grab second. I"m relaxed and feeling great. I get faster every lap and don't see another bike until I lap a few of them! A lot of riders completely lost their confidence in the wet, and the laptime spread in the novices was upwards of 40 seconds.

I won!

I wanted to run the middleweight amateur race but it was too late to register... oh well. I'll give 'em hell in round 2!

So much preparation, so much money, so much time and sacrifice for a couple of 15 minute races. And worth it!

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phobe

Pics:

Arriving Saturday morning:

Setting up our paddock:

Track is closed, beer is open:

All dressed up, no place to go:

The Ariel Atom Experience which takes place tomorrow:

The meat wagon:

Puddle through the chute:

Run-down tower:

Swamp infield:

Pumping the puddle:

Sunday morning... dry!

Rise and shine!

Get the DOTs back on!

Now what?

Get the rains back on!

Grid:

Pack up... drink beer, eat, go home:

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Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc

Hammer

I need to clean my screen after that one. Congrats on the placements.

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phobe

He hit it hard enough that he dragged about 6 sections of it a couple of feet along the wall and ripped a couple of the joining straps. I think he busted his ankle but he was ok.

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SomeStrangeGuy

You got wood? Cool (yeah, only in a racing story will I congratulate you on this, bear in mind)

Congrats dude, sounds like my first hare scramble sorta, except I was on a box stock yz450f (motocrosser) in a woods race - blind as hell, in the rain, except my ass displaced the puddles, not pumps. You did a much better job with the total lack of vision, nice job

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Baketech

No words mang...

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SheepOfBlue

Wow those walls make Road Atlanta look good Congrats on the win now swap it up to dry

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Shenders1

1st race weekend, 1st win - It doesn't get much better than that. Doesn't appear to have taken you long to get comfy on that bike.

Congrats!

Jetbdude

Wow! Cool, congrats on the finish!

It sucks to change wheels before a race eh?!!

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Purpdust

Congrats, See ya in a couple of days

BTW the bike is now painted, so you will not have the Getto Bike besides yours.

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RedRider

Nice job...way to put it on top of the box! So where's the pics of your umbrella girl?

CBRVFR

Great job and an enjoyable write-up!

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ND4SPD

Nice job phobe!

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bwhip

Great job! I had a feeling you'd do very well, and you did. Congrats on the great (and safe) results, and I look forward to riding with you on a very dry and safe track in a week.

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oldfogey

Congrats Phobe, impressive first effort!

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TornadoB8

Congrats on popping your cherry!

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Dunlop, Vortex, Vesrah, Silkolene

phobe

Well... no.

In our club, the novice class is sort of like an exam to get into amateur. There are no points and no trophies, and you are "graduated" to amateur once you prove that you can finish well and race safely. Some racers run in novice once, while others will go whole seasons before they're ready. When you can finish a season in the top 5 in amateur you can race in expert.

I was a bit naive thinking that I'd be able to jump in the amateur race after a good finish in the novice races... I should have registered for it ahead of time. Based on my laptimes I would have scored some points too!

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Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc

luvtolean

The AFM doesn't race in the rain. I always wondered what that would be like.

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phobe

Here's me in the first race, blind as fuck, apparently holding up number 88 who eventually passed me and then crashed.

http://www.mountainodyssey.ca/250508...50508_006.html

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Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc

phobe

It was a lot of fun, other than the last-minute tire changes... but that's good practice. The rain tires are incredible. I didn't come anywhere close to finding their limits.

They say rain is the big equalizer, but in the pro ranks the fastest guys were still the fastest, with the heavyweight superbike winner running times that are only 2-3 seconds back of my best times in the dry.

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Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc

davef

Nice job! Glad you kept it upright, as well.

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phobe

Ya, until it fell over in the van on the way home.

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DevilDawg

Congrats, man! Sounds like you had a nice mix of racing smart and safe, yet still hung it out there on the edge now and again. That's what the go-fast guys do. Her's to someday soon someone else paying for you to race!

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Godspeed #20.

Jetbdude

Get a STS

Strapless Transport Stands

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