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The bike hasn't needed much attention since the last race, but it did help to charge the battery. The battery doesn't seem to hold a charge, and probably needs to be replaced soon.
I waited too late to leave Portland for Seattle -- apparently too many other people get to leave work by 3PM, and traffic through town was pretty bad. Not much else to report about the drive up, but a memorable image was seeing a BMW R1100GS going the other way being driven by a guy wearing jeans and a T-shirt, with the T-shirt blowing up to his shoulders. Just your typical BMW squid, I guess.
I arrived at Matt & Jodi's house around 7:30, and Matt put a couple burgers on the grill for me. Their new house is really nice, and it has more out-buildings than you can shake a stick at!
The weather was warm and sunny. I signed up for the 'Medium' practice group and so did, apparently, at least 50% of the racers there. The first session was too crowded for me to even figure out which gear I should be in for some of the corners. As the day wore on, many people switched to one of the 'Slow' sessions, and I started figuring out gearing.
I also had to find a way around the huge pot-hole at the exit of turn 2. Last summer (the last time I had been to the Seattle track), there was a big dip there. Now it is a patched pot-hole of significant size, and deep enough that you can't run through it safely without either standing the bike up a little, or backing off the throttle a bit.
In the second session, I worked my way down to a 1:47. In the third session I was able to do 47's consistently, but didn't get any lower. I never found the times for the fourth session.
After practice I stowed my bike under Jim Engel's canopy and went back to Matt's house. He had cooked a turkey breast in the slow-cooker. It was delicious, but it blew my plan to take Matt & Jodi out to dinner.
It was cloudy, but still very warm. There was no rain, which was a first for WMRRA this year. Unfortunately, the lack of rain brought out too much enthusiasm and there were a lot of crashes. A crash during the first practice group put us behind schedule right away. Then I missed most of my practice session because Shoei's really cool "quick release" face shield design doesn't always fully lock, and my face shield came loose on one side. After stopping to fix it, there was no way to get back out onto the track safely with the new track layout.
My first race was the first heat of Early Lightweight GP. I had fun dicing with a guy on an FZR 600 for 8th place. Meanwhile we spent the whole race slaloming around vintage bikes. I thought it was curious that the vintage guys start in a wave in front of ELWGP, but I guess after a lap and half it wouldn't matter where they started, anyway. The 600 rider passed me toward the start of the last lap and was pulling away the whole time. But then he blew it on the "bus stop" (the last, and tightest, corner). I passed him and stayed ahead to get 8th. Not a great finishing position, but I did have a lot of fun dicing with him.
The second heat of Early Lightweight GP was trimmed from 5 laps to 4 due to a track oiling delay before lunch. Then the 600 SuperBike race had ambulance-rolling crashes twice and took about an hour to complete with the delays. Since this was the race before ELWGP, I spent the whole hour suited up and ready to roll.
Finally we started, but I ended up in the wrong wave. I figured it out by the time the first wave left, but I didn't move up from the fourth wave to the third because I thought the grid workers would freak out. So this time I had some fun dicing with Brent Prindle on his Aprilia 250. I guess I probably came in last, but it didn't matter -- how much was I going to improve on an 8th place finish in the first heat? I had fun and didn't crash! (Update - results are out, and apparently I passed a few people from the wave I should have left in -- I came in 11th of 18)
Immediately after the second heat was the 450 SuperBike race. At OMRRA, I expect to get beaten by three or four superbike SV650's. At WMRRA I gridded up with at least 20 SV's!
Despite their torque advantage, I think I lead at least 6 of them into turn 2 and felt like I stayed basically in that position for the first lap. Unfortunately, it's only that first lap that matters -- by the time I returned to the "bus stop" the second time, the red flags were out, and our "10 lap shortened to 7 laps due to delays" race was shortened to 1 lap -- bummer.
With only a lap and half at race speed, and lots of waiting on the grid, my bike was singing through its radiator cap by the time I got back to the pits. Overheating will be something to watch out for during the hot days -- blah.
I ordered some Daytona Security Evo Sports boots from a dealer in Germany. (You can, too. Here's how.) They showed up about a week before the race.
These boots are great! You can check out this link to see the safety features. I thought that with the ankle hinge they might be uncomfortable to walk in, but they are fine. You wouldn't want to go hiking with them, but walking around the pits I didn't notice anything wierd. My only complaint is that the ankle zipper on my race suit gets pressed against my calf because the fit is pretty tight around the back of the calf. A suit with a flatter zipper pull would work better.
Anyway, my $90 AGV boots looked like they had been through a lot more than the two years of racing I've used them for, and these boots have SOOO much more protection that the old boots just seem kind of silly.
Thanks to all the WMRRA turn workers, registration folks, and other volunteers who make WMRRA race days possible. The turn workers really had to work hard on Sunday, and calling for the ambulance is never pleasant.
Many thanks to Matt & Jodi Schreiner for the dinners and nice guest room.
Thanks also to my sponsors Bridgestone Tires and Lockhart-Philips USA.
Thanks to Rick Salmon of SB Motorsports -- I needed some jets for my street bike and he gave some to me.
I'm really glad that Briggs Willoughby and many other helpers have managed to get the Air Fence purchased and deployed. It makes a big improvement in safety in several places on the track. Unfortunately, the track does need some changes which will, hopefully, be addressed over time.
And thanks to my wife, Julie!
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