I have been wanting to go back to Pueblo Motorsports Park for the past 4 years, I just wasn’t able to make it work into my schedule. This year, I decided to make it happen. It’s been 7 years since I raced at this track and I’ve only been on it once since it was repaved. I didn’t even really get to ride it. I was helping out Nick Inetasch with a SunSet Clinic there.
I took an extra day off from work so I could do the track day. I knew I’d need the practice, with the new configuration of turn 1. Along with just not having any recent time on that track.
So that I could get the most time in I decided to leave for Pueblo on Thursday after work. Figuring that I could drive just over halfway, before I’d need to find a spot to stop for the night. As would happen after playing chicken with a small herd of elk just before the top of La Veta pass. I was wide awake, so making all the way to the track wasn’t that difficult. Dang, it was a super close call. There was one female, that fell while scrambling into the left lane just as I reached her. If she had fallen to the right I’d have hit her. Just another reason, why I am so thankful for charmed life that I seem to have.
I made it to the track about 1am. Found a place that was sort of flat, it was just that the nose of the trailer was a bit over level. Thinking I could fix that by unhooking I just parked there. It wasn’t that easy, and even unhooked it was still more nose high then I would have liked. Since the level in the fridge was good, I just left it parked there. (Of course, that was after about 6 attempts, of getting it totally level. All of that was the last straw for me. I ordered an electric jack for it that night.) By the time I finished messing around with that, it was time for the riders meeting. Which was interesting, they are really not sure about what to do with bikes, and kept saying things that made us all a bit scared. Until Mike, jumped in and helped them run things more like they do at HPR.
It was already so dang hot at that point, between that and the lack of sleep. I wasn’t sure that I’d do much riding after lunch. I didn’t. I did one session, I felt fine on the track, but back in the pit when I went to put the warmers on. I started to feel light headed, nausea, and then I broke out in a cold sweat. I took all that as a sign that I was done for the day. So I finished setting up my pit spot.
I also decided to head into town to pickup a new case for the new gopro camera, the one it comes with doesn’t offer much protection if it comes off the bike on the track. I also need deodorant for the wknd if it was going to be this hot! I’d also need more fluids to combat dehydration. I wanted to get back before they started the Friday night drag races. I would need to have everything locked down for that. Things often walk away from the pits during the drag races.
The new case worked great with my older suction cup mount. I had 3 races on Saturday. I signed up for a sprint race and 2 endurance races. As it would have it, the endurance races became sprint races do to the time lost for someone dumping a huge amount of oil in the hot pit lane and track. There was also 3 red flags, maybe 4, but two of them caused a significant delay. So all races were shortened to make sure we were done before dark. I was finally starting to get back up to speed, but I was still about 7 seconds off my best pace. It was coming just really slow. I never got into the upper 1.40s, like I should have, but maybe for the next race. This was also the first time I’d been on the race bike since August of 2017. I was really lacking seat time. Not to make excuses, but it does have an impact.
Sunday was a much better day for everyone! No red flags, I got two practice sessions in on my new rubber, I slipped around in the endurance races, so I decided I’d put some new tires on the bike. The ones I was running had two days at HPR on them and the front also had a couple of track days on it. New rubber is just makes me feel more comfortable. I think it helped I was dropping more time. Another 4 seconds in practice. If I had held to my usual pattern, it meant that I’d be at least 4 seconds faster in the races that day, if not more.
I did get faster I was hitting 1.50 and 1.51, when I didn’t have traffic to get through. Still not the times I should be running but a huge improvement over the 2 min times on Friday. I had 3 races, but I really only cared about one of them… LOR. Ladies of the Rockies. The local screaming fast women wasn’t there this weekend. After checking out the times for the rest of the women, I was looking like the fastest for the wknd. Providing, I didn’t make any errors, two of them had times only a few seconds slower.
In the first race I manage to keep those women behind me, but they were too close for my comfort. I figured that I was dragging them along, since I wasn’t quick enough to completely lose them.
I was in the second row of the second wave start. I needed a good start. Historically, I have great starts, or I suck. I was hoping this one would be great. It wasn’t, but still manage to get in front by the first turn. It came down to who was going to the brakes last. –> ME. I managed to lead the whole race, I even caught a few of the racers from the first wave. At one point one of the women who was on a liter bike passed me on the straight, but she went to the brakes earlier than I did again. So I focused on not making any more mistakes. It worked as it should have. I pulled a bit of a gap on them, and I managed to get my very first win with the MRA. The first time I’d placed higher than 3rd. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To say I was happy is an understatement. I loved that Kerry, congratulated me on the cool down lap. It was a very fun race. She managed to drop 11 seconds this wknd. That is just fantastic! I’m looking forward to going back there again.