This was the 9th 4 hr endurance weekend, I have been to 6 of them. (1st, 2rd, 3rd, 4th, 7th, & 9th) I’m planning on making it to the 10th one… It’s a fun weekend, there are usually more people who show up for this one even if they don’t show up for any of the other race weekends. It’s pretty cheap track time, if you sign up for the titanium butt and if you can ride for the 4 hours. It’s the first time I’ve made it up there this year. Looking like it’ll be the only time too. Just don’t have the budget for it and I’ve got too many other things I’d like to do.
I didn’t take the time to clean the trailer out really well after my last outing for the Webe race. So here was a fair amount of dust and dirt everywhere. Since it was only going to me and the dog, I wasn’t worried about it. It really needs a good scrubbing now.
Sable was pretty excited about the road trip; it took her almost 3 hours to calm down. She did the most squeaking and talking that I’ve ever seen her do. Since I had the whole day to get there and the gates didn’t open until 7, I took my sweet time in the am getting loaded up in the morning. I also made a couple of extra stops so she could get out for a walk. Having her along does add time to my trips, but I don’t mind it. She is a good travel companion.
Try as I might, I wasn’t able to talk others into going up there for the race. Out of the 19 other races, only one went up. Ken. He has his own rig, he was just there for the 4 hr race. He was kind enough o let me share his pit under the carport. It’s much easier than dealing with a pop up in the winds there. Sable just loves him! She is a pretty good pit puppy. She didn’t being left in the trailer (during the really hot parts of the day, I left her in the trailer. With pavement temps in the 140s, it was too hot for her). She didn’t like the pen either, she preferred my hooking the retractable leash to the tool box, so she could explore a bit more. I was pleased to see that she didn’t bark or carry on while I was on the track. Ken seemed to have as much fun with her as I did. A couple of times I came back to the pits to find her missing only to learn that he had taken her with him into his trailer to watch tv or eat.
I struggled on Friday to get up to speed. Saturday wasn’t any better, after riding all day on Friday my right knee was sore. I couldn’t do more than 10 laps before it got to the point where it was really hurting. I’m thinking that the replacement it going to happen much sooner than I was hoping. I have one more injection to do before I can really make that call. The Doc keeps telling me the second one is where I should see the largest improvement in mobility and a decrease in pain. It pretty hard to race when your right knee doesn’t want to bend more than 90 degrees, and the track is predominantly right turns. It’s really just a whole lot of suckage.
I wasn’t able to do more than an hour of the 4hr. The knee started to really hurt, it was starting to rain, so I pulled off. It was just a few minutes later that they red flagged it for the lightening that came with the rain. On the upside, the weather moved out quickly and the rain really cooled it down. I decided that I wasn’t going back out, I was on slicks and here was standing water all over the track. I’m sure that there was a line through most of the corners, but why risk it. I’ve done well in not crashing in 4 years. Why go out and fall down? I do plenty of that with the dirt bike, I don’t need to do it with the 675. Instead, I cooled down, showered, and put new rubber on the bike for the two sprint races I had on Sunday.
Not sure I like the view with the camera on top of my helmet.
Since the knee was such an issue, I decided I was going to do everything I could think of to make my knee numb for the morning races. I used, Advil, Tylenol, voltaren gel, and some horse joint pain blocker. It worked, even if I know it wasn’t the healthy way to get that done. Honestly, once I saw the lap times I could run when I wasn’t hurting I stopped caring. It was easy too. I was finally running the times I should be doing.
AmU race was a blast, I had a great start. I wasn’t going to admit it to Jim, but the adjustment he made to the clutch lever and the gearing change he talked me into were just about perfect. I had great drive out of the turns. I figured out turn 6 finally, I knew I had been losing seconds there. Finally, getting the entry sorted, helped me get amazing drive out of the turn. So much so I was grabbing another gear coming through 7 to 8. I was also finally getting where I needed to be for turn 13, which is a pretty important one to get right.
LOR, was the one I was really thrilled with! I set a new personal best time. I spent the first few laps, frustrated that I was getting held up by a large group. I think it’s the first time I managed to run with more than 1-3 other riders. It was a blast and scary at the same time. Some of those riders, are really erratic with their lines. Once a few of them got around the rider in front of them and I got around a couple others. I realized that it was Cindy directly in front of me. Since I was getting such good drive out of 6, through 7, I quickly found out that she was parking her bike in turn 8, it was scary closing up on her that quick. The next lap I decided to go up the inside of her, I over cooked it a bit too much and she out drove me out of the turn. She was so much faster on the straight than I was, it took me most of the back section to close the gap back up. At the same time, I was trying to hold off the rider behind me. I had seen them show me a wheel a few times, but I was determined I wasn’t going to let them by. They ended up getting me into 13 on the second to last lap. In all it was the most fun I’d had racing in years. By the end of the race my knee was talking to me, at least it wasn’t screaming at me. I’m still surprised by the confidence I get when I put new rubber on the bike.
I’d like to say the day ended as great as it started…
I loaded up, said goodbye to my race friends, and picked up my hardware! I made it to NM, I had just passed the Springer exit when I heard a BANG. My very first tire blowout. It was hot out, I was going a bit faster than I should have been, and I wasn’t making as many stops as I did on the way up. I still loath changing tires on the side of the Interstate. People don’t over over, they go by way too close, way too fast and those trailer tires are stinking heavy! My cute little jack/ leveler, broke when I was trying to get the trailer on it. I had hoped it would work like the one I had years ago for the horse trailer. You drive up on it and the other wheel is off the ground enough to change it. NOT the case. I still had to get the jack for the truck out and lift the trailer up a bit more in order to get the spare on the trailer. Just as I was tightening the last lug nut, a nice man stopped and asked me if I needed help. I got him to throw the blown out tire into the back of the truck. At least I didn’t have to lift that sucker. I got back on the road just as it was finally dark enough to need a flash light.
I kept the speeds way down for the rest of the drive. I can’t park that sucker in the dark so I left it on the street in front of the house. I parked in the morning when the neighbors were all gone, that sure makes getting it into place much easier on me. Once in the driveway I unloaded the tool box and bike. In all I’m still thrilled with the weekend!!!
