Soggy Savannah
Roebling Road Raceway (RRR) - Bloomingdale, GA
June 11/12, 2005

Heading down to Savannah mid-June, not looking forward to the heat and humidity. We set out to leave @2 and we set sail at 2:20. The closest we've been to leaving on time in a while. The trip down was uneventful and we make it down in just over 5 hours. We setup camp near pit-in/out and head out for dinner and rest.

We get to the track and get everything ready for practice. The bike takes forever to warm up and I skip the first practice session. I make it out for the second session and knock the cobwebs off. It goes OK, but I know I'm not up to the speed I should be.

I'm in the first race, GTL. I grid up and the flag drops. I get a shitty start. I mean one of my worst ever. You'd think it was my first time launching the damn thing. I bog it TWICE, then finally get going. Meanwhile all the SV650s are barreling down the straight towards T1, about 200' ahead of me. Shit, I'll never catch up.

I round the first couple turns and they're still in sight. All's not lost yet. Slowly I start to catch up to the back of the pack and work my way around one of the SVs. Meanwhile, the rest of the pack has started to run away. There's no way I'll catch up to them.

A couple laps later the race gets red-flagged. We restart. This time I get a better start but still not great. I try to keep up with the group this time, but get stuck behind one of the SVs and it's hard to pass. Finally I get by him and set my sights on the next victim, when as we cross the finish line, I see the white flag. WTF?!?! Man, this is now a 3 lap sprint race. This sucks. There's no way I can catch them, so I make my way around the last turn, the finish line is in my sight and my worst fear comes true.... That fuckin' SV I passed 1 lap ago pulls up next to me and beats me to the line by ~1 foot. FUCK!!! That sux!! Oh well, I finished 8th instead of 7th. It would have been worst if it were for first place.

Next up is LWGP. It had sprinkled earlier, but the track has dried out and is mostly dry, except for a couple patches of standing water, off the line. Got a better start this time, but not great. So I hang onto the back of the pack, and slowly pick off a couple riders. 1 or 2 guys had rains on, so they were just making the rounds at about 3/4 pace, which bumped me up a couple spots. I have no idea what position I'm in but I'm trying to chase down the rider in front of me, but he's too far ahead. On what turns out to be the second to last lap, I look back on the straight and there's no one in sight.. so I back off a little and round out the last 2 laps to take a 4th place finish.

Last race of the day, 125GP. We grid up as the 2nd group of a combined class race. LWSBK bike are gridded on row 1 & 2, and we're on row 16. Only 3 of us in this race, me, Joanne & Ryan Clay. The one board drops and we're off. Ryan gets a great start and is in the lead into T1. After a couple turns, I pass him to take the lead. Two laps later, out of nowhere, Joanne passes me around T5. Holy shit where did she come from!?

I manage to stay on her tail and pull up next to her on the straight, but can't pass her as her bike is fitted with kit parts and faster than mine. She start to walk away from me and I manage to stay behind her through the next lap, and again I pull up next to her, testing her out. I wave playfully, but she doesn't look. I formulate a game plan - If I can just hang with her for the whole race, I can get a good drive out of the last turn and beat her to the line and "Duhamel" her.

However she turns on the juice and trys put an end to my plans. She slowly starts to pull away from me lap after lap, however quickly gets held up in traffic. I catch up to her and we both have trouble passing this group of three LWSBK guys. This could be my chance to pass her and use traffic to block her. No such luck. We both end up getting by, but then they quick repass me and Joanne start to take off. Fuck, I'm stuck behind these guys now, and they're not even in my race.

I quicky get frustrated and go around the outside of both of them in T5 and stick it. OK.. I now have some ground to make up, as Joanne has built a comfortable lead. But I can't do it.. she's slowly getting further and further away and the next lap I see the white flag. Oh well. The only way I can catch her is if she makes a mistake, and she doesn't, so I take 2nd place.

We head back and go into downtown Savannah for dinner and turn in early for a good nite's rest.

Sun we wake up to rain. We get to the track and it's just pouring rain. We sit in the car for a good 1.5 hours until it dies down to a sprinkle and 30 mins later eventually stops. We sit under the canopy contemplating what to do. The track is soaked and practice is about to start. I'm not going out in the rain, at least not for practice, so we leave the bike in the trailer.

The rain continues on and off for the next 2 hours. Races have started and I'm #9 and 14, meaning we have to sit and wait for my races. Meanwhile I'm trying to decide if I even want to stay or just pack up and go. I mean... do I really want to sit around for 3 more hours just to have it keep raining and never dry the track out? We won't be at the race in Sept. and it's a double points weekend, meaning I'm pretty much out of any chance to get any championships this year, I say "fuck it" and we pack it in. No reason to stay around and chance racing in the rain just to collect points when it won't really matter anyways.

So we pack up the trailer and grab some lunch on the way out and head home. As well, I make the decision to pull out of the next race at RRR (July 23rd weekend), b/c it costs us about $600 for the weekend to race in Savannah (race entries, food, gas, etc) and since I'm not in any point chase this year, that money is better spent on doing a couple practice/track days where for $600 I can get 8-10 hours of riding, instead of 2.5 hours.

So needless to say, our race schedule is turning out to be VERY VERY short for this year. However, this was initially the goal of this year.. to really learn to ride better, sharpen my skills, and get the bike tuned and setup for a kick-ass season next year. So I'm actually happy with the way it's turning out, as I'm able to do more track days now. I've done 2 track days so far, and am planning on doing 5-6 more throughout the rest of the year.