(whistle) ... just a little patience, mmmmm, yeah.
Roebling Road Raceway
June 14/15, 2003

So here we go again. Back to Savannah... but this time, with a new rear shock and new, re-valved forks by Traxxion. This is the first time out on them so it should be interesting to see how (if any) much faster I go.

We do the usual, leave work early on Friday and head down in the afternoon. We go to drop the trailer off at the track and see that the grounds are soaking wet. We find the driest spot possible, and park the trailer, then head to the hotel to get some rest.

We wake up Sat, and head to the track. Everything has dried up and the track is dry. I'm psyched.

Get out in practice, and the bike feels great. Definitely notice a difference with the new suspension. A lot stiffer and the bike feels tighter and more responsive. I'm ready for my first race.

LW SuperSport - It's me against the SVs. Tough to beat them here, because it's a fast, flowing track, so there's limited spots for me to out-brake and use my weight to pass them. I get 4th place.

Next up is MW Sportsman - I lead almost the entire race (mistake #1). This race is a close battle between me and Daniele Lernarduzzi, #413. He's on my ass the entire race, and is able to motor by me on the straight, but I always out-brake him into T1, and get ahead of him.

Wellll, coming around for our final lap, he gets a great drive off the last turn, onto the straight. Daniele passes me and is ahead by about 4 bike-lengths, when near the end of the straight, we come up on a slower expert. He motors/out-brakes the expert, but I get stuck behind him (the expert) for 2 more turns, and that's all she wrote. I pass him in T4 but it's too late. There was no way I could catch Daniele now. It was close though, but I think either way he would have beat me. I end up with 2nd.

LW SuperBike, and LW GP are pretty much the same scenario as the LWSS race: Me against the SVs. I finished 3rd in LWSB, and 4th in LWGP. In the LWGP race, I've got an expert in front of me that I'm trying to pass. He's within reach, but I'm trying to find a good place to pass him. It won't make a difference in my results if I pass him or not. It's just something that I'm wanting to do b/c I know I can. Well... I get a little too anxious, and take the outside line out of T3, and drift off the edge of the track, and stand it up, then cross over the track, across T4, and head for the grass and woods. "OH SSHHIIITTTT!!" I'm yelling to myself. "Easy, easy ,easy..." I was able to keep it upright, and stop before the big dirt berm. I get back out on the track and finish in 4th, almost losing it to 5th place. Whew, that was close.

So we come to Sun.

I need new tires pretty badly. These have 3 weekends on them. So I put new tires on before practice, and go out for practice to scrub them in. 2 problems here:

I was trying to slowly go faster and faster each lap. I think I got a little anxious/over confident, because about lap #4, I come into T1 too hot for the tires, and started to slide the front. I stand it up and run off onto the grass, which was soaking wet from the rain on Saturday nite. "Shit!!" I immediately scream. The front wheel tucks and I did a 'Pete Rose' and slide for about 10 feet. "FUUUUCCKKKKKK!!" is the first thing going through my head and my mouth.. for about 10 seconds. "Fuck, fuck fuck!".

I pick up the bike and inspect it. It just bent the handlebar and broke the brake lever (so I thought). I drive back to the paddock and fix with my spares.

Unfortunately, due to my crash, I wasn't able to get it fixed in time for my first race (which was 20 min. later). So I missed my first race. Oh well. But I wanted to make sure everything was working, rather than rush and go out with a half fixed bike.

Now, I it's time for my second race (#5 of the day).

We start, & I come around T1, and I'm having problems in 3rd gear. I have no power, like NOOO power in 3rd, but in 1st and 2nd, seems to go fine. I can't get the RPMs above 8K in 3rd... what the fuck is going on here!?!?!?

I also notice I have (what seems to be) severe engine braking, my brakes are extremely tight, and my engine is heating up 10^oc higher than normal. I pull in after 2 laps, this isn't good.

So I check out the bike, and things seem to be in order. In the paddock, the brakes aren't tight, and engine is revving/running fine on the stands. I even change the brake fluid just in case something was wrong with it.

For the rest of the day (2 more races) this problem persists, but randomly... for a couple laps, the bike would run fine, then all of a sudden for a couple laps... tight brakes, no power above 2nd gear, and the engine would heat up 10^oc higher.

Matt Blashfield was pitted next to me, and took a look, and noticed the left front rotor was blueing around the edge. So he came up with a theory... something was stuck between the pad and the rotor, thus causing the brakes to be tight, thus was like riding around the track w/ the brakes on the whole time, which caused the 'severe engine braking' I thought I was experiencing (was actually the brakes), and the overheating due to the engine wanting to go, but the brakes saying 'no', putting extra stress on it.

Makes perfect sense to me, except that it was on and off.. meaning something was/is getting stuck, then unstuck, then stuck, then unstuck, etc...

Due to the randomness of this issue, for my last 2 races, I was able to do OK.. finished 4th in LWSS, and 3rd in MWSM.

So we pack up, aggravated with Sunday's turn of events, we head home.

My lesson I learned this weekend... Patience, Patience, Patience.