Talladega Race Day

“Your first race is a lot like the first time you had sex.  It’s good but you know it can be better!”  This was the response I received when asking veteran racer and tuner extraordinaire Matt Carr what his first race was like.  “It’s going to be a bit crazy.  Just focus on meeting your lap time goals and have fun.  Don’t worry about trying to light the world on fire during your first weekend.” He continued.  By the time the weekend was over, both of these statements proved rang true. 

A little background on me: I’ve been riding street bikes for years, have done a few track days and did some time trial racing in Alaska.  I’ve never done any heads up racing so this was my first foray into the fairing bashing fun that is motorcycle road racing.  Needless to say I was a bit nervous about the whole thing.  Compound my nervousness about racing with the fact that I would be jumping in the deep end after having purchased my dream motorcycle – a 2008 Ducati 848 – and investing a fair bit of money at Indy Ducati getting it race ready and add in the fact that I had never attended a WERA event, had no clue about registration and tech or had a good feeling about the myriad of things that needed to be done before heading out on the track.  I was quite anxious to say the least. For any racer reading this, I’m sure you can remember your first time out, when do you register, what is tech like, how to get to through turn one upright, etc.  For a novice reading this, well, it can be an absolute nightmare.  I can honestly say that a nightmare is exactly what the weekend would have been had it not been for Matt Carr of Ducati Indianapolis attending the event with myself and fellow racer, Gene Burcham.  Both of these guys went above and beyond to help this poor novice make sense out of the fast moving events.       

Road Trip

On Friday evening, Matt and Gene drove from Indianapolis, stopped at Ft Knox, Ky to get me then continued on to Talladega, AL.  For me it was about a 6 ½ hour ride.  For them, it was closer to 9.  Talk about feeling like a pro rider!  Here I am, bike in the trailer, heading to my first race with a professional tuner/mechanic and a fellow 848 racer.  Life as a novice isn’t supposed to be this good! 

We made it there with no hassle and found a motel close to 1am.  We made sure the bikes were safe in Gene’s trailer and tried to catch a few hours of sleep prior to getting to the track when the gates opened at 6 am.  To make our evening a bit more entertaining, a local crack whore decided to have a rather loud, raucous discussion with her roommates and the police at about 3 am.  Thankfully, we were not invited to the party. 

Saturday, 7 February 09, 6 am

We three near zombies loaded into Gene’s truck and started the day.  My nerves were on overload at this point, over riding my sleep deprived mind.  Once we arrived and got through the gate, we had to drive around a bit but were able to find a pretty decent pit spot.  We rolled the bikes out of the trailer and got ready for tech.  We thought we had a decent spot until an older gentleman drove by about four times telling us to move the bikes on the grass.  Not a problem but each time we did it was like moving furniture with your spouse, “a little more left, no right, no left.”  Finally he left us alone and we were able to get down to business.  I had a few last minute things to take care of such as mounting tires, number plates and dropping the belly pan for tech.  Matt and Gene started taking care of the bikes while I went to registration.  Since I preregistered online (highly recommended) the line wasn’t too bad.  I was able to get in and back with little problem.  Matt was working with the number plates so I helped out with that before heading to tech.  Gene went to register.  The yellow (novice) plates I ordered came as the back ground only, no numbers.  I had to run around to find numbers to use and ended up buying them from the Bridgestone tire guy, Stick.  Once the plates were on, I took my bike and riding gear to technical inspection.  (Side note for fellow 848 riders, the 6 inch numbers are entirely too large for our tail section.  An aesthetically better way to put your numbers on is to use one number plate for the tail along with a number plate on each side of your lower fairing.) Tech was a first for me so I wasn’t sure how it was going to work.  Thankfully, Matt had taken the time while my bike was in his shop to make sure my safety wire was completed to WERA standard.  Because of his diligence, I made it through tech with no issue.  After that, it was time to get my tires and get them mounted.

Got Rubber?

I came across a very good deal on some Dunlop take offs (all Ntech slicks and DOT’s) and figured that since I’m a novice these would be safe to run.  I took a chance getting take offs and it paid off for me.  The tires were in excellent condition and offered phenomenal grip throughout the course of the weekend.  I will caution fellow novice racers about using take offs.  The train of thought is that they are take offs for a reason.  I knew the fellow I bought them from and was confident he wouldn’t rip me off.  I also took them to the Dunlop technician (an unbiased opinion) to get his input prior to purchasing them.   Overall it was a very good deal for me and I was able to use the same front slick for over 60 laps!

Time: What We Don’t Have   

Post tech and pre practice reinforced a lesson I had previously learned as well as taught me a new one.  Mounting tires, number plates and other little details eats away at your time. When your practice sessions are only 20 minutes each, your track time is limited so any little thing extra you have to do makes it go by even faster.  Basically, do as much as you can prior to arriving at the track.  I had learned this lesson when I attended the Ed Bargy Racing School in December and had tried to plan better but my employer (the US Army) had other ideas.  Things did go a lot better than they could have however, thanks to the ever present assistance from Matt and Gene.  To all novice racers, I highly recommend going to the track with someone who’s familiar with the process or has at least had experience at a race.  It will pay dividends in the amount of hair you pull out of your head trying to get things done.

The valuable lesson I learned Saturday morning is to pay attention to the practice group tech assigns you.  I requested to be in the 750cc and up novice group, group 5.  The tech personnel figured since the 848 was racing against 600cc machines, I’d be in the 600cc novice group, group 3.  When I mentioned being in the 750 group I was told, OK, but still ended up with a 600cc group sticker.  The stickers are color coded so it is critical that you ask the inspector which group you are in.  That small bit of miscommunication resulted in me getting exactly zero practice time Saturday morning.  Oh, and double check the schedule.  For some reason I thought there were three sessions when in reality there were only two.  Didn’t figure that out either until I heard it over the loud speaker as what would have been my session was ending.  Needless to say, this was not the way I wanted to start my weekend.

After a lunch that consisted of eating strategy, time, and more nerves, I slowly mulled my predicament.  I was a novice with new rear sets, a new 520 kit, different tires (Pirelli DOT’s to Dunlop Ntech slicks) with different ride height front and rear and was getting ready to start a 20 lap heavyweight solo.  This meant I was going to be on the track with 1000cc novices as well as experts.  Oh, and I had not ridden or even sat on my bike since the Ed Bargy course on 14 December 08.  This was going to be fun!  On the upside however, I did have track knowledge on my side so I focused on remembering the layout as well as my brake markers, shift markers and how hard I could enter and come out of each corner.  Prior to attending this event, I made a point to watch as much video on you tube as I could of experts lapping Talladega.  This helped me to see different lines, turn in points and brake markers as well as just how fast you could actually go around this place.  Ah, if only it were that easy. 

As always, my mentors looked out for me.  They advised me to look at the solo as sort of a 20 lap practice and get reacquainted with the bike as well as get used to the new items.  So as Matt removed the tire warmers and took the bike off the stands to send me out, I started running down a mental checklist of what I needed to do.  This actually helped calm me down quite a bit.  I went through the track in my head and remembered what it felt like from December.  Let me be Mr Obvious here and point out that as humans, we can add a sort of rosy coloring to certain memories.  In my mind I remembered the practice sessions during the school as well as the following track day.  I was up to speed, there were very few riders on the track and passing was minimal at best.  In addition to this, my brain had time to adjust to the sensation of speed gradually as the school went on.  I never realized how critical this last bit really is.  Before I knew it, the warm up lap was over and I was gridding up for a mass start.  No two wave start this time, one green flag for everyone.  That put me starting on row 16 on the outside.  Talladega never seemed so small or narrow before!

Race 1, Heavyweight Solo 20

As I sat in my grid spot watching the timing board and waiting for Chuck (the WERA starter since motorcycles were invented) to give us the 1 min board, I took a second to look around at the other bikes I was gridded up against.  There were 600’s 750’s 1000’s, even a Ducati 999R and another 848.  The one thing that immediately stood out to me was the conspicuous lack of brightly colored T-shirts over the leathers.  In WERA, a bright orange or green T-shirt identifies a provisional novice, the rookie, cherry, noob, or whatever other moniker one is branded with when they’ve never raced before.  Yep, that was me, the lone, glassy eyed deer in the headlight, green t-shirt guy in the middle of a pack of steely eyed racers.  Never one to back down from a fight, I put on my best, under-helmet war face, and got ready to “get it on”.  As I watched the board go from 3 to 2 to 1, I rolled on the throttle and increased the revs, determined not to be the last one into the corner when a voice crept into my head all the way from Indianapolis saying, “you can’t win the race in the first corner, but you sure can lose it.”  It was Bill Carr, Matt’s father.  Then the green flag dropped and we were off. 

I felt like I had a pretty good start until a bunch of guys from behind me blasted past.  Never really having practiced race starts on the 848 I was unsure of how hard to launch it.  I can honestly say that based on my first start, I could have launched a lot harder.  It felt like I had the bike in reverse!  Into the first corner I went with one guy under me, one guy on the outside.  I focused on holding my line and getting a good drive out of the corner.  Apparently both the fellows I was riding with thought of the same thing and did it a bit better!  Not sure of what place I was in going into turn 2 but I can say no one else attempted to pass me.  I think it was because they were all in front of me.  This is the point where the sensation of speed comes into play.  Since December, about the fastest I had gone was around 80mph in my Toyota Tundra.  Here I was, rushing up to turn 2 at nearly 100mph going, man, I hope these tires stick.  I let off the gas and hit the brakes early, got through the corner and repeated that for the rest of the lap and next couple.  In short, the pucker factor was redlining while my engine wasn’t.  Not a good combo.

As the race went on and laps ticked by, I found myself getting more and more comfortable.  I started picking up the pace slowly but surely and actually managed to pass a couple of guys.  I started catching up to another fellow and had a bit of a lapse of concentration going into turn 2, hit the brakes late, and found that they had started to fade.  I turned in anyway and attempted to hold it as long as I could.  A word to my fellow novice racers, our bikes and tires can handle WAY more than our brains believe they can.  When in doubt, turn it in.  At least you still have tarmac to play with.  If you’re going too fast still, you can scrub off speed, stand it up, and run off the track at that point, much like I did.  Yep, I decided to see what the motard version of Talladega looked like as I went into the grass about 2/3rds of the way through the bowl.  Thankfully the tires stuck even in the grass and I was able to get back on the track and keep riding.  I hesitate to say racing because there was no one for me to race at this point as they were all well ahead of me.  I simply stuck with the plan and felt out the bike.  Shortly after this I got to see just how fast the 1000’s really are.  I had a pair (leaders from the expert class) come past me, full tilt.  They didn’t buzz me too closely, probably out of fear of my dreaded green shirt, but they did scare the crap out of me as I wasn’t expecting it.  They look fast from the stands but on the track they are absolutely hauling, well, you know.  We all went into turn 2 together (that was a busy corner for me this weekend) and I watched as they both spun up their rear tires, sliding and snaking their way into turn 3.  Talk about an impressive display of horse power and riding!  That was worth the price of admission alone and the new pair of underpants I’d be reaching for when I got back to the pit!

The race ended mercifully with me having gained what I felt to be little confidence.  I was slow as dirt and as I headed back into the pits for post race inspection, I was already thinking about what I had to do for the next day.  I was flagged over to the side by an official where I learned another valuable lesson, charge your transponder fully.  Yes, on top of everything else, my transponder had died so there was no record of anything I had done in the race.  Since I finished a lowly 14^th, the WERA rep neither DQ’ed nor fined me.  She simply told me “happy birthday” and made sure I understood how to charge my transponder.  Murphy really knows how to kick a guy when he’s down. 

That night we had a great dinner at Outback (blooming onions rule!) and attempted to get some sleep.  None of us had more than 3 hours the night before and we were smoked.  On top of the lack of sleep we subsisted off some bananas that Matt picked up, energy drinks, and coffee.  Thankfully the local fauna kept quiet this night.  Minor strategy discussions and race day processing aside, we relaxed to the tune of a couple of beers and got some much needed rest.

8 February 09, Practice sessions

After having a good night sleep and getting some food and coffee in my system, I was feeling a bit better.  My stubbornness and determination refused to allow me to wallow in self pity from my piss poor performance the day prior.  I am a racer by God, and I was going to prove it.  The bikes were ready, tires warming up with the warmers, Matt and I decided to take a walk on the track to understand it better.  If you get nothing else from this article, remember this: walk the track!  This helps you see the banking, grip level, and any imperfections in the track surface.  You can also see the rubber marks being laid down on the lines used by the fast guys.  There is a wealth of knowledge to be had by simply walking around and looking at things which is exactly what we did.  As we walked, I discussed my lines with Matt and we made some minor corrections on a few based on his observations.  The main turn we looked at was 3, AKA, the 90’s, as that was the corner I was losing the most time in.  It is the only right hander on the track, sports a decreasing radius at the exit, and has a large rhino patch right across the final apex.  What we noticed was that the corner has a slight positive camber to it, allowing for a bit more trail braking and the rhino patch has excellent grip.  Matt recommended a completely different line than what I had been using and I looked for a deeper brake marker.  With these things in mind, we went back to the pit, my confidence a bit higher, to see Gene off to his first practice session of the day.  After he left, I suited up for mine.

1st Practice

I went out with our walk fresh in my mind and went over the lines on my warm up and first lap.  For the second I picked up my pace to the limits of my comfort and really focused on getting the 90’s right.  The line Matt recommended was the right one however, I still lacked confidence in riding over the patch and my times reflected that.  I did about 6 laps and pulled in to the pit.

2^nd Practice      

What a difference being adjusted to the sensation of speed makes!  I was no longer wide eyed going into the braking areas of turns 1, 2 and 6 and was able to start picking up the pace through the 90’s.  My knee started touching down earlier but I knew there was more speed to be had through that section.  About three laps in, the session was red flagged so I pulled back into the pit.  Another note for novices, if there is a red flag; go directly pack to your pit.  No point in sitting on the line for a few minutes like I did, letting your tires cool.  Not to mention, since you are a novice, the people you are with are going to be concerned that it was you the red flag was for.  Better just to head back and put the tire warmers on until you are called back out, like I was.  I did two more laps and came back in feeling pretty good.  My practice times were consistent 1:07’s.  My fastest lap from the Bargy school was a low 1:08 so I had gotten a bit faster but was surprised that it was only by a second or so.  My excitement was mixed with a bit of frustration as I felt like I had been going faster than the clock indicated.  This turned into determination.  I had set 1:04 as my goal for the weekend and if I had to pitch my bike down the road getting there, that’s what I was going to do.

After my practices were complete, I opted to change my rear tire as I knew I had back to back races and didn’t want to get stuck with a worn tire going into my second session.  We also managed to have food at lunch this time.  The fellow pitted next to us – an old friend of Matt’s – let us use their grill to cook some steaks.  No beer unfortunately as there was still racing to be done!

Race 1 Heavy weight twins superbike

When I picked the classes I was going to race in, the 2009 rule book hadn’t been printed yet.  As a result, I was in this class, along with B and C superbike instead of super stock.  Knowing then what I know now, I would have chosen to run the super stock classes as opposed to superbike and would have avoided B altogether but I digress.  Here I sit, on the heavyweight superbike grid.  1000’s and big twins all gridded together, again, a sea of bikes.  I was back in the nose bleed section, row 14 I think while Gene was much closer to the front.  Since it was a ten lap race, I hopefully wouldn’t see him or any of the other experts blowing past me.  Green flag go and we were off.  My start was far from decent but less people passed me into turn 1 this time.  I got a pretty good drive going to 2 and was able to get a place back.  I passed another guy going into 3 and started to settle into a good rhythm.  About that time I came onto a guy on a TL1000R that had great drive off the corners and good speed on the straight but was early on the brakes and slow mid corner.  Problem was that I would pass him going into a corner then watch him drive past coming out.  He could pull enough of a gap down the back and front straight that I couldn’t make it up on the brakes and would be stuck behind him again.  I must have stuffed him going into 3 (all that practice paid off) about 4-5 times, only to have him drive past me going to 5 (the carousel).  Talk about frustration!  I knew I was faster but didn’t have the motor for the straights.  Finally, I took a wider line through 5 and got an excellent drive going down the back straight, I had to brake a bit deeper than I normally did but it paid off.  I was able to get past and put my head down.  This was the start of lap 9.  As I came onto the front straight, I could see 2 guys exiting turn 1 ahead of me.  I had to catch them.  Everything else fell away at that point as my whole focus became catching and passing these two.  I had no clue what place I was in but I wanted more.  I pushed as hard as I could and caught them coming into the braking area of turn 6.  Decision time for me on the brakes.  One guy set up for the entrance really wide, one guy was in the middle of the track, looking to pass.  I could let off the brakes and try to stuff them both from a bit farther back than I had ever considered braking before, or I could be prudent and hold my place.  Prudence won the day as I watched the guy on the outside (riding another 848) take a sweeping entrance to the corner, effectively cutting off the guy in the middle of the track, who turned in behind the 848 safely.  I followed them through the corner and tried to win a drag race to the line but came up .120 seconds short at the line, for what I later found out to be sixth place.  That was a great feeling.  It was irritating not being able to get passed that TL earlier but rewarding because I had made up about 2 seconds on these two in a single lap.  I figured I had the speed to be competitive but needed to get more aggressive with my passing.  I didn’t have much time to contemplate this as my next race – C superbike – was starting immediately after the race I had just completed.  There was no warm up lap or even a return to the pits.  I just rode right to my next grid position and got ready to go again.

Race 2 C Superbike

When we arrived in Talladega, I began hearing that this was a more aggressive group to be riding in.  Evenly matched bikes with younger, more aggressive (read: careless) riders comprised the class and could make things entertaining to say the least.  I thought of these things as well as how I could improve based on my last race.  I had little time to process as the green flag dropped and I was off again.  Thank goodness for crossfit and my addiction to fitness!  I can honestly say that I wasn’t physically or mentally tired going from one race to the next.  I’ve always kept myself in top condition and it paid off.  I did however get an unexpected breather when a red flag came out.  I had pretty much my best start of the weekend.  I was in a group of about 5-6 bikes going into turn one and no one was backing off.  Prudence again won out and I rolled out a bit figuring I’d pick guys off as the race went on.  That was the smartest thing I had done all weekend long.  The hole I left was quickly filled as a couple of guys came together, knocking down a guy on a ZX6R on the outside of the turn.  He hit the ground hard and slid off the track along with his bike.  Turn one has some serious banking so after he slid off the track; he went down the slight hill on the other side.  At that point all you can do is look where you are going and not at the crashed bike so you don’t get target fixed.  I was a bit shaken and didn’t get into 2 as well as I could have.  A guy passed me up the inside but ran straight as he was too hot going in.  The red flag was out by the time we exited 2.  I went straight back to the pits where Matt and Gene put the bike on stands and the tire warmers on.  I explained to them what happened and waited for the restart.  I had never witnessed anything like that up close and was sort of surprised but got over it quickly.  Unfortunately crashing is part of racing and it is a simple fact that two bikes can’t occupy the same space at the same time, much less five.  Again, my prudence had kept me upright.

I waited for the third call for the restart before heading out onto the track for a warm up lap.  By waiting for the third call, you minimize your wait on the line and reduce the amount of heat your tires lose.  I lined up, the green flag dropped and we were off again.  All of a sudden I felt like Bill Murray in Ground Hog Day as I watched a carbon copy of the turn one accident happen again!  Yes, you read that correctly, yet again five bikes attempted to occupy the same place on the track and the guy on the outside got bumped out.  This time was a bit worse as the ride struck his head on the ground fairly hard and looked to be unconscious as he rolled limply off the track.  Again the red flag was out by the exit of turn 2 so I pulled back into the pits and had the tire warmers put back on.  After watching that again, I have to admit that I talked to Matt about not going back out for the third start.  I just couldn’t believe what I was seeing.  Dudes wiping each other out in turn 1.  Bill’s words of wisdom were indeed true.  You don’t win anything in that first corner but you sure can lose a whole lot. 

I ended up heading back out for the third restart with more than a little reluctance.  My plan was to essentially hang back for turn 1 (even if it meant being last) and start working my way up the field.  Again, the flag dropped and we were off, everyone making it through turn 1 this time.  I was second to last exiting the turn but made up a place going into 2.  It took me about a lap to pass the fellow in front of me.  He was getting great drive out of the corners but using about 4 lines mid corner, making it impossible to go around the outside.  I took a tight line going into the 90’s and had the line on the exit, got a great drive going to the carousel then set about catching the guys in front of me.  I picked off guys one by one until I got a bit of a gap and used the clear track to put my head down and see how fast I could really go.  As I was exiting the bowl, I noticed a guy had run off the track and was coming back on as I passed.  I could feel him behind me and was determined to keep it that way.  It made me push faster and harder.  Going through the carousel I could see his shadow right behind me but focused on riding my race.  I was pushing so hard coming out of 6 I even jumped the curb on the outside but didn’t lose any time!  I spun the tire rear exiting the turn 1 and 2.  Again, coming into the last lap I had a guy a couple of seconds ahead of me and ended up catching him going into turn 6.  I got a huge drive and this time won the drag race around the outside for 5^th place!  At the time I didn’t know my placing but was so happy that I kept the guy behind me and beat this other fellow to the line.  That was as good as a victory for me.  I rode back to the pit feeling pretty good about the whole thing and was greeted by Matt and Gene smiling.  They put the bike on the stands and put the tire warmers on.  Matt asked with a big grin, “Dude, do you want to know your times?”  I was hesitant.  Part of me wanted to know because I felt faster than I had all weekend but didn’t want to hear a disappointing 1:07.  I couldn’t resist and had to know.  Matt had clocked me at a 1:04.8!  He said after that guy had ran off the track I all of a sudden went from 1:07’s to 1:04’s and stayed there for the final few laps of the race.  He also said he had come up with a nickname for me but didn’t want to tell me until the end of the day.  On the official time charts that we checked at the end of the day, my fastest lap ended up being a 1:04.021.  I was shocked.  I felt fast but had no clue that I had shaved 3 seconds off my previous best.  I was so excited and felt very confident going into my final race of the day, B superbike.

The final race, B Superbike

As I lined up for my final race of the day somewhere back on highway 77, I wondered how fast I’d be able to go in this race. I was racing against 750’s so I knew I had a horse power deficit but was confident that my ability on the brakes and mid corner would balance things out.  Was I ever wrong!  Plain and simply put, the 848 does not have enough horse power to out run a 750 on a straight.  I took it easy into turn 1 again and this time paid for it.  There were no picking guys off on this one.  I got stuck behind another guy that felt like using 4 separate lines at the same time through a corner was his best bet.  I’d go inside at the 90’s only to have him motor past me going into the carousel.  I would run the wide, faster line through the carousel only to be passed on the middle of the back straight or have to close the throttle as he picked some crazy line and cut in front of me.  I even considered going around the outside in the carousel but his inconsistency through that corner made it a risky proposition at best.  It was incredibly frustrating because I knew I was faster overall but was getting beaten by a slower rider with a bigger engine.  As the race wore I started thinking of other ways and places to pass until we went into the carousel on about lap 6.  I hit the brakes hard so as not to run him over since he seemed to be parking on entry, down shifted and caught a false neutral.  About this time, the guy turned in, right across my front tire, very early.  Rather than hitting him (I needed that last down shift to scrub off speed) I pulled up and ran straight into the grass to sample a bit more Talladega grass track.  Running off at the entrance to the carousel is always a risky affair.  You’re generally carrying a fair amount of speed and don’t have a lot of runoff.  There is plenty of space if you’re sliding on the ground but if you’re upright you don’t have a lot of ground to slow down before coming to the tire wall.  I went into the grass and started pumping the rear brake as Matt had instructed me to do in a conversation we had on Saturday night.  I also made the mistake of touching the front brake; this was my undoing.  The “hand of God” reached up and grabbed me.  One second I was upright, the next second grass was whipping past the face shield of my new helmet.  I could feel myself sliding face first across the grass so I pulled my arms close to my body and waited until I felt the sliding momentum come to a halt.  As soon as I stopped, I was up running to my bike.  Matt later told me I popped up so quickly it looked like I had springs in my leathers.  Just before I went to my bike, I looked back in the direction of the crowd and ambulance and gave a thumb up so everyone would know that I was unhurt.  I got to my bike, hit the kill switch and picked it up.  Note to self, add a dead man’s tether to my kill switch.  The clutch lever was bent and there was dirt and grass all around the left side rear set but only cosmetic damage on the body work.  The corner worker was there to check on me.  I told him I was fine and wanted to get back on the track.  I felt no pain nor was I concerned with the damage.  The bike still fired up and I had a race to finish!  However, that went right out the window when he told me that I had to go through tech before resuming.  Dejected, I jumped on and rode back to the pit.  It was an incredibly disappointing way to end my weekend.  Matt and Gene met me at the pit.  They asked what happened, if I was alright, I explained the crash and said I was fine.  I got out of my leathers and started helping them load the trailer.  Matt stopped me, looked me dead in the eye and asked if I was sure I was alright.  The adrenaline was starting to wear off and the soreness was setting in but I assured him I was fine.  I ended up having a sore neck and oblique but other than that was uninjured.  We loaded everything up and got ready to head home.  Ironically enough, the nickname that Matt came up with was Slideswell.

The aftermath

So, I ran some pretty fast times (for me at least), finished reasonable for my first ever races, and crashed.  What now?  First, I had to figure out the low point of the weekend, the crash.  Bottom line is that it was my fault.  I replayed every lap of that race in my head over and over again.  There were a few times that I could have forced a pass and more than likely left that guy, provided he didn’t motor past me again.  The reality of it is I was too close to an unpredictable rider going into a corner and it cost me.  There’s really no other explanation.  I also learned quite a few lessons from my first weekend:

1. Come to the weekend prepared to ride, if possible (tires mounted, bike completely ready to go)

2. Register online before attending the event.  This will save you from standing in a really long line on race day.

3. Pay attention to the practice group tech assigns you.  If you disagree with it, adjust it while you’re in tech.

4. Don’t attend a race weekend alone.  I was incredibly lucky to have Matt and Gene with me as both of them have raced for a long time and know what to do and what to expect.  However, just having a friend there to help you get the bike on stands and to help out will make your life much easier.

5. If possible, do a track day at the track you are going to race on.  This extra track knowledge will pay dividends as you will be able to focus on setup and increasing your speed as opposed to figuring the place out in your morning practice sessions on race day.

6.   When racing on a budget, focus on suspension and setup as opposed to power.  Yes, I was out powered in the 750 class but I always had more than enough horse power for my skill level.  I could brake and turn with anyone in my class confidently because I have quality suspension set up by a very knowledgeable technician, Matt Carr.

7. Tire warmers.  Don’t race without them.

8. Walk the track prior to racing, as mentioned above.

9. Ride your own race.  Use your brake markers.  Don’t worry about the guy riding near you, he more than likely doesn’t know anymore than you do so don’t get pulled into making a mistake by focusing on another rider as opposed to what you’re doing.

10. Most importantly, have fun.  Racing is an absolute blast and you will meet great people.  Don’t be that guy who gets too serious about a novice level club race and acts like a jerk.

 - Andrew Sidwell