First race, ever, and I was as slow as a post!  Novice practice was first, at 9:00 and we got a second practice at about 11:30.  Then the race went on at 4:30 or so.  The only exact time was 9:00, since things happen.



Loading up was no problem, since Paul and I have gotten it down to a bit of a science.  It can certainly be improved upon, but it was uneventful.  We got to the track before the gates opened at 7:00, since it was going to rain, or not rain depending on what forecast you looked at.  He had rains on his bike and I had DOT race tires on mine.  One of us was going to have to swap wheels.  It was me.  We got settled in just in time to get on the track, and it didn't just rain.  It hailed.  This is becoming a bit of a tradition, since it has hailed on the novices the first weekend for the past three years.  My racing mentor followed me around the track during the practice session and told me I was carrying very good speed in the corners, considering the conditions, but I should actually use the throttle and should consider braking later.  Because I couldn't see anything to speak of, I thought it might be a bad idea.



The second session started a whole lot better, but the hail hit after a lap or so, and it got so thick a couple turns turned pretty much white.  I was feeling a whole lot more confident and was passing a lot of people, even in the slippery stuff.  I even buried the throttle a few times, but didn't carry speed around the first turn like I do during track days.  It was still plenty wet, and the hail was bad news.  The back part of the track seemed dry, and I was having a great time there, until I managed to lose the front end coming out of turn 7.  I asked the corner workers what happened, so I could avoid doing it again.  They just shrugged and said turn 7 gets really greasy when it gets wet.  Gosh.  Nice to know, I guess.



It was a nice soft crash, as low side crashes tend to be, but the bike slid in front of me and caught the gravel as it left the track.  It made on very graceful barrel roll, sliding on its left side and then landing on its right side.  That broke the fairing stay and crunched the bodywork pretty well.  The right side clip-on broke off, the brake lever bent, and there were other little busted up bits.



So, I had until 4:00 to get the bike back together.  Duct tape fixed the fairing well enough, and where a tab broke off the tail section, some safety wire kept it all together.  Vortex clip-ons have a replaceable bar, and I had a spare, so that was no problem at all.  The fairing stay was a bit more of a challenge, but I found one for sale and bought it.  The man I bought it from makes them, and it is a beautiful piece of work.  The pegs came through unscathed, somehow, as did most of the bodywork in the front.  The tank has a huge dent in it, but I don't plan to do much about it.  It doesn't cause any problems except less fuel capacity.  You don't need much fuel capacity for a sprint race anyway.  Bleeding the brakes turned out to be the biggest challenge.  When the clip-on broke, it pulled the bar in the perfect direction to loosen the banjo bolt at the master cylinder.  So Paul and I bled and bled the brakes, but nothing happened.  It took a while to find the loosened bolt, but once it was tightened back down, we got most of the air out.  I went back through tech, and passed somehow.  The kill switch was broken.  The red plastic part had broken clear off, but the switch still worked.  I was a little concerned about it, because it was hardly water tight any more, but since tech thought it was OK, I didn't worry about it.



The race was in some more mist, but no more hail and no downpour.  I got my usual awful start, but that was OK, since going into turn one, somebody fell off.  I don't know how you fall off there, but I could see him sliding down the escape road, followed buy a bunch of other bikes who didn't make the turn.  Several riders threw up their hands and slowed, but there was no flag, so I picked my way through them into turn two.  Things settled down a bit and I started picking people off and getting into a rhythm of sorts, but it was short lived.  A rider fell off in turn five and managed to cover the track with mud.  The people I was lining up to pass all slowed dramatically, and I got hung out to dry coming into the corner, a blind corner and finding them all nearly stopped, with a bike on the track, mud everywhere, and the rider dancing back and forth on the track.  I nearly hit him, but managed to get through somehow.  Then the red flag came out.  We didn't even manage to make a full lap.  So, we all gridded up again, but we were only going to get four laps.  I got yet another terrible start but got around a bunch of people right away.  Then I got behind a couple riders on slower bikes who were taking erratic lines through corners and braking in funny places.  Not to mention my brakes were not quite right, so I didn't fully trust them.  I decided enough fun was enough fun and finishing was important.  So, I just hung behind them and let them do what they were going to do and followed them to the finish.



Paul got a great start the second time and got way ahead of me.  I suspect the crash lessened my confidence a bit, too, especially in the turn I fell off in.  He was already back in the paddock and had his bike on its stand when I got back.  Tomorrow, I signed on to corner work, so I can't take a full inventory of things I still have to fix.  That's what next weekend is for.  The kill switch assembly needs replacement for sure, and I think the rear subframe is a bit bent.  It doesn't bother me, so I might not do anything with it.  I don't want to break it and then be left scrambling for a replacement.  I have to get a fiberglass repair kit for the bodywork.  Without doing a lot of work, there isn't much to do about the tank, so I will clean it up, mask it off and paint the dent where the paint is gone.  It will look terrible, but that's fine.  Maybe I will hunt down another tank someday, but it isn't very important just now.  There are a whole lot of other things to spend money and time on, like the next track day, and the next race weekend and all those other ways to break things and have a whole lot of fun doing it.



As long as there is no hail next time out, I will be pretty happy.  This year's novices have been initiated, and enough is enough!

The mystery of my miserable starts is getting clearer.  The friction plates didn't have any of the friction stuff on them.  I thought the clutch was awfully grabby, but just wrote it off on being a putz.  I bought new friction plates anyway, just in case, and took the clutch apart to take a look.  Sure enough, it was toasted.  It probably could use new pressure plates, too since they are all burned and rainbow looking.  The bike had two full racing seasons on it when I got it, so it isn't a complete surprise.  The brake pads are new, but I have replacements anyway.  I didn't expect the clutch to be an issue, but I am sure glad to have found it.  When I first got the bike, the tires were fried, and I tried to burn the rear, just to completely finish it off and have some fun.  I couldn't get it to spin up without killing the engine.  Having done many burnouts in my life, I thought it was a little strange, but wrote it off on an inline four and a new bike I don't know yet.  Then the poor starts came along and I had to look to see why the clutch was so non-progressive.  Now I know.  It means I won't get walloped from behind on the start on Saturday.  I might actually be able to get a decent holeshot.  It will certainly surprise everyone who saw me struggle last Wednesday.  Should I 'fess up about the clutch being burned, or just smile like I was sandbagging?  They were talking about learning racecraft, after all.

Boy am I sore today!  Yesterday was the first time I have been on a track since last September, and my body is telling me I used some muscles I haven't thought about since then.  2-Fast puts on the class, and include sessions on body position, lines, braking, starts, mental management, awareness, and probably some other things my brain is too full to remember now.  All of it was extremely useful, although I had a terrible time putting it all together at once.  I could work on lines, but because correct body position isn't a habit yet, I would forget.  Or if I worked on proper braking, I would screw up the lines.  And so on.  My starts are abysmal at best.  Drag racing never interested me, so I haven't had any practice getting hole shots.  Ever!  That's going to be a challenge for the year.

During the on track sessions, there were two or three other riders I found about my speed and had a really good time dicing with.  One was on a CBR600, another was on a 1098.  Late in the day, I chased down an R6, and then he chased me down.  Chasing him down and passing him again would have been fun, but it was the last session of the day, and my legs were shot (yeah, an excuse), so I just cruised around for the last lap and pulled in.  He got me right before the last lap flag came out, so if it had been a race, there is no doubt the energy to keep after him would have come from somewhere.

I had some great battles with the 1098.  He had plenty of power on me, but I could get him on the brakes in several places, so we went back and forth every lap for a couple sessions.  Likewise, the rider on the CBR was able to get me in some places, and I could get him back in others.  It was officially only a track day, but we were treating it a bit like we were racing.  There were lots of slower and unpredictable riders on the track, making setting up a pass more difficult.  That's novice racing, I guess.  Better get used to it!  The slower riders are good for my ego, anyway, since I am not about to go setting any lap records.

We had a "simulated" race toward the end of the day.  As usual, I got a terrible start and was dead last going into turn one.  I intended to dice with the 1098, and hoped to get past him somewhere.  It took about two thirds of a lap to get through the traffic between me and where he was, and I got right behind him going into turn five.  Just as I got to him, the rider in front of him tucked the front end and crashed in a strange way going into turn five.  So, we got some practice not target fixating and the red flag came out.  I don't remember what happened after the restart, because I don't remember seeing the 1098.  I got boxed in by a couple slower riders going into turn three, and several others got past on the brakes.  Then it was a catch up game for the rest of the time.

My friend Paul was in the other group, so I didn't have a chance to dice with him.  I suspect he was turning faster lap times than I was.  Because I am not used to the bike and it isn't adjusted quite like my Triumph, I kept missing shifts and didn't get the throttle pinned open all the time.  I don't hear what the bike is doing yet, so I can't time shifts by ear.  Being a four, and a Suzuki, its sound is much higher pitched than the Triumph's, so it fools me into short shifting.  I have no complaints about its handling.  It felt very planted at all times, even when I did something dumb.

It always rains in Seattle in March, and yesterday was no exception.  But it held off until the end of the day while we were packing up.  There were a few little sprinkles during the last session, but not enough to make a difference.  It started to rain as we were packing up, and then it poured on the way home.  I don't know if the organizers have some pretty good connections, or what, but I am very grateful to have had a dry track, even though it was probably in the mid to high 30s to start the day.

There's no quesiton in my mind this is going to be fun.  I am a combination of terrified and thrilled.  It is a whole lot like how I felt before the first trackday I ever did.  The first race will undoubtedly be like the first trackday only multiplied by a big factor.  I couldn't wipe the grin off my face for the whole evening.

Here it is, less than a week before the on-track portion of WMRRA's novice school.  The classroom session was held in a meeting room at a dealership down in Rention.  I had not been to the dealership before and was amazed at how big it is.  The club is taking novice training very seriously, and a couple younger racers are leading the effort.  I really appreciate their efforts, since racing and track days are very different.  The rules for red flags are also very different, with the usual track day rules being return to the paddock.  WMRRA red flag rules are to stop in the next corner and await directions.  The on-track session is being conducted by 2-Fast, one of three or four major track day organizers in Seattle.  There are a couple of Portland organizers who put on one or two track days up here as well, so I don't leave anybody out.



I picked up my tires from More Power Racing, in Marysville, about 35 miles north of my house, and a set of brake pads from Aurora Suzuki.  Aurora Suzuki agreed to be a sponsor, and I really appreciate it.  Aurora Suzuki is a long walk from the house, but the usual carrying of bike parts isn't too easy, so I usually drive there in the van or ride the bike over.



Tomorrow, I will be headed over to my friend Paul's house to mount tires and maybe load up the van.  Getting everything in the van is going to be an experiment.  There is a whole lot more stuff to take to a race than there ever was for a track day.  I don't quite understand how the logistics are getting so complicated, but I guess it means we are taking it very seriously.  Paul has a bigger generator than I do, so we are taking his.  It will run both sets of tire warmers, while mine only runs one set.  His generator is louder than mine, but one louder one is probably better than two not so loud generators in the paddock.  I have a folding table we will take to set tools and the like on, and a couple folding chairs.  We both have pop-up canopies.  Mine is beginning to fall apart and will have to be replaced sometime this season.  The canvas top is beginning to rip in a whole lot of places.



It will be cold on Wednesday, and it will probably rain.  A wet track day is one thing, but I am a little nervous about learning to race while it is dumping.  Racing in the rain is something we do up here, but having never done a racing start, I am not too sure what is going to happen if it is raining.  And, there is the whole issue of what tires to have on the bike.  A set of rains came with the bike.  They are some indeterminate age, meaning they had best not last past the end of the season or I will have to throw them away anyhow.  Six sets of fresh BT002s should last the whole season, including track days for dry sessions.  Intermediate sessions are the real mind bender up here.  Do you run DOTs and hope it dries out, or do you run rains and hope it stays wet so your tires don't fall apart.  It can change minute by minute.  A couple years ago, it hailed during the first novice race!



The other novices are an interesting bunch.  I was expecting to be the oldest novice at 48, but there are several quite a bit older than me.  One is riding a 1960 BSA Gold Star, so he is more the speed I expect to be when I am 60, but several with a whole lot more gray hair than me are riding 600s or 750s.  There were a couple kids sitting next to me who made me very nervous.  They had been racing motocross for a while, and weren't paying a whole lot of attention.  One will be racing a liter bike, and the other a 750.  Once I figure out what their bikes look like, I will try to stay out of their way.  I expect they will be fast, but they also think they are fast.  Best to be fast and think you are slow so you are trying to learn all the time instead of having a thick skull.  Is that an old guy comment or what!