Adrenaline Freaks Track Day - 22 May 08
Adrenaline Freaks Track day – 22 May 2008
The weather forecast called for a typical North West Washington day, partly cloudy with a 25% chance of showers. Not bad, considering the weather we have been getting. The drive to the track showed a bit of sprinkles, but noting to worry about. Hopefully the weather god will be nice to us and hold off the rain until after we are done today. I proceed to register and start to help Mario and other Adrenaline Freaks Track day staff and instructors to tech bikes and gear. After getting most of tech done, it was time fro the riders meeting.
Mario gave his normal riders meeting and answered a few questions from a couple of new track riders. As soon as we were done with the riders meeting I pulled my rear tire to have Mike with Pirelli Tires swap the direction of the rear. I had some suspension set up problems I was working thru at Miller, so I figured this was a perfect time to swap them and try the new setting. No sooner did I get the rear installed, did the mist and drizzle start.
The latest weather report said it should clear up by 11am. I decided to go ahead and get my rains mounted on my spare rims. After Barry and Butters was done mounting them up, I threw the rains on. By this time we had a decent mist and the track was totally wet. Never hurts to have rain practice here in the NW.
I went out for about 3 rain sessions getting more and more acquainted with the rains and how far I could push them. I was feeling fairly comfortable out there in the rain. Session after session I tried a little bit of suspension changes to get the bike to work better in the rain and give me the confidence I needed. I think I have a fairly good starting point for rain races now, which I am quite sure we will have more of this year.
Around noon the track started to dry enough that you had a clean dry line all the way around the track and the rain tires were getting eaten up. Time to come in and swap back to the DOTs. It was lunch time anyways, so perfect time for a rest and swap of tires.
After grabbing some lunch and swapping tires it was time to go back out on the track for some course marshall/instructor time. The track was pretty dry for almost the whole track, with some puddles in non key areas. After instructing a couple of guys in the intermediate group, I came in for a bit of rest. I was having stomach cramps from about 11am on, not bad enough to not ride, but enough to really bother me while I was off the track. I decide to go out with a pit mate of mine, Daryl, to just “play” around. I lead him for a few laps and then backed off and followed him a bit. We came into the pits and talked about how the session went and where he could make some improvements and different lines and gearing around the track. We were having a great time and then went back out for one more session.
My stomach was still bothering me, pretty good at this point, but it was close to the end of the day and I wanted to get a few more kinks ironed out while there was still the track time. I went out for another session, feeling pretty good for what I had accomplished in the day. Few much needed rain session, followed by about 4 dry sessions. A successful day, which is definitely not how the day started out. Time to prep the bike to go to Dave Lanigan for some dyno tuning after the track day.
My teammate, Troy Harrell, and myself were going to be taking our bikes up to Seattle to Dave Lanigan of Speed Dealer Motors to dyno tune our bikes for race gas. We finished tearing down the pits and also drained the bikes of pump gas and added “Outlaw” for the dyno tune. My stomach was really cramping by this point and I wasn’t sure of the cause. I had drunk plenty of water, ate breakfast, had a couple of bananas and had a burger at the track.
By the time I got to Lanigans shop, I was really hurting. I barely made it there before I had to stop and throw up. Man, what is going on??? I dunnuo….unfortunately Dave wasn’t even there. Me and Troy decided to go to his place to drop the bikes off and he would take them to Lanigan the following day. By the time I made it back to Sumner from Seattle I was really in a lot of pain with stomach cramps and upset stomach. By 9pm I had thrown up 3 more times and could barely stand I was so dehydrated. The cramps in my stomach were so bad it was time for me to go to the doctor. My wife took me to the ER in Puyallup, where immediately I started throwing up. The doctor came in pretty quick and gave me the IV and some med to make the stomach cramps and nausea go away as well as some GOOD pain med. I went in for a CT scan and the results looked like a partially blocked bowel. How the hell does that happen? Anyway, after 2 bags of IV and 6hrs later I was released.
Thank GOD the next day was better with just one episode of getting sick and stomach cramps a lot less severe. This was the 2nd worst pain I have ever felt in my life, second only to Kidney Stones. Today has been a lot better as well, feeling about 80%.
I would like to take this time to thank everyone who helps support me; with out you guys this would be impossible. I would like to thank my wife, Jennifer and son Brenden, with out your help and understanding; racing would be just a dream. I would like to thank all of my friends and family and last but not least, all of my sponsors: