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Grand Prix Riders Association East
Region Round #4 |
This weekend would be a loner for me since
none of my teammates are running GPRA this year. I even debated about not going
because there is always the risk that I might get hurt and not have anyone to
help me load up and get home. But, after seeing how big the event was going to
be and after hearing all kinds of great things about the track, I decided I
just had to do it. Besides, l also had a slight lead in the GPRA East Coast
points going into the weekend and I didn’t want to lose that.
I’ve never been to VIR though and I figured
I’d better get lots of track time if I didn’t want to get spanked in the race.
So I signed up for the Team Hammer Pro Practice on Thursday, which gave me an
additional five practice sessions.
Thursday:
After driving all night, I arrived at the
track just after 7am. I spotted Paul Nelson and his wife Connie, so I pulled in
and set up shop right next to them. As I was unloading, Stewart Aitken Cade,
Dave Thompson and Bill Cole rolled in. Cool. It was starting to look like a fun
race as all these fast guys were popping up.
By the time I unloaded and signed up for the
Team Hammer practice, I had missed the first session. L Then while I was getting my bike ready for the
second session, I discovered that I had a broken frame near the left front
motor mount. Doh! I’m not sure if it was caused by my wreck a couple of weeks
before, or by engine vibrations. Regardless, I decided to run with the busted
frame and keep a close eye on things. After all, the motor still had three
mounting points left, right?
Paul came in from the first practice session
and started talking about how technical the track is and how it was going to
take him a few sessions to come up to speed. So, I asked if I could follow him
around for the next session to help me come up to speed a little faster. He
didn’t mind, so I entered the second practice latched onto his rear wheel.
Well, that lasted all of about five corners,
at which point I couldn’t keep up any longer. VIR is just filled with technical
corners. You have blind turns, uphill turns, downhill turns, fast turns, slow
turns and combinations where a bad exit from one corner will screw you up for
the next couple. I was petrified trying to follow Paul into blind corners that
I couldn’t see coming and even with him in front of me, I just couldn’t force
myself to match his pace. I slowed down a whole bunch and just focused on
trying to memorize the track. Finally, near the end of the session, I had learned
which way each corner went and was able to start pushing myself a little.
Unfortunately, my engine was vibrating a
lot. At the time I thought it was because of the busted frame. Now, I think most
of it was caused by a bearing getting ready to self-destruct. L I resolved to keep a close watch on the vibrations
and keep practicing. I figured that later in the day would be soon enough to
try and dig up a welder.
My second practice session went pretty well.
I tried to hook up with Paul again, but it didn’t work this time either as I
think Paul was waiting for Stewart hoping they could hook up. I was still a
little tentative at the beginning of the session, but by the end I felt like I
was starting to get it. I was dragging my knee in spots and I was passing most
of the other bikes instead of them passing me. J After the session I found out I was only a couple of
seconds slower than Stewart Aitken Cade and he seemed to be going pretty fast.
My engine vibrations were getting worse
though and I reluctantly decided I’d better bag the rest of the practice
sessions and dig up a welder for my bike. L
I spent the rest of Thursday afternoon in my
quest and I finally found a shop that builds race-cars on the grounds of the
track that had a TIG welding machine. Unfortunately all their welders were up
in Canada racing cars. Go figure. L They did say that if I could find an aluminum welder
that we could use their machine. Finally after a lot of asking around, I found
Tray Batey who rides an Aprilia 1000 for the Blackmans team. Here’s an old
photo of him I found on the net. (www.arclightracing.com/dsp_batey_1.html).
Tray agreed to weld up my frame once he was done practicing, so I stripped off
all the electronics from my bike and prepped it for welding.
Just as I finished loading my bike into my
truck, a thunderstorm rolled through and soaked everyone and everything. The
storm passed quickly, but most people elected to sit out the last practice
session instead of riding on a wet track.
I picked up Tray at about 5pm and minutes
later we were unloading my bike at the race-car shop. Tray did an excellent job
with the welding and I was able to get my bike back together before sunset. I
can’t thank Tray enough for his help. Not only is he a good welder, but he’s also
a really nice guy. On Sunday he took a podium spot and during his interview he
complimented the younger racers, saying it was great to see some new kids
picking up the pace.
Friday:
I was scheduled for two practice sessions on
Friday and after making only two of my five scheduled sessions so far, I wanted
to make the most of them.
I attacked the track hard and by the second
lap I was pushing myself looking for my limits and the best lines through each
corner. I was feeling pretty good and having a blast! I was in the zone where
my bike just seemed to flow through the turns. Every once in a while I find the
“zone”, but it doesn’t happen often and I wanted to make the most of it.
Then at the end of my second lap coming onto
the front straight, I saw Paul Nelson lying next to the track. He was moving a
little, but he wasn’t getting up. I was pretty worried since he had crashed on
a very fast corner. Then I saw the ambulance flags and I knew he was hurt.
I completed most of another lap when my bike
made a big CLUNK while I was downshifting! I held the clutch in thinking I had
seized and pulled off the track. The bike was still running fine though; so I
gave it one more try. I only made it through one corner before I figured out
that something was seriously wrong with my transmission. I pulled off, and sat
out the rest of the session wondering how serious it was and if my weekend was
over. I could see a little oil dripping on the pipe and that sure wasn’t a good
sign.
I could also see the ambulance off in the
distance taking care of Paul and I was pretty worried about him too. Things
weren’t going very well so far. L
I rode the crash truck back to my pits with
Paul’s bike as company. His bike had just been through a nasty crash, but mine
was in worse shape. After unloading our bikes I went looking for Paul and
Connie and eventually found that Mike Himmelsbach’s mom had spoken to Connie
and that she was on her way to the hospital with Paul. We knew they would be
gone a while, so Dave Thompson, Glenn and I cleaned up their pits.
After taking care of Paul’s stuff, I tore
into my bike. It didn’t take me long to find that I had shattered the
transmission bearing behind the front sprocket and had also cracked the
transmission cover for good measure! Doh! I checked around and no one had a spare
transmission cover. Yea, like I really expected anyone to. It’s a pretty
expensive part to carry around as a spare. Things were looking pretty grim at
that point, but I fixed as much as I could in the hopes that Paul was OK, would
return soon, would have a spare cover and that he would be willing to loan it
to me. I was also hoping that there was no other damage to my bike. Boy, there
were an awful lot of ifs there.
My luck finally started to change at that
point. I pulled the transmission and none of the gears were damaged even though
all the steel balls from the shattered bearing were rolling around in the oil
right below them. One of the shifter forks was scraped and blue from
overheating, but it was serviceable. I went through all the gears and found
almost no damage. The inner
bearing race was stuck to the transmission shaft, but a couple of whacks from a
hammer took care of that. I cleaned everything out with about 4 cans of brake
parts cleaner and then I checked all the bearings. One of the transmission
bearings wouldn’t turn smoothly, but I had a new spare with me, which I
installed. Then I re-assembled everything as much as I could without a
side-cover and waited for Paul to return.
Paul and Connie arrived at about 6pm to pack
everything up and search for a hotel on their way home. Paul could barely move
without being in a lot of pain, but he was in surprisingly good spirits. Tom
and Carol Moyer, a couple of good Samaritans from the Christian Motorcyclists
Association helped Connie pack everything up with a small amount of help from
me.
I owe a big thanks to Paul at this point for
saving my whole weekend for me. Even though he was in a lot of pain, he let me
strip the transmission cover from his backup bike. He also gave me some
wrenching advice on how to flush out as many of the remaining bearing bits from
my engine as possible. It’s at times like this that I realize just how great
the 125 racing community is and how willing they are to help each other out.
Thanks again Paul and get well soon!
I put most of my bike back together by
sunset and planned to finish the repairs and flush the tranny a few times the
next morning.
Saturday:
I got up early on Saturday (race day) and
completed my bike repairs. I was getting excited, as this was the big day that
I had driven over 800 miles to attend. With high hopes and some trepidation, I
started my bike up. Then I almost threw it on the ground. It was vibrating like
mad! L All I could think
was that I had somehow bent a transmission shaft or damaged a bearing and had
failed to notice it while inspecting everything.
Figuring my weekend was shot and with
nothing better to do, I wandered around telling my woes to the other 125
riders.
When I got to Stewart’s pits, one of his
buddies asked a brilliant question. Are you absolutely SURE you put everything
back together right? Maybe you didn’t install the balancer correctly. Hmmm.
Let’s see. I spent the previous day working in the hot sun in 100 degree
temperatures with multiple interruptions to soak down with water, get lunch,
load Paul’s stuff, etc… Could I have screwed it up? Then I thought about the
balancer shaft and I didn’t SPECIFICALLY remember lining up the gears with the
locator marks. I thanked him and rushed back to my pits with about half an hour
before my practice session. Sure enough, that was the problem. I dropped the
clutch, re-aligned the balancer gears and had everything put together just in
time to make over half of my practice session.
The bike ran great! Yee Haw!
With 5 hours to chill before my race, I
mounted new tires and changed the oil again. Hmm, still a few sparkles there
from metal bits working their way out.
The main event:
The 125 race and the 250 race were a
combined event with the 250s gridded in front. We caught up with the 250s going
into turn one and from then on I totally lost track of how many of the bikes in
front of me were 125s an what position I was in. I did recognize the occasional
125 though and after the race was over and I knew what position I had finished
in, I was able to reconstruct the race as follows:
I was gridded in the second row of 125s and
got a pretty decent start. I took the inside line into turn one and I
out-braked a bike or two. I think I was the fourth 125 going into the turn, but
someone passed me back on the exit. Probably Bill or Rodney. I got him back a
few turns later though. J
Dave Thompson had gotten a killer start and
was flying. I followed him around for most of the first lap, but was unable to
make a pass. Then as we came over the Roller Coaster I remembered him telling
me that he hadn’t figured out the downhill left-hander yet and always braked
before the turn. So I took the inside line and sure enough, he dabbed the
brakes and I squirted past. Sorry Dave.
Fair’s fair though and I’d told him of some
corners too, where I wasn’t up to speed yet. I fully expected to see him strike
back the next lap on one of my weak turns. I didn’t see him again though and
later found out that he was only able to maintain his pace for a couple of laps
before his ankle injury forced him to slow down. L
I didn’t know it at the time, but that pass
had moved me into third place starting the second lap. Stewart was a little
ways ahead of me and Brian Kcraget was a long ways in front of Stewart. Then
Brian crashed out putting me in second! I followed Stewart around for about
eight laps as he pulled away by about a second per lap. Then on the last lap,
just four turns before the end of the race, Brian showed us all just how fast
he was on his home turf as he came back from his wreck and passed me to take
second place!
I took the checkered flag thinking I had
finished about fifth or sixth, but I was just happy to have finished the race
at all considering my previous problems. I couldn’t believe it when they called
me to tech and said I’d taken the last podium spot! I kept expecting someone to
come over and say, “Sorry, but we made a scoring error. Thank you for flying
FUSA and have a nice trip home”. It finally sank in though as I was standing in
front of the podium box and the announcer shoved a microphone in my face.
Umm, Uh, what to say? I thanked Tray and
Paul for helping me out that weekend, without their help I couldn’t have even
run the race. I thanked my sponsors and put in a plug for Dark Horse Racing. I
also put in a plug for 125 racing saying I loved the class because everyone is
so helpful to each other and it’s almost always a close exciting race.
Then they gave Stewart a bottle of champagne.
Hey! What about Brian and me? Then I learned a valuable lesson. When someone
sprays champagne in your face, CLOSE YOUR EYES! That stuff burns!
After I rinsed my eyes out with water, Tom
and Carol came to my rescue this time, carrying my helmet and trophy back to my
pits while I pushed my bike.
Here are the results from the125 and the 250
races:
GPRA 125 Race:
1 – Stewart Aitken-Cade (#5, California)
2 – Brian Kcraget (#473, Virginia)
3 – Rob Rawlins (#421, Illinois)
4 – Dale Greenwood, Jr. (#115,
New Hampshire)
5 – Bill Cole (#127, New Jersey)
6 – Rodney Helsens (#35, New
Jersey)
7 – Raymond Masters (#36, ???)
8 – Dave Thompson (#52, Ontario)
9 – Samantha Cotter (#128, New
Jersey)
1 - Derek M. King (#84, South Carolina)
2 - Stuart Nodell (#120, Ontario)
3 – Jim Bonner (#27, Pennsylvania)
4 – Steve Genter (#743, North
Carolina)
5 – Daniel Little (#134, New
York)
6 – Nathan Franson (#99, Wisconsin)
While I was wandering around after the race
I met this girl who was looking for Stewart. It seems she was the corner worker
that helped him out after his crash and she wanted him to sign her shirt. Her
plan is to get an autograph from every racer that she helps out. This was her
first time working the races and she was amazed and pretty excited at all the
hard racing. I gave her a scooter ride to Stewart’s pits, but he had already
left. She was willing to settle for my autograph though in lieu of Stewart.
Then while I was at dinner with Dave and Glenn,
the waitress asked for my autograph for the cook, who is a big race fan. Up
till then, the only autographs I’d signed were for little kids wandering the
pits. It was pretty cool.
Unfortunately, just before dinner arrived I
got a case of heat stroke and had to go lay down in my truck. Then Dave and
Glenn let me crash in their air-conditioned hotel room until I was feeling up
to the drive back to the track.
Sunday:
I got a late start leaving for home on
Sunday because I was still recovering from the heat stroke. So I took the
opportunity to watch the 250 Aprilia race. This race is usually a photo finish,
but this time Brian Kcraget won the race by a large margin showing everyone
once again that he is King of his home track. If he hadn’t crashed in the 125
race on Saturday, he would have easily won that one too instead of settling for
second.
The drive back to Chicago was long and
boring.
Summary:
My third place finish this weekend was enough
to extend my points lead in the GPRA East Coast series to a pretty large
margin. With only one more round left in the series, I have high hopes for the
Round Five race at Pocono next month. J
Considering all the mechanical problems I
had to overcome, I consider the weekend a perseverance victory if nothing else
and I’m very happy with a third place finish. I owe an awful lot to the help
from other racers like Paul, Tray, Stewart, Dave and Bill. You guys are great!
As far as Virginia International Raceway
goes, I now have a new favorite racetrack. VIR is just an amazing track and a
first class facility. I wish it wasn’t 800 miles from home.
As always, a big thank you goes to my
sponsors for helping me out this season. Their support is greatly appreciated.
ANOBI
Technology Corporation – www.anobi.com
Ace
Powersports – www.acepowersports.com
Charles
Bedrosian – www.bedrosian.com
Motonation
– www.motonation.com
Race
Tire Service – www.dunlopracing.com
R.
A. Adams – www.raadams.com
Speed
Bleeder Products Company – www.speedbleeder.com
Sharkskinz
Racing Bodies – www.sharkskinz.com
Zero Gravity Racing – www.zerogravity-racing.com
Rob Rawlins (rob@dhracing.com)
Dark Horse Racing
GLRRA-#01 GPRA-#42 CCS-#421
"Man! You were really hauling ass when I passed you!"