CSC Round 3, Willow Springs, Part 2

Friday night we had a peaceful plate of Enchiladas Suizas at the Golden Cantina. I bought some water, nail clippers, leg cramp pills, and a shower pouf at the drugstore.

Saturday morning was race tech, followed by a pretty full day of practice. I was having trouble figuring out what gearing I liked for this track. The gearing is changed easily, and affects when you have to shift, as well as how much oomph you have getting off certain turns in certain gears. So we tried a 45, and a 46. I wasn’t super thrilled with either one. I didn’t want to have to shift a lot, because my left toe and top of foot was bruised and bothering me, and that’s what does the shifting.

Around 11:30 a.m., I was braking down the hill into turn 5, tipped it in, and mid-corner heard what sounded like a footpeg dragging along the ground for about a half a second or more. I wasn’t anywhere near leaned over enough to be dragging hard parts, so I let off the throttle and put my hand up to let riders around me know I was doing something unusual and unexpected (it’s expected that after the middle of the corner, you get on the gas and go, and if you don’t and someone’s following you, it can cause problems).

A man in a black suit on a red bike went immediately whizzing past me on my right. He started waving his left arm and pointing off the track. He seemed upset.

Whatever, I exited the track, shut my motor off as soon as I could and coasted back to my pit. I probably had broken another motor. Nikki and I tried starting the bike again and it made a bad sound. We had Louie from L&L Motorsports come over and listen to the bad sound. He concurred that my motor was broken.

Super.

Fortunately, we had Nikki’s race bike with us as well. She has a strong running 2007 R6 that used to be raced by a friend of ours. Our fast friends told us that it pulled on the straights better than their bikes did. Ross, the rocket scientist mechanic, rode her bike once and was delighted by how well it ran and turned. While I was disappointed that my bike had broken, I was feeling pretty grateful that I had a good friend who could loan me her good running race bike.

I was also feeling grateful that:

1. I didn’t crash while my motor was breaking; crashing can definitely occur
2. The guy behind me actually did almost hit me when I rolled off the gas; he thought I was being an idiot, but understood when he found out I’d likely dropped a valve into a cylinder
3. Louie, a motor builder and a friend of Fastline Alex’s, was leaving the track at noon; my motor broke at 11:30 and he took it home with him to diagnose and possibly repair

Really, I couldn’t have broken my motor in a more advantageous way.

We pulled Nikki’s bike out of the Sprinter van and started getting it ready. Louie trucked my bike away. We had to cover Nikki’s yellow novice number plates with white duck tape to indicate expert status and pass tech inspection.

I rode it around in practice that afternoon and I liked it. The brakes came on sharper and harder, which I liked. Other than that it felt pretty good, and more planted and soft through the bumps. I still wasn’t happy with the gearing, so we changed it again. Eugene came to visit, and helped with the gearing change:

I wasn’t unhappy about the motor situation. I mean, how could I be? It happens. We had a plan B, I was feeling really gosh darned thankful that I have good friends with race bikes, but really, what more can you do? It’s just time to get down to business, and figure out what needs to happen to get the team’s racer as comfortable and safe on the new bike as possible, so that the race can be finished, finished well, and the championship won. Being irritated or anxious about the broken motor, or the new bike, well, that would just be a waste of time and energy.

I was more anxious about my leg cramping, and how many girls were going to be in the race, where I needed to finish, and not wanting anything to happen to Nikki’s bike.

I only got one session in on Nikki’s bike, then we had to pack things up and have another quiet evening. Only it ended up at the Golden Cantina, with margaritas and a big group of AFM racers who were all down here competing in the CSC: Martin Szwarc, James Randolph, Steve Metz, and their respective crews of Mike Canfield, Drew, Nikki, and Gene. It was a typically fun racer dinner, but I had two large margaritas and it made me really talkative. This interfered with my plans to go to bed early, but I got enough sleep.

Sunday’s mission: don’t crash Nikki’s bike, finish the race, do as well as I could against Krystyna “The Queen of Willow Springs” Kubran, and hopefully place first or second.