MARCH 9,
2003: RACE 1 (PERIMETER)
I missed the
first race of the year to stay home and nurse my right wrist I injured falling
from a ladder. I entertained myself by
watching AMA Road Racing. Jason Perez
got a one shot deal to ride a BMW Boxer in the Boxer Cup race. He qualified and raced so well he was given
a full ride to race with the BMW American Team. The Boxer Cup races will be held on the same weekend as Moto GP. Hopefully a GP team spots this young
talent. Go ROJO!
APRIL 6,
2003: RACE 2 (MODIFIED PERIMETER: 7/7/9)
TCR PICS: http://www.teamcalamari.com/dox/pc040603.html
Since the
sale of the house and moving, I did not have the desire or time to tend to my
YSRs. My Super Sport was still setup
for the street and my Super Bike was the same as last year. I decided to bring my SB and race in Nov.
Trophy Dash and Super Bike.
I didn’t
attend Saturday practice. I heard Jerry Douglas and Dan Merlino have an
extensive track walk for the newbies.
I’ve attended a couple of Saturday practices in the past and learned a
lot.
After being
off the saddle 6 months, I did not feel comfortable on the bike till the main
event. I probably should’ve attended
practice to work out the cobwebs sooner. So, during the Heat races I was
wobbling into and out of the turns. I
can’t remember how many times I blew turn 1 and turn 5’s braking markers, which
killed my drive off the corners.
And another
dumb rookie mistake occurred before my first race of the day. I did not hear the announcement to pre-grid
and missed my warm up lap for Trophy Dash Heat 1. It was in the low 60s that morning and the track was cold. I hoped that the practice sessions we had
earlier were enough to make my tires sticky. On the green flag, Jason and I had a great start and he was half a
bike length before turn 1. I don’t
think he knows this but he almost clipped my front wheel when he cut in front
of me to take the inside line. It made
me a little angry and I pushed it hard on his tail all the way to the
corkscrew. The cold tires got their way
my bike slides 4 bike lengths away from me into the dirt and me. I slid unharmed on the asphalt. I wanted to continue but my clip-ons were
bent into the gas tank (DNF).
This “helped”
set the stage for the rest of the day.
I was more awake now (sleepy because of DST) and made sure I was there
for the pre-grid. Like I mentioned
before it took awhile before I was comfortable turning the bike. I had no other crashes today and finished in
3rd in my other Heat races.
The most fun
I had was racing in Nov Super Bike Main.
I had a bad start from my 3rd place position and was 5th
going into Turn 1. “Chasing the rabbit”
is always fun and kept my focus for the last race of the day. My lines were smoother and dropped my lap
times by 2 seconds from this morning. I
worked my way back to 4th but was behind the length of the front
straights. It took me 7 laps to catch
up to Chris’s Aprilia. He blocked all
my passing attempts so I finished in 4th.