Just got back from a 8 day motorcycle racing extravaganza. My
vacation started with an all night ride to Daytona for the AMA/CCS Race
Of Champions.  Alice Sexton, my pit crew, and I left my house at 7:30pm
thursday night (I had to stick around and baby sit while my wife taught
dance).

I had practice friday morning and a race friday afternoon, that
I wanted to make. We drove straight through and got to the track at
7:30 am. I went through registration and tech, but uncharacteristicly
left myself the task of having new tires mounted. I missed my first
practice session, no problem, as I have a few laps of Daytona.  I made
my second session and found the bike felt ok at speed which I was glad
about cause this is the first time I had raced Daytona with my short
swingarm. I didn't feel great about the way the back tire was feeling
and discovered that I had been sold an old tire. Jim Vick of Metzler
measured its hardness with a durometer and told me it was off the
scale. I talked to the guys at Sport Cycle Products and they apologized
and promised me a new one. It was however getting close to race time, I
had been up for 2 days and I felt that I would be better off racing
after a nap, on the tire I had, than racing tired on an unscuffed
tire.

I had a good hole shot for the HeavyWeight SuperTwins race and
was making some great moves through turn 1.  I ran up the inside of a
bunch of guys going into the first horseshoe and I was right behind
Donnie Unger as he ran over Todd Norby, and I just managed to turn up
the inside of the whole mess (earlier in my career, I would have
freaked and picked up and added to the mayhem).  I didn't see why Todd
crashed, but hear he was knocked down.  To make a long story short, I
took 13th while in sight of the battle for 10th the whole race. And
managed to draft past the second place novice, who had gotten by me
earlier, at the line (love that) .  Afterwards I had the new tire
mounted and the next day, saturday, I scuffed the tire in and was ready
for LightWeight SuperTwins.

I was gridded 38th out of 41 bikes in LightWeight SuperTwins (never ran
the class all year, no points).  I got a good hole shot and came up
into turn one in time to see Jim Whitaker running off onto the grass. I
had great drafting fun the whole race and late in the race here comes
Jim around me in the infield. So I drafted past on the banking. We did
this for a number of laps until the last lap when he had pushed me down
to my best times of the weekend (2:15's, yea I know not great for me).
I was able to beat him and draft past another rather fast EX 500 at the
line. I finished 8th, and expected to see Jim in 9th or 10th in the
results. Jim finished down in the 20's, seems he either lost a lap
during his off road excursion or was docked a lap.

I was able to do all the maintenance I needed to while still at Daytona
and that allowed me to lounge around till Tuesday morning when I headed
up to Atlanta for the WERA Grand National Final. We had practice
Wednesday at Atlanta and things were going well. Its amazing, I had no
confidence in my traction at Daytona (perhaps due to the dry yet
recently wet conditions for my races) rarely dragging my knee.  At
Atlanta I was running 2 seconds better than last year (track was
repaved) and was dragging my knee everywhere, feeling really great. I
knew it would be real cold Thursday morning and since I had three
races, I was going to skip my first session, and only run one practice
before my races. Since I had to run narrow rims for my first race
Vintage 4, I was going to run the one session on those rims having run
all day Wednesday on my wide rims. I had the bike set up Wednesday
evening to save myself effort on race day.

Thursday came and Vintage 4 was the first race of the day and after the
riders meeting they posted grids with a few minutes till race time. I
discovered they left me off of the Unlimited Twins grid, and mentioned
it to scoring, but didn't have time to stick around. Since Twins was
race 6 I would have time after remounting my wide rims to handle it.
WERA instituted a pre race inspection at the GNF this year. I hate them
as it means I have to hang around with the motor running longer that I
like. Well I went through pre race inspection and saw a long line
behind me so I went back to my pits to wait beside my plug in electric
starter for a call from the PA. The call never came and when I went
down to enter the track for my warm up lap the number 2 board was up
and I was not allowed to go. I had to start the race after the second
wave had left and was I hot. This was my most competitive class all
day and I was planning to win it. I was up to 9th about 10 seconds
behind the leader after one lap and then Bruce Allen crashed and his
bike went up in flames. Red Flag. Restart from the grid, was in the
lead by turn 3. Carl Myers crashed in 4, ambulance, Red Flag. Restart
from the grid and in the lead by the exit of turn five. Just crusing
around turning 1:43's (best wide rim times 1:38's) when on the next to
last lap vintage sensation Todd Henning blasts by. Got back past on the
straight and ran a 1:39 on the last lap (getting into a huge slide and
headshake through turn 5) to finish the race. WERA didn't have the
microphone set up on pit road yet, so I was pissed, however since
Vintage is a series, (that I hadn't run seriously) I wasn't National
Champ.

Went back to pits and mounted my wide rims for my 2 remaining races,
Twins and Vintage 5 (more modern than Vintage 4). When that was done I
went to the scoring tower to see about my grid for twins, and
discovered that WERA, rather than place me based on points and print a
new grid sheet, simply placed me at the back of the first wave. Wish
they had kissed me before screwing me. I wasn't about to spent energy
argueing it as race time was coming up again. Other events conspired to
make the grid situation more critical. 2 red flags in another race
meant that all remaining races were to be 6 laps. Now that grid
position was going to really hurt. Went out for Unlimited Twins and
got an OK hole shot, but still had no idea where I was in the field.
Stephen Mathews blasted by on the back straight on the way to his win
and I spend a lap getting by a hawk. I saw a bike about 50 yards ahead
and figured I might catch him, so I pressed on. Comes down to the last
lap and I realize its an FZR400 framed ascott motored thumper (allowed
in WERA Twins).  The guy had a dirt bike style of cornering (pushing
bike down with body up, not hanging off).  I guess it was Ray Hixon.
The bike was as fast if not faster than mine off of the corners and
damn near as fast as mine down the back straight. Frankly I don't know
where I was faster unless he was napping and thats what allowed me to
catch up. I was getting close enough to make a move down the straight
on the last lap and made an accidental extra down shift before turn 7
killing my drive. I still tried to pass up the hill to the bridge, but
made the mistake of going up the inside and got the door shut, should
have gone outside and around the outside going down the hill to the
last turn. I ended up third, and can't really blame WERA for my finish
since I did have a chance on the last lap. Hats off to the second place
thumper.

Figured I had to finish 2nd in the last race to have a nice symmetrical
weekend (1,2,3) until someone mentioned that a 5th would also give me
an orderly weekend (1,3,5).  Really didn't expect to kick any ass as
Vintage 5 allows 1080cc Kawasaki fours and the like. Even though I was
standing National Champion in Vintage 5, since my motor was softer than
last year, I was feeling like a real underdog. Had my best grid
position of the weekend (although not enough points to be in the
running for the series title), and was hoping to finish in the top 3
for some of the Metzler cash! From the second row, I was able to blast
into third place and held that for most of the race. Jake Coye was in
second on a 1075cc Kawasaki and in the lead was Ronnie Lunsford on a
Honda CB980F. I tried to stay in their draft, but was forced to make up
lots of time in the curvey sections. I was able to get close before the
back straight every lap only to lose their draft. Next to last lap and
back markers are a factor now. Coye gets past Lunsford under the
bridge. We get white flag.  Coming onto the back straight Coye slows
and I take second. Lunsford is taking it easy and I almost catch him
before that checkered flag. Lunsford takes the title and I get $100
from Metzler.

Ran 5 races in just over a week and the bike didn't blow up and I
didn't crash. With an oil change and valve adjustment, the bike would
be ready to race again. Hmmm, maybe that December event down at Moroso.
See you at the races...