WERA Regional Summit Point West Virginia August 1995

Well I just got back from an interesting weekend at Summit Point. I
guess its just the luck of the draw that my local track is considered
the slipperest in the country (certainly the East Coast) and in the wet
Summit is considered almost unridable. Well this past weekend we got
hit with the remnants of Hurricane Erin and it made the weekend
interesting. Sometimes they cancel racing if it rains, I have never
seen this done at other tracks, but sometimes (like after a vintage car
weekend) you can't stand on the track without your feet going out from
under you. Things were not that bad this past weekend. I had spent $180
to enter 5 races and it was dry for my two practice sessions Saturday
morning. Then the rain began. I wanted some points, so I knew I would
be going out. I signed up for Vintage 4 and Vintage 5 on Saturday, and
D (lightweight) Superbike, Unlimited Twins and Formula Clubman on
Sunday.

During the warm up lap for Vintage 4 I saw a competitor cross a painted
area and go right down. I burned that in my brain, touch no paint.
After one lap I had a huge lead and it just got bigger. The track was
not too bad in some spots because it hadn't been raining too long. The
grooved concrete in some of the banked turns still showed dry. We have
had a hot spell for 3 weeks and there was a lot of residual heat left
in the track. A great deal of water was just plain evaporating.
Needless to say I won Vintage 4 by a large margin. There was an
endurance race before Vintage 5 and the rain was now heavier. The dry
spots were gone and now little rivers of muddy water were crossing the
track in spots. One particular bad stretch was from the paint exiting 7
(as mentioned above) through the mud river in turn eight. Here it was
most important to be as vertical as possible and use judicious throttle
control. Here I can say that riding the V50 is a joy in the wet
compared to my old Lemans racer. The light weight and low relative
power of the V50 are assets, not liabilities.  When you can spin the
rear tire in 4th gear on the wet straightaway (as the v50 does), you
have enough power.  I was in second on the first lap as we exited turn 7
and the KZ1000 of Jake Coye was entering turn 8 and he lost the front.
Those big heavy bikes can tolerate lean angles much less than my bike
and once they start to go forget it. I lost the front a few times
during the weekend, but a dab of the foot was enough to get it back.
Once I got the lead in Vintage 5 it was see you later boys. This was a
very satisfying win cause there were a number of rain tire shod bikes
behind me!

Saturday had been a series of showers followed by partial clearing.
While lying in bed at my friends house (15 miles from the track) I
heard the rain start up hard at around 4am and it never let up for the
whole day Sunday (not until about 1 hour after my last race). I
skipped any practice Sunday morning and was finally faced with the
joyous prospect of putting on my wet boots and leathers from the day
before. I didn't even put on socks, cause they would just act like
sponges. During the warm up lap for D Superbike I realized the track
was a lot like it was for Vintage 5. D Superbike allows Yamaha FZR
400's and I didn't expect to do real well, but I thought I try the
class this weekend. I had a good battle with 3 guys for 5th place, I
beat 2 and lost out to one so I got 6th. Next was Unlimited Twins and
the Ducati power houses either didn't show up or packed up and went
home. Devin Battley was in the lead with his ABS equipped 1100cc BMW.
Devin was able to brake at the limit of traction into turn one on the
first lap and he was doing well. He crashed in the same place the
KZ1000 had the day before, entering 8. That heavy bike liability. I was
quickly dispatched to third and managed to hold on to that for the
remainder of the race. Last race of the day was Formula Clubman, sort
of a hodge podge class for small bikes that want relief from the FZR
400's.  A lot of EX500's and big Singles, and me. One exotic bike was a
Honda CBR250RR imported from Japan, with 4 cylinders, a huge aluminum
frame and wide wheels fitted with full rain tires. I was second into
turn one and passed the leader on the inside through turn two and was
never headed. I decided never to look back because on days like this
you race the track, not your fellow racers. I felt I was going as fast
as I comfortably could, and wouldn't want to "have to speed up" to
protect a position. My feeling was if anyone had the guts to come by
let em. Gratefully that never happened. Although I understand a least 2
guys (one EX500, and the CBR250RR) crashed trying to keep up with me.
Thankfully crashing in the rain is the easiest crashing anyone ever
does at the track, you skim that track, and speeds are so low, you
rarely ever see any injuries.

So thats it for the weekend, a 6th, a 3rd and three Wins. All I can say
is I had the right combination, a light Guzzi twin with a good wide
power band, and believe it or not, a 110 Michelin front radial and a
130 rear Avon, both DOT legal street tires.  What can I say, I must have
been in a zone. One week to turn the bike around (routine maintenance)
and back to Rockingham North Carolina.