A Blue Bird at Putnam (Round 1 2014)

[csmith12]

It’s day 2 of the race weekend and things have moved around from my normal shady style of organized packing. Where is my key?!?!?!?!?! I have 2 keys to my bike and I can't find either one. WTF @#%!#$^#$%@!* I just had warmed up the bike! Then I barely hear it over the PA from inside the garage, “3rd Call for race #4”. I am fully geared, hard wired mindset, gassed up and ready to go but no key. My smile is quickly turning upside down as I see my fellow grid mates go down paddock road heading for their hot lap. My head drops, then the sound of hope! My wife says, “I bet your looking for this.” MY KEY! I snatch the key from the hand of my savior and start the bike. She is warm and fires right up. The put-put-put sound from the AreaP is drowning out another PA announcement, All I can hear is something about the 5 board. I am so late… I throw a leg over as my very helpful pit crew of 2 sling off the warmers. I feel the THUD of the bike as the wheels hit the pavement. Both legs up and revved to 8krpms, I leave my pit barely missing my buddies leg with all eyes on me. Not really the kind of attention I am after. I make the final turn off paddock road onto the hot pit. I look over to turn 8 and see a rider coming through, not really a good sign. Then I see it, the 4 board. It’s still up, I am saved! I pin it down hot pit and get the wave to go. As I pass the start finish tower, I see them change to the 3 board. I chuckle a little and think to myself, cool, I just made this race. Interestingly, I notice a small blue bird sitting on the straight away railing as I enter the track.

The hot lap, one last chance to finalize my plans, get one last look at the track, notice anything out of place and most of all, come to terms with what is about to happen for the next 8-15 laps. As I roll through the front straight, I notice a few black marks on the tarmac that are just about a bike length past my normal brake marker. I think to myself, Awesome! I got a new goal for turn 1 that maybe they will not be expecting from me. Turn 2… yep just as normal, there is some dirt that has been kicked up at the end of the candy stripes. Turns 3, 4, 5 and 6 offer nothing new. The bus stop is always an active place on this track, wonder what has been going on. I see the typical black marks from rear lockups way to the outside, your recoloring of the candy stripes, and some new landscaping and I see the corner worker has sat his chair in a new spot to get out of the sun. I roll through turn 8 at a medium pace. Just as mysterious as you always are I see…. Turns 9 is the typical brat of the track and gives me a small thump in the rear as I throttle over its bumps just off the apex. I throw a hand up and glide through turn 10’s glorious sweet smoothness. Then there is the WALL. The wall is what we all fear at this track but I have come to terms with that. I am the last bike to grid. Good thing my bike is red to hide the blushing embarrassment of having the entire grid wait on me.

As soon as I hit the #5 grid spot, race control wastes no time changing the 3 board that has been showing for about 5 minutes, to the 2 board. I look to the grandstands, my friends are all there. A quick thumbs up to them as I hear the entire grid rev their bikes. I slide by feet back, lean a bit forward, hands loose on the bars and rev to around 9k. I look up to see that I have totally missed the 1 board that is upright. I am now looking at it sideways, and as soon as that sinks in, about half a second mind you.. I see the green flag AND…. that blue bird again.

Getting a good launch is hard for me, I mean like really hard. I started with just under 10k on the tach and about 20 percent throttle. Now that I am launching, I go from 20 percent throttle to 100 percent in about 200 milliseconds. The clutch instantly is released to the friction zone and I feel the bike pull. For the next second I have two things on my mind. DO NOT ASSPACK THE RIDER IN FRONT OF ME and GET TO THE FRONT. Much practice has been put into my launches and they still are not that good but this time... as if by some sort of voodoo magic, my left hand somehow knows the perfect amount of distance to feather the clutch to lift the front wheel about an inch off the tarmac through first gear. Other times, I wheelie the crap out of the start. Even with this high wheelie start and a bit of luck on my side, I am rocketed past the 6th place rider, who still seemed to be just sitting at his grid placement and nearly pass the 5th place rider. The click to 2nd gear puts me right beside 5th place and with more luck! I am drafting 4th. A shift to 3rd puts me on the rear wheel of 4th place which is where I stay to enter turn 1 with no clean pass. This race is 25 minutes long, I got time. Most of the time, from the green flag to turn 1 is pretty much a drag race and the first chance to show who has the biggest balls to enter the fastest and latest. If you don't like to be close, this is NOT the place you want to be.

To be continued…

[csmith12]

I promise... this story is not gunna end like you think.

[Sirref]

pic

looking forward to the rest

[Brother Michigan]

Need moar!