Dumb shit you've accidentally done at the track.

SOAR lost era lightweight. All that for a 3$ wooden plaque for a "modern vintage" championship lol.

 

A lot.

1) rode an FJ1100 in Endurance
2) on slicks.
3) in drizzling rain that turned to steady rain.
4) stayed out on it after two low sides because the team wasn't ready to swap out tires and left me out there.
5) didn't kick the shit out of the guy who owned the bike/ team after he got up in my shit when I came in after running off and low siding 3 more times.

Hung out with Hippy Joe, Buckwild and some other miscreants at VIR.
Got all mouthy and aggro with officials and got my bluff called.
Tried using that ski jump bump (turn 3 or 4, can't remember) at Pocono as a berm on a 125 to turn the bike. Imagine evel knievel at the snake river as a measure of my results (except I had more air and flew further then him).

F@ck, a real lot and I'd argue the majority wasn't accidental, just stupid.

 

Ya know the weird part was one corner worker black flagged me, the next two waved me on for another lap. Then I come in to find my two piece leathers not zipped together either. I don't know what happened but I royally f'ed that session up.

 

We forgot to put the rear spacer in my buddy's 1st gen SV-650.
12 lap race around PIR.
After the race, when he came in he said it felt a bit squishy in the corners on acceleration.

Turns out the 5 bolts (steel) holding on the rear sprocket had spun out a perfect trench in two parts of the rear swingarm. Chewed 1/2 way through the aluminum.
Holy crap did we get lucky.

 

At the end of my first year as a Novice, the Race Director asked if anyone was unfamiliar with the track configuration. As that was the first year of the SIR/Pacific Raceways "death chute" (using the return road instead of the drag strip launch pad), my buddy and I raised our hands. I was second to last, Tom was last behind the RD's truck. Going through turn 5 Tom decides to channel his inner Keith Code and "flick 'er in."

He crashed. On the sighting lap. And the track wasn't even "green" yet. The crash truck had to roll out 10 minutes before first practice to pick him up. First practice session? Novices. my, how we laughed. And I remind Tom of that event at least annually for the last 18 years.

 

Blackhawk Farms?

 

I drove 8 hours to get to the shittiest track on earth : North Bay. That place isn't even a race track, it's a freaking plane runway (and a shitty one at that). What wasn't bumpy as a Kandahar street was slippery as a pornstar's waxed nipple. Then I rode like a bat out hell in the freezing rain, nearly killed myself many times to secure a 3rd position in the P4F3 VRRA championship, which was mostly handed to me because one of my buddies (who was faster than me) could'nt make it to the race that weekend. Talk about glory ! Man was I proud to receive that shitty wood trophy from Jordan Szoke himself ! Jordan probably tought "Congratulations, dumbass !"

 

Also, I was smart enough one winter (January or February meeting), again with WSMC, when they called for lightweight practice. And while here was no snow on the Track, there was plenty of ice, cold snow around and the pits were slippery enough. One guy, maybe Eric Angel, goes out on his fzr400(?). The whole pits are pin drop quiet as you hear him leave and start winding that little bike out, T1...wahhhhhhh, T2, Wahhhh, wahhhh, T3 wahhhhhh. T4...wahhhhhh sssschhhhhh schhh shchhhhhhhh (sound of bike sliding).

I dont think anyone else went out until lunch time.

 

Saturday 1990-something at Grattan: My brother hops on his bike and heads out for practice, rides the whole practice and comes in and hops of the bike and says: "Man my leathers are kind of tight." I look over and there's the hook of a wooden coat hanger sticking out the top of his leathers. Man, we laughed so hard we cried! I still remind him now and then.

 

That IS crazy. You drove all that way and you've got shitty tracks right in your own back yard lol

 

North Bay seriously made St-Eustache seem like Mugello.

 

lol no doubt

 

Second day of a 2-day trackday event with my usual posse of silverbacks. We'd been riding The Ridge for a few seasons and feeling pretty comfortable.
Everything's perfect: weather, track, tires. In. The. Groove.

Boys are all giddy and hustling out. I'm a bit behind for some reason, get rolling, waved out - it's ON!
Get to T4...WTH??
Helmet strap is loose. Track control missed it too.
I tiptoe around praying all the way, pull in at the FAR end of hot pit and sort it out.

I'm pretty sure it was the same day; We're sipping beers and recapping things, I make my confession.
My buddy goes deadpan, then quietly says, "My leathers felt kinda weird one session. Came in and checked it out...found a hanger back there..."


.

 

Changed my tires, hand tightened the front caliper bolts, forget to wrench them down. Going into the right hander after the back straight at CMP, one of them made their way out. Thankfully enough pumping got one caliper working as I was riding through the kitty litter. Those that know the turn knows there wasn't a lot of kitty litter back then. Not sure if they improved it or not since then.

 

I never made the trip to North Bay when I was doing VRRA. Your track description reinforces my belief that I made the right decision.

 

A few years ago at summit I was doing my usual house mother tasks organizing everyone and helping get other guys out. Pushing cb350s through the paddock etc. So I'm running late and grab my bike and someone to run some rollers for me. I hop on the bike. Park it on the rollers backwards. Roller driver hits the gas in the van and it immediately sucks my rear tire under the wheel of the van where it gets stuck. I stood there quietly with my visor down the entire race holding bike up. I swear I wanted to end my life right there.

 

Sunny Chang
Grattan Raceway
2002

Mr. Chang assisted a fellow racer with the replacement of his front brake pads, but didn’t pump them up before fellow racer headed out to track, nor advised him to do so right as he headed out on second call.

Fellow racer grabbed the brakes, only two times, before heading straight into the kitty litter in turn one, jumping off the bike right before it hit the berm, flew over the barbed wire fence, of which one of the steaks punctured a hole in his Arai and then gouged his cheek - and then landed in the street.

 

At Loudon one weekend I was helping Bill Johnson get his bike started to head out for practice. Push posh push. Wouldn't start. On rollers wouldn't start.. Finally locked up. Steve d'angelos daughter comes over after all this and says what are those yellow things in there? And points to the carb. We didn't realize Bill had shoved these like neoprene balls into his velocity stacks and the compression had sucked then in to the carb throat where we couldn't see them. Then the thing hydrolocked with fuel.. We pulled the plugs cycled it through..popped the plugs in and sent him out. Did an oil change right after he got in. Lol

 

That's what a good friend would do.

 

Moved out West and first time on a bike in years. Decided to come back in style at a Laguna Seca track day. Felt like I knew the track after so many times watching it on TV. At the riders meeting, for those of us who'd never been there before, they told us the corkscrew was blind and to look for the ribbon in the tree and aim for that.

First lap out and I shook off the cobwebs in the first few turns. Excitement took over and I was ready to drop in like a pro at the top of the hill. I starting looking for "the" tree. Nope. It's Sherwood Forest and there's like one tiny streamer somewhere I guess. Completely underestimated how blind and steep that drop is and missed it by a mile. Took the Rossi line over the storm grate and rodeoed the bike through the gravel. Somehow kept it up and took the rest of the session at half speed just to get the hang of the track.