North Central Round #6/North East Round #8; August 7 & 8, 2004; Beaver Run Raceway

There was a break of two weeks until the WERA event at Beaver Run. During this time I was able to actually get some rest as I felt like I had been running 24-7 all through July. I attended the AMA Superbike weekend at Mid-Ohio as a spectator, but to be honest I was getting tired of bring there. After five days on the track and commuting back and forth, I had my fill of the track.

I was able to get some chores done around the house and it was actually nice to just come home. I hadn’t done this much traveling since I had played in the band, so I appreciated the time off. The post race inspection at home had revealed that the rear sub-frame bolts on the KTM had snapped again. Taking this as an omen and since I had the new part in the garage, I bellied up to the tool box and stripped the bike down. All in all I got a new sub-frame installed in about three hours, and worked in the regular maintenance schedule around this repair.

As the weekend approached I posted the need for a ride on the local racers BBS. I did not want to borrow my room-mates muffler-less pick-up or van with-no-spare-tire, since they had caused me problems the past weekends I had used them. Columbus resident and Sportbike Track Time instructor Larry Glaze came through and said that he was attending and that he would love the company. Logistics resolved Larry arrived at my house Saturday morning.

We got to Beaver Run, which is located just over the Ohio/Pennsylvania state line. Since registration was closed we set up the pit we and watched a few races. The 600cc novice class riders were doing a pretty good job of banging up their bikes and bodies during the scheduled 16 lap solo race. With only three laps complete and three red flags WERA called the race!

After the races were completed Larry and I walked the track. Beaver Run seemed to be a pretty simple but with a lot of elevation changes. With the lap record under one minute, the track reminded me more of one of those toy slot-car tracks than an actual raceway. Much like Nelson Ledges, a fast lap would just depend on staying on the throttle. The bike gearing might be an issue as well. One thing that really stood out in my head was the lack of run-off. There was Armco about chest high surrounding the grass run-off. Not much room for error if you get it all wrong heading in to a turn. Larry and I had seen enough, so we split for the hotel and then dinner. No, we didn’t cuddle.

Sunday morning came and I was feeling pretty horrible. I’m not sure what I got, but standing in line to register I felt like I was going to barf my brains out. Some of the guys said I looked pretty pale, but despite my stomach I entered my regular classes. Larry would be racing his Suzuki GSXR750 in the B Superstock, B Superbike, and Formula 1 classes.

The two morning practice sessions went pretty well. WERA had again combined two regions, and again it seemed like the attendance was pretty good. Most of the racers that had shown up seemed to be the ones in the hunt for the points and the regional championships. As far as the track itself it seemed easy enough. I was geared too tall and I was short-shifting down the hill heading on to the back straight. By watching some of the races I figured out that turns one through three could be taken as one long right hander after the left coming off the front straight. By the end of the morning my best time was 1:11.068.

With some beautiful weather, race one for me was Clubman novice. Jazon Fry (KTM 450SMR) and I had a decent fight for a few laps. Series points leader James Gentry didn’t show up, and we were told later that he wasn’t planning on trying to clinch the championship. Seems James wanted to race a GSXR in 2005 and wanted to remain a novice for another year. That meant that either Jazon or I could mathematically clinch the championship.
With that in mind all I needed to do was hang with Jazon and try to eek out some points, then head to the last two races and hope I caught some luck. I was able to get a second place, turn a fast lap of 1:11:929 and remain third in the points, while Charle Huegel got third place.

Race two was Motard novice. The front straight is on this crested hill, and WERA had put us far in the back of the field. So far back in fact that the flagman had to stand on a ladder so we could see him (never mind that the flagman was maybe all of five feet tall!). This led to a bad start as everyone else apparently saw the flag drop. Jazon got the lead and I couldn’t make up the distance. I rode by myself for the eight laps, knocked a second off my lap time and worked mostly on getting a good drive heading up the hill out of the 90-degree turn off the back straight.

With points leader Shawn Alexander still out of D Superbike novice, Aaron Kidd or Sunny Chang could take the championship with the last three races. Me? I was holding down fourth in points. Aaron and I had a hell of a start. We drag raced to turn one and since he had the inside line I was able to get behind him. We took to the back section of the course and Sonny dropped me to third as we headed down the hill on the back straight.

Past the start finish on lap three and down the slight incline in to turn one, I set up to the outside. This would allow me to carry some good speed through turns two and three. Unknown to me James Nichols (Aprilia RS250) missed his breaking marker and came flying up on the inside. As I turned into turn one I saw this bike flash up next to me on the inside. Not wanting to fight for position and maybe collide, I heading to the infield.

This wasn’t as bad of a move as it seemed, since all I did was stand the bike up and just re-enter the track at turn three. But the damage was done and I was now in fourth with nobody around me. To say I was pissed was an understatement, so I just put my head down. I didn’t have the speed to catch up to third, and I settled for fourth while posting a lap of 1:11:232 (Arron won the race while Sunny took second). To add insult to injury the bike stalled as I exited the track on our cool-down lap. The push back to the pits was long, and just furthered my rage.

With two out of three podiums for the weekend, I felt pretty good. The D Superbike race had not filled me with joy, but it was a top five finish. Larry Glaze had a very interesting weekend as he actually made it through Superstock and Formula 1 races but crashed in each one. He ended up missing the last race because the two crashes he had the bent bike. Larry also put a hole in the seat of his leathers you could drive a truck through. Neither him nor his wife looked to happy. But Larry wasn’t hurt, and that was a good thing.

On the way home I took some comfort in my anger. At least I didn’t fall off and get hurt. My chances of finishing in the top three in the region was looking pretty good, especially since I only began racing with WERA in June. And I was beginning to learn that just showing up was half the battle. If I could get to the track for the final races, I could maybe… just maybe… bring home the gold.