Putnam Park, IN May 12 Bike #247 Red Ducati 916 Races: HW Solo 20 Sat morning. Wake up at 4:15am, it's such a beautiful day (night still I guess!), the ground it still soaked from overnight rains. I'm mostly loaded, but have to put the bike into the back of the pickup. Commence the fun - loading a 400+lb bike up a wet metal ramp, in the dark, alone. After 2 attempts the bike's on level ground, strapped in and ready. So am I. I get on the road, heading up I65 from Louisville, KY. About halfway to Indianapolis, the sun finally begins to peek over the horizon. I make good time to the track, better than I needed to (or so I thought). But when I arrive at 6:30 local time, the line into the track already extends out to the road. About 5-10 minutes later, the line has backed up behind me as far down the road as I can see. About 20 minutes later I'm finally next in line to pay my $20 wrist band fee and sign the waver for track entry. It's early, but there is already quite a crowd in the pits. First race of the year, and everyone's raring to go! I get everything unloaded, checked out, and ready to tech. Registration isn't open yet, so I begin the mandatory bench racing and BS'ing w/ some friends. You have to get some of that in to be properly prepared for the 'real' racing later. Of course, it's not possible to go to the track and NOT have forgotten to do SOMETHING, and in this case it was me forgetting to put my new numbers on the bike. I changed from 917 last year to 247 this year. Obviously I didn't have the foresight to bring those with me so I had to bum some 2's off a friendly pit neighbor, and make the 4 and 7 out of black tape. It was quite beautiful work if I may say so! Thankfully Greg with Trackside Racers Supply showed up later so I could get some 'real' numbers before racing. Registration opens, and immediately the same line that was waiting to get into the track is now lined up waiting to register. Thank god I pre-registered! So that goes quickly, and I'm off to tech before the line there forms up too bad. Tech goes smoothly and I'm ready to go. Our practice session comes, and I'm out practicing on bad tires - I had used them for 2 track days previously. But they worked well enough for me to get the 'feel' of the track back, and run a few decent laps. Our 750cc novice practice sessions Sat were wonderfully clear of traffic, it seemed as if there were only 10 or so bikes on the track, so traffic was a non-issue. By the second practice session the tires were really letting me know to cut it out, so I came in early from that one, but not before knocking off a few hot laps just to put my head into the right frame of mind for the race later. These Pirelli's really offer nice feedback even when they're going/gone - I feel safe pushing them a bit even in those conditions. Lunchtime, more bench racing, BS's and general good times had by all. Swapped tires out so as to have some fresh meat for the Solo 20 later. Our race was almost the last race of the day, so I got to watch most of the earlier races. For the most part, they all went very smoothly, only a few incidents all day. Even the Mediumweight Solo 20 - which had me very nervous a few times. It seemed like every lap 8 or 10 guy would be slicing and dicing traffic into and out of turn 10 - NOT a good place to have multiple bikes dicing. A lot of close calls but thankfully no problems there. It certainly was exciting to watch though. Finally it's racing time! I'm geared up and ready to go - I take off on the warm up towards the front of the pack. Take my 5th row grid position, I'm on the right side, which lines me up for the inside of turn one. The green flag drops and we're off! I get a decent start, not passing anybody, but only having a few come by me right away. Which for me, is great So I've got about 12-15 bikes in front of me going towards turn one, I pass a few before the hill, and keep to the inside. Sure enough, someone in the pack ahead starts a brake check chain, and everyone starts to stop (it seems at the top of the hill). I slide on by a BUNCH going down the hill, and wind up in 4th as I peel into turn one. I get on the gas hard out of one, and duck under 3rd place into turn 2, so as we leave turn 2 I'm now in third! I can hardly believe my good luck ... I follow 1st and 2nd place for that lap, and starting the second lap I can see 1st place eeking ever so slightly away. I know if he walks me at the pace we were running, I'll never make the gap, so I line up a great drive out of turn 5, through turn 6, and duck under 2nd place into the bus stop. I drift it on out of the exit, and begin pursuit. By this time, he had about 10 bike length's on me. I put my head down and tried to catch him, and we see-sawed back and forth - I'd gain a few bike lengths, he'd pull them back out, I'd gain, he'd walk, etc. This went on until we hit some lap traffic, and he was better at working it thatn I was, that's for sure. I watched 1st place walk away, never to be seen again So about halfway I begin to think not about 1st, but retaining 2nd. I tried to peek back, but by this time we had worked so much traffic I had no idea who was on me, or who was a lapper. But no one was right on my *ss so I figured I was fairly safe. We had run mostly low 1:17's until traffic started, so I figured sticking to that pace was my best bet for staying in 2nd place. Turns out I could have backed off, by that time I was well clear, but I guess it's better to stay in the pace you're used to ... about lap 13 I started to tire, but I put my head back into the game and that feeling went away - the last 5 laps actaully felt great, other than the good old cotton mouth, which I always get no matter how much water I drink during the day before the race. Came home an uneventful 2nd place, which is AWESOME for me - I didn't expect to get top 10 in that race! The $175 I won was pretty cool too - I've never left a race w/ more money than I had when I arrived! I'd like to give a shout of thanks to Trackside Racers Supply, Commonwealth Motorcycles in Louisville, KY, WERA, and all the medical and cornerworkers staff! More later on Sunday's racing!
