Race Report 1 Racer #486-Dan Martin April 26, 2004 THANKS: Thank you to the NESR Racing pit crew for swapping out my water pump, collecting pump and impeller bits from the engine, and changing fluids & filters. All I did was hang on to the machine you fixed and tuned; you deserve the trophy! Thanks to: New England Street Riders Racing* for the opportunity to ride for your team. Lockhart Phillips USA** for their great contribution as sponsor to racer #486. Please visit: www.lockhartphillipsusa.com The sportbike connection. Doc’s Lowriders; for our leather work. Advantage signs; for our stickers. Fast by Fegan; for the quick and excellent fork work. My wife, Barbara; for watching our newborn premie while I spent the entire weekend at the track. Honey, (with tears in my eyes) you’re the greatest! PAYBACK: For those about to read: I salute you with 15 points, one third place podium, and one top ten finish racing my little 600 with the heavyweights this weekend. FRIDAY PRACTICE: My boss is very understanding, he let me pick either Thursday –or- Friday to take off, my choosing based upon the weather. I watch a TV channel dedicated to weather and read that Thursday will have showers and Friday will be beautiful and warm (warmth is important to us in New Hampshire). So, I pick Friday as my day off. Thursday starts off overcast, on my way to work I give myself a little kudos for picking the right day. About 9am on Thursday the sun comes out and it warms up to being perfect. Friday morning I wake up and look outside. It’s cloudy, cold, and raining. I pack the trailer and head out to the track. Friday was spent setting up the pit. I returned my kudos in exchange for kicking myself in the behind due to picking the WRONG day. SATURDAY: Practice: Saturday started off very cold and damp. I arrived early and got ready for practice. Rusty, I failed tech inspection twice and missed the first session. I was not happy with this. I was sent back the first time due to my lower fairing being on. Having raced CCS last, we were in the routine of going to tech with our lowers ON, LRRS wants to tech the bike with the lowers OFF. AS I become a better racer, I’m sure I will have an opinion about tracks doing things differently. Second time through tech I was rejected due to no safety wire on the oil pan plug or oil filler cap. Knowing I was going to miss the practice session, and mad as can be, I asked one of the pit crew to take it through tech. We passed and I was on the track for the first time this year in the second practice session. SATURDAY RACES: First race went well. One incident to report: a heaveyweight bike tried to over- take me in turn 3. I can sympathize with the rider; watching the mistakes I was making most of the course, gauging himself against me, he simply set his mind to make the pass there. Bad choice. True, I was not going fast after my long winter's nap, but you won't out-brake someone who learned to race without a clutch. With some friends of mine in the turn three grandstands watching, he tried to take me on my inside and "pinch" me out into the marbles. That is when he dumped the bike. I entered the apex at turn three with his bike spinning on the ground to my right side, and the rider rolling on the ground directly in front of me. This is the turn that collected me and broke my knee and front forks last year. I honestly saw a $1,400 bill + hospital time in front of my eyes and thought, "Boy, first race of the season! My wife is NOT going to like this." Next, I silently apologized to the rider on the ground as I thought there was no way to avoid running him or his bike over causing major damage. At the same time, I locked up the front binders and brought my bike under control. By then the rider and bike were separated enough for me to squeeze through without contact to either. Up the hill into turn four I went, in the wrong gear. At least we avoided a hefty repair bill. I finished the race and brought the bike and myself back to our pits with only a story to tell. That was a close one. RACE TWO: Bad launch. Slow times. Without making Thursday or Friday's practice and missing most of the morning practice, I wrote these first two races off as a "test and tune" session. I wasn't last, but didn't get up to speed to collect any points either. Again, I was able to bring myself and the bike back in one piece. I am happy with that, glad to be back out on the track, and considered myself lucky for the day. At the end of a long, so-so day, or, a bad day of racing, I tell myself that a few years ago I was only dreaming of doing this. Some never get the chance. Now I am chasing my dreams. This helps to put things in perspective. SUNDAY: Sunday LOOKED like any other day. It turned out differently. Morning practice went just; OK. I didn't feel too slow, didn't feel too fast. My tires were not up to temperature as it was only 39 degrees out at the beginning of my practice. I decided to go on track and take the first three laps to warm things up. Towards the end of practice session one, I get in one hot lap and brought the bike back to the pits. Shutting her off; we hear fizzing sounds from the engine compartment. The NESR Racing crew tears off my body work and found a broken water pump. Apparently one of the impeller blades had sheared off and bound up the pump. This in turn shattered the pump's drive shaft, leaving shards of metal in the coolant. I mentioned the spare motor we had at home. Derek Sinclair looked up at me and said, "Go get it." Ah yes, the amateur racing environment; out of money, tired, scrambling for spare parts, hurrying to fix a broken bike, not knowing if we are going to make the starting grid or forfeit our entry fee. I rushed home, chucked the spare motor in the truck and sped back to the track. Gordon Sterns and Ryan from NESR Racing supervised the water pump swap, changed the filters and fluids, started her up, checked her over, and handed the bike off to me for my first race: Heaveyweight superbike. The bike performed VERY well. We earned 4 points! Those four points belong to my pit crew. Thanks guys!
