VIR Cycle Jam ( back into the fray... well sort of)

Race Report: Virginia Int’l Raceway, WERA Cycle Jam, June 14-17, 2001

Conditions: Humid, mostly sunny but partly wet.
Track: VIR is a beautiful facility and getting better all the time. The track was last used in the early ‘70’s as a racecourse and was dormant until last year. The track re-opened with a new surface and a 3-tracks in-1 layout. The full course, the original 4.something mile road course, and then the “North” and “South” courses using two cross-over sections to divide the track. This way VIR can play host to two events at the same time (this will be important later:eek .

Melissa and I drove in Wednesday night about 10:30. We found a prime pit location near the bathrooms/concession stand and grassy area (Ginger’s restroom ). And unloaded the trailer and began to set up the pit. We camped in the trailer all weekend, which wasn’t too bad this time, but it was still a little humid. We are ready for A/C and better shelving in the trailer.

Thursday: The weather actually turned out pretty good, rain clouds threatened all day but never happened until about 4:30. I managed to get in several rounds of course learning practice in between picking up crashed bikes throughout the day. Overall, I though things went pretty smoothly until the last practice session, yep you guessed it rain. The two-strokers were all out on slicks and started to come in, the rain started picking up a little more and they called the practice. I drove out to get two crashed bikes. I went to turn 14 and picked up Steve reeves and his Honda RS250 in a sprinkle, and we got down to turn 17 and picked up an Aprilia RS250. By the time it was loaded the rain was coming down a little harder. Steve and the Aprilia were pitted near each other and we unloaded their bikes in a complete downpour! The back of my truck was standing in water! I was so soaked. I left the truck there walked back to my pit, toweled off and changed clothes. Then I went back for the truck. Melissa and I went to dinner with friends Scott Carpenter and Audrey Ghia in Roxboro, NC and picked up some snacks and drinks at their local Wal-Mart.

Friday: One round of morning practice and then it was hanging out for the day , and doing the crash truck thing. Well as luck would have it (bad luck that is) it began to rain during the endurance only practice, and the endurance race itself would start under wet conditions. Most of the endurance teams are experienced at adverse conditions and know it’s a long race, and that you can’t win in the first hour, so things started smoothly, but went somewhat south. There were quite a few crashes, more than I could even pick-up effectively and I was picking up bikes in order proximity to impact zones first (sorry to pass you lizards but had a bigger name on the other line ). Wade Buffington and Opie Caylor of team Pennzoil both went down, was there for Wade’s fall but missed Opie’s, he must have rode it in…hope you guys have a speedy recovery, your team will miss you. The Lizards had a second trip in the truck because of gas and I for one was glad to see this one come to an end. Melissa and I cleaned up and explored Danville, VA for dinner. We found a Red Lobster and called it a night.

Saturday: Oh boy, Two races today, C-Superstock and B-Superstock Sportsman. My mother and Step-dad came up for the rest of the weekend and Dennis took care of my crash truck duties so I could concentrate on racing. I had no idea how bad it was be there were bikes running off and falling down all over the track. No one was hurt really just falling down, Dennis was hardly at may pits all day, and actually watched my races from corner stations while picking up bikes. Someone said they had 43 bikes go off or down in the turn 1-2 area alone. As for my performance, well I had a good time and did not finish last . I even battled with some 750’s for a few laps, then the corner of my eye caught something unusual, remember I said the rent both halves of the track? Well some guy in a white mustang either waaaaaay overcooked a turn or just decided to drive down for a look-see. He was heading right for the turn 14-crossover junction and so was I . I sort of backed out after that and may have lost a position or two but it was hot and I was tired. I felt much better about my riding but still not really comfortable with the bike. So after the B-Superstock race I installed a Penske rear shock and a new rear sprocket.
It was miserably hot and humid and I had not eaten very much so I felt miserable by the time the races were over (at 7:40 PM !). Dennis and mom wanted to go back to their hotel room and shower before eating (don’t blame them at all) me I just wanted to eat and go to bed. Melissa and I went to dinner with Scott, Audrey, Chris Normand and another friend of Audrey’s and picked up some snacks and drinks at a grocery store and called it a night.


Sunday: Ok, two more races today, 600-Superstock and 750-Superstock National Challenge. I’m starting in the 2nd wave and 3rd wave respectively. The bike handles sooooo much better with the rear shock and the ride height set-up. (Thank you Mark J. and Max) After the 600 race I’m thinking I really need to work on my starts. Well I got to practice my starts 2 extra times in the 750 race. Two red flags one on the first lap and one about 3-4 laps into the 10 lap race. This meant complete restarts, after a splash of gas (thanks Kith) I headed out for the third restart. Remember I did not eat much on Saturday because of the heat and activity? Well I began to drop a little over half way through the 750 race, and even Sam Flemming (the gentleman)of AOD fame passed me into turn one on the last lap. By then I could not even twist the throttle full on because my wrist hurt so much. On the cool down lap I stopped to pick up a knee puck in the middle of the track just before the bridge and rode in very slowly. I recovered pretty quickly once I got back to the pits so I think it was just residual effects of Saturday’s mal-nutrition. On a personal best note, I did manage to drop 2 sec a lap from Saturday’s time to Sunday’s best.

Sunday also brought out the worst accidents and injuries of the weekend, I can only guess that the guys were pushing their hearts out then. Glenn Zarek went for ride med-wagon after a crash in the Heavyweight Twins race. He and Scott Harwell were having a proverbial dogfight of a race and I hope Glenn will have a quick recovery as well.

I finished the crash truck duties by picking up one of our BBS’ own Steve Clark who looked to be having a good race for a while . Then Melissa and I finished packing and headed for home.

Congrats to Scott Harwell, Mark Junge and Larry Denning on their wins and Paul Harrell on a new MC track record and all the participants that had a great showing. Thanks to the WERA officials and cornerworkers for pulling off a great event.

This coming weekend, Carolina Motorsports Park with new brake lines and sprockets. Hope to see you there, and feel free to stop by and say hello.

 

You would hardly think M. Junge would have time to kick butt on the track, he was over at our pits helping sort out a fuel injection problem. He really got it right too. Heck of a guy.

AJ