WERA North Central Region: round six- Nelson Ledges Road Course

WERA North Central Region: round six- Nelson Ledges Road Course

08/20/2006

Circuit: Nelson Ledges Road Course
Location: Garrettsville, OH
Track length: 2 miles
Personal Fastest lap: 1:16.913 (2006)
Personal Fastest at this event: 1:16.913
Last year's best finish: First
Photo link: none

My wife Catherine and I headed up to Nelson Ledges Road Course Saturday afternoon with the Cleveland Akron KTM loaded in the back of the Ford Econoline. All the needed items and the queen sized futon were stuffed in the back like a cannoli. We had gone to quick BBQ at a friend’s house in Columbus, so we really didn’t have time to go to east-Cleveland and grab dinner or snacks.

At 9:30 we had the van unpacked and got settled in at the track. It had rained earlier in the day, there was standing water in places and it was cooler than expected. The mosquitoes were flying in formation as we parked out away from the constant hum of the generators.

After three bathroom runs during the middle of the night, we awoke Sunday to an overcast sky. The clouds looked threatening and the temperatures were more September than August-like. My Bridgestone tires had too many heat cycles, but I ran practice on them before swapping them out at Mize Mobile. Kudos to Quentin for mounting the fresh Bridgestones tires for my races.

My races were later in the day, so Catherine grabbed some hot lunch while I ate some packaged rice and tuna. I’m not sure why she would want decent food, the processed and bland rice I had was good for me…

I talked to Aaron Kidd about the D Superbike race and just told him to ride his race. We both knew his bike was faster, and agreed that he just needed to finish higher than me to stay in the championship hunt. Since Aaron was only 4 points behind me in third, and Sunny Chang was in first by 2 points over me with 3 races left, the championship was still far from decided.

As the afternoon wore on, I grabbed a nap and daydreamed about loading the van up and heading home. But I came to my senses and grabbed two scrub laps on my fresh tires before my races.

The Clubman race was first, with Don Fine (Suzuki GS500E), Rich Graver (Suzuki GS500E), Robert Watson (Honda CRF450) and Shigeru Honda (Ducati 750) on the grid in the Expert class. I got a great start heading in to turn one, but Rich passed me in turn four and never looked back. I kept Rich in sight for 3 laps, but then he just disappeared. I ended up dorking off with my lap timer on lap 4 down the back straight and lost touch with the leader.

With myself in second, I waited for one of the back three to make a run to the front. Catherine was on the pit wall to show me the gap, but she kept showing me a decent distance between me and third place (Don Fine). By the last lap I was 13 seconds behind Rich, and Don was 28 seconds behind me. I posted my fastest lap ever at Nelson Ledges on lap 2 when I was trying to hang with Rich, with a 1:16.913.

The D Superbike grid had 7 bikes total lining up. I got the hole-shot in to turn 1, running up the back of some of the expert lightweight-twins class. Sunny Chang (Honda RVF400) caught and passed me down the back straight. Aaron Kidd (FZR400) fell in behind me, and was catching me before Aaron high-sided in turn 13. At the end of lap 1 I was catching Sunny, but I had a lightweight-twins bike between us. By lap 2, Sunny was pulling away and I now had two SV650’s to contend with. Don Kinsey had inherited third place after Aaron crashed.

As the race wound down, Don had an SV650 between himself and me, and I had two SV650’s between Sunny and myself. Catherine kept showing me a HUGE gap between myself and Don, but I thought she was off her rocker. I went by a few times and gestured to her, to make sure she was correct. And she gestured right back. By the checkered flag, Sunny had taken the win. I was almost 7 seconds behind him, and Don had taken third place two seconds behind me. My fastest lap was on lap 5, with a 1:17.161

The Motard race this weekend was not so lonely. Robert Watson (Honda CRF450) had joined me for 8 laps of fun, but I lost Robert on the start as I passed about 10 bikes heading in to turn one. I didn’t see Robert the whole race, which was surprising since Robert is a pretty fast rider. Apparently his was on his ‘B’ motor, as his built ‘A’ motor had dropped a valve. Down on power, Robert finished seventeen seconds behind me at the end of the race. My fastest lap was 1:17.263 on lap 2.

The 2006 North Central regional championship in Motard had been mathematically wrapped at the last event, but the win this weekend put me in first place in the Northeast region. The 2nd place in clubman padded my points lead in the North Central and I gained the points lead in the Northeast region. My 2nd in D Superbike was a surprise considering the depth of the field, and I was able to not loose much ground to point’s leader Sunny Chang. Aaron Kidd’s DNF gave me some breathing room between Aaron (3rd in points) and myself (2nd in points).

Up next: Grattan Raceway Park in Belding, Michigan on August 26-27, 2006. I’d like to thank my sponsors for their support.

WERA North Central Standings (After 6 of 9 rounds)
Clubman: *Cline (105), Fine (58), Ergo (46), Weiss/Knapp, D./Higinbotham/Graver (tie-20), Sweeney/Shirley (tie-15), Honda (13)
D Superbike: Chang (86), Cline (82), Kidd (60), Ergo (45), Schickler (44), McKee/Parish (tie-40), Fine (32), Kinsey (30), Nicholas (24), Weiss (20), Watson (10), Honda (9), Kovach (8),
Motard: *Cline (117), Watson (20), Shirley (20), Knapp, D. (DNS)
* Mathematically secured regional championship