[tigerblade]

Well it was an interesting weekend. Drove all day Thursday to get to Elkhart Lake (about 10 hours driving time from my parents' in NW MO.). Stood in line for about an hour and a half at Siebkin's to get registered that evening. Friday morning I arrive at the track and find there are no more electric hookups available. There was a NESBA trackday Thursday, plus a Learning Curves licensing clinic, plus it was a Formula USA weekend...in other words I should have known better. So we unhook the trailer and drove a few miles to nearby Plymouth and buy a generator. I'd planned to get one sometime this year anyway, just didn't think I needed it this early. Didn't think cold Michelins on a brisk April morning in Wisconsin was a recipe for anything I wanted to sample (high on Saturday was around 47 and low 50's Sunday). Anyway, got back in time the second practice session and got out to at least see where the track goes (first time up there). Probably got in 3 laps, maybe 4. People were going off right and left just about every session of the weekend. Four people dumped their bikes at pit out, just getting onto the track if that tell you anything... Got another practice Saturday morning, again maybe 3 or 4 laps, then it was time to race. The grids were decent sized; I believe I counted 18 entrants in all my races (not counting combined classes running at the same time). LW Superbike was first: I ran around and finished 15th. My second race of the day was postponed to Sunday because we had a curfew of 6 PM and with all the crashes we were behind schedule. That put us at 19 races to get in on Sunday since all the Formula USA races were that day. Sunday morning rolls around to find everything damp from rain during the night. I get to the track at 7 and nothing's happening. Well, if anything WAS happening you wouldn't know because of the fog... We kept waiting for the fog to burn off which didn't happen sufficiently until around 11. All CCS races were then changed to 3 laps (instead of 5). In the meantime I went in search of rain tires. Michelin was sold out of rears, so I bought some Bridgestones from my buddies at Lithium Motorsports (great bunch of guys; they did my fork work). Went out for practice and promptly had a great time. Even though I'd anti-fogged the crap out of my visor, still had to crack it open a few times on the straights to clear up my vision. The rain tires were awesome. The only "moment" I had was under the Toyota bridge, but then it was a problem for everyone. There was a debris flag there all day because it was just plain slick there. A few people tested the Airfence. The first race of the day was my makeup race from Saturday, LW Supersport. I had a good time and don't think I lost the leaders by a whole lot. My braking was really good but I still need to work on corner entry speed. Finished 8th. My second race of the day (LW Supersport again) was now race 3 with the new schedule. Pretty much the same as the first race except on the last lap I was coming up behind an expert GP bike toward the last few corners and there was a waving yellow going into 13 under the Toyota bridge. I hear another bike behind me and know that it'll be close since I can't pass the GP bike yet. We come under the bridge and the ambulance is off the right side of the track attending to whomever got caught out this time. We get to 14 and make the run up the hill and he gets by. I pulled in to draft and started to go, but ran out of time as we crossed the line, me in 10th. My last race was supposed to be the 15th on Sunday, but it was cancelled since we ran out of time again. Since I was one of two guys NOT from Wisconsin or Illinois, I didn't feel too bad about my first time at the place. I'll be better next time I'm there, and at least I got some rain tire experience.

*Edited for finishes. Results different than posted at the track.

[Zippy]

Thanks for the report. It sounds like you made the best of it, inspite of some real hardships.

I did not make it out to corner work, but it seems that they could have used the extra hands picking up all those bikes. One corner worker reported pulling 12 bikes out of the pea gravel in Canada during just one day. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

I did the Nesba day on Thursday. It was cold and slippery, in the 40s and low 50s. It made for a slow slightly tedious morning on Dunlop 208 GP A's. There was a strong wind that made it a lot of extra work to ride. The place was just packed with CCS and Forumula USA trailers, even on Thursday.

[tigerblade]

Couple of pics (more to follow when they're scanned). The second one is what the guys a few pits down were doing in the paddock (Hey Pete, remind you of Barber? ).