Warbird Racing Race Report June 25, 2005

Heavy-Dee · 06-27-2005, 1:21 PM

On June 25th Warbird Racing began to make progress in becomming more "real".

Okay, so I made some small strides. I decided to run another mini-enduro at Nelson Ledges w/ Fastrax. The mini is a 30 minute endurance race. The weather was very hot and humid, which I was glad for b/c I'm still running the stock Dunlop street tires and I was hoping that the extra heat in the track would help the tires stick. I was right and in the race was able to turn some of my best times.

The first practice I was just shaking the rust out and trying to have fun. Even still I managed to shave 2 full seconds off of my previous best time from April. In the second practice I followed Jim around for a couple of laps and then he went off on his own. Jim has been doing really well, and ran a few 1:16 laps on Saturday taking 2nd in our race, and turned some 1:15's on Sunday during the 10 lap sprint race.

In the second practice I was actually working on some things. Namly carrying speed through turns 1-5 as well as the slowest turn on the course turn 13. I was able to shave another 2 seconds off of my time. By this time I was down to 1:22 around the 2.2 mile track, and was pretty happy w/ that although I was pretty sure I could find even more time as I wasn't really pushing very hard.

I opted out of a third practice instead choosing to conserve energy and stay as cool as possible in the 95 degree sun. I had asked to be gridded dead last for the race, but was gridded 8th out of 10 riders. That was good enough. In April I was gridded 3rd and it was a freight train of bikes going by me into turns 3 and 4 as I just can't hang w/ those guys yet. This time I figured that I'll start last and work my way up as far as possible. It was a good plan and I think it worked well for building my confidence and giving me some experience racing w/ some people.

I got an average start and was following a couple of new racers (they were wearing colored shirts). I got around one, but not before the one leading our pack of 3 had pulled a pretty large gap. In about 4 laps I was able to catch him even thought he was pretty fast through the back straight. He was looking strong, but he wasn't really that fast. I was finally able to pass him on the brakes going into turn 1. Exactly the turn that I had been working on in practice. I held him off of the next thrid of the race, but the heat was now woirking against me and my tires. The bike started to get "greasy" and it felt like there was steam inside my helmet. The bug guts on my visor were messing with my vision and for some reason my right foot was burning inside my boot. All of these things together made me drop my lap times down to the 1:22-24 range to be safe. The new guy was able to get by me again, and I tried to hang w/ him but just couldn't w/o taking more risk than I was really comfortable with.

It was so hot that every time I came out of turn 13 to look up at the tower I would just about die every time I saw that the checkered flag was not out. Finally the checkered flag dropped and I was 4th having completed 23 laps in 30 minutes. In the race I ran a number of 1:20 min laps. I was very happy w/ that considering it is about 5-6 seconds faster than the times I ran in April.

In all it was a successful day, and Warbird Racing lives to fight on another day. The next race is early August. I'm hoping to get some race tires for that day and we'll shoot for the 1:18's in the race this time.

Special thanks to Jim and Joanna Fear for company, support and advice. Brenda for being a kick ass wife, supporting me in the pits, and being proud of me afterwards. Andy "Pit Bull" Luciano, for coming up from Dayton to help out and hang out. Thanks all. Until next time....

Dan
Warbird Racing

Pete · 06-27-2005, 1:26 PM

ND4SPD · 06-27-2005, 2:05 PM

Nice work Dan...wish I could've made it out

There's always next time...

tigerblade · 06-27-2005, 2:08 PM

Sounds good, except I'm not sure I'd want "Mr. and Mrs. Fear" giving me advice!

oldgoat · 06-27-2005, 5:26 PM

Good job Dee

I was there Sat. watching. Glad you posted the pictures I'll know where to look for you next time.

Heavy-Dee · 06-27-2005, 6:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldgoat

Good job Dee

I was there Sat. watching. Glad you posted the pictures I'll know where to look for you next time.

Bummer we didn't bump into each other. It would have been good to see you.

HD

ReaperAZ · 06-29-2005, 10:59 AM

Way to go HD, sounds like your finding a new level to ride at as time goes on. Man I wanna do a trackday, so I too can join the fun you seem to have had.

oldfogey · 06-29-2005, 2:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperAZ

Way to go HD, sounds like your finding a new level to ride at as time goes on. Man I wanna do a trackday, so I too can join the fun you seem to have had.

+1, enjoyed the post, thanks.

Heavy-Dee · 06-29-2005, 2:48 PM

Suprised no one has commented on the hottie in the red Ducati tank top.n you guys disapoint me.

HD

tigerblade · 06-29-2005, 5:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heavy-Dee

Suprised no one has commented on the hottie in the red Ducati tank top.n you guys disapoint me.

HD

Well, she's hot so we figured you wouldn't know anything about her.

Heavy-Dee · 06-29-2005, 10:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tigerblade

Well, she's hot so we figured you wouldn't know anything about her.

Man the truth hurts.

Baketech · 06-30-2005, 7:45 AM

Nice post...

Missed you at Grattan....but glad to see it was for a good reason...