Even though I was feeling like poo this morning, I loaded up and went to Frankfort, IN for a little bit of 1/2 mile flat track racing.
I had to work on the bike when I got there.. Never a good sign, however, it was just a sticky float needle and I got it going in plenty of time to practice.
I need to fire my mechanic though. He left the clamp a little loose on the carb, so about 3 laps into practice the carb twisted and pulled the fuel line off. Good thing I only put in enough gas in for 4 laps.
Even though the practice was short, I learned a lot. One thing I learned, I love half miles. Fast and I could turn. Whoooot! Turning is nice.
So.. I fixed up the carb and got back after it in the heat race.
I came off the line in second in my heat. Not bad for my second ever race on a flat track. I was holding on pretty nicely, until they red flagged it for a crash.
On the restart I got another decent start and ran good until my right side foot peg decided to not place nice and fold back where I couldn't get my foot on it. Must address that issue in the garage before the next race.
When that happened, it kinda threw off my concentration and I also couldn't get on the brakes going into the third turn. So, once I got the bike back down off the grass, I was way behind in third. Not bad, but not where I wanted to be. It was ok though, 3rd out of 5 is good in my book.
Before the main, I thought it'd be a good idea to adjust the clutch so that it didn't try to pull out from under men while waiting for the green. I went a bit too far as it turned out.
Also, while screwing around with the clutch, my idiot mechanic (me), broke the brake rod (drum brakes). So we had to fashion a rod out of an old throttle cable from a lawn mower. It worked.
Once we got that all done, it was time to get over to the staging area for the main.
Before they let us out on the track, they decided it'd be fun to put down too much water in the turns. Woot! Made it super greasy for us.
After a seriously long time staging and site laps and other guys killing their bikes and restarting them, we lined up and got the green for 8 laps of main event fury!
I am riding in a Vintage Lites class (1983 or older 251cc and smaller). They had only 2 girls in the "Dirt Diva" class, so they had them run with us. No big deal ,cept those two girls are seriously fast.
When the green light lit, I found myself out front with only one of the girls ahead of me. No big deal I thought, because they aren't in my class. I was happy to let her go, she could easily lap me and I'd only have to do 7 laps!!!
I led all the way into the third turn, where somehow, I got a false neutral. I'm not sure how that happened, as I hadn't touched the shifter. Old bikes...
Well, once I had the bike in gear again, and back in the groove, I was again back in third. I also noticed at this time that I had definitely gotten too aggressive on my clutch adjustment. As they bike got on the pipe, it sounded like it was reving to the moon.. Oooops.. if I kept the rpms low, and didn't over rev, it pulled fine.. So I just adjusted how I rode and babied it to a final third place finish.
If I had done a few minor things different, I might have scored my first victory today, however, I'll definitely take what I got and be very happy with it.
After the race, my nephew told me that my dad was going wild about the fact that I was leading and pulling away down the back stretch. That made it all worth it. I can't wait to see the look on his face the first time I pull off the track with a win. It'll be priceless.
I grew up in a family of flat trackers and I wish it hadn't taken until I was 43 years old to get on one myself. In the last 4 years I have been having the time of my life on dirt bikes, however, none of it compares to the fun I had today.
On another note, Kevin Atherton's father Dave rode at our track. He was riding a really nice old Norton. It was insane fast.
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I had to work on the bike when I got there.. Never a good sign, however, it was just a sticky float needle and I got it going in plenty of time to practice.
I need to fire my mechanic though. He left the clamp a little loose on the carb, so about 3 laps into practice the carb twisted and pulled the fuel line off. Good thing I only put in enough gas in for 4 laps.
Even though the practice was short, I learned a lot. One thing I learned, I love half miles. Fast and I could turn. Whoooot! Turning is nice.
So.. I fixed up the carb and got back after it in the heat race.
I came off the line in second in my heat. Not bad for my second ever race on a flat track. I was holding on pretty nicely, until they red flagged it for a crash.
On the restart I got another decent start and ran good until my right side foot peg decided to not place nice and fold back where I couldn't get my foot on it. Must address that issue in the garage before the next race.
When that happened, it kinda threw off my concentration and I also couldn't get on the brakes going into the third turn. So, once I got the bike back down off the grass, I was way behind in third. Not bad, but not where I wanted to be. It was ok though, 3rd out of 5 is good in my book.
Before the main, I thought it'd be a good idea to adjust the clutch so that it didn't try to pull out from under men while waiting for the green. I went a bit too far as it turned out.
Also, while screwing around with the clutch, my idiot mechanic (me), broke the brake rod (drum brakes). So we had to fashion a rod out of an old throttle cable from a lawn mower. It worked.
Once we got that all done, it was time to get over to the staging area for the main.
Before they let us out on the track, they decided it'd be fun to put down too much water in the turns. Woot! Made it super greasy for us.
After a seriously long time staging and site laps and other guys killing their bikes and restarting them, we lined up and got the green for 8 laps of main event fury!
I am riding in a Vintage Lites class (1983 or older 251cc and smaller). They had only 2 girls in the "Dirt Diva" class, so they had them run with us. No big deal ,cept those two girls are seriously fast.
When the green light lit, I found myself out front with only one of the girls ahead of me. No big deal I thought, because they aren't in my class. I was happy to let her go, she could easily lap me and I'd only have to do 7 laps!!!
I led all the way into the third turn, where somehow, I got a false neutral. I'm not sure how that happened, as I hadn't touched the shifter. Old bikes...
Well, once I had the bike in gear again, and back in the groove, I was again back in third. I also noticed at this time that I had definitely gotten too aggressive on my clutch adjustment. As they bike got on the pipe, it sounded like it was reving to the moon.. Oooops.. if I kept the rpms low, and didn't over rev, it pulled fine.. So I just adjusted how I rode and babied it to a final third place finish.
If I had done a few minor things different, I might have scored my first victory today, however, I'll definitely take what I got and be very happy with it.
After the race, my nephew told me that my dad was going wild about the fact that I was leading and pulling away down the back stretch. That made it all worth it. I can't wait to see the look on his face the first time I pull off the track with a win. It'll be priceless.
I grew up in a family of flat trackers and I wish it hadn't taken until I was 43 years old to get on one myself. In the last 4 years I have been having the time of my life on dirt bikes, however, none of it compares to the fun I had today.
On another note, Kevin Atherton's father Dave rode at our track. He was riding a really nice old Norton. It was insane fast.
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