May 7 Race Day Update

[RockStar]

Wow. What a day! Another day full of adventure. First question on everyone's mind "Which tire shall it be rains or DOT's?" *waiting 5 minutes....."Oh there's the sun let's get the slicks ready...no....no...wait for it...ok DOT's....nope...rains for sure" Jeez! But finally by race time the sun came out...mostly, and the DOT's went on. Wackiness. To add to the oddity a race official decided it was Bimmer day on the track between sessions catching air on a borrowed Z3 and deftly displaying it midway up the tire wall. Oops.

Once again I sat on the wall flailing my arms to let Rick and Darren know just how far ahead they were. I couldn't see Lindsay's eye's (Darth Vader visor man) so if he was looking....The Force I'm sure was with him.

The AnatraCorsa team stayed relaxed and cool in their chic pit only to once again zip out and keep the wolves at bay. Unfortunately time keeping and announcing changes was not a forte for track organizers today and Lindsay missed a race while actually preparing for the properly scheduled time. No worries Lindsay, it's only one battle in the war.

Amber had much smoother starts today from what I could tell (no brooding anyway ;) ) and stuffed her opponents once again in the Bus Stop leaving them nigh to be seen anywhere near her on every lap. Go Rocket Go!

One of the highlights however was a blistering battle for first between Darren and Alan Schwen (WMRRA#2) on one of his customer's 749's. What's this Alan Schwen of die hard Honda RC51 fame on a Ducati? That's right yours truly has the man thinking about desmodromic engines....stay tuned. Nevertheless Darren toyed with Alan and on the last lap showed him that the Italian masterpiece has a skill and technique all it's own! Well done man.:D

Once again, thanks for letting me hang out in the pits.

[foggy123]

That's great Yousef. So what were the final placings?

[MonsterGirl]

Thanks for letting Austin and I hang out with you guys on Sunday. We had a great time! Hopefully the weather in the upcoming races is a little more predictable for everyone - it was pretty miserable there for a while!

Also, Bill went down in turn #5b. :( His ankle was looking pretty bad, but no other major injuries. I hope he recovers quickly and gets back out there on the Duc again!

[UKDuc]

Great review Yousef - I was kind of happy not to be racing yesterday because of the weather. Instead I managed to get myself run over by an XR100 :rolleyes:

Sorry to hear that Bill went down - hope you and the bike are ok Bill!

[Bong]

Really sorry to hear about Bill, hope he and the bike are ok!

[Rick Rinaldo]

Bill is currently traveling overseas -- his bike crashed extremely well with basically no damage (except for lightly rashed bodywork and stickers). His ankle swelled up about half the size of a tennis ball and it looked broken and perty bad. However, his trip to the hospital indicated that he tore some ligements or tendons in his right anke. He is not quite sure how long it will take to heal.

As usual, he was running a great race and in first place before he crashed.

Rick...

[martino]

Bill had a fantastic fight for the first spot with #900. He was first during the lap he went down. Gman and I were totally sorry not seeing Bill continue the race and learning he injured himself.
Great racing by other guys and girls too.

[Bong]

Yeah I watched Bill walk away from the competition on Sat. He started on row two, got the lead and never looked back. Anyone get the low down on what caused his crash on Sun?

[lindsay]

what a crazy weekend. highs and lows, with bill dominating his race on saturday but spotty weather, lots of crashes, and scheduling malfunctions...

the weekend starts off great on saturday with the rain holding off, and bill absolutely walking away with the novice class win -- he won by a huge margin in a field of 45 riders on his 999, with andy (UKduc) with a very strong second, a big gap over everybody else. both of them looked like pros.

rick had a great race in formula thunder, just missing out on a podium spot but dropping his lap times by another second. mine was mixed - pulling up to the grid after the warmup lap, i saw my oil pressure warning light was on. then it went off. so i gridded, and i see it go on again while waiting for the flag. oh well. had a terrible start - bogged the bike off the line and was 13th into turn 2 after starting on the first row. worked my way up to 8th and then had a fun battle with a canadian racer (apparently a class champ) who was down for the weekend. we traded back and forth and i got around him at the line for a 7th. the result wasn't great, but i felt good about my riding, was faster and more consistent than i have raced before despite a little engine trouble. but man, the field is getting stronger and stronger. the level of competition is up big time over last year.

getting back to the pits i see smoke pouring off the bike and a liter of oil in my belly pan, and lots more covering the rear of the bike. turns out my oil pressure sensor had blown out during the warmup lap, spewing out oil the whole time. i felt a few slips but wrote them off. after the race the guy behind me told me his visor was covered with oil spray! i told him just watch his back, cause next time i deploy the thumb tacks. i was happy and lucky i stayed upright and didn't blow the engine.

got the bike back running great saturday night, a very simple fix it turns out. if you track a 748/998 this is apparently a common problem - the oil sensor isn't designed to handle constant full-throttle load. replaced it with a bolt and problem solved.

sunday it was raining intermittently all day - really hard to predict what tires to go out on. we had a little doppler radar in the pits (thanks to motorola razr) but all it showed was off and on rain all day. bill's race was very wet - but he looked fast and smooth as usual, and had a commanding lead when he hit the deck in turn 5. same thing i did in the wet in the last race weekend. it's a very slippery corner in the wet and it got him (and unfortunate his ankle.) there's a very small margin of error in that corner in the rain and he was just flying through there. and them tumbling, off into the kitty litter.

i just got off the phone with bill this morning as he was boarding a flight for hong kong, armed with two crutches, an ER cast, and a briefcase full of vicodin. he get my vote for official team trooper as well as world's fastest novice.

sunday afternoon, while helping bill get the bent bike loaded and stuff, the sun comes out suddenly after a day full of rain and our scheduled race (open GP twins) was right around the corner. rick and i decided to swap rain tires for slicks and were rushing to get that done when the horn goes off for the next race, the one before ours, giving us 20 minutes to finish. but then we see our competitors heading out of the pits... they changed the schedule and started our race 20 minutes early!!! rick was (almost) ready and rushed out to the line. i was caught with my wheels down and couldn't get out in time. not happy at all.

rick rode very strong and came in fifth, despite having intermediate tires on in dry conditions and pump gas in the tank. the field in open twins was very strong, with #2 alan schwen sporting a new (very built) 749R. darren held him off for a great win though.

so it's off to spokane in three weeks time, with hopefully some nice predictable weather. thanks again to yousef for all his fantastic hospitality and support, and of course to ducati seattle for last-minute emergency parts and help throughout the weekend. see you at the races!

lindsay #25
www.anatracorsa.com

[Bones]

Bill was not in Row 2. He was in Row 4 and by the end of the first lap was drafting very tightly on Colin Davidson (ESM #900) coming across the start/finish line. By lap 3 he was at least a good 5 bike lengths ahead of him.

[RockStar]

Here are results in PDF.

[flyingducman]

Anybody know what happended to Mitchell Pierce? He's conspicuosly absent from all of the race-results.

I remember he was a contended last year from my corner-working days.

[Torben]

Mitchell isn't racing this year (maybe never) - politics are fun :indiffere

[Bones]

Mitchell is working and living out in Snohomish right now, he would like to start racing again but knows he burnt a lot of bridges. At present he would have to start at ground zero since he does not have a bike at present nor does he have access to one. He is taking this season off and is considering returning for 2007.

[ngng]

Hope you heal quick Bill!

[kamran]

Great job all...love reading all about it. Thanks for taking the time to post the race results/stories.
Bill, wish you a speedy recovery...

[zcspec]

good to see Bill came out ok...good wekend period!!!despite good ole' Seattle weather. It was also nice to meet/view some members on the board.

[reznor999]

Greetings from Hong Kong. Sitting here in my hotel room at 5:30am watching the sun come up over the harbor. Beautiful city.

Thanks to all for the concern and well wishes for quick recovery.

The 999S crashed quite well and really just got the bodywork rashed up. I could have probably cleaned it up and run it again as is. Nothing broke off that wasn't cosmetic. My right ankle is pretty messed up - the ER doc said the cartilage holding the tib/fib bones together separated. I am going to an orthopedic specialist next week. Currently I can't put any weight on it. So I am enjoying Hong Kong on crutches.

So here's what I came away with from this mishap. First off there was no need for it to happen - I was running a heat in which had no objective other than to finish the run without incident. I knew it going in and was reminding myself of it as I rode. Colin Davidson (ESM #900) was absolutely on rails - he's a great rider. I couldn't touch him on the straight, as he seemed to be handling the wet better than I. So my natural competitiveness (read stupidity) reared it's ugly head and instead of running what I am guessing would have been a solid second - I just had to try and get around him. My thought was to get enough gap on the inside of the track to negate his speed on the front straight, which was where he was losing me. So I went into 5 too fast for conditions and most of all too tight and hit that bump at the apex. Font wheel gets light - bike goes down. Would have been fine except that my shoulder caught in the gravel and I started cart wheeling.

So I have learned a lesson and worst of all cost myself race time and may have to make up some novice heats to finish my 6 in a row without a crash. Totally sucks and for what?

BTW the Ducati 999S just rocks. I loved racing it both Saturday and Sunday.

Thanks again everyone,

BB

noviceboy #933

[reznor999]

Bill was not in Row 2. He was in Row 4 and by the end of the first lap was drafting very tightly on Colin Davidson (ESM #900) coming across the start/finish line. By lap 3 he was at least a good 5 bike lengths ahead of him.

I think Lindsay was talking about Saturday where I started inside on row 2. Sunday was inside on row four. Got good starts both days.

Thanks for the great photos Bones - the stuff you showed me from Saturday looked great. Too bad you missed the circus act I pulled in 5 on Sunday. Or maybe that's for the best. Can't keep humiliating myself like I am!

BB

noviceboy #933

[UKDuc]

Again dude, sorry to hear that you are injured - that is MUCH worse than anything that could happen to the bike. Saturday was a high for sure, and it went down hill from there! I am also injured from Supercamp - two of the worst crashes they saw in a while apparently - crushed my ribs on day 1 and I think I have a broken hand from day 2 - dirtbiking SUCKS!!!! Seeing the doc tomorrow to see what the damage is on the hand - swollen up nicely today :(

I need to buy a dirtbike asap BTW and master those bastid things !!!!! :happy57:

Get well soon!!!!

[RockStar]

Well it's good to hear that you're sense of humor is intact Bill. Ligaments take quite a while to heal if not taken care of. So take it easy use lot's of R.I.C.E.
Rest
Ice
Compression
Elevation

on that ankle.

We are all hoping for a solid recovery!

[flyingducman]

So take it easy use lot's of R.I.C.E.While you're in Hong Kong...WHY NOT! Steamed or fried, rice-is-nice :happy57: !

[Bones]

Get well soon Bill

http://studio819.smugmug.com/photos/68802571-O.jpg

[reznor999]

Thanks Bones. Hope I am healed enough for Spokane. Cool shot - looks kinda wet for racing, though. I thought I saw you scamper off the grid at the last minute - guess I didn't imagine it.

See you soon.

BB

noviceboy #933

[Bones]

Don't push it man, just remember to corner work on the next rain day :)

And I had to do that shot when it was wet out. On a dry day it would be to static of a shot, with the water coming up from the tire it shows some motion.

[minger]

I will say not knowing a lot of you guys yet.... Bill you were awesome on Sunday...you got held up entering 9 and got gapped because of it and the next time around you were in the lead, I was really impressed. All in all the pits looked great with all the bikes there and everyone was really friendly

bummer lindsay didn't get out on the last race but things happen for a reason

Darren once again looked awesome, and I have not met Amber yet but I saw her up in the top ten in one of the races and she looked really smooth

sorry you went down and got hurt Bill, take it easy, listen to the docs and we hope to see you out there again soon!!!