As a season ender, i wanted this weekend to go very well with fast times and good company. well, i got the good company, but my times could have used a little help.

I got down to Florida a day early to see my brother in Jacksonville. After a night of mediaocre wings and way too much Wild Turkey (any Wild Turkey is too much Wild Turkey in my opinion) i finished up a few last minute errands and headed out to the track.

I chose my pit area in the dark, set up my tent and proceeded to hang out with some other early paddock collectors. After a short while Jay and Lisa showed up with tales of slipping transmissions, burning odors and well lubricated undercarriages. Luckily they were able to limp the final short distance to the track before their transportation gave up the ghost. WEll not much could be done in the dark so i retired to my tent for a long overdue sleep.

The morning was filled with the usual last minute checks of gear, but i needed to do some extra maintenance. My bikes oil light had gone on at Barber so i finally got around to adding some oil. I also checked my front sprocket to make sure it wasnt working its way loose again. To my relief it was as secure as it needed to be.

the first session found me tip toing around the track, so i wouldnt replay my first session at Barber and lowside on the third lap, but by the end i was picking up my speed. i still wasnt ready for the "full tilt boogie" but things were going well. the second session saw a faster pace and i started to notice my tires more than i normally do. for the breadth of my track career, i have been using Pirelli Diablo Corsas and have been quite pleased with them. They have allowed me to progress to the advanced group and has more grip than i ever wanted, until now. i have nver really paid much attention to my tires or how they felt. other than the occasional slide they have felt planted and worked well. my tires dod not feel like that. they felt like i was riding on bubble gum. the tires would squirm a bit while getting back on the gas and were not confidence inspiring. when i got backl to the pit, i immediatley checked the hot tire pressure and found that it was about 45 lbs. way too high. i also saw the tell tale signs of cold tearing. the tearing wasnt bad, but i neeeded to adress it before it got any worse. it seems that when i set my tire pressure, i did not take into account the fact that it was about 45 degrees out, but it was now closer to 60 degress and rising. sow i took out a few pounds and the tires felt better, but not as good as they normally feel. after lunch i set the tire pressures again, but this time i set them to be about 1lbs lower than normal. over the course of the weekend, the tires never felt very good and i fear that the cold tearing permanently robbed my tires of grip.

Saturday was a day of bad mojo for the emergency crews. There were numerous red flags, four ambulance transports (one of which required calling in a second ambulance from somewhere nearby), two broken collar bones and even a couple of incidents involving control riders. Not good. I also heard a rumor of one of the riders losing three fingers in one of the wrecks and a wife scaling the fence to attend to her downed husband. riders usually know that the intermediate group is the most dangerous due to the discrepency not only of skill levels but also speed. These combined for a bad day of crashes and we ended up losing two full rotations. hopefully Sunday will prove to be better for all.

Day 2 >>

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