When: July 7-8, 2001
Where: NHIS, Loudon, NH

Well Chuck.. the date started out ok.. but part way into it she dropped me off in the middle of nowhere and left! <G>

Friday July 6
Left work a little early and got the new van packed up and ready to go.  Got to the track just before 6pm in time to pay my entrance fee, and get my transponder.. but had to wait until 6 to go through pre-reg.  I got my stuff unpacked, got through  pre-reg (this time I filled out the form corrrectly, so it looked like good starting positions were in my immediate future!), got my bike teched and hey.. what's this?  a yellow practice sticker!  woo hoo!  Finally, I'm out of the red sticker practice (aka "disaster avoidance").  Steve and I took a walk around the track, and he gave me some great tips in what I felt were my biggest trouble areas (T1, T6, T10-11).   Then we came back, had a beer and some burgers and I went to bed.

Saturday July 7

Yellow sticker practice is great.. no more 8am track time, and since all my reg/tech stuff was done I got to sleep a little later, had plenty of time for breakfast, etc.   Plugged in the tire warmers, got some gear on and it was off for first practice.   The bike needed some warm up time, so I only got 4 decent laps in, but they were quality laps.  Very little traffic, so I got a chance to work on the lines I learned the night before.  I did low 30's the whole time, each lap getting better down to a low 31.   back to the pits, get some gas, then eventually out for second practice.

Second practice seemed to be going well.. I felt a lot faster into T1 and out of T6.   I used to drag my knee coming out of T2 and T12, but now I'm dragging them through 1, 1a, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10 and 12.  I felt like I was moving faster, but still in control.  On the 4th lap, I passed a rider on the inside of T3 on the brakes (cleanly!) and headed over the hill... I took a high line into the bowl, got my knee down, got on the gas as I approached the apex, when all of a sudden.. the world went sideways.   Next thing I know, the bike is gone and I'm sliding on my left side, slowly rotating counterclockwise and then flopping down onto my back.  I came to a stop, made sure there were no bikes heading for me (I'm still on the pavement), then got up and off the track, as there was some traffic coming over the hill into the bowl.  It took me a second to turn and look for the bike, which was on it's side in the middle of the track, and I notice there's another crashed bike uphill with a rider on the ground.   Apparently the rider I had passed in T3 was behind me and hit my bike after I crashed (I'm glad I didn't get hit!).  She wasn't moving very much, and ended up taking an ambulance ride to the hospital (Last I heard she had a broken wrist and a chipped bone, but otherwise was ok).  I walked away without a scratch.

The practice was red flagged, so I got the bike up and rolled it off the track after the traffic passed.  To my own surprise, I was extremely calm.  I rolled the bike through the tunnel and back to the pits, got my gear off and there were a bunch of people there making sure I was ok, checking out the bike, etc...  Damage to the bike: warped front wheel, warped front brake rotor, punctured radiator, bent left clip-on, and worst of all... a cracked casting on the top left part of the frame.  Turns out that it can't be welded with any guarantee of safety (it could re-crack around the weld) so I called it a weekend.  The irony of all this is that I got 1st row start positions for *all* my races.  Oh well.. "That's Racing"

Thanks to everyone that came by after the crash and throughout the weekend... Special thanks to Bill D, who immediately started working on my bike to get the front wheel swapped out, new rotor put on, etc as well as to Kit, who took the tech sticker off my damaged helmet :).  It's nice to know there are so many people there that care, ready to lend a hand.