When: August 4-5, 2001
Where: NHIS, Loudon, NH - USCRA Vintage Celebration Roadrace & Trials

Friday August 3rd
Left for Loudon after getting everything in order around 3:30pm.  Stopped at a few places on the way to pick up the rest of what I needed.  Hit rt 95 around 4, and got into lots of traffic.  The ride took about 2 1/2 hours.  Got to the track, and set up in the infield.  I brought a sun tent thing, and put the bike under it.   I socialized a bit, found some friends, and finally crashed.  It rained.   Hard.  I went outside and lowered the sun canopy over the bike to keep it dry and went back to bed... slightly soaked <G>.

Saturday August 4th

Got up at 6:45, went to registration at 7, and got out for first practice at 8:30 (it was pretty wierd to be classified as a "fastest" category rider).  I had a new top end and front tire on the bike, so I had to take it easy.  After the first couple laps the master link on my chain broke coming down the back chute into T3.  I signalled, pulled off, and discovered the chain neatly coiled inside my lower fairing.   I walked the bike back to the van and got a new chain on for second practice.   After second practice, I spoke with the grid marshall who let me go out in the slower practice to get some time on the new top end.  The bike was really stumbling a lot, and I had very little confidence, as this was my first time out since the crash on 7/7.  After practice, I found a couple LRRS 125 racers on the south garage lot, and moved all my stuff over.

Spent most of Saturday watching the vintage cars practice/race.  Nothing like watching vintage Elva and Lotus open wheel F1 cars getting all sideways through T3 and up the hill.

Sat afternoon we had a qualifying heat race.  A few more LRRS 125 guys had showed up, and 12 of us went out for the heat (including a 4-stroke 500c single!?).  I was the only amateur racer out there, and qualified 11th out of 12 people.  The bike ran like crap, and I had no confidence in myself at all.  It was an 8 lap race, and I got lapped by the three leaders.   Sat eve was spent hanging out and drinking a few beers.

Sunday August 5th

Sunday morning practice was at 8:30, and was a 10 minute session.  The bike ran like crap.. the carbeuration was all wrong.  I rejetted, and tried a plug chop, but the bike wouldn't work.. turns out the spark plug wasn't in all the way..  I tried again, but with no luck.  There was something wrong with the carb.  With some help from Dave Arvidson, Eric Yoo and I worked for about 2 hours trying to locate the problem by swapping parts between his bike and mine.  We couldn't figure out what was wrong, except maybe that there is some piece of crap blocking one of the carb body channels.  Luckily, the weather was great, so Dave let me use the carb off his rain bike ('95 rs125). 

At lunch, the sidecar guys were giving rides to spectators.  I hopped on with Zack Courts (LRRS 125 rider, who is also the monkey for his dad Tim) and went out for a blast on their vintage beemer rig (#740).  That was a great ride!  The first lap, Zack made sure I knew what was going on, and the second lap, we picked up speed and passed everyone in the field.  I was so into it, I made sure to get my shoulder down in T3 :)  Not sure what a racing sidecar is all about?  Click here for a good shot (by Mike Greenblatt) of the sidecars coming into T3 at NHIS.  Click here for some awesome video footage of sidecars at NHIS.  Look for Zack and his dad!

After 1 session of vintage bike races, and 2 sessions of vintage car races, we were up to race at 4pm.  It was 90 degrees out, and they made 3rd call at the white flag instead of the checkered flag, so we sat on pregrid while the previous race ran their cooldown lap.  The bike was getting way too hot.  After the sighting lap, we got onto the grid, and 2 more people had joined the pack.  The race starts, I go into T1 and there's a waving yellow.  A rider had gone down at the end of T1, and all sorts of people had to run wide into the grass.  There were riders all over the place.  I slowed a bit, which was a good move, as I almost T-boned someone who came back onto the track from the grass without even looking!!  At the end of lap 1, I came into T11 to see another rider down in T12.  The rest of the race went really well.  With the bike running correctly, and the front tire scrubbed in, I had all my confidence back.   We didn't use transponders, so I don't know my times, but I know I pushed hard.   I also developed a new style of riding where I don't drag my knees at all.  It keeps me more in tune with the bike, and is much more comfortable, esp when under braking.   I could feel the rear end pushing coming out of the bowl and was actually enjoying it.  I finished 10th out of 12 people (not including the 2 dnf's).   Overall, it ended up being a great weekend. 

Special thanks again to Eric Yoo for all his help swapping parts trying to figure out the carb problems, and to Dave Arvidson for letting me borrow his spare carb for Sunday's race.