When: June 14-17, 2002
Where: NHIS, Loudon NH


Thursday 6/13
Left work at 4:30.. got the track at 7:02.  Apparently I missed registration by 2 minutes, so I had to buy a spectator pass for the infield.  $65.  They promised me the money back if I registered before 9 the next day.  It still sucked, though.   Went in, took a track walk, ate some dinner, hung out with the crew, and went to bed.

Friday 6/14
Got up early and went to registration.  Got my registration set up, a new armband and then got my $65 back.  Got into the pits and got the bike ready to go for 9am practice.  I wasn't riding all that well, and as a result, the times were slow.   The cool thing was that since this was Formula USA and USGPRU weekend, my practice was basically all two-strokes.  125s and 250s only.  Second practice happened after lunch... around 12:30 or so.  The skies were overcast, but it was dry.  My times still sucked.. I didn't get below 1:32 at all.  Very disappointing.  Took another track walk at night and checked out animal hill from the track side of the fence, ate dinner (burgers) and the rain started.

Saturday 6/15
First practice was at 8:30am.  It was 50 degrees and raining out, and I didn't feel up to the task, so I blew it off.  Afternoon was qualifying, so I figured that I'd do better if I didn't practice in the rain... I'd just be slower, and wet.  Had lunch with the crew (burgers), and afternoon qualifying came around 2:30, in the rain.  We got out there for about 8 out of the 20 minutes, and then got red flagged.  We sat in the pits and watched the clock tick down until they stopped it at 5 minutes.  They sent us back out for the last 5 minutes (I did a plug chop on the cool down lap, but the plug was too old for it to be of any use).  I didn't qualify well... and placed on the 4th row.. 14th out of 17 entries.  It rained all day.  Had some dinner (burgers), hung out and went to bed.  The Animal Hill horizon reminded me of Apocalypse Now.. smoke, lights, bikes pegged to the rev limiter on the burnout board... all we needed was to hear "I kill you GI.."

Sunday 6/16

Woke up to wet conditions, mostly foggy and a little drizzly.  I went out into practice and worked on the bike.  I spent some laps making sure that the engine temp was just right, then did a plug chop at the end of practice.  I had put a new plug in, so this time it was a frutiful event.  My times weren't all that great again, but oh well.  Had some lunch (can you guess what I had?) and got ready to race.  We got to pregrid for 3rd call only to wait for some cleanup in T12.  The track had about 5,000 spectators.. very low in comparasin to the usual national weekend (no AMA this year), but certainly more than I've ever seen.  We got two warmup laps, and got to the grid.  About 16 of us started.  I got an awesome start..  it was so good, that I had the front wheel off the ground for the first two gears, until I had to deal with traffic.  Got into T1 about middle of the pack, but dropped back.. I really need to work on that..  Got to turn 3 in time to avoid a 4 bike pileup.  I managed to finish the race, even though there were some crashes and mechanical problems..   I grabbed 10th spot, and a weak best lap of 1:30.  There were prizes being distributed to 12th position, so I actually won a $30 gift certificate.  I was instructing a track day next day, so I left the bikes at the track, and went to Larry's place for pizza and beer (Thanks Larry for letting me crash at your house Sunday eve to get away from the track for a night!).

Overall a good weekend, I suppose.  I had terrible lap times, but didn't fall, so I guess all is well.  Congrats to Steve Scott for taking 2nd place in the 250 race, and all finishers for the weekend!