When: Aug 31 - Sep 01, 2002
Where: NHIS

Friday 8/30
Brought my stuff to work.  Took off around 4:30.. it took me about 3 hours to get to the track.  Labor Day traffic is always a mess.  I missed registration.

Saturday 8/31
Got up early and did registration and tech, then went out to practice for some laps.  I was slow as always.  I got back in and noticed that the chain was really stretched.  As I was adjusting it I was thinking that I should replace it, as I had been using it all year and it was stretching a lot.  I decided to wait until the end of the day, and went out for second practice.   I went faster.  All was well.

GP Singles
I'm always excited for this race.  It was cloudy in the morning, but the sun was peeking out.  I got a pretty good start, and was actually doing pretty well into T1... I managed to stay with the front group for a while.. until they pulled away after the bowl.  I was alone for a while, but could feel someone breathing down my neck.   I got passed by a few experts and stuck with them.  I was running pretty inconsistent laps, so they ended up pulling away.  I finished 8th out of 13.  5 more points.  I did manage to turn a new best lap in the high 1:24s, so I was pleased.

LWGP
The start was ok.. I can't complain too much.  I managed to pull ahead of some of the crowd I usually fight with.  I felt really confident.. and had a great first lap.   On my second lap going into T3, my engine died.  No throttle response, nothing.  Remember that chain that I was talking about earlier?  Well.. it broke.  I actually snapped one of the pins.  I put my hand up and stopped in T3.   The corner marshall asked if I was going out the T10 gate, and I said yes.   What I should have done was waited until the end of the race... it was scary trying to hustle the bike to the gate on the outside of T10 while people were screaming around the corner.. if one of those riders crashed, I would have had to run like hell!  (On a side note, congrats to Steve Scott, who started in the 6th row of the Expert LWGP wave and won the race!!!).  I spent the afternoon going through the bike and making sure everything was ok for Sunday.  Put on a new chain, etc...

Sun 9/1
Got up and made sure everything was ready for the endurance race.  I let Steve take the bike out in Jr/Ex red practice and he immediately did 1:28 laps.  For the second practice he was down to low 1:20s.  He was riding with a big smile.  We borrowed an EZ-UP from Tim Courts and recruited him to be our Crew Chief (Thanks again Tim!!).   Endurance practice started at noon, and Steve was first out on the bike.  Dane ran it next, followed by Craig, and then I put in a few laps to get loosened up.   After practice, I put new rubber on the wheels and put in new brake pads.  We measured out gas and I did a once over on the bike.  Team Chef Boy-Ar-Dee was ready!

Endurance Race
The race started at 3pm.  Steve started out.  He was riding pretty fast, running 1:20's consistently.  He put us up into 4th or 5th place by the end of his first leg.   Steve came in after his 20 minutes, and there was gas all over the inside of the windscreen and the tank/console.  The tank cap was apparently loose and there was gas everywhere.  We cleaned it up and Craig was on his way.  His first couple laps were a bit slow, as there was gas and oil on the tires.. but he picked up speed pretty fast.  After 20 minutes, Craig came in and we did a gas fill.. simply by swapping gas tanks.  It works really well on the 125.. much faster than if you tried to fill the tank.  We probably had Craig off and Dane on with a new tank of gas within 10 seconds.  Dane went off to do his leg and I put my leathers on.  Dane came in and I jumped on to do my 20 minute leg.  I was running consistent 1:26s with a few 1:25s in there.. it was a really fun time.  There were about 30 or so teams, so there was plenty of room on the track.  I got passed several times by the same people.. esp the GTO guys.. and managed to lap a few people.  I saw the pit in board and was going to come in when I saw one of my gargage mates (Rick) out on the SV650.. I had to stay out and catch him.  I came around the straight and gave my team a "1" sign to say I was taking another lap.. I managed to catch Rick on the brakes in T3, and I waved to him as I went up the hill.. it was really fun.  After T10 I put up my hand and went down the pit.  I got in and they did a gas tank swap and sent Steve back out.  Steve turned a 1:17.9.   god damn!  We were running 17th overall, around 6th or 7th position in class, right with Team Incomplete.  Steve came in after an extended session and Craig went out.  About halfway through Craig's session, he lost the new chain going into the bowl.  Apparently the master link came off.  we ran around like crazy trying to figure out what happened, and had the tools and new parts ready to go when the crash truck brought him back.  We put the new link on and sent Dane out, as we had lost 15 minutes.  Dane stayed out a bit longer and came in.. I ran the final leg.  I got really tired by the end, so I slowed way down.. I ended up running 1:28 laps..  but we managed to get the checkered flag, 117 laps later.  We all had a blast.

Special thanks go out to Tim Courts who helped out the team with his racing experience and worked as crew chief.  Also to Steve, Craig and Dane, who all rode a really consistent and competent race.  Thanks also to all the people who rode.. hopefully we had enough  people to justify running it again next year.