When: April 11 - 13, 2003
Where: VIR

Overall a fantastic first weekend.. great weather, good people and a nice race track.   Unfortunately, my bike was underpowered, and I didn't figure out the problem until after I got home.  When I drained the transmission oil from the racebike, I discover that a clutch spring retaining bolt had broken, and was eating away at the clutch cover.  No wonder I couldn't get a good start or get the bike to rev all the way to 13k in 6th !!! 

Wednesday 4/09
I ended up heading down alone, as Dane had to cancel at the last minute due to work confilcts..  I had made arrangements with Turu to pit together, so at least I had company when I got there.  I left work around 4pm, got home and packed up the van, and left around 5:30.  I made it about an hour south of Scranton PA and stopped for the night at some cheap-o motel in the middle of nowhere.

Thursday 4/10
Got up early, had some breakfast on the road, and drove to Danville.  Stopped in at the Piggly Wiggly for some food, and got to VIR around 3:45pm.  No one was there to collect paddock fees, so we had to wait while the appropriate CCS personnel arrived with the armbands.  I was the second vehicle to get into the track.  It was 40 degrees and raining.  I set up the new ez-up canopy (no more Kmart tents!), and unloaded the van.   Corien and Carol of C2 fame showed up around 5 or so.  I took a track walk, and we went out to get some dinner and warm up.  Got back to the track, hung out for a while with the people that were finding their way to the track, and went to bed hoping for a dry Friday.

Friday 4/11
Turu and Matt had arrived from NYC late Thurs night, so we got the pits set up first thing Friday morning.  I signed up for Friday practice even though it was 40 degrees and raining in the morning.  I had work to do on the bike, so I spent the morning doing all my stuff like jetting, tape, notes, weather info, etc.  I got the bike fuelled and ready to go but couldn't get it started.. which didn't make me too happy.   It turns out that the bike won't start without the choke, which I no longer have on my carb.  I borrowed Eric Yoo's carb, turned on the choke and it kicked right over.   I've never had that problem before, and I think it might be due to the new VHM head/insert.  By lunchtime the rain had stopped, and the temp was up to about 45 degrees.  The TSE boys showed up and set up their pit next to us.  I went out for several session of practice, but with no sun and a cool breeze, I took it easy.  My lap times weren't that great (mid 50s) but it's the first time I'd been on a bike in 6 months!  Patience, young warrior...

We went out for dinner again, at the black hole called the Texas Steakhouse.  This is the second time I've been there, and the second time I've had a problem there.. I vow to never return.

Saturday 4/12
Got up early and the sun was shining.  This was promising!  We were practice group 5, and there were two rounds of practice.  They had to split the group 5 practice into Amateur and Expert as there were too many people.  I got some breakfast, took a lukewarm shower, and got ready to go. Both practices went well, but I couldn't get below the 1:52 mark.  I had some lunch and got ready for the first race of the season.  By the afternoon it was 70+ degrees and sunny.  My tan was starting to come in ;)

GTL
These races are supposed to be 30 minutes, including time that the 5 board is showing at the start line.  I'm not sure why, but we only got 8 laps in..  I can't imagine they ran it for the full time.  In any case.. I got a pretty bad start.. and went into T1 way in the back.  The race was pretty uneventful.  I got down to 1:50 lap times, which is still off my pace, but I must remember to be patient.  I got lapped by Kracget just before the white flag lap, but it was a fun race.

I pulled the top end to see how close my jetting was, to discover I was running the bike rich (even though I thought it was lean).  I changed the VHM insert to increase compression, as it wasn't revving all the way out in 6th gear on the straight in GTL.   I was hoping to see how well the change worked during middleweight gp (first time with the new VHM head), but it ended up being postponed to Sunday as there were a lot of delays during the day.  I went and took a nice hot shower and we went out for dinner again (3rd night of meat fest!).  I had brought a lot of food for dinner, etc.. but how can you refuse going out to dinner with people you only see a couple times a year?   Got back from dinner, hung out with the gang for a while (and were entertained by the drunk chick from across the pits who kept wandering over in search of cigarettes).   My goal for Sunday was to drop 7 seconds and get down to the low 1:43 range.   A tall order, to say the least.

Sunday 4/13
Since four races had been postponed to Sunday, There was only one round of practice, then the qualifying session for the USGPRU.  I did practice, then came in while Amateur practice went out, then did my qualifying session.  I stayed out the whole time.  I managed to click off a 1:48 lap time.  Two seconds down, five to go.

Middleweight GP
Since I had preregistered for everything, I had a 3rd row starting position in the first wave.  Given that I just wanted the track time, I gridded myself at the back of the second wave to avoid haveing a big wad of 600 planted up my ass.  I went into T1 dead last.  Man, those 600's have some power!  The good news is that I didn't finish last... There was one other two-stroke out there (Samantha Cotter on a 250) and we played for a few laps, before she spread out a lead.  I managed to do battle with a LRRS 600 rider on a slightly crippled bike (lacking full hp) and ended up beating him.  One of the 600 riders I beat passed me just after the finish line..  He was waving to all the cornerworkers on the cooldown lap.  He looked back at me and I gave him a big thumbs up..  to which he turned back around and ignored me.  It must suck to be on a 600 at VIR and get beaten by a little 125!  LOL.  I came back to the pit with a huge smile on my face.. what a blast!

USGPRU
I qualified 12th for the race.  They wanted us to do the big show and pregrid for 20 minutes on the hot pit, but since there weren't enough generators to power all the tire warmers, Turu, Dale, Marshall and I decided to forgo the show and stay in the pit until 3rd call.  We got out on the track and did the warmup lap.. then took the green flag.   My first lap was a little out of control..  I think I hit 3 different berms, and even got a crossed up wheelie/headshake going on to the back straight.  Settle down, cowboy!  I was running with Joanne Sawyer and the ACID team for the first two laps, but they picked up the pace and pulled away.  Then I battled with two 125 riders for 10th spot.. but managed to screw it all up and fall back to 12th, where I finished.  I had one "moment" going into T7, but managed to recover without crashing.  I managed to pull off a 1:46.2 during the race.. so that was another two seconds.  Three more to go!  The race had been reduced to 8 laps, and I didn't even get lapped, so even though I was bummed that I dropped 10th spot, I still had fun.

Lightweight GP
Another horrible start meant I went into T1 pretty much dead last.  I ended up behind a Buell and couldn't get around him for the first four laps..  which was really bad considering the race was only six laps long.  He would out-motor me on the straight, then I'd catch him by the back straight, and he'd motor away again.. then I'd catch him over the hill, but wouldn't be quite close enough to get around him safely.   Eventually I got him on the brakes over the hill into the roller coaster and managed to get through it fast enough (he was pretty slow there) to hang onto the position until the checkered flag.  I need to be more aggressive with passing people like that.

After the races, I packed up, got some pics from the photo guys, and left.  I hit the road by about 3:30 and drove for about 6 1/2 hours.  I stopped just north of Harrisburg PA in Hershey.

Monday 4/14
Got up later than planned, and drove home.  I got home around 4pm, unloaded the van and relaxed.

Special Thanks to: Turu Illgen and his buddy Matt, TSE Racing, Eric and Brian Yoo, and all the 125 racers at VIR.