Pacific Coast YSR Club Season Opener
F440 Track, Tswassen BC - 26 Mar 2000

 

Havoc's Pics
Ron West's Story and Pics

Team Spawn Race Report

Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 12:28:45 -0800
From: havoc23 <carcosa@eskimo.com>
To: Northwest YSR-50 Enthusiasts <nw-ysr@micapeak.com>
Subject: [YSR] Team Spawn Race Report - PCYC Season Opener

After getting up too early, and bypassing Seattle (where the Kingdome was being imploded), we
arrived at the F440 track around 0845 - Ron, Ralph and Team Omzig were there already, as were
a few of the local racers - soon, though, the place was crawling with YSR pilots and things got going
quickly - we only had the track from 1000 to 1300 so it was going to be a fast-paced session to get
everthing in! This track is _big_, with lots of tricky turns and narrow enough to make passing "interesting"!

I had cludged together the #501 bike the night before, as Zephyr still isn't running right, and took
to the track on it to learn the lines, as I'd be racing it in two classes, Mod 50 and Stock 80... Spawn
would only get to race in the Mod 80 class so I wanted to spend more time on the 50 this time - #501
isn't as fast as Zephyr but still got around the track ok, so once I quasi- had an idea of the lines I
took Spawn out for a few laps but never really got a handle on things with it at all...

As soon as practice ended and Manny called the rider's meeting, I realized I'd made a serious
brain-omission! While I'd registered first thing for the year's dues, I forgot that the classes are
gridded based on order of signup, and neglected to do so! So as a result I'd be starting in dead-last
position for _all_ my races! Great.

Things moved right into the Stock 50 heat, and I helped MiG get her bike started, only to lose balance
and fall over! I eased it down without hurting myself or her bike, squeaking "heelp mee" to Rob to get
the blamed thing off me! Always entertaining.

I felt pretty good in the heats on #501, and really enjoy racing with the Canucks! Great people all,
and vicious racers! On my Mod 80 heat though, I never got close to getting Spawn dialed in to the
track so I figured I'd just fake it as usual...

I didn't have a stocker this time, so my first Main would be the Mod 50 - I got a good start and ended
up in mid-pack, and am getting better at holding my position in a crowd...around the first 3 corners, out
onto the back straight, braking for the sweeper when Oops! Monica and another racer contact, and she
highsides right in front of me, landing _hard_ on her right hip and tumbling to the side..."Ouch", I think,
as I go off the track to avoid running her over...and she doesn't get up. Damn. So I go into trauma-nurse
mode and after assessing her decide she needs to go to hospital for X-rays. Thanks to everyone that
helped me while waiting for the ambulance, I was really glad it was no worse than it turned out - she got
her bell rung _hard_ and will be pretty sore (!) for a while but thankfully no lasting injuries!

By the time things got cleared off it was time to turn the track over to the karts, so we'll have to wait till
the next race here on April 16th to see how it'll go...by then I should have Zephyr running right, and have
turned #501 into a stocker so I'll try to run all the classes and really get worn out! heh

Meanwhile, the next NMRA race date is _next_ weekend, at Pats Acres! I hope as many as can make it
come out, especially for Saturday practice, and for Sunday's races, the first points race of the series!
See you there!!

NW-YSR