Pits and Riders Meeting

The Race

Phil's Photos

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:45:15 -0700
From: havoc23
To: Northwest YSR-50 Enthusiasts
Subject: YSR's at WMRRA April 25-6

First, I'd like to thank again everyone whose support and help made this event possible, but most of all Jim Broglio, whose help in slicing through the confusion, coordinating with WMRRA, working on bikes not his own et al was invaluable: without it I doubt we could have pulled it off, or at the least >I'd< have had something akin to a nervous breakdown in the process. He did all this _plus_ his own racing with Vicious Cycle, my hat's off to you man!
Saturday woke excited, and de-streeted Zephyr(#502) and Spawn(#XXX) while waiting for Phil Kopp to come over to help transport them to SIR -Thanks, Phil!- I literally hadn't touched _my_ bike, (#501), in weeks, having concentrated on prepping Dahlface's bike with much assistance from Charles Clinton -Thanks Charles!- and sorting out Spawn enough to lend this weekend...
Once at the track I managed to put more WMRRA faces to names, with Jim's help again, and teched the bikes overseen by Les Criess, WMRRA tech inspector, "Mr. Mellow" -Thanks Les!- then we laid plans for the YSR Clinic so to provide YSR-endorsements to our crew of new racers... Gen Quale, Mike Lovett, Bret, and Pete "Collarbone" Neilson were great in setting up cones and coaching us in the drags-staging area where we got about a full hour (or more?) of practice at lunchtime, weaving in & out of the different configurations of cones they laid out...Tyler & Duncan showed us how to actually do it, while Trip, electrically charged with excitement, demonstrated point-and-shoot, (also the only get-offs of the day) - glad you & Rosebud emerged unscathed, Bill! My bike ran fine, though I learned I have to tuck my feet in more so I don't wear through my new boots in a day! Spawn, unfortunately, seized and died before Andrea R. had much of a chance to play...this after running home for gear, too! Sorry Andrea! This was the funnest part of the weekend for me, my tires are way worn, so sliding the rear around in the corners was a blast, and it being my birthday, too! The session ended with all of us very charged-up for the next day...if anyone has photos of the clinic I'd love to scan some in for the web page!
I started Sunday considerably less stressed that Saturday, things having gone so well the day before...once at SIR though there was just enough confusion to amp that up a bit, especially as the Taste of Racing was scheduled into the same time slot, which necessitated our waiting till they'd cleared the track, cutting our practice to a 2-lap warmup. Trip provided the last-minute drama in the pits as he feverishly worked to switch wheels on Rosebud to no avail, what a disappointment! Some of the entries didn't show, including the boyz from saturdaze clinic, so i went around soliciting help from whoever I ran into...
So I was stressing by the time we got to play - Roxanne Tuttle and her daughter were great in jumping in to flag for us, -Thanks Roxanne!- and 'cesca, Mike Bain, Goat, KD & Jack for corner working/photos and cheering section. If I am leaving someone out I really wasn't all there by this point, sorry!
Rather than have a wave start this time we gridded the experienced racers in the first row, with us newbies in the second. I got a terrible start, and essentially rode my myself the 15 laps, boy they went fast! I just didn't feel connected, though I had a blast and want more...the racing line was much different than the slalom-riding of the clinic, and I need new tires for sure...Squido was looking fast and really hanging it out, fun to watch once he lapped me, heh. Dahlface was slicing the air with her grin alone, look out, she'll be a terror in races to come! Tyler and Duncan of course were amazing, naturally I want an 80 now! :) There were two big-wheels there, too-Bruce Bille's MB100 and Ralph Redding's MB5.
Overall it went really well, thanks to WMRRA for supporting this fun! Our intent was to provide lunchtime entertainment and have fun, and judging from the comments we succeeded on both counts! If you have photos of either day I'd love to scan them...
We'll plan to be at Spokane, I hear there is a go-kart track as part of the site and would love to arrange to use it for practice and/or the main if that were possible...remember to pre-register two Thursdays in advance!
If I forgot to recognize/thank someone, blame it on brain fade, it couldn't have happened without your help!
And extra thanks to Dahlface for sharing this fun and her excitement with me, lets do it again!! *grin*
ride small, h23