From cyber@midnightfantasy.com Tue May 28 12:21:09 1996 Date: Tue, 30 Apr 96 08:11 PDT From: Cyber Reply-To: wetleather@onpmomma.isc-br.com To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Racing this weeked at PIR (4/27-28) {Was &%^@# Clutch!} Portland has an excelent track! Not as technical as SIR, not as fast as Willow Springs, but still an excelent track! A lot of the Novice riders down there at PIR are crazy-silly-slow! I realize this however was the first race for some of them but MAN have I never seen that many crashes... >:-O Nothing like going to pass somebody on the outside and see them lost their rear wheel and all you are thinking is "I knew better than to pass this guy here on the outside!" as he nearly collects you in his crash. The course goes to a full course yellow after the first lap with waving yellows in no less than 2 corners at ANY one time... I tell ya' if you ever wanna place in the top 10-15 of a 40 rider pack, just go out and try not to get hit! You'll place just by attrition. None of this however is new news to most... The practice day on Saturday went excelent with me learning the track learning the lines, where to break, where to get on it, where to pass, and where the F2 squids are gonna pass me if I don't lose them in the turns... All this combined with a strange rattle and a slipping clutch. Clutches turned out to be something of a curse for all three of us Sandpint Racing Team & Supper Club guys... Mine wouldn't hold at all at anything over 8,000 RPM where all the power comes online, Eric and Briggs could only get their clutches to work if they overheated them on the grid and beat the heck out of them while racing... in the end Briggs ended up getting some help from the Lynnwood Cycle Barn boys with an air gun so he could tear into his clutch where he found a friction disk that had turned itself into a blued steel plate! Eric and I never got ours sorted out, but they held "well enough" to last to monday where both bikes will be recieving new clutches. Raceday turned out to be just georgous! My heat race went faily well coming in around 4th or 5th of 35+ riders but the top 3 guys where nowhere to be seen by the time I crossed the line. I ended up getting a bad start as the clutch wouldn't let me do anything and didn't pass enough of them on the brakes going into 1. By the time I got around most of them the leaders were so far ahead and pulling such speed on the straight all I could hope for was track experience. I decided the next race would require a bit more effort for turn 1 if I wanted to place. The main race finally rolled around after 3 hours of waiting giving my stomache plenty of time to feel jittery, man I hate that! I know what I'm doing, I can do it well, but I get these jitters EVERYTIME before an actuall race... they go away after the warm up lap none the less so oh well, suppose I get used to it or it will go away, I hope. The start came and we began our drive to turn 1 (a tight right hander). The *&@%$ clutch would hold worth anything and I was at the rear of at least 7 riders. The plan was to try to pass them going wide into 2 (the 2nd right turn of the track) but the leader of these guys didn't slow down as early as I though he would and then shaved WAY too much speed. I decided to go for it and take the pass on the inside of 1 and race them to two. The lead rider of the pace took a really sharp line and just about closed the door on me as I trail braking in stole the spot with my tires still barely on the track and hanging off for all I was worth! Upon later talking with them I apparently scared the bloddy hell out of him (his words, not mine) as I came through where he though the was no track. They all made it through the turn just fine but shaken, I was now somehow in 2nd place and driving HARD to the next turn. I managed to stay in front of a seemingly lonely race for 5 laps when somebody showed me a wheel going into turn 1 about lap 5 of 7. Sencing a bunch of F2's and 750's to go screaming by me any moment I drove into 3 (the first left hander of a total of 3 on the entire track) really hard, pushed the front, screwed up, chopped the throttle just enough to unsettle the bike, opened it back up to settle it again, pushed the front, chopped the throttle, opened it up again and somehow made it out of the turn doing my best not to look like a new age faith healter dacing around. OK, lets not EVER do that again! I drove hard to 4, 5, & 6 still thinking I gonna have a fleet of bike blow me away any second. About a bit past half way down the back stretch I have 1 guy squeeze past me and I blow passing him on the brakes and it's a chase to the front stretch, but still fairly lonely, Hmmmm, where are these other guys. On the race down the front stretch he pulls away so hard I'm having a hard time still seeing him (turns out later that he's out there on a 93 GSX-R 750) and he's gone, so gone in fact I forget he passed me :), but I had other stuff on my mind. I pull off 2 more screaming fast laps where I did every corner near perfect being out there all alone practically that when I cross the finish line and realize I placed top 3 I laughed my head off, shook my fist in excitment, looked behind me and saw NOBODY! Pah! This is a GREAT day! Took home the 3rd place trophy and had a headache from smiling so much. The crew was taking lap times for me and I turned in lap times at 1 minute 26 seconds :) I'm just thrilled I came in under 1:40! never expected that kind of time. Over all a great weekend filled with all the racing trials and victories! - Matt Schreiner A.K.A. Cyber MATTHESC%ATMCORP.ATM@ZIP.ATM.COM CYBER@HALCYON.COM '87 GSX-R 750 Rebel '88 Ninja 250 Awaiting name... (Jodi's bike) '88 Hawk 650 Racebike '79 YZ 125 DEP (Designated Project-Bike) '73 XL 250 Tractor '69 S.O. Jodi