Dom
9th June 2007, 08:18
Hi all
Well lately the gods must have been happy cause receiving phone calls to say that ya got a ride with a team makes life alittle easier. It was the middle of May, a week before the 4th round of the AMA Superbike Championship at Infinion Raceway and I was in the nice position to say "yes" into the phone, a yes that I have been waiting to say for a while now.
I cruised up to San Francisco on the Wednesday getting to the track about 11pm. Friends come in handy sometimes and for me, the trip there was made easier by hanging out in my mates RV. Thursday practise came along and we got down to business, working with the new team and dialing in the bike for the weekend to come. The team, NFS Racing turned out to be a bunch of cool guys as I had realised testing with them earlier in the month. We sorted some stuff out on the Thursday but ended the day still struggling with some rear grip which my new teammate, Doug Chandler was also having issues with. Qualifying resulted in cutting some time and solving some issues and we made our way to the starting grid in 20th. Race one on the Saturday ended up a struggle with arm pump setting in on this physical and demanding track. In the end after running up in 15th for a while, I faded back to 21st and left the race with thoughts on how to get a new arm for Sunday. Race two on Sunday ended up being more of the same but thanks to some other peoples misfortunes, the sun shined alittle brighter in 16th place that day.
The team and I left the track Sunday night happy but knowing that better was to come and thinking ahead to Road America in two weeks time. I shot back to San Diego on the Monday and then headed up to L.A. on Tuesday and Wednesday to chill at my mates and see a specialist about this arm. We saw the specialist both days and got some good exercise on it. Doctor Tom's like one of the top race doc's in the country so getting to see him was time well spent. The following Monday, I packed my van and shot out to Wisconsin for the usual 3200km drive on 7 hours of sleep. My friend Mr Monster energy drink kept me entertained during the trip as did the continuous thunder storms and deer pretending to be chicken in the middle of the night. I rocked to the hotel Wednesday and onto the track Thursday for practise. We missed most of practise Thursday with the bikes not being ready for some reason and ended up getting 5 laps in before the rains came and ended the day. Road America is one of the fastest tracks in the U.S. and being 6.5 km long, gives alot of time for lunch on the run. Friday and Saturday ended up like Thursday with the odd thunderstorm and little tracktime. We ended up qualifying 24th on the grid with no setup and just a bike running round on some wheels. Saturdays race came by with no more time for setup and we ended up racing around to 13th after struggling with rear grip from the get go. Race two on Sunday put us in reset mode as the skies opened a couple of hours before the start of the race. We started the race in the middle of a thunderstorm and did a couple of laps before they stopped the race due to lightening. By the time they started the race again, I was feeling more like an eskimo every second as the cold rain drenched the circuit. The race seemed to go well as our wet setup was working better than expected and we worked our way through the field to finish up in 10th spot which made the team grin more than a kid in a candy store. We walked out of Road America 15th in the AMA Superbike standings and only two points away from 13th so life seemed to be getting better.
With every up in life, there must always be a down and that night things came crashing down. After grabbing a meal with the team, we all drove off to this cool as old pub by the track where everyone gets alittle happy after the racing. As I was cruising down the rode in my beloved Astro van, a vehicle pulled out of a side street on the left in front of me. I hit the anchors and swerved to the right cause t-boning this car wasn't in my plan of things to do. We were out on this rural road and so I ran over a traffic island, smashed into the curb, up a hill in someone's front lawn, jumped off the hill and shot through a gap between the house and a landscaping boulder. To top it all off, I hit a parked car facing me and turned in 180 degrees in the other direction. All this while doing 70kph. My mate and I slowly came to a stop in the driveway kinda pumped after what had just happened. After being glad to see that no one was hurt, the cops came and sorted it all out. Luckily, the other guy stuck around and took full blame off my shoulders which made life a little more simple. For some reason people in this country don't know me too well so are happy to help and luckily my mate that I am staying with right now came and grabbed all my stuff, loaded it up, hugged my Astro van goodbye as it was alittle worse for wear and shot off on our detoured journey to the pub making sure I would achieve alittle memory loss that night(made a good bar story too). Anyway, looking back on the crash, it was pretty cool actually, kinda like a unexpected rollercoaster ride. So if anyone needs a van drove anywhere, don't hesitate to ask.
Chow
Dom
Well lately the gods must have been happy cause receiving phone calls to say that ya got a ride with a team makes life alittle easier. It was the middle of May, a week before the 4th round of the AMA Superbike Championship at Infinion Raceway and I was in the nice position to say "yes" into the phone, a yes that I have been waiting to say for a while now.
I cruised up to San Francisco on the Wednesday getting to the track about 11pm. Friends come in handy sometimes and for me, the trip there was made easier by hanging out in my mates RV. Thursday practise came along and we got down to business, working with the new team and dialing in the bike for the weekend to come. The team, NFS Racing turned out to be a bunch of cool guys as I had realised testing with them earlier in the month. We sorted some stuff out on the Thursday but ended the day still struggling with some rear grip which my new teammate, Doug Chandler was also having issues with. Qualifying resulted in cutting some time and solving some issues and we made our way to the starting grid in 20th. Race one on the Saturday ended up a struggle with arm pump setting in on this physical and demanding track. In the end after running up in 15th for a while, I faded back to 21st and left the race with thoughts on how to get a new arm for Sunday. Race two on Sunday ended up being more of the same but thanks to some other peoples misfortunes, the sun shined alittle brighter in 16th place that day.
The team and I left the track Sunday night happy but knowing that better was to come and thinking ahead to Road America in two weeks time. I shot back to San Diego on the Monday and then headed up to L.A. on Tuesday and Wednesday to chill at my mates and see a specialist about this arm. We saw the specialist both days and got some good exercise on it. Doctor Tom's like one of the top race doc's in the country so getting to see him was time well spent. The following Monday, I packed my van and shot out to Wisconsin for the usual 3200km drive on 7 hours of sleep. My friend Mr Monster energy drink kept me entertained during the trip as did the continuous thunder storms and deer pretending to be chicken in the middle of the night. I rocked to the hotel Wednesday and onto the track Thursday for practise. We missed most of practise Thursday with the bikes not being ready for some reason and ended up getting 5 laps in before the rains came and ended the day. Road America is one of the fastest tracks in the U.S. and being 6.5 km long, gives alot of time for lunch on the run. Friday and Saturday ended up like Thursday with the odd thunderstorm and little tracktime. We ended up qualifying 24th on the grid with no setup and just a bike running round on some wheels. Saturdays race came by with no more time for setup and we ended up racing around to 13th after struggling with rear grip from the get go. Race two on Sunday put us in reset mode as the skies opened a couple of hours before the start of the race. We started the race in the middle of a thunderstorm and did a couple of laps before they stopped the race due to lightening. By the time they started the race again, I was feeling more like an eskimo every second as the cold rain drenched the circuit. The race seemed to go well as our wet setup was working better than expected and we worked our way through the field to finish up in 10th spot which made the team grin more than a kid in a candy store. We walked out of Road America 15th in the AMA Superbike standings and only two points away from 13th so life seemed to be getting better.
With every up in life, there must always be a down and that night things came crashing down. After grabbing a meal with the team, we all drove off to this cool as old pub by the track where everyone gets alittle happy after the racing. As I was cruising down the rode in my beloved Astro van, a vehicle pulled out of a side street on the left in front of me. I hit the anchors and swerved to the right cause t-boning this car wasn't in my plan of things to do. We were out on this rural road and so I ran over a traffic island, smashed into the curb, up a hill in someone's front lawn, jumped off the hill and shot through a gap between the house and a landscaping boulder. To top it all off, I hit a parked car facing me and turned in 180 degrees in the other direction. All this while doing 70kph. My mate and I slowly came to a stop in the driveway kinda pumped after what had just happened. After being glad to see that no one was hurt, the cops came and sorted it all out. Luckily, the other guy stuck around and took full blame off my shoulders which made life a little more simple. For some reason people in this country don't know me too well so are happy to help and luckily my mate that I am staying with right now came and grabbed all my stuff, loaded it up, hugged my Astro van goodbye as it was alittle worse for wear and shot off on our detoured journey to the pub making sure I would achieve alittle memory loss that night(made a good bar story too). Anyway, looking back on the crash, it was pretty cool actually, kinda like a unexpected rollercoaster ride. So if anyone needs a van drove anywhere, don't hesitate to ask.
Chow
Dom