The last round of Great Plains Region was the “Superbike Shootout” weekend at Mid America Motorplex. Janet, Troy Walbaum, his wife, Sheila, and I took off Friday night for Troy’s first race weekend and my rookie season wrap-up.
The weather had looked iffy all week and as we drove just outside of Des Moines the sky opened up with some serious rain that stayed with us all the way to Council Bluffs.
Saturday morning greeted us with rain, rain, rain but once we got to the track and set up the rain had stopped but the track was soaked. Since it was so overcast there was no chance of it drying out anytime soon. The tire vendors immediately sold out all their rain tires so I just sat around waiting for a break in the weather.
Troy was itching to ride and decided to go out on one of the late morning practice sessions and after 4 or 5 laps came in and confirmed my concerns about how greasy the track was on race tires. But about noon the clouds parted, the sun came out and along with the breeze, quickly dried the track surface but everyplace other than that was still soaked.
After lunch there was one more practice session before the races stated so I finally got out on the track. The session went well and I felt like I was ready to go. As I came around for my last lap, Troy was just going out for his first dry laps. I’d been back in the pits for a few minutes when Troy rode in with the left side of his bike and leathers covered in mud and grass.
As he was riding into the last chicane the front tire had slid out and although he tried to save it, it was off into the rain soaked sod. He was fine but the bike had a crushed shifter lever and a broken foot peg. Sheila and Janet jumped in to help clean up the bike as Troy and I went to work on accessing and repairing the damage. We had everything required except for the foot peg. Unfortunately we were the only Buell racers present so finding an exact replacement was not happening. After some scounding, one of our neighbors discovered the the foot peg off is pit bike would work but unfortunately first call for our first race, Lightweight Formula 40 had been called so I went out without my teammate.
Race #1 - Lightweight Formula 40
I’m sure that the weather had scared several racers into staying home because there were only 7 riders in this class and with Troy out 6 amateurs took the grid with 3 experts. The flag dropped and I got blocked in a pack before I even got to Turn 1. It was my own fault as I didn’t get out well at all so I had to follow behind a couple of guys for the first 2 laps that I should have beaten into the first turn. I out braked one of the guys going into turn one but by then everyone else had checked out. I put my head down and managed to close the gap on the pack but some time at the end of lap 6 my concentration started to fade. I wasn’t as aggressive as I should have been the the guy behind me took advantage, passing me at the beginning of lap 7. I worked hard to get back in the game but he beat me to the finish. Dang, dang, dang!!!
So I placed 5th but I can’t be too disappointed as I kept it upright and never had any “pucker moments”. The lap times weren’t posted but I’m real sure I was much quicker this weekend than I was back in May. My heavily scraped knee pucks are proof off that!!
That was the only race I’d signed up for on Saturday and with a chance Troy would be race ready for Saturday we all headed out for a great meal and some rest.
Sunday morning was a repeat of Saturday but with thunder. After getting to the track, everything had been backed up by an hour and the rain was coming down pretty steady. Troy and I discussed riding but after visiting with the Pirelli rep it was obvious that it would be foolish to go out with any tire other than than full rains so we hooked up the truck and headed home. This was a tough call but as we drove home on a wet highway we both felt a lot better about it!!
So, that’s it for this year.
With that said I want to thank everyone who has helped and supported my racing efforts this year!! It’s been a blast and now with Troy and Mike Boomer set to race next year, the Waterloo Buell Boys could be a force to be reckoned with next year!!
THANKS AGAIN TO EVERYONE!!!!!
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