Vol. 3, #6
Motorsports Park Hastings, Hastings, NE. - September 7, 2008
The last time I was at Motorsports Park Hastings in Nebraska I came home battered and didn't even get to race so I was on a mission to improve upon that finish! This race was also a double points event like Gateway but was a Great Plains and MidWest event so I expected a lot of racers to show up.
We drove the six plus hour trip on Saturday, arriving late in the afternoon so we could get registered and the bike teched to beat the Sunday morning rush.
Sunday was a perfect day but a little cool in the morning for our one and only practice session. I saved a lot of cash by not doing the Saturday track day as I felt I remembered it well enough to just practice and race on Sunday. As I went out I immediately had helmet fogging issues, not good, so I clicked the visor up one notch and decided to slow it down a touch! Good thing too as I found myself off the track twice with steering problems into the tight corners.
I was totally puzzled as to what was going on with the bike but I knew I'd better get back to the pits and figure it out. After checking all my settings and talking to TrackAddix suspension ace, Larry, I wasn't any closer to a fix. I then remembered a similiar issue at an AMA race I'd watched last year and compared my tire gauge with two others and mine was almost 3 lbs. off. No wonder I couldn't turn the bike, my tire pressures were way too high. So now that I'd solve that crisis I felt good and ready to race!
Race #1 - Lightweight SuperSport
To my surprise there were only four amateurs in this race so that meant the possibility of BIG points. The flag dropped and I got the start of a lifetime, not only did I leave at amateurs in the dust but I was pushing a few experts as too. Well that didn't last long but it sure was fun running up front for awhile!! I had a good race and continued to build my confidence on this really fun track.
I ended up 4th which was all I had for them in that race but later found out that the winner was disqualified so I got gifted up to 3rd! I'll take it!!
Race #2 - Lightweight Formula-40
O.K. here's the deal. I was in second place in this class for the whole region and the guy who was first didn't show up so all I had to do was keep the bike upright, collect the double points and vault into the #1 spot. Simple, right? With only four guys in the amateur race, I could just tour around and that's it.
Well of course I couldn't do that, I was here to race and race hard I did until midway into lap four. I was working hard into turn 4, a high speed sweeper when it was clear I was in trouble so I stood the bike up and rode off track into a large open grassy area, gradually rear braking until I hit a little dip in the ground and off the bike I flew!! After several tumbles I got up, more mad at myself than anything else. The bike was fine but my right wrist was getting sore and I'd reinjuried the same ribs from my last time here.
After getting the bike up and riding back to the pits I did get some good news as only of the guys had D.Q.ed himself somehow which put me into 3rd and into 1st place in the region!
Race #3 - Thunderbike
Well, it was obvious that I had a spranded wrist but with double points on the line I sucked it up and gridded for the race. All I had to do was get one clean lap, come in, collect the points and take care of my wrist and that's exactly what I did! I placed 5th which still let's me collect Buell contingency cash plus all those points!
As it turned out, I found out Monday that I had indeed broken my wrist and I now have a cast on from my fingers to the middle of my bicep. With the last race of the season in just under a month away, it's mathmatically possible for me to get knocked back out of 1st in Lightweight Formula-40 so we'll just have to wait and see how it all plays out!!
If my season is over, I want to thank John Kahrs, my AMSOIL rep for all his support as well as Klingenborg Farms, the Farrell family and of course all the great folks at Silver Eagle Harley-Davidson / Buell in Waterloo.
This story may yet have a happy ending, stay tuned...
