March 17, 2007

St. Patrick's Day At Jennings GP

       

My best and most consistent times yet

   

Stretching and loafing between sessions

   

Fighting through traffic and then leaving them behind

           

           

       

           

                  

Not me, but might as well be

Oh well, another sacrifice to the gods of speed . . .

   

Here's the story:

Lots and lots of traffic Saturday - I ride intermediate unless Sarge asks me to move up. Some weekends intermediate riders are all running 1:25s and I am the slow guy in the group, some weekends they are all running 1:35s and I am blowing through them like a blowtorch. This weekend the intermediate average would probably be a 1:31 or so.

My new consistent lap time is 1:28. That is 2 seconds down from my previous consistent time of 1:30. I don't have a new recorded best lap time - so 1:28 is the official one. I would have a new laptime, and it would probably be 1:27 or even 1:26 but we lost the lap results for that session in the excitement of me crashing out - since it isn't recorded, it isn't official and 1:28 is the new number.

As for the crash itself. I hit the ground at over 100mph. It was fun. I slid for a long way.

I was coming from 13 to 14, full freaking throttle, leaned as far as I could go.

"I got it"

"I got it"

"I got it"

"I AIN'T GOT IT!"

The back end slid out all the way around me, spun me off (I was dragging the knee so there was no distance to actually fall). Then the bike proceeded to do a "riderless" highside - the BEST highside a bike can do - while I slid on my back for a while. I slid on the pavement, then on the dirt. It seemed like a long time to slide , because I had time to think "that wasn't so bad" and "remember not to stand up this time"

Took the ride back on the parts truck - life continues on.

Other observations:



Also, I thew away the helmet. Once a helmet has bounced like that you don't keep it, it may look OK but the inside isn't. These are "one impact" tools and I chucked it. To make sure no dimwit went dumpster diving to retrieve it, I smashed it against the pavement until it looked like a busted eggshell.