for those who are interested here's a report of my first motorcycle
race weekend. it was a weekend like no other.

left late friday night at 8pm for a 3.5 hour drive. got half-way and
the truck started over heating. It was my water pump. it had gone
bad and was spitting coolant all over the place. I decided to buy a
bunch of water and see how far I could make it. got about an hour
down the road and it exploded. the fan fell into the radiator and cut
a hole in it. this was 11pm on 81 south in maryland. I took Jeff's
(jeff went along as my race photographer) mt. bike and rode north on
81 against traffic in the rain to the last exit. called a tow truck
and waited an hour for them to get there. tow truck picked us up and
drove 40 miles to the track. He dropped us off around 1:30am. the
tow was free from my roadside assistance program. unpacked the truck,
set up the tent, and pit area in the rain from 2am till 3am. go to
bed and fall asleep around 3:30am.

wake up at 6am. eat some granola bars and head to tech inspection
with bike and leathers. pass inspection
go back to meet class at 7:30 prepared to ride. participate in the
riding session from 8 am till 11am.
get an hour off for lunch where I remove both wheels from my bike to
get the tires swapped (the track was wet and I had to swap my slicks
for DOT's). also eat a couple spoonfulls of some chicken stuff for
lunch. leave what's left of the bike for dave (race/pit partner) to
put back together and go to class. sit in class from 12:15 till 3:30.
put on riding gear and hit the track for a couple of practice
sessions. do a mock start then a mock race. come in dead last in the
race, but I did not crash. bunch of people crashed. one guy broke
his foot. they were all being hot-heads anyway. go back to pits.
take off gear and head back to classroom. sit in class, get diploma
and finish by 6:30. Yes that was a 12 hour day on 2.5 hours of sleep.

head into town to get new waterpump, belt and possibly a radiator.
they don't have a radiator. go to dinner at pizza hut. get back to
the pits and go to bed by 8:30

7am easter sunday I wake up and head to registration. show them my
diploma, buy my race license, and register for one race. could have
done 2, but still had to replace waterpump. get bike and leathers to
go to tech. pass tech put on gear and head out for first practice
session. going 120mph is a hell of way to wake up. finish practice
session, sit around for an hour or so waiting for second session. go
out for second session. little more awake and little more fast.
actually drag a knee in turn 10. oooh what a feeling! finish practice
session and go back to pits for a nap. sleep an hour or so. get up
and start working on the truck. get everything off and realize I need
blue goop to put the new water pump on. can't get it now have to go
to the riders meeting. meeting was boring. go back eat some more
granola bars and last piece of pizza. time to gear up for my race.
getting nervous getting scared. head out for warm up lap and things
feel good. get to my grid position and wait for the green flag.
first wave is off, then the second green goes. I let out the clutch
and the front end comes flying up. struggle to hold her steady and
head off down the track. once the front end comes back down to
pavement I go screamin by a bunch of people. things aren't so bad,
but that was the last time I got to pass people. get around the track
once and the red flag comes out (that means stop racing something
serious has happened) sure enough there's a bike on the track spilling
liquid all over the place. we go back to the pit lane and wait for a
restart. get another warm up lap and grid up again. green flag goes
down and the front end comes up to the sky again. I handle it better
this time and pass people again. race is going well till half way
through I screw up a shift between turn 6 and 7. I run really wide
on 7 and almost miss turn 8 completely. I'm a little spooked now.
this screws up the next 5 turns. finally get things back under
control and get lapped by the leaders. that's ok. they're experts
they can do that. finally the checkered flag comes out and I'm done.
my only real goal was to not crash, so I succeeded!

get back to pits and borrow dave's jeep to drive into town and get
blue goop. head back to track and start putting things back together.
get it back together and truck starts up. start packing. 6pm it's
time to leave. we hit the rode. 5 miles down the road the temp goes
sky high and there's coolant all over the place. I forget to leave
the radiator cap off half-way. the pressure blew all our coolant out.
fill up with water, loosen the cap and head out again. this time we
get 20 miles. fill up with more water. another 20 miles and half to
fill up again. you ask what's going on? the hole in the radiator was
at the top. I would fill the radiator to the hole and we could drive
till all the coolant boiled out of the radiator. so we stopped a few
times to fill the radiator and fill our water jugs. as it got darker
and cooler we could go further. finally decided not to go home, but
go to bill's house (friend). dump the truck and my stuff at his place
and take his truck home. he agreed to such a plan. 1am monday
morning we arrive at my place. jeff spends the night and heads home
at 6am. I slept till 9:45 then went to work.

so that was my first race weekend. I had a great weekend and can't
wait for the next one May 13 and 14.

oh yeah, did I mention I had a horrible cold through all this? I
completely lost my voice saturday and sunday. constantly coughing and
blowing my nose, but I didn't crash.