tlthehun
knight in dented armor
On the way home from the race, thinking back to my words on the top step of the podium, I remembered that I realized that I had forgotten to say something.
It wasn’t my thanks to the SMRRC crew, Aftershocks for helping setup my bike, the Supermoto guys for coming out and supporting our club nor my appreciation of my good luck that limited negatives to a piece of gravel in my boot as I walked to the trophy presentations and my Nutter Butter cookies spilling in my dry cooler. What I failed to mention despite rehearsing some was that 10 or so hours of Tourist Trophy on my PS2 over the last two weeks probably helped my riding. Compared to the total lack of feedback and difficulty with precision with the steering, brakes and throttle, the information offered by the NSR was as clear as one club on the head for “yes” and two for “no”.
Add to that basically new tires, new and much better fork setup, a fresh top end and a dry track and my chances for success were the best ever.
As usual, I arrived at the track later than I had hoped for. Fortunately Sean “shaggy55555” had asked me to make him a set of my frame slider assemblies and I was aiming to be in Stockton by 13:00 so that I could help him install them in time for practice. Seeing how it was about 16:00 when I signed in at the gate, I’m glad that I didn’t shoot for 16:00 or I would have missed practice again.
I had made a big change to the fork for this race, swapping in 0.55 kg/mm HRC springs in place of the stock 0.50 kg/mm parts and mixed fork oil for an exactly 50% increase in viscosity. All the other settings were standard, with 106mm oil level, 3 mm fork height and two lines plus the circlip showing on the preload adjusters.
At piston break-in speeds, the bike was resistant to turning to the degree that I was worried that I should have brought fork oil with me so that I could backpedal on the fork setup. I took out all the preload and hoped for the best.
By the time I broke in the engine, I had time for two sessions with full revs and full throttle. The first of those was compromised by an engine that completely signed off at 11,001 rpm, where usually it’ll over-rev to at least 11500 even at the end of the season. Everybody always worries a little after a rebuild and I was more than a little relieved that the race director added a practice session that gave me a chance to go to bed knowing whether or not a fresh plug and my usual fuel would improve matters. Happily, swapping the NGK BR9ES plug to a BR9EIX, draining the Chevron/Valvoline 2T petroleum mix and filling with Chevron/Redline 2T synthetic brought the power and the revs back.
The front end was decent, better under braking, turning on hard braking, midcorner and exit; okay, duh, they’re better but I don’t think it turns in like it used to. I’ll try raising the forks in the triple clamps at the next race.
In my first full throttle and revs practice session, the best lap was 38.96 with an average of 40.11 over 23 laps.
In the subsequent session, 5 laps gave me a 39.63 average, 39.48 fast and 39.76 slow.
After practice, I finished everything that I could to be ready to crawl into the back of my truck and go to sleep without anything that could be done left for race day and took my grille and food over to where most everybody else was hanging out near Bryan & Jordan Edginton.
While my coals were in the charcoal starter, Jordan and I took a lap around the track on a kick scooter and inline skates, respectively. I used to be able to rollerblade well enough to hit a puck around with friends but the muscle memory really isn’t there with my having maybe a total of 30 hours on skates and well over a year since I’ve had them attached to my body so when it came time to drag race Jordan up the front straight, I chickened out lest I crash and lose skin that I didn’t want to be without, especially with the points lead in two classes and forfeited the race to Jordan.
Seeing us gave Kubiks the bright idea to roller derby after the next race practice. I’m down but I will be wearing every piece of protective gear I own, maybe even my leathers ‘cuz I know Stephanie can skate and is something like 2.6 times as strong as your average 105 lb guy, let alone female.
Camping at the track is easily half the fun for me and this weekend was no exception. About midnight, I freed Bryan of my company and walked back to my pit at the opposite corner of the paddock near the racetrack entrance and bathrooms. On the way, I was expecting to see Kubiks’ tent. I got curious and peeked in her car to see how she’d made do without pitching a tent. I had to keep myself from laughing because she was across the back seat area of her car in a sleeping bag like a rolled rug with one end or the other of her ending in the upper corner of her back window. There’s easily room for two in my truck without unwanted bodily contact and I almost knocked on her car to offer but I didn’t want to wake her.
I didn’t sleep anywhere as well as I would have liked, not all that tired with less than 30 hard laps and the usual annoyance of the trains but a Rockstar on top of my protein shake and raisin bread was enough to make me feel fairly normal by the second morning warmup.
I was gridded 4th for Formula 50, 6th for Super 50 and 1st for Expert Trophy Dash, two races in a row that pole has been wasted on me in ETD. I had a moment of hope at pea-pick when the registrar told me to pick again, “44” had already been pulled out of the hat. Fortunately the poor luck that made my hand emerge with “88” didn’t carry on to the rest of day.
I was too lazy to takes notes again but here’s what I remember about my races.
Formula 50 heat race, dry track, 10:13, 57° F.
Gridded 4th. Tied #28 Sean “champr1” McKay (Kawasaki KLR110-05) into the first corner. Neither of us backed down but I was on the outside so I had the inside for T2 and emerged with the lead, I think. I don’t remember passing Sean but I do intimately recall working my ass off to keep him from passing me with, breathing hard enough to fog my shield for the first time ever. With his bike’s exhaust volume and note, I had no clue how close he was, he just always sounded like he was right next to me and I wasn’t able to relax for a second until I had crossed the finish line with the checkers waiving. According to Sean, he had a similar but sorta opposite problem with #55 Daren “manimal” Rimando (Honda NSR50R-04) who was on his back wheel but couldn’t be heard because of the relative silence of a stock NSR, giving me one more thing to think about for my next heat race.
The last lap was my fastest, with 39.08; average was 39.71.
Super 50 heat race, dry track, 10:44, 58° F.
Thanks to Joe Reyes’ onboard video, I have more clarity about how Super 50 played out.
Lined up 6th, second from the inside on row 2 for my Super 50 heat race. P3 and P4 both got bad starts and I was 3rd into T1 behind Joe “Reyefumi” Reyes, #87 Derbi. Daren was out front, seemingly pulling away. I could see that Joe’s Derbi wasn’t pulling off the corners properly and I laid back a little before the entry into the last turn (T7) before the front straight so that I could get on the gas early and have some momentum and speed on Joe that would hopefully allow me to pass him at the end of the straight. He left enough room on his outside for me to pass on the outside into the next turn and I was off to try to catch Daren. I have no idea how many laps it took but eventually I find myself close enough to him on the straight to contemplate a pass attempt into T8. About halfway to T8 he looked back at me, by which point I had moved to the outside, thinking that I wasn’t close enough to outbrake him into T8 but, sensing an opportunity, as soon as he turned his helmet and attention back to the track I moved to his inside to take a run at him into T8. I believe that he believed that I was going to stick to the racing line and follow him through T8 as he braked fairly conservatively and I was able to comfortably run up the inside and take the corner and the lead from where I again worked my ass off knowing that I wouldn’t be able to hear Daren and again didn’t relax for a millisecond until the checkers. Whew!
Fast lap was lap 2, 38.61; average was 38.97.
Expert Trophy Dash heat race, dry track, 11:39, 63° F
Two races in a row that pole position has been wasted on me in this class. Start 1st, enter T1 more or less last. No idea about anyone except Linda “motorkid” Chan, #99 Yamaha TTR125L. Battled start to finish, I tried my hardest but I couldn’t find a way past. More fun chasing than being chased, for sure, so I enjoyed very much.
Fast lap, 39.35 on lap 4; 40.16 average.
Formula 50 main, dry track, 12:52, 64° F.
I should have talked to Sean before I wrote this, I can’t remember anything other than starting from pole, riding my ass off and finishing first. Every spoke on Sean’s rear wheel being loose undoubtedly helped, as did Minoru being cursed with bad starts today, Daren and Minoru are still bonding with their NSRs, Mario is new to the NSR and mini racing , one of these days a switch is going to flip inside Mark “secn8ure” Santos and we might someday be watching a pro Vision Hayes . There’s some chance that we can find some speed in the my shock but beyond that my NSR was as good as it’s going to be all year so I’m in for a war.
Fast lap, 38.78 on final lap; 39.21 average.
Super 50 main, dry track, 13:31, 68° F.
I need an onboard camera (supposed to be here tomorrow). Missed warm-up lap and almost missed race, talking too much and videotaping other races. Started P1, ended P1. No relief until checkers. Deepest thanks to SMRRC #1 Jess Ganuelas who was pitted next to me for starting my bike for me while I scrambled to gear up. My heart dropped when I saw Super 50 gridding up from my camp chair.
Fast lap, 38.57, lap 6; 38.95 average, fastest race of the day.
Expert Trophy Dash, dry track, 14:36, 70° F
I was treated to the most graphic display of chatter that I have ever witnessed as Linda’s TTR dribbled her to the edge of the track out of T7, with a rear slide and violent regrip thrown in for bad measure. Rewarding to know that Motorkid was trying as hard to stay ahead as I was to find a way past. Funnest race of the day for me, the memory is worth more than any trophy would have been. Fastest lap, too, and without having kept track last year, my lap record for this layout.
Fast lap, 38.42, lap 8; 39.04 average.
I can barely wait for Race 3.
Tom Lory
SMRRC #26
It wasn’t my thanks to the SMRRC crew, Aftershocks for helping setup my bike, the Supermoto guys for coming out and supporting our club nor my appreciation of my good luck that limited negatives to a piece of gravel in my boot as I walked to the trophy presentations and my Nutter Butter cookies spilling in my dry cooler. What I failed to mention despite rehearsing some was that 10 or so hours of Tourist Trophy on my PS2 over the last two weeks probably helped my riding. Compared to the total lack of feedback and difficulty with precision with the steering, brakes and throttle, the information offered by the NSR was as clear as one club on the head for “yes” and two for “no”.
Add to that basically new tires, new and much better fork setup, a fresh top end and a dry track and my chances for success were the best ever.
As usual, I arrived at the track later than I had hoped for. Fortunately Sean “shaggy55555” had asked me to make him a set of my frame slider assemblies and I was aiming to be in Stockton by 13:00 so that I could help him install them in time for practice. Seeing how it was about 16:00 when I signed in at the gate, I’m glad that I didn’t shoot for 16:00 or I would have missed practice again.
I had made a big change to the fork for this race, swapping in 0.55 kg/mm HRC springs in place of the stock 0.50 kg/mm parts and mixed fork oil for an exactly 50% increase in viscosity. All the other settings were standard, with 106mm oil level, 3 mm fork height and two lines plus the circlip showing on the preload adjusters.
At piston break-in speeds, the bike was resistant to turning to the degree that I was worried that I should have brought fork oil with me so that I could backpedal on the fork setup. I took out all the preload and hoped for the best.
By the time I broke in the engine, I had time for two sessions with full revs and full throttle. The first of those was compromised by an engine that completely signed off at 11,001 rpm, where usually it’ll over-rev to at least 11500 even at the end of the season. Everybody always worries a little after a rebuild and I was more than a little relieved that the race director added a practice session that gave me a chance to go to bed knowing whether or not a fresh plug and my usual fuel would improve matters. Happily, swapping the NGK BR9ES plug to a BR9EIX, draining the Chevron/Valvoline 2T petroleum mix and filling with Chevron/Redline 2T synthetic brought the power and the revs back.
The front end was decent, better under braking, turning on hard braking, midcorner and exit; okay, duh, they’re better but I don’t think it turns in like it used to. I’ll try raising the forks in the triple clamps at the next race.
In my first full throttle and revs practice session, the best lap was 38.96 with an average of 40.11 over 23 laps.
In the subsequent session, 5 laps gave me a 39.63 average, 39.48 fast and 39.76 slow.
After practice, I finished everything that I could to be ready to crawl into the back of my truck and go to sleep without anything that could be done left for race day and took my grille and food over to where most everybody else was hanging out near Bryan & Jordan Edginton.
While my coals were in the charcoal starter, Jordan and I took a lap around the track on a kick scooter and inline skates, respectively. I used to be able to rollerblade well enough to hit a puck around with friends but the muscle memory really isn’t there with my having maybe a total of 30 hours on skates and well over a year since I’ve had them attached to my body so when it came time to drag race Jordan up the front straight, I chickened out lest I crash and lose skin that I didn’t want to be without, especially with the points lead in two classes and forfeited the race to Jordan.
Seeing us gave Kubiks the bright idea to roller derby after the next race practice. I’m down but I will be wearing every piece of protective gear I own, maybe even my leathers ‘cuz I know Stephanie can skate and is something like 2.6 times as strong as your average 105 lb guy, let alone female.
Camping at the track is easily half the fun for me and this weekend was no exception. About midnight, I freed Bryan of my company and walked back to my pit at the opposite corner of the paddock near the racetrack entrance and bathrooms. On the way, I was expecting to see Kubiks’ tent. I got curious and peeked in her car to see how she’d made do without pitching a tent. I had to keep myself from laughing because she was across the back seat area of her car in a sleeping bag like a rolled rug with one end or the other of her ending in the upper corner of her back window. There’s easily room for two in my truck without unwanted bodily contact and I almost knocked on her car to offer but I didn’t want to wake her.
I didn’t sleep anywhere as well as I would have liked, not all that tired with less than 30 hard laps and the usual annoyance of the trains but a Rockstar on top of my protein shake and raisin bread was enough to make me feel fairly normal by the second morning warmup.
I was gridded 4th for Formula 50, 6th for Super 50 and 1st for Expert Trophy Dash, two races in a row that pole has been wasted on me in ETD. I had a moment of hope at pea-pick when the registrar told me to pick again, “44” had already been pulled out of the hat. Fortunately the poor luck that made my hand emerge with “88” didn’t carry on to the rest of day.
I was too lazy to takes notes again but here’s what I remember about my races.
Formula 50 heat race, dry track, 10:13, 57° F.
Gridded 4th. Tied #28 Sean “champr1” McKay (Kawasaki KLR110-05) into the first corner. Neither of us backed down but I was on the outside so I had the inside for T2 and emerged with the lead, I think. I don’t remember passing Sean but I do intimately recall working my ass off to keep him from passing me with, breathing hard enough to fog my shield for the first time ever. With his bike’s exhaust volume and note, I had no clue how close he was, he just always sounded like he was right next to me and I wasn’t able to relax for a second until I had crossed the finish line with the checkers waiving. According to Sean, he had a similar but sorta opposite problem with #55 Daren “manimal” Rimando (Honda NSR50R-04) who was on his back wheel but couldn’t be heard because of the relative silence of a stock NSR, giving me one more thing to think about for my next heat race.
The last lap was my fastest, with 39.08; average was 39.71.
Super 50 heat race, dry track, 10:44, 58° F.
Thanks to Joe Reyes’ onboard video, I have more clarity about how Super 50 played out.
Lined up 6th, second from the inside on row 2 for my Super 50 heat race. P3 and P4 both got bad starts and I was 3rd into T1 behind Joe “Reyefumi” Reyes, #87 Derbi. Daren was out front, seemingly pulling away. I could see that Joe’s Derbi wasn’t pulling off the corners properly and I laid back a little before the entry into the last turn (T7) before the front straight so that I could get on the gas early and have some momentum and speed on Joe that would hopefully allow me to pass him at the end of the straight. He left enough room on his outside for me to pass on the outside into the next turn and I was off to try to catch Daren. I have no idea how many laps it took but eventually I find myself close enough to him on the straight to contemplate a pass attempt into T8. About halfway to T8 he looked back at me, by which point I had moved to the outside, thinking that I wasn’t close enough to outbrake him into T8 but, sensing an opportunity, as soon as he turned his helmet and attention back to the track I moved to his inside to take a run at him into T8. I believe that he believed that I was going to stick to the racing line and follow him through T8 as he braked fairly conservatively and I was able to comfortably run up the inside and take the corner and the lead from where I again worked my ass off knowing that I wouldn’t be able to hear Daren and again didn’t relax for a millisecond until the checkers. Whew!
Fast lap was lap 2, 38.61; average was 38.97.
Expert Trophy Dash heat race, dry track, 11:39, 63° F
Two races in a row that pole position has been wasted on me in this class. Start 1st, enter T1 more or less last. No idea about anyone except Linda “motorkid” Chan, #99 Yamaha TTR125L. Battled start to finish, I tried my hardest but I couldn’t find a way past. More fun chasing than being chased, for sure, so I enjoyed very much.
Fast lap, 39.35 on lap 4; 40.16 average.
Formula 50 main, dry track, 12:52, 64° F.
I should have talked to Sean before I wrote this, I can’t remember anything other than starting from pole, riding my ass off and finishing first. Every spoke on Sean’s rear wheel being loose undoubtedly helped, as did Minoru being cursed with bad starts today, Daren and Minoru are still bonding with their NSRs, Mario is new to the NSR and mini racing , one of these days a switch is going to flip inside Mark “secn8ure” Santos and we might someday be watching a pro Vision Hayes . There’s some chance that we can find some speed in the my shock but beyond that my NSR was as good as it’s going to be all year so I’m in for a war.
Fast lap, 38.78 on final lap; 39.21 average.
Super 50 main, dry track, 13:31, 68° F.
I need an onboard camera (supposed to be here tomorrow). Missed warm-up lap and almost missed race, talking too much and videotaping other races. Started P1, ended P1. No relief until checkers. Deepest thanks to SMRRC #1 Jess Ganuelas who was pitted next to me for starting my bike for me while I scrambled to gear up. My heart dropped when I saw Super 50 gridding up from my camp chair.
Fast lap, 38.57, lap 6; 38.95 average, fastest race of the day.
Expert Trophy Dash, dry track, 14:36, 70° F
I was treated to the most graphic display of chatter that I have ever witnessed as Linda’s TTR dribbled her to the edge of the track out of T7, with a rear slide and violent regrip thrown in for bad measure. Rewarding to know that Motorkid was trying as hard to stay ahead as I was to find a way past. Funnest race of the day for me, the memory is worth more than any trophy would have been. Fastest lap, too, and without having kept track last year, my lap record for this layout.
Fast lap, 38.42, lap 8; 39.04 average.
I can barely wait for Race 3.
Tom Lory
SMRRC #26
Last edited:
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The rest is racing, socializing & watching some good battles on the track, and maybe some rest 
#99. I'm such a retard sometimes. And you told me about Moab but I'm used to 3-5 weeks between races. You will be missed, dangit!!! I'll never forget my Flinstoning it across the finish line my first race weekend out of gas to nipped by you for second place by a few feet.