Well this weekend was my first time actually racing at The Ridge Motorsport Park and talk about getting my feet wet literally.
Friday was practice and Saturday and Sunday were race day and I camped out at the track the whole weekend .
Practice day was nice and sunny temps were about at 70 degrees couldn't ask for a better day. Lap times were about what I do on a normal track day
about 1:57 - 1:58 lap times.
then the weather changed,
rain rain and more rain .
So first practice is at 9 am and its a mad dash to get the rain tires slapped on the spare wheels, good thing I took them to to get swapped at 6 am plenty of time .
There is just one thing,
I have never raced before let alone race in the rain ,ha ha well gotta get your feet wet sometime right .
So out I go for practice. Wow I was surprised at the level of grip the rain tires had , I was laying down the same lap times I would have done on a dry track day.
Still raining by 3pm and they are calling for all the novices to go out for their warm up lap, so off I go .
Girded up board goes down light goes off and away I go .
Got an ok start and the pack was ahead of me about 9 deep with a total grid of over 25 riders. some returning novices and most just like me brand new .
I start picking people off one by one ,each lap gaining positions. Past the half way point now still riders up ahead , more ground to cover and I keep plugging away , calculating each move , finding the best way to get around then next rider .
Smooth keep it smooth I tell my self , remembering what my mentor showed me about the lines in the corners when and were to take each one .
white flag is out final lap , lets push it just a little.
Keeping it smooth on the throttle while doing so.
Last corner before the straight to the checker flag ,
Out of the corner of my eye I see another rider showing me his front tire,
tuck hard pin it , pin it .
beat him whew first race in the rain in the books whoo hoo .
Going for my cool down lap I'm wondering where I placed , in my mind I was thing 7th or 8th. Didn't matter to me , I just completed the first of many races and weather is apart of racing .
I rolled into pit to get checked out by the officials they give me the thumbs up,
I see my sponsor at KFG racing standing waiting for me .
fist thing he says to me was
" dude what happened ?"
me -" I know I know , it's the rain , and I have no experience in the rain"
him - "what are you talking about , you took 3rd "
my jaw dropped , I had no idea
him -" your on the box "
Such an awesome feeling , even one of the graduating novices, the one I beat to the line on the last lap , stopped to tell me that was one of the best races he's been in .
First race ever , first time racing in the rain , and I'm on the box , right on.
After the awards ceremony it's back to business ,time to start thing about Sunday.
Wake up about 6am again and peek outside my tent , I see sunshine ,
which quickly went away with a when the clouds rolled in and it started to rain again. I was totally prepared for another rain race .
Checking the forecast it said that it was suppose to clear up by the time my race started , now its a guessing game . I get everything out prepared to swap back to the slicks at a moments notice.
Watched others go out on rain tires ,which quickly got chewed up by a quickly drying track. Half went out on rain tires ,while the other half chanced it and put on slicks, one person made a last minute decision and went out with one slick in the back and a rain on the front , which paid off for him .
Slicks it is then.
I get them on with some excellent help from some friends who decided to come and watch the events .
The horn goes off for my 2nd race , time to do a warm up lap and grid up. New grid position row 1 position 3, the grid was a little bigger this time , board goes down light goes off ,
and I launch with an awesome start. I saw in my peripherals all the other riders in the front row fall back , then the front started to climb up on me , oh well next thing I know 6 riders shoot ahead of me , well it was a good launch .
Now we are all funneling in to turn one and I went the hard way into turn two and gained back 3 positions . I spent most of the race in 3rd and it was a battle for it the whole time . Remembering what I learned , I planned every move and half way through the race started guarding all my corners like you wouldn't believe . final lap cross the line and on the cool down lap again I though I did well maybe 5th this time, lost track of what place I was in , whatever all I cared about was that was my first race weekend in the books. To me it was a successful one at that ,rolled back to my pit , put the bike up on the stands went to go talk to the other riders that were out there .
The chatter was that the timing loop went down around the last lap ,and it took about 20 min for them to get the scoring and lap times up . To my surprise , I was being told I took 3rd again
Noo Efffen way !!!!!!
First race weekend double podium , when the times came in I also set a PR my new fastest time was now 1:50:574 .
needless to say this race weekend was a huge success

 

After a weekend like that I bet you can't wait to race again! What were you riding? I'm heading to the Ridge later this summer. Haven't been yet but looking forward to it, looks like a great track.

 

08 cbr600rr stock
Turned out a pretty good lap time too
It was a PR of 1:50:526

 

I think pix of the 'ol girl would be apropos.

 

 

Yeah, I remember you for sure! Next time I'm there I'll look you up. You gonna race July 13th and 14th? I'm taking the 2Fast school that Wednesday before, the 11th, and I think my gf will come up Friday and we'll stay for the weekend.

 

trying to do every round this year