The last couple weeks have been a struggle, I won't lie.  Being held up in this rig has been anything other than fun.  It's a wave of emotions – highs and lows.  I know what to expect with a significant injury like this, as it isn't the first one I've had, but it doesn't completely make it easy to block out the negativity that is often trying to push its way through.  Fortunately having Gina around has made things so much better.  In sickness and in health right?  It's not as much for helping me with basic things – sure she does that, but let's be honest – I've done this before and she's not about to overdo it with sympathy and follow me around.  And given what I'm doing – I certainly don't want that, especially with her being pregnant.  It's more about being there and the little things that make us laugh and help the time pass.  That's worth more than anything and it's funny how those little things can help you forget about throwing a season away and losing most of you worked for the winter before.  I do think her biggest complaint right now is that I'm hogging the bed with all the extra pillows.  Sorry G.

It will be three weeks since surgery this coming Wednesday.  Things are going as planned I suppose.  Constant movements and work to get the fingers moving, make a fist, etc., in order to stretch out everything that was tightened up from the surgery.  It's getting better each day but with that – I'm quickly finding the limitations in day-to-day stuff.  Every part of the wrist hurts when I do too much.  It's a pretty sharp pain.  Left side, right side and front are all vulnerable.  I messed it up quite bad with multiple breaks and some crushing of bones.  The idea with the rod is that it holds everything in place so bone can grow back and fill the gaps of where it broke more severely.  I think in the end, the wrist will be good – I probably just won't have the same range of motion I previously had with it.

Working out hasn't been happening and that can spiral into bad eating habits.  I learned my lesson after shoulder surgery, after gaining weight, and I'm not letting that happen again.  I've started doing a little core work and want to get back into a spin class soon – even if it is one-handed.  Running is a little tough with the movements, but hopefully in a week or so I can get back to that at least.  Lots of calcium and vitamins and while I've lost some muscle, I'm almost happy that I haven't lost as much as I thought I would have by now.

All things considered, and how bad things could be .. it's the summer .. and for the most part, life is good.

Cheers,

eddie

Since I only have one hand to type with, this race recap will just be bullet points of what happened.

- Terra was in the Jeep console all weekend.  That's why this weekend went so poorly.  My bad.

- The track management decided to lay new sealer in turns 2 and 3 the night before this WERA National event.  Not the week before.  Not before a car event, but the night before their biggest bike event of the year.

- We had high hopes for the weekend.  We had the bike sorted and I was ready to push and turn faster times.

- Friday morning saw several bikes go down in turns two and three.  James Dillinger broke his ankle, another rider crashed hard and hurt his foot/ankle.  Other riders went down too. At 10am, they broke early for lunch to fix these sections.

- I went out after the "fix" to the track.  On the second lap, I highsided in T2 when just cracking on the throttle.  I wasn't going fast and wasn't at more than 20% throttle.  The bike didn't make it off the track (barely damaged), but I tumbled.  End result was a bruised up left shoulder/arm and neck, along with a rather severe break in my right wrist.  Guess the track wasn't fixed.

- After falling, WERA shut down the track for the day and refunded everyones' money for practice.  This act alone should speak of how bad the situation was – WERA rarely ever does this.  Grattan spent the rest of the day/evening re-fixing the track.

- The track's lack of forethought and responsibility would contribute to why only a total of ten teams gridded up for the endurance race.  Ten teams for a National Endurance Series race.  That's bad.

- Saturday's practice and race would show the track was now better in T2 and T3 – at least on the race line.  With Jeff's BeaveRun injury and now mine, we definitely weren't doing the endurance race.

- We had an absolutely great time each night over the weekend.  17-18 people together for dinner and then hanging out at the hotel afterwards made for great fun and helped mask my depression of not racing.  The pain medication and Jager bombs didn't hurt either (done separately of course).

- Sunday was Jeff's time.  With two wins and two second-place finishes, Jeff set the fastest 600 time of the day and had the best overall results of anyone - all with just being flown from the track just two weeks earlier after a nasty highside.

- Jeff's best race was the first race of the day.  Entering T1 in 6th, he worked his way up passing names like Garrett Gerloff, Benny Solis Jr., Payton Sassman and Hayden Gillim to take second, just running out of time to challenge for the win.

- We put on a very respectable display against some top names, including the Graves-supported team.  We did a lot of networking and made some new connections – all with being down one rider.  I was very happy with the attention our team received.

- WERA most likely will not return Grattan to the National Series schedule for 2011.  I don't blame them.

- I had surgery Wednesday on my wrist.  Screws, rod and other fun stuff.  This essentially ends my season.  I wasn't aiming for championships this year, but I'm pretty sure we were leading all four classes heading into the weekend.  My goal has been race wins and without racing for some time, that will be difficult.  No more chasing new fast lap times.  And most disappointing, no Mid-Ohio.  With four days of racing and riding before the Pro stuff, I had very high expectations for next week – especially considering the regular AMA pros couldn't compete in these events, we would have really leveled the playing field.  I would go as far as saying I was aimimg for a podium in AMA Supersport.  That could be the drugs talking, but I was feeling great on the bike and know we could run the needed pace to run up front there.

- Congrats again to Jeff.  He did great this weekend and will be flying the torch for awhile now.

Six weeks is the forecast for this rig.  Fun times …

Meet Terra.  He's been accompanying us to the race track this year (some may know the meaning of this by the Yamaha commercials between Edwards and Spies recently).  He was a gift and has become quite the fan of our race team this year (who can blame him right?).

Right now we're heading into the core part of the season.  The WERA Grattan National is this weekend, followed by the WERA/AMA Roadrace Grand National Championships at Mid-Ohio, followed by the AMA Pro weekend a day later.  Then we have a short gap and we're off to Virginia International Raceway for the the WERA Cycle Jam.  All of these are big events with big competition at all of them – some of the best in the country.  It will certainly provide a good measuring stick of where we're at.

This is the time I'm really looking forward to.  It's not just a couple guys that help me step up my game, but a deep field across the board that forces the issue and the times to drop.  After our last visit to Grattan, we've figured out some things and we'll be ready to go and push the envelope.  As for Mid-O, I'm really looking forward to it.  I haven't been there yet this year, but we'll have a lot of time to get back up to speed and push towards new, fast lap times.  With all this excitement packed into the next couple weeks, VIR is a fair bit off in the distance, but it's an event that we did quite well at considering our lack of experience last year and the technical nature of the track.  It'll be even more work to take the next step and build on what we learned there previously.

Without getting to far ahead of ourselves, Grattan is where the focus is.  With names like the Bostrom's, Jason Disalvo, Dane Westby, Clinton Seller, Taylor Knapp and Kurtis Roberts, this event will be stacked – not to mention the host of other fast names that will be in attendance.  If this isn't enough to get amp'd up about, I don't know what is.

Two seconds is what we need this weekend.  Three if things go real well.  We know what doesn't work around Grattan, so the only option now is to go with what works and put the hammer down.  It'll be fun.  And Jeff is feeling much better so I'm looking forward to him being back in action. 

Ultimately, I'd like to rely on Terra for some help over the next few days, but I'm confident the hard work we've put in lately will pay dividends.  Around Grattan, it has to eventually.  And now is as good a time as any ..

If you're in the area, stop by our pits, grab a Monster and hang out for a few.

Cheers,

eddie

Our teammate Jeff had a pretty significant crash at BeaveRun this past weekend.  It was a nasty highside that resulted in the bike catching fire momentarily and him being airlifted to one of Pittsburgh’s main hospitals.  The track was shut down for about an hour and it wasn’t one of those times when racing is fun.  Fortunately Jeff was let out of the hospital late Monday morning and doesn’t have any broken bones or major injuries, but he’s pretty sore and banged up.  Amanda Kelly (Blake’s sister and a friend) lives nearby and has been keeping an eye on Jeff since he had arrived at the hospital, up until now being at home.  This was one of those times when everyone stops and takes a step back to look at the sport we’re involved in and remember the risks that come with it.  It’s also a time when the racing community bonds together and really shows how being part of this sport is truly like nothing else I’ve been involved with - even in all my years of stick-and-ball sports.  As we later found out, everything was okay – just a lot of soreness and some bruised lungs.  Jeff said his Knox gear was huge and possibly saved his life, and certainly worse injuries. 

To get into the details and recap of how the weekend went, it began on Thursday evening for my dad and I.  With BeaveRun oddly not hosting a Friday practice, the race weekend wouldn’t officially begin until Saturday morning.  This was fine by me as I’ve always felt pretty comfortable around this track.  I don’t know what it is.  I won my first race as an expert at BeaveRun on an SV650.  I won my first race in the 600 class on a 2005 R6 at BeaveRun.  And since then, I’ve been fortunate to have pretty good results at this track.  So all in all, I wasn’t too disappointed in being forced to save some coin and tires by not turning a wheel on Friday.

With that said, I was still intent on getting to the track early.  With work being busy as of late, I was looking forward to getting away and more importantly, making sure we were 100% ready to go after our somewhat disappointing previous event.  When we arrived at the track, we were pretty much the only ones there on the big-track side.  We spent Friday enjoying the warm weather and just being outside and at the track.  The simple things.  We tweaked on the bikes a bit, watched the karts run on the smaller track and got in some good sun.  I got a little too much sun, being out in it all day – and in part to having the brilliant idea that I’d do my own “Solo 20” around BeaveRun, pedaling around on the bike (since the track was open and all).  I was burnt to a nice crisp by the end of the day and would pay for it the rest of the weekend.

Tom had arrived early in the afternoon, while Doug, Marion, Jeff, Rob, JB, Crista, Aaron, Jake and everyone else arrived later on.  We all hung out at the track and had a good time; with dad, Tom and I getting back to the hotel around 10:00 that night.

Saturday started off well.  Quickly up to speed in morning practice, we were into the 59’s right away and down into the 58’s by the last session of the morning.  Things were going well and we had a few tweaks here and there to help the bike along.  I wasn’t sure if it was the heat, but the front of the bike felt kind of “soft” throughout the first few sessions – but it was still early in the weekend and I was working to get reacquainted with the track.

For the 20-lap Solo race, I was gridded on the 2nd row.  There was some solid competition present between Sam, Justin (Holderman), Dave (Grey), Eric (Spector) and the Wyman brothers who run a number of the AMA events.  Jeff and I would have our hands full.  As I headed out to the track, I noticed the front of the bike clicking when I touched the front brake.   A couple quick grabs of the lever and I knew what problem had resurfaced – the steering stem nut had come loose!  This must have been that “soft” feeling I felt in practice.  I turned around and raced back to the pits.  I yelled to Jake (Arch) who was pitted next to us to grab my dad, as he and Doug had already headed to the starting line.  My dad came running up and knew what I meant by where I was pointing.  He grabbed a punch and with a hammer, moved the nut enough with the angle he had, to tighten it up.  Doug had already moved the nut himself which had been spinning freely.  Not good.  As it was fixed,  I raced back towards pit-out, figuring the race had already started.  As I came out, I saw everyone was just finishing lining up.  The starter waived me around, which came as a pleasant surprise.  I wouldn’t take the warm-up lap, but I’d at least be able to get on the grid and not miss the start.

Figuring everyone was ticked at me for holding up the race and waiting on the grid (I’d have been pissed) I got out there as quick as I could.  Trying to force myself to relax after the pre-race drama, I tried to not completely botch my start – and fortunately, only partially botched it.  I was 4th into T1 and 5th halfway through the first lap, out of about 24 bikes total.  Holderman led with Sam in tow and I was chasing down Spector.  As we all ran into T10 off the back straight, Eric tipped in and lost the front-end just as he entered the corner.  I narrowly avoided hitting his tail section as he went down and continued on, catching up to Dave and getting into 3rd place.  Justin and Sam were moving really well.  I caught up to Sam and was able to pass him and then caught Justin on the brakes into T1. 

I led for the next few laps, but now I could tell the steering nut was coming loose again.  Without time to take off the top triple and properly check and torque it, the quick fix was now backing out.  It was pretty sketchy and costing me time.  Feeling the front-end loose while at full throttle wasn’t a good thing.  And on the brakes, it was anything but confidence inspiring.  As I went by the tower, I pointed to the steering stem  as I went by Doug and my dad.  On the next lap, Justin got around me coming onto the front straight.  By now I could really feel the slop in the front end.  As I came up to the flag tower, my dad was waiving his arms wildly, signaling for me to get off the track.  I agreed.  Without getting in the way, I got off line as Sam came racing by.  As I exited the track, I looked back and could see the group of Wyman, Dave and Jeff dicing it up in a good battle.

Once back in the pits, we quickly fixed the problem.  Extra torque and lock-tight, as well as some temporary silicone to ensure the problem didn’t resurface (odd that we never had this problem with the ’08 R6).  As for the race, the finishing order was Holderman winning with Sam finishing 2nd.  Jeff was able to move into 3rd which was a solid finish.  Times in the race weren’t bad, with Sam and I doing nearly identical best times; both in the 58.3’s.

Dad raced in the Lightweight Solo 20 and finished 2nd, against two other Superbike-spec SV650s.  He ran a great race, especially considering he was a little down on power with pump gas – and that it started raining in the last two laps of the race.  This is especially impressive to me considering he recently had surgery on his second knee and was limping around in the pits all weekend.  Typical Joe.  He even suited up for the mini-race at the end of the day which was good fun in the wet.

Sunday morning was dry and warm.  Practice again went well and drama free.  I think we were fastest in all three sessions we did.  We made a couple changes throughout, all of which seemed to help the bike. 

600 Superbike was the first race of the day.  Starting from the second row with grids much better for me this time around, I had a good launch into T1 behind Sam.  We had a good battle of M3 Racing vs. Witchkraft Racing between Jeff, Justin, Sam and myself.  The race would be short-lived as red flag would bring us back to the grid for a restart.  After a short delay, back into T1 we went and I was 2nd again behind Sam.  Jeff and I were pretty close into T1 and I threw my leg out to say, "sorry!" as we went into T2.  In the process, I didn't backshift for T4 and ran through there a gear taller, almost running out of track and into the grass.  I was shaking my head in my helmet.

I cleaned up my act, starting chasing and was able to pass Sam with a good drive and line through the left kink, which let me get around him just before the right kink.  Sam got back by me into T1 and I passed him again a couple laps later.  Good fun.  With a couple laps to go, I went back one-too-many shifts into T1 and had to pull in the clutch to avoid a potential messy mistake.  I ran wide and that opened the door enough to let Sam through, where he would go on to take the win.  I’d finish 2nd with Jeff finishing 4th.  We were all in the 58’s with our 58.2 being the fast lap of the race.

750 Superbike was next.  There was some oil dry on the track from a spill in one of the races before this one, so the pace was a touch slower.  Sam and I went back and forth again and I was able to come out on top with the win, after catching some lap traffic in a good spot.  Sam had the best time of the race at a 58.514 and myself at a 58.518.  Chalk up another close finish between the two of us.  Man that’s crazy.  Jeff had another solid 4th place finish and was putting down his fastest times around BeaveRun.

600 Superstock was our third race.  We made a small change to the front of the bike which I hoped would work well.  I got the holeshot and led for the first couple laps before another red flag came out.  As we all slowed on the cool down, I came up to see that it was Jeff that had crashed in T10.  The bike was still on track and he was off in the grass on the ground.  I raced back to our pits to get off the bike and by then, everyone knew he had gone down.

The scene wasn’t good.  It was quiet.  Everyone was asking what happened.  Both ambulances were over at the scene and we were all there watching, along with most of the paddock.  Word was that he was having a difficult time breathing and coughing up blood.  He had at least been able to get up and off the track after his crash, but wasn’t moving much now.  As the clocked ticked away, word was that they were flying the chopper in because the medics thought he might have had a collapsed lung.  This was more precautionary than anything, but still a scary situation.  Tom had been down there talking to him and Jeff was trying to remain in good spirits.

I certainly wasn’t in the mood to race after all this.  I don’t think anyone was.  I looked at Tom and my dad and asked if we should race at all.  I was ready to pack up.  I felt terrible looking to ride after my friend and teammate just got flown out to the hospital.  After some discussions, we all decided to finish out the day, rather reluctantly. 

By now all my pre-race, tense energy was gone.  As they made the calls for the restart of the 600 Superstock race, I put on my gear on and got ready.  As the tires warmers were pulled and bike stands lifted, I flipped the switch to start the bike and the temperature on the tach read 63.  I looked at it for a few seconds, smiled and had a calming reassurance that Jeff was going to be alright.  Pretty weird that happening, I thought …

Lining up on the start, I was more relaxed than I had been all weekend.  I got the holeshot into T1 and put down the laps.  The gap after each lap was bigger and bigger.  I was smooth, relaxed and somehow put in back-to-back 57.9 lap times that were my fastest of the weekend.  I was able to block out what had happened up until the white flag or so, where I started thinking on how Jeff was doing.  By the checkered flag, we would win by almost five seconds.  On the cool down lap, I was all by myself.  It seemed almost intentional.  I rode around each corner station and as I thanked them, I pointed up – signaling who the win was for.  It was emotional and certainly something I hadn't planned – it just kind of happened and I was a bit overwhelmed by it all.  At post-tech, I was still the only bike there.  I felt alone on the track .. and it carried an eerie sense of symbolism with it. I rode back to the pits and we were all happy with the results, but no one said much.  Our thoughts were elsewhere.

750 Superstock was our last race of the day.  I was ready for the day to be over.  I was able to again get the holeshot and put in consistent laps, enough to keep Sam at bay and win our third race of the day.  Best lap was a 58.1.  Sam was right there and finished 2nd.  We all knew Jeff would be happy about the results (heck, he yelled at me later that if I hadn’t rode, he’d have kicked my ass).

My dad had two great races, winning both of them.  With a little race gas and some new tires, he went on to set his personal best time around BeaveRun, winning both races in convincing fashion – all on about one good knee total.
 
After the races we all packed up and helped load Jeff’s stuff with Rob –although Rob and Bill got most of it.  On the road we got updates on Jeff from Amanda throughout the drive, getting home around 1am.

The title of this recap was going to be Redemption.  Although when certain things happen, it has a way of changing priorities and the perspective of how you look at things.  There was redemption for me, but it was more about remembering the people we have with us and not taking anything for granted.  Some may easily disregard such things, but when we’re running around a race track at a buck-fifty and someone gets hurt, it can certainly put things in such regard.

Cheers,

eddie

edit: We might be having Friday practice now.  Odds are looking better ..

I've been trying to fit in more outdoor pedaling with the warmer weather here.  I squeezed in 25 miles over the weekend around Stoney Creek which was a good ride.  Lots of hills and elevation around the place which makes for a great workout.  I don't know all the details regarding how all the cardio "zones" work, but I'm typically in the 3rd zone for nearly all the ride, and in the 4th anaerobic zone for good sections of it.  I'd like to spend more time pedaling, but with bike preparations and real life, it's hard to fit it all in.  Of course I'm timing myself and seeing if there's anyone I can pedal against while I'm there, which keeps it interesting.  The full-suspension bike isn't great for road riding, as it saps out a lot of the efficiency in each pedal stroke.  I'd like to try a hard-tail just for comparison's sake, as I think it would be a bit easier (and drop my times of course).

Other than that, dad and I spent some time over the weekend working on the R6 and tweaking the geometry a bit, which should make the bike a bit more stable when leaned over.  Everything else is prepped and ready to go for a fun weekend.  Pin it and hold on!

Cheers,

eddie

Memorial weekend is a little different for everyone.  For some, it's remembering war stories; having been a part of it and serving our country.  For others, it's simply being thankful for the freedom that we have today.  I'm of the latter – and the way I decided to spend the holiday weekend was to head up north with Gina and spend the weekend with her family at her parents' cottage.  With her parents living in Arizona during the winter and up north during the summer, she doesn't get to see them much so we spent a few days enjoying the weather and relaxing a bit.

The relaxation was a nice part of the weekend for everyone – well, almost everyone.  As her family knows, I have a hard time sitting still – and to avoid doing that for too long, I spent a good amount of time pedaling around the lake her parents have a place on - Cedar Lake, near Oscoda.  The rides were made easier by listening to some of Armin Van Buuren's latest mixes every morning and afternoon.  Things were going great until I got a flat on day two, about 7-8 miles into one of my rides around the lake.

Of course I didn't have a spare tube with me … Hey, cut me some slack – I've been spinning all winter and flats aren't an issue.  :)  Fortunately I did have my cell phone.  I dialed in for some help and the family version of AAA came out and gave me a lift back.  A trip to the local K-Mart and they had spare tubes, but not the ones I needed for this wheel, which requires a thinner valve stem.  Arg.  And with the holiday weekend, the local bike shop was closed.  Being up north, there wasn't too much else around, so I was out of luck.

Needless to say, I'm picking up extra tubes tomorrow along with some other trail necessities.  Lesson learned indeed.  Hope everyone had a good holiday weekend and remembered what the extended weekend is all about.

Cheers,

eddie

WERA North Central Round #2: The Race Weekend That Almost Wasn’t

Excited to get back on the bike and trying to make sure preparation is done, I decided that the last thing I should look at is a set of new spark plugs in the old R6, sounds pretty harmless.  Remove the gas tank, remove the air box, pull the coils and loosen, that simple; except now.  This simple task turned into quite the adventure for me.  It appears that one of the plugs had some carbon build-up on the tip that proceeded to tear up threads as I pulled it out of the aluminum head.  This is not a good thing anytime, let alone 10 days before the first North Central event of the year.  Frustration was beginning to mount; I am not mechanical enough to rectify this situation on my own.  A few phone calls and off to the engine builder we go…Thom Godward who has worked on this motor previously also crew chiefs for an AMA Superbike team and has a race in California the  same weekend as mine.  Despite that fact Thom worked diligently to make sure I would have the motor back.  What a relief…Thanks for the hard work.  Crisis avoided, let’s go racing.

Friday Practice: What a relief to finally be at the track.  I had a set of Dunlop mounted earlier in the week and was ready to start finding the speed that hopefully would make me competitive on the weekend.  For today I was running an N-Tec rear tire that had some laps on it but still seemed to have plenty of grip at the pace I am running.  The relevance of this comment will show up later. 

As the day proceeded I was picking up speed as I had hoped. The two previous trips to Grattan for track days left me wondering if the switch to the Yamaha R6 was a mistake.  My lap times had still not caught up to my best laps around Grattan on my SV (1:26.4).  The R6 has quite a bit more horsepower and all the trick suspension and I can’t break into the 26’s? 

That trend was finally broken as I chased some of the WERA NC regulars and fast teammates Eddie Kraft and Jeff Wrobel around all day.  It is amazing how riding with faster company can help drive lap times down.  I ended the day with a best of 1:25.4 which not only surpassed my previous fast lap around Grattan but also met my goal for the weekend and the racing had not even started.  My confidence was building and goals were adjusted for the remainder of the weekend, 1:24’s were in my reach.

Saturday, Race Day: As practice opened up I was able to get back to the low 1:26’s with that same set of tires that now had almost 80 laps on them.  My confidence was high and due to a few regulars not running transponders for practice I looked fast on the morning time sheets as well.

Lunch time had arrived and new Dunlop 211 GPA’s were being mounted for the MW Solo.  I again was feeling good until…When I go to pick up the tires I find out from the Dunlop vendor that the 211 GPA is 7mm shorter than the N-Tec I had been running, 7 mm not a big deal right?  In motorcycle geometry and set-up it can be.  I did not have time to make any ride height changes to compensate and wondered again if 7 mm would really make a difference.

As the green flag fell on the Solo 20 I found my answer, it did.  The bike was not terrible but was very difficult to get off the corners, always wanting to run wide on exit.  This is not a good situation when you are facing 20 laps.  It took me a little while to figure out how to make this geometry work but I found a style that allowed me to push towards the middle of the race and improve a few positions.  I had started 13th and finished the race in 9th, not a bad result for the first time on the R6 at Grattan.  More importantly I had learned a little about how changes can affect the overall handling of the bike and what type of riding can overcome some issues.  The best lap of the race was a 1:25.6 which was a little disappointing, I was hoping that I would pick-up time during the races.

The good news is that my Witchkraft Racing teammates had posted good results with Jeff winning the race and Eddie finishing 4th.  Jeff had actually run off track about mid race and bent the wheels on the bike and damaged the shock and still managed to push forward for a victory, he is an ironman.

Sunday morning practice was looking good, I had added 2mm of ride height adjustment to the rear of the R6 to bring the geometry back where the bike suited my riding style a little better.  Once again I was toward the top of the practice time sheets for those with transponders sitting 5th amongst the 600 group with a best time of 1.25.9.  These 1.25’s aren’t so tough!

A fresh set of rubber was mounted up after morning practice and we were ready to go.  My first race of the day would be MW Senior SB.  I was gridded in the middle of row 7.  The MW bikes were behind the HW Senior group, so there were multiple classes running.  As the green flag dropped I got a good start and learned from previous start that it was best to get to the inside for those first couple of corners.  As the field strung out I got by bike #194, Gene Burcham who was leading the MW class and put my head down to try and open a gap.  As I would come onto the straight I could not find any of my team giving me signals.  I felt like I had pushed the pace pretty well and started lapping well up into the HW field.  As the white flag came out I had found a void in traffic so I relaxed a little and just wanted to bring it home safely.  Unfortunately, I had relaxed too much.  Gene went deep on the brakes into the “Bus Stop” and was attempting to go around the outside of me.  As we exited I had one chance to turn down on him and pinch him off at the little kink but thought better of it.  That is just not the kind of racer I am.  Gene got a good run up the hill and I tried to draft back by to the line but ran out of room.  The margin of victory, or in my case, loss was .032 seconds.  I was angry at myself for not pushing harder on that last lap.  Lessons were learned though and the positives were: leading 5 of 8 laps and finishing 4th overall in a HW/MW field.  Best lap was a 1.25.5, I can’t be disappointed with that but I ran a faster lap than that on Friday in practice.

B Superbike would be my last race for the weekend.  My confidence was still high going into this race, the competition would be tough but I felt like a “Top 10” was in my reach.  Again I got off the line well and pushed hard on the first lap to clear as many bikes as possible.  I knew that the front group would get away but if I could just keep a carrot out in my sight that could help pull me along I thought it would help and boy it did. I got in a group with #17, Jacob Teutsch and #18 Nik Van Goor and we pushed each other.  I swapped spots with Nik on a couple of laps but he bested me in the end.  It was fun to race with others who had a little more experience and gain experience on the R6.  I ended up finishing 9th in that race. More importantly I had upped the ante and met my “new” goal for the weekend with a best lap of 1:24.6.

Weekend Accomplishments: I led the MW Senior Superbike Race. I reached my first goal by getting into the 1:25’s. I reached the second goal by dropping an additional second into the 1:24’s.  I learned a lot about the geometry on the R6 and how it affects handling.  I had a safe competitive weekend with friends.

Perspective and Thanks: Although I still have a long ways to go to be competitive near the front of a 600 field I feel that this weekend was a big step.  I got the monkey off my back by getting beyond my SV times and running in a more competitive class.  I know it is not going to happen overnight but I am not getting any younger and have a few personal goals that I set when I started my racing career that I hope to meet this year.  These require persistence and a steep learning curve on the R6.

The people on the Withchkraft Racing Team do a great job of driving me and motivating me in a constructive way.  Whether it is Doug, lead technician dialing a few suspension knobs or Eddie talking about lines, they all help to make each trip to the track a new learning experience.  I only hope that the assistance I provide them give them the same benefits.  With new teammate Jeff Wrobel there to lighten the mood as Joe Kraft dials in some more speed it is like a family.  Thanks for all the help guys.  Also thanks to Jonas McCluskey for all the inspiration he provides and of course my fiancé Kim who gives me the latitude to pursue my passion.

Every day – morning breakfast .. what went wrong?  Afternoon lunch .. what could I have done better?  Each night .. going through the mental checklist of how I can make sure this doesn't happen again.  Each repetition on the bench, each pull-up on the bar is a reminder of every race – and that letting up and giving in is what everyone else wants, but not what will happen – especially when the pursuit of my goals remain at the fore front. 

It was just one round.  There will be others, but at this level, my mistakes are magnified.  The competition is too tight and doesn't let up.  No one else is taking a day off and neither can I. I look down and watch my legs hammer on the pedals, the constant motion of pushing forward, but in my mind, I'm sliding backward.  I pedal harder to try and reverse the memories of what was.  It eats at me.  My RPM's are on the limit and I can't pedal any faster, yet I can't outrun it.  Redemption is an easy word to say, but it's more than just one tangible act. For me it's the cumulative process of man and machine and the equation of accurate calculations resulting in success and accomplishment of one's goals.  Redemption is not often a simple task, but it is the only one I now pursue.  Without it, the pain remains and all the work and preparations are in vain.

I can't pedal anymore; I get off the bike – eyes watering, muscles aching .. delirious.  A small sense of closure is returned as my breathing struggles to return to normal.  The sweat mixed with my exhaustion lends itself to a peaceful assurance that everything will be alright.  I know what I'm doing.  I know where I'm at.  And yet, the battle between a positive outlook to the future and lingering on a disappointing past can't completely hide itself from me.

The painful lessons of mistake are meant as tools – and I will use these tools.  I will soon look to the pedals again for another piece of that closure and confidence towards my goal – for I will no longer be running from the past, but chasing the redemption of the future.

Wow.  What a disappointing weekend.  I’ve attempted to stay positive and focus on the things we’ve learned with the intent that it will pay off as the season progresses – and I’m sure it will.  But man, right now ..  what a bad weekend we had.   There’s no other way to slice it and I’m incredibly glad it’s over.  There were several times I wanted to throw in the towel, but I didn’t, as that’s not the mentality I want to have.  Throughout it all, my dad worked his tail off non-stop for three days.  It was incredible – with a bum knee and all.  He put so much into the bike this weekend just by himself trying to help me – and I just couldn’t make it happen.  The weekend was certainly a learning experience and while I’m not sure what exactly we’ve learned yet, I’m going to keep saying that until we figure it out.

Friday practice was one big test session and it wasn’t long enough to sort through things.  The big changes we were trying for the weekend were relating to spring rates.  We completely changed everything – front and rear springs.  We would try four different rear springs by the time the weekend was over, along with a couple changes to the front springs.  The reason for these changes; right or wrong, was based primarily on info we had from last year at Grattan and discussions on how to try something different to bridge the gap and take the next step from where I was last year to go faster.  Ultimately the decision to try this was mine and while I can confidently say that these trials didn’t exactly work with absolute success, if we hadn’t tried them, I would have wanted to eventually try them at some point.  So I suppose it’s good we had gotten them out of the way early.

Other than swapping parts, Friday was great.  Tom, Aaron, Doug, Marion and Eric arrived in the afternoon and we had a full crew with us.  Friday night was spent at the Grattan Bar for dinner – a group of about ten of us including Wes and Jan (Swain), Jim (Cottrell), along with Jake and Brian from Sportbike Track Gear.  Good times all around.

I was optimistic Saturday morning for improvements and it did indeed start off well.  It was fairly cool out and with new tires, the second session of practice was pretty much the highlight of the weekend.  I did a 1:21.5 in the morning which was very solid, but it was the fastest I would go all weekend.  A far cry from the 1:20’s I had done at the Grattan National the year before.  We had seemingly fixed some of the issues I was experiencing on Friday, which was a positive.  We would now go into the 20-lap solo race on these tires and with the weather warming up and sun coming out.

The Solo 20 race was rough.  I had a good start and I think led for a lap or so.  This was short-lived however as I just struggled on the bike.  It was hard to describe, but I couldn’t hold lines and I didn’t feel comfortable or smooth at all.  The softer springs weren’t working for me.  Jeff, Dave (Grey) and Eric (Spector) passed and pulled away.  It would have been tempting to pull off, but I wanted to ride around, try different lines, different positioning on the bike, anything to try and figure out what was going on.   We finished the race in 4th with a best lap time in the 1:22’s.  Going slower in the race compared to practice definitely isn’t a good thing.  We had some weird tire wear issues and the warmer weather seemed to make the suspension handle differently – that, or I was riding differently in the race which was throwing things off.  Jeff did great and won the race, riding absolutely superb.  He looked fantastic out there and it was great to see him win against the strong competition of Dave and Eric who have turned tons of laps around Grattan.

Saturday night we had about 15-17 people all head to Applebees in Greenville for dinner.  It was again a good time and then that I realized how big our little “group” had gotten.  All familiar faces, but it had grown more than I had even imagined – and there wasn’t enough time to even talk to everyone throughout dinner.  Jeff and I sat with Tom and gave him a hard time for most of the meal.  Jeff always has a way of making Tom smile no matter what kind of mood he’s in.  It’s cool to see.

Similar to Saturday, I had a positive outlook for Sunday and didn’t want to get bogged down with negativity.  I went out with the intent to put in hard, fast laps, but they just weren’t coming.  We made changes in every practice session and the bike just wasn’t feeling better.  We changed damping, preload, ride height, you name it.  My dad was trying everything he could.  I was trying to give feedback, but I don’t think I was doing an exceptional job of it, making his job even more difficult.  It was frustrating – for both of us.  Adding to injury, one of the WERA officials had pulled me aside after practice and mentioned that he saw my bike smoking a bit during the session.

As practice wound down, we headed into lunch and put on some new tires.  My mom and aunt had just arrived to the track, as well as Gina, her dad, my brother-in-law and three-year old nephew who loved seeing the bikes.  My brother Matt and newly engaged fiancee Becky (Reba!) had been at the track since Saturday which was great.  We had quite an audience just as the madness of everyone mounting new tires for the races began.  Also during lunch, we saw that Jeff's shock was suddenly leaking oil, blown out after the little off track excursion from Saturday that bent his rear wheel.  In a quick rush, we grabbed the shock off the spare bike and threw it on his bike.  Nothing like a little extra drama during lunch.

First race of the day was 600 Superstock.  After my dad and I looked at the notes, we tried another change before the race.  We typically don’t do this, but this was now a learning weekend and we needed to find something that might work.  He threw some changes in and we’d see what happened. 

WERA had again inaccurately done the grids, so we were starting with no points and back in the pack.  I tried to talk to WERA to see if they could fix the mistake (as I did have points from Nelson), but they weren’t able to do anything.  The issues came back from problems at WERA HQ apparently.  As a result of my frustration, I had a great launch from the third row and managed to get the hole shot into T1.  I couldn’t do anything with it though, as I struggled to turn the bike and find stability in the handling.  Jim (Cottrell), Eric (Spector) and a couple others later commented on the bike looking out of shape in a few areas.   In the end I had to settle for a 4th place finish.  Jeff had a great race and finished 2nd to Dave.  Times were mid-22’s. 

Next up was 750 Superstock.  My dad and I decided to go back to the original, stiffer front springs we had always been using.  A quick swap inside the Ohlins 25mm kit and we were ready to go.  I was third into T1 and the bike was a little bit better.  We finished third place and got into the high 21’s.  Jeff was rolling and finished 2nd.  I still was not at my race pace and it was becoming frustrating.  The spring change was a small victory however.

We had back-to-back races and with a quick splash of fuel and another set of changes to the suspension, went back out for 600 Superbike.  The changes were worse and I went backwards in this race.  Times were back in the 22’s and I finished in 4th, chasing Rob (Hancock) and dicing it up a bit with Kevin (Callaway).  Jeff ran up front again and grabbed another second place finish.  Ah how nice it looked up in front.

At some point after the race I looked at my dad and said with a weak smile, “this is not good.”  We nodded in agreement.  As we headed into the last race, it was just about putting in laps and making it through the weekend, trying to gain some kind of information on what we could use in the future.  I suggested to my dad that it might be good to try going back to the original spring/shock combination we’ve always run on the bike, but with Doug tied up helping Jeff, we didn’t have enough time so we’d have to live with what we had.  750 Superbike was the  last race of the day and we ended with another 3rd place finish.  It was a decent rebound after the last race, but it wasn’t where we needed to be.

I sincerely and whole-heartedly want to thank my dad.  He put an absolutely huge amount of time working on the bike this weekend.  Without him, I would have been in a world of trouble.  It was a tough and extremely frustrating weekend for both of us – and while it didn’t pan out this weekend, hopefully it will show some results further down the road.  After his knee surgery he had on Thursday, he did so much for me when he really shouldn’t have.  Our pits were extremely busy and full this weekend, but he stuck with me and we’re definitely going to bounce back from this little bump in the road. 

I like BeaveRun and that’s as good a place as any to get back on track.  I’ll likely get back to Grattan again before then as well with our original setup and see where we’re at.  I’m certain it will be better and then we can make some other changes from that setup – with a little more knowledge on what to go after, given all the things that didn’t work this weekend.  I’d like to say I could have rode better with the setup we had, but I’m not sure I could.  I ran out of talent.  I was ready to throw the bike down the road trying to make it work, but it was just all over the place (see the Flickr photos for how the rear tire looked in the sweeper).

In regard to the motor, Jeff also saw my bike smoking throughout the day on Sunday, so I’m going to pull the motor this week.  We’ll get to the bottom of it and be ready to go.  They can’t all be great weekends and like the song, momma said there’d be days like this.

Onto the next round.  Thanks for reading.  And thanks to Jeff Kovack for the great photography all weekend.  My brother Matt as well for photos you also see here.

Cheers,

eddie

Lucky parking spot.  Hopefully it's a sign.  As we head to Grattan tonight for Round Two on the WERA schedule, dad and I are all packed and ready to go – except that he's having knee surgery today on both knees.  It's arthroscopic and he's hopeful that he can race on Sunday … the eternal optimist.  I'm just hoping he's good enough to walk around the pits, turn knobs and tell me to go faster.  We'll see how that pans out.

We have a slew of spring changes to try on Friday.  Three rear springs and 1-2 different front spring configurations to try.  After nearly riding out of control to do 1:20's, there's something in the setup we've been missing.  After some discussions between Joe, myself and Mike Fitzgerald – and with Mike's help, we have a good direction to go in to do the lap times easier.  Needless to say, I'm excited at trying these things out.

Tom, Aaron, Jeff, Matt, Doug, Marion and Eric (Johnston) will all be making the trip out this weekend with Gina, my mom and family making the drive up on Sunday.  With warm and sunny weather predicted, it should hopefully be a good weekend all around.  The work starts tomorrow morning and hopefully we'll have a little fun while we're doing it.

Cheers,

Eddie