Witchkraft Racing: The Search for Speed

Home » General » A Long Time Coming – Return to Grattan

A Long Time Coming – Return to Grattan

While I wasn't particularly keen on returning to this particular track, I decided to make the trip out Saturday and attempt to ride. Putnam was the preferred destination but I didn't want to drive six hours in case I couldn't ride the bike. So together with dad and Mark (Gonyou), we headed north to the track bright and early Saturday morning to ride with STT in their last big event at Grattan.

We were greeted at the gate by Sam as usual. Normally chatting between the three of us and having a good laugh, it was a rather uncomfortable situation this time around. Joe, being fatherly of course asked if any new sealer had been laid down - a serious question, but one that had a certain sense of irony to it. "Nice", I said to him as we paid our gate entry and drove towards the upper paddock. "It was a serious question", my dad replied.  The weather was cold early on, but warmed up by lunch. The event was sold out – proof that people come out to ride Grattan, even with the lower attendance figures for the recent race weekends.

Joe was still recovering from his hip surgery, so he wasn't able to ride yet. At one point I wondered why I was trying to do so. I still didn't have much movement in my hand or strength for that matter. I had ridden the fifty up and down the street beforehand, as well as riding the pedal bike quite a bit – all good, but hardly the same as wrestling a 600 around. It had been over three and a half months since I had been on the track though and I couldn't stand it any longer.  With a rather eerie feeling, I put on all the gear and mentally committed myself before I could change my mind.

The first session wasn't too bad and each session got a little bit better. I was worried the vibrations into the bars would be a big problem, but they weren't. The biggest issue was the throttle-to-brake and brake-to-throttle transitions. They were really slow and I couldn't put full pressure onto the brake lever. This resulted in a lot of coasting. Transitioning side-to-side between turns was okay – I could do it, but not as quickly and aggressively as normal. It was a little tricky getting the throttle to 100% with the full twist of the throttle, but it got better as the day went on.  Nonetheless, I was riding – and it was great.

I had a couple sessions where I was able to follow guys. Nik (Von Matt) was there and I followed him in one session, which helped me block some of the pain and focus on riding. I didn't dare have the laptimer on, but I figured I dropped some time chasing him. Later in the day I was behind Richard (Harris) and did the same – just rode and pushed harder than I had been. In each session, I was about done after 7-8 laps.  Aside from the hand, I felt good physically, but that was the one limited factor and as it got progressively tired and sore, I didn't want to make any stupid mistakes.

At the end of the day, it was a good decision to ride and I had a great deal of fun. We had a great group with us. Mark rode well – Doug even rode too – his first time riding in three or so years. Brian (Van), Jake (Arch) and Jeff (Gibson) were riding, as well as the Carneys (Steve and Andy George), Nik, Jim (Cottrell), JB and Aaron (Hardiman).

Next up is a third splint for the wrist that I'm told will help compared to the two I'm currently wearing. I'm still doing PT twice a week and doing whatever I can to bring things back to normal. It's a slow process. There is talk I might need a second surgery, but I'm hoping to avoid that. With some closure on the season now, I'm looking towards 2011 and what we're going to do. I'll post more details here as things start happening .. and anything that happens in between.

Cheers,

eddie

Monday, October 18th, 2010 | POSTED AT: 5:17 AM
FILED UNDER: General