The Witchkraft Files – WERA Round 8, BeaveRun

By Doug Cornett:

OK, for you casual readers .. Rob Jensen is a Pro rider.  His job is racing motorcycles.  He races all over the country chasing the manufactures contingency prize money for racing that brand's bikes.  In this case, Rob was chasing Kawasaki money.  $2000 to win.  I think Rob made $8000 this past weekend, not counting tire money at $400 a win. 
 
More context.  Eddie Kraft races for fun.  He has a day job and a lovely wife who supports his racing passion.  Witchkraft Racing is one little trailer with one bike in it.  Rob Jensen has a mega buck motor home and a trailer that carries so many tires I couldn't believe it and 6 bikes.  David meets Goliath for one race.  Eddie is the quintessential privateer.
 
We had a rare occurrence this weekend.  A DNF.  As it turned out, the connector for the fuel pump came undone in turn 10 on the first lap of the first race on Sunday.  I wish it had happened during practice earlier that morning.  It could have easily.  We disassemble the bike so often and that connector is the most used .. it is just worn out.  Joe fixed it and we were good to go.
 
Next race Eddie lines up, takes the hole shot and disappears from the pack behind him.  At the end of the race, Eddie had more than the length of the front straight lead over second place.  Commanding win.
 
The next race Eddie chases down and passes and leads Robert Jensen!  I was standing on the scoring tower watching the Eddie and Rob Show, yelling and hollering.  Everyone up there was giving me some room to jump around and was hoping I wouldn't fall over the railing.  At least I think they were. 
 
I'm still blown away by Eddie's accomplishment and racing effort this past weekend. Oh yeah, Eddie set a new personal best lap time during his race with Jensen.  Fastest Privateer on a 600 the whole weekend too.
 
Over heard in the Witchkraft Racing pit…
 
Doug – "Those are not the right shoes," while watching a gal walk by wearing short shorts, a tight top, well quaffed, long blond hair and high heel shoes.
 
Eddie – "She's new".
 
Over heard in the pits of a guy that survived a crash so violent that his bike was essentially broke in half – "What happened?  What corner was that?" as he looked at the carcass of his race bike.
 
Best recovery from a potential disaster:
 
Jeff Wrobel had his right handle bar hit and almost taken out of his hand as Rob Jensen came blasting through into Turn 1 at the start of a race.  The force of the contact knocked Jeff into the rider on his left but he was able to recover enough to keep the bike heading more or less forward.  As the track turned left,Jeff needed to brake to slow down but was missing his front brake lever that had been removed by the collision.  Jeff rode straight off the end of the track at speed.  Wrobel was able to slow his bike down with gear shifting and gentle rear brake apply to keep it upright and away from the pile of tires he was headed for. After the race he was all smiles and laughing!  Happy to be alive.  
 
Thanks to the lovely and talented Marion for the "jolting cup of coffee" in the mornings.  We were all jabbering at each other until lunch.
 
Oh yeah, Joe and Eric made me drink scotch again.