From: light@CITVAX.UCSC.EDU (Bob Light)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles.racing
Subject: Racing at Willow Springs
Date: 28 Dec 1992 19:32:33 GMT
Organization: HST Wide Field/Planetary Camera
Reply-To: light@CITVAX.UCSC.EDU
NNTP-Posting-Host: citvax.ucsc.edu


  The final WSMC races of '92 were held at Willow Springs weekend before last.
By popular demand (OK, one person asked about it - thanks Steve!), here goes
a report on my beginning activities:
  
  There are good points and bad points to winter road racing.  The pluses
include small classes (both New Racer's School and Novice races) and thicker
air to offset the higher altitude that the Hawk wasn't well-jetted for.

  Negatives to temperatures that start in the high 20's (F) and never get
above the mid 50's include:  cold track and tires that don't stick very well,
frozen coolant, and really neat wind-chill factors.  Also the day is not very
long, being near winter solstice.  Still, a race was being held and people
will show up.

  The previous weekend was my first time at Willow Springs.  Though I had raced
all of the last year at Sears Point, I plan to run as a Novice to get as
much experience as possible before going into the classes with experts.  This
means taking the school, running in Novice races and accumulating points until
you have enough to become a probationary Expert racer.  Winning three races
can do it, but the people I talked with took a few more races to reach that
point.

  The school was given on Saturday.  It was educational but I'd pretty much 
heard it before.  The pointers on the best line around the track and the
following practice sessions were a great intro to the track.  Even though
warned, a couple of students crashed on cold tires and failed the class.  But
everyone else did well and got their Novice licences to race on Sunday.

  Sunday morning was even colder than Saturday morning, and the epidemic of
frozen water pumps began.  At least half a dozen people broke their pumps when
trying to start their bikes.  The guy I was pitting with got out a hair dryer
to make sure all of the radiator lines he could reach were warm enough.  The
smartest people either drained their coolant the night before or brought their
bikes into their hotel rooms.  You could have made a lot of money with a
water pump/glove liner concession at the track.
  
  I had two practice sessions early Sunday morning, each of which was about
10 minutes long.  Shorter than those at Sears Point, but that was OK with me.
By the end of each session I would be losing the feeling in my hands, and
various other body parts.  Such are the hazards of a bike with no fairing.
During one of the practice session, someone dumped oil through turns 3-5 (the
tightest/most technical part of the track).  So now we had a cold AND slippery
track.  For the rest of the day you could see wisps of grease sweep being
kicked up by bikes heading up into turn 4.

  It was a long wait between practice and the Novice races, which end the day.
Novices are split up into three classes by cc's:  0-500, 501-650, 650+ .  I
registered for the middle one which was the second to last race of the day
(and a rather short day it was).  I then realized my first mistake of the day:
in pregrid, every other bike was a CBR600 or an FZR600.  I was later told
that it was "acceptable" to run a 650 twin in the lower class; oh well, it
was nice to have no traffic for 4 of the 6 laps.  Finished dead last in the
class but learned some good lines (and tried some bad ones) and otherwise had
a blast.

  A bit leaner jetting and thicker glove liners, and I'll be ready for some
faster laps at the next race in January.  Hope y'all have fun with the '93 
season preparations; good luck with the 600, Steve!


Bob Light      (light@ipac.caltech.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles.racing