February 17th Meeting 7:30pm at Bobby Salazar's 434 Clovis Ave ...

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Friend Lee Dorsey de Lexington ( aka Lee Bob) was also going up to the races with us, so he showed up and we all went out to eat and generally get our game plan down for Thursday's trip to Indy. Brent and I spent time at Lee's castle down in Huatulco, Mex. last winter, so it was great to see him again. Plenty of yucks and tall tales. Thursday AM was "pack truck, hook up trailer, load bikes and haul ass." Brent, Suzanne and Lee were in the truck. I rode Suzanne's 650 V-Strom. I couldn't see the wisdom of wearing out the tire on the Tuono by running it up I-65 for 140 miles. The Wee Strom was perfect for the job. The thing goes 75-85++, no sweat. I'm not ready to get rid of my 1000, but the 650 runs plenty good. Real impressive. We stopped to pick up the motor home about 30 mi. south of the track. I think the thing was about 300 ft. long (38 ft. actually) Anyways, it was a big mutha. The Brent went "full pimp." Now it was Brent and Lee in the coach-- (that's what ya call those things), Suzanne in the truck mit der trailer, and me on the bike. We were starting to look like "bikers" on the way to Sturgis. Guess who got the best of that deal, heh heh. We got to the track ( my first time to ever see the place), and got set up in a lot right across the street. I was dazzled by the whole deal. Adult beverages were in order. The Strom has a big Givi tail box, so I got the call. Gladly. As I was pulling out of the lot, I spied two cats with brews in their hands, always a good sign if your looking for a likker store. "These guys look familiar--" Sure as hell, it was Gary Nixon and Jay Springsteen. I'd never met the Springer, but I had ended up at Nixon's set-up at Daytona a couple years back. He for sure understands having a good damn time. They got me lined out for the beer store, as well as the best chi-chi bars and bar-b-q joints in the area. I'd been in Indy for 15 mins. and already knew everything I needed to know , thanks to a couple of world class experts. Good as it gets. I motored about 1/2 mi. down the street to the store, and the parking lot was a scene. Lotta bikes. People all stocking up. Yelling and laughing. Good helpful people in the store. I could tell folks were excited and looking forward to a good time. Me too. Reminded me of Daytona. I woke up pretty early on Friday AM. Seems that I chose to just kind of curl up on the couch, rather than make the thing out into a bed. Looked like too many moving parts at the time. I woke up like a pretzel, and vowed to not make that mistake again. I looked out the window. Rain. That had been the prediction, and they got it right. Little by little all hands got going, and Suzanne whipped up some brekky. This coach life has it's pluses. It was rainy, but not cold. I was pretty disappointed over the prospects of rain. I figured that the bikes would kind of pussy foot around, and I had been looking forward to seeing smoking power slides. Neighbor Tom kinda adjusted my attitude. His take was, "Hey we'll get to see 'em in the rain. Hopefully we'll see 'em in the dry too. It'll make for a more intersting weekend. Wait and see." I wasn't totally convinced, but my ideas didn't count. We were in for rain, so let's get over to the track and check it out. I had a long sleeve nylon "travel shirt" laid out for the trip, but somehow it was still back in California. Gremlins. I had a full on rain jacket, and also a light nylon wind breaker with hood. The whole kit was in a cheesey little back pack. That thing proved to be way handy. Once you pass through the track gate, you're in for the whole day. They don't allow you to go in and out as you please. That works out OK if you brought all the stuff that you need. If you didn't, there was a big chance that somebody was gonna have it for sale. The big bikes were on the track as we went through the gate. Those things make some of the fiercest sounds in motor sports. My first view of the track was from the inside of Turn 1. Wow !! Rain or no rain, the guys were on the gas. We made our way around towards Turn 9 that leads onto the back straight. That was a good viewing spot, and as the session came to a close, the riders lined up and practiced their wet weather starts, somtimes solo, and some of 'em side by side. You could hear all the electronic traction control devices doing their thing. Much shrieking, popping and banging. Good stuff. Indy has many big screen TV's scatterd around the circuit, and a sound system that works, so you can keep up with the haps on the whole track. They had a replay of Casey Stoner getting high sided into the next ZIP code. He ended up sliding on his arse to the edge of the track, like a kid on the slide out on the playground. When he stopped at the edge of the grass, he just hopped up and walked off. Another day at the office. The amount of vendor activity at the track is huge. Every kind of clothes and accessories that any biker or fan could crave. And then they have the scantily clad gurlz to go with it. The Red Bull gurlz. The Arai gurlz. On and on. Lee Bob and I milled around and checked it all out. There is a tunnel that passes from the infield and under the front straight. From there you can get into the covered grandstands on the outside of the track. The 250's were on the track at the time. Bring your ear plugs !! Their top speed in the dry was a bit over 160. That's on a 250 !! I think I heard that the entry speed into Turn 1 is about 150 in the dry. They are plenty quick. Then came the big boys. Hay-soos. Given the covered grandstands, the sound was over the top without ear plugs. They were hitting about 175 in the wet, close to 200 in the dry. As the rider would downshift for #1, you could hear the "slipper clutches" doing their thing, and keeping the rear wheel from locking up. The other "plus" was being able to watch
the happenings down in the pits and garages-- all the tire swaps et'c. The rain finally got so heavy, that a lot of the riders quit the session with about 10 mins. to go. The last riders out for the day were the Red Bull Rookie's Cup crew on "spec" 125 KTM's. They got out and ran hard, even though it was pouring and parts of the track were flooded. This class is designed to discover the next Valentino or Nicky--- the riders are 13 to 16 years old. Little dudes, but on the gas. That night, we all went to some Mexican restaurant with a bunch of the Tucker Rocky people. We whooped it up pretty good, and then ended up back at camp. Everybody was pretty well whipped. I hit the sack before midnight, after making real sure to deploy the hide-a-bed. Big improvement. Saturday morning and it was wet, but no rain was falling. I started to grab a long sleeve shirt, and then changed my mind. Big mistake. The sun came out in the afternoon, and I got fried. That was 10 days ago, and I'm still "peeling". My dermatologist babe is gonna love that stuff. Stooopid. We went the whole day with no rain, so the track got better and better. The highlight was Moto-GP qualifying from 2PM to 3PM. Fast guy starts from the pole. It's a big cat and mouse chess match. Lee Bob and I watched it from the outside of turns 6 through 9 . I thought Ben Spies put on as good a show as any other rider on the track. It was clear that he was giving it his best. Somtimes he's almost dragging his elbows. That's his nickname--"Elbowz". He ended up 5th overall, and first among the Suzukis by over one second. That was only his 3rd or 4th ride on the bike. Valentino ended up fastest over Stoner by less than .1 second. He's not the 5 time world champ for nuthin'. Nicky Hayden got 4th, busted foot and all. His effort was all or nothing too, and you could see it every time he was out on the bike. In the morning session, he did one corner with the thing crossed up and smoking the tire. Thanks to the Big Screens, everybody got to see it. The crowd went nuts. AND-- I got my wish to see the Moto-GP bikes flat out in the dry. It was a show. The day ended with the U.S. Red Bull Rookies Cup race- Jacob Gagne from California won the thing by .2 second over Hayden Gillim from Owensboro, Ky. I wonder who young Hayden is named after ?? Back to camp and relax a bit before we headed out to the fairgrounds for the races on the mile dirt track. I was the only one in our group that had ever seen a mile race, and we got to see a record setter. The place was sold out-- 15K spectators. To me, the mile is as "pure" as racing gets--- 130 down the straight and pitch the thing in there wheel to wheel with the other cats. It's all about the draft and "lines" and out and out "hair". We were up in the stands, but for best effect, the race needs to be viewed down on the ground and in the corners. I was inside of Turn 1 at San Jose once-- one of my better memories. The bikes ran so close to the stands coming down the front straight, that we couldn't see 'em. I'm not sure how they can solve the problem, given the track layout. The "saver" was that they had the thing on a Big Screen. A couple more of those would be welcome. Chris Carr won the race over Kenny Coolbeth by 30 thousandths of a second. How close is that ?? !! That was Carr's 4th win at Indy. His first one was back in '92. Sixteen years later, and he's still winning. I think everybody that was there got their money's worth. The track was close to perfect. Back to camp. Beverages and BS and call it a day. Race Day and it was wet and drizzly. By this time, I knew we were gonna see some good racing, rain or no rain. We woofed down another coach brekky, thanks to the efforts of Suzanne, and gathered up our goodies and headed for the track. They had practice / warm up sessions for the three GP classes with the first race scheduled for 10:30-- the Red Bull Riders Cup. It was the American contingent vs. the European crew racing on a drying track. Our boy Hayden Gillim put a move on 'em down in turn one that was epic-- about 8 bike lengths going into turn 1 to take the lead, and he was gone. Unfortunately, it started to rain and he got caught up and passed. The Euros won and our best guy was Jake Gagne in 8th. Lee Bob and I had hiked the track pretty extensively in the preceeding days, and had decided that we were gonna watch the race from the stands at the south end of the track. That gave a good view of the bikes going into #1 and through 2, 3 and 4 and the big swoop off into #5. The other plus was a Giant Screen and the sound system to fill in the blanks. We were set. A swarm of 125's went off at noon on a damp track, and proceeded to put on a show as far as effort and close racing. They were scheduled for 24 laps, but the skies opened up at about the 20 lap mark, and they called the race. For the record, a 20 year old Spaniard, Nicholas Terol ended up the winner. It was his first win in the class. To have Indy be your first win must have been a big thrill. The rains came down and everything went into the "rain delay" mode. Time to mosey around, get a beer and some food, and wait it out down under the stands. Given it's a bike race, there was no shortage of other riders to yack it up with. I like to hear about who's been where, places they hope to see--all the usual road tales.
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Page 9: March 13 th BMW of Fresno Annual Op

February 17th Meeting 7:30pm at Bobby Salazar's 434 Clovis Ave ...

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