When it rains it really does pour!

[N8Kern]

HEY YA'LL! (as Bobby would say in Atlanta, LOL) Everything is just fine. I have chuckled a bit on the way home about trying to out do my first tests on a slip n' slide when I was about 8 yrs. old... lol


The weekend was a fun filled drama/love/hate/comedy/yadda yadda that had everything you could ask for in a race weekend.

7 races due to the fact that it was a regionla and National combined.

GT Lights - 1st

Unlimited Superbike - 1st
* Sometimes a reach deep inside and pull out the N8 that needs to show up each race. I really wanted to shut people up about the K12R running against the latest greatest litre bikes. That 7 lap sprint was equal to an hour straight on and R bike... whew!

LW Supersport - 1st on R1100S (then disqualified)
* Supersport class has a mandatory post race tech inspection to make sure you have no illegal go fast parts. Bike never made it to the post race tech... DQ'ed. Regardless of how well I do on the track, I need an equally efficient crew. My 2 guys that make it when they can do the best they can, just sometimes mistakes like this hurt (points).

Qualifying for the National Thunderbike race - 2nd on the stock R12S (DQ'ed again)
* I had an "outlap" from pit out to scrub in the new tires, one flying lap (2nd lap), and on the 3rd lap the motor made a farting noise...
Bent a push rod. I know why, I got caught up battling with a front runner Buell and had a serious over rev to avoid his near agricultural experience. Severe over rev due to me not leaving a better margin for error of error for the other rider, led to this failure. FUNNY part is, I coast back to the pits, pull off my helmet, stare at the bike (knowing I dont have a mechanic), just to have an official of the ASRA series come up and say "N8! You qualified 2nd and your time stood for the remainder of qualifying!" Then he proceeded to dish out a warm slice of "Your DQ'ed AGAIN for not having on file the proper payment for that weekends Thunderbike National race!"
WHAT!!!!!!!!! So even if the bike didnt break the push rod, I was DQ'ed for not having the class entry fee paid...(hmmm)?!
Dejavu, once paid I had to start from the last row AGAIN (Daytona) for the 5th round of National Thunderbike.

LW Grand Prix - 1st
*After having Hammersly BMW of Lynchburg, VA pulling a whole assembly out of a new bike on the show room floor to replace the bent rod in our R12S and assembled that night, I rode the R12S in the first sprint race of the day to see what was what. Won by 20 seconds.

LW Superbike - 1st
*R12S with a new ride height change for the front shock. Started to rain on the last lap cresting blind hill coming up to T14. I was on DOT race tires and it was a down pour in just that turn. German version of "Ice Capades", drifted both ends for about 2 feet, reconnected and drove off the corner to a dry final 3 turns for the win. (Cool down lap, 3 bikes piled up in T14 after I went through)

UNL. Supersport - 3rd
*Fun, it just started to pour and I decided to take the R12S out or its first bath. Instead of running the K12R, I ran the R12S with rain slicks fitted. Finished 3rd and felt great about the National Thunderbike race coming up. Here we go again... my fault... our fault... doesnt matter DISQUALIFIED for a 3rd time (record in CCS/ASRA). I had said I was not going to run the Unlimited Supersport race and the # 12 for my National # was on the bike, not the # 1 for my regional race. SO I go out and skate around in a moderate down pour and finish 3rd, just to have the DQ for having the wrong # on the bike... (does it get any better, YES!)

NATIONAL THUNDERBIKE - DNF, crash
* SO I lined up on the last row and had a game plan. Plan went well. I was 4th exiting T1. Had to be a demon on launch and on the brakes to get there. Passed into 3rd halfway through lap one, lost the front, regained it, spun the rear, regained it, went four wide through the kink at the top of 5th gear in the worst rain I have ever raced in. The rivers that were running across the track and the unnamed lakes that were forming rapidly, ended up catching me on lap 3. As I picked up the throttle smoothly in 3rd gear coming onto the front straight, I clipped the very edge of a "mad river" and it was the most gentle, smooth, longest hydro plane of the front wheel I have ever experienced. A few things were going trhough my mind, but only one was verbalized...
Coming down T17 "the Hog Pen" and then back up onto the front straight that curved ever so slightly. I was about 2 degrees leaned full throttle 3rd gear, cannot see due to the fogging in my visor, once the front tire lifted to the top of the mini river/lake on the edge of the track it kept me on course for the grass. I tried to rutter it with body position and throttle, but after a good 3 yard or so hydro plane, the front took forever it seemed to finally tuck. I slid about 60 yards. Ran back 60 yards to find my front brake resevoir topless. Hey, at least it happened in front of my whole pit area and I didnt have to explain myself! LOL.


There are 3 rounds of the National Thunderbike series left and WE are going to the front agin to annoy the competition on our BMW! BIG thank you to RoundelRider, JonyRR, FlatBUtt, and everyone else for keeping the heads grinding!

N8!

[jalopy]

Couldn't hold off Jensen with the R12? Here I am leading Robert J. (#52) and Super Dave Rosno on my ol' R100RT:

OK, not really. It was the tire guy borrowing Jensen's bike. RJ'd set the track record on it the day before, so it's a fun pic. to have. Gotta love Open Session track days!

Anyway, Nate, glad to read such a funny telling of a weekend that'd have many cursing the hand of Providence. I hope the R12 in Unlimited is a forshadowing of F.EX. things to come!

Where can we download some video?

[RoundelRider]

Originally posted by jalopy

Where can we download some video?

All that footage that was shot will eventually be on the BMW Motorcycle website under an advertisement campaign called "Explorer". They didnt really have a timeframe on when it would be up.

N8.........good working with ya this weekend! I hate to hear on the the DQ's. Sounds like ya need ya a hot little umbrella girl that takes care of the paperwork and admin stuff!



Im sure one of these fine young ladies can keep things "straight" in the pits!
www.umbrellagirls.com

[ErricZ]

N8! Great write-up. You make it sound so easy out there, but we all know you're busting your butt for every second on those bikes most of the time. Those sure add up .. TWENTY SECONDS! Nice!

Sorry that you crashed out and DQ'd too ... You seem to need some serious admin fixing, I'm sure you know that already. That seems to be the last hurdle now. You need some corporate BMW hunny to come look after you.

Keep those wins coming, man!

[Raven]

Thanks for doing us proud!!!!

[Trex]

Nate - Thanks for the report. Glad to hear you're O.K. and ready to race. Bravo to Hammersly BMW in Lynchburg, VA.

[JonyRR]

I can remember being in the lead for the can-am championship (canadian VS american, Pacific NW, mid-80's). the tracks alternated between oregon, washington, and BC.
We go to BC 5 points in the lead; second place was a canook, name fo Gary Goodfellow.He had a GSXR750; the canadian model available the year before they came out in the US....My GPZ750 was slower. I did my best to run him into the crash berm outside turn 1 at westwood.
He won; I came in 2nd.
then the canook wankers DO'd me for rough riding....CANOOKS DQ'ing an AMERICAN for rough riding...they invented the block pass, the brush pass, the legal cheater...and they DQ'd ME?
I stood on the pit wall, dropped my leathers and told the entire pits to kiss my american posterior. I was so mad I was ready to take all ov them on at once. fortunately, I had some Outsiders with me, which cooled thier jets right away.
Nate, moon them and tell them where to put thier crap; they're jealous of yoru success; if they can't win on the track, they win by picking nits.
Pussies and sore losers; tell 'em that for me!!!