RACE round #3 at Shannonville

[GlennCauley]

I had a relatively good race weekend at Shannonville Motorsport Park, participating in 3 classes with my TLR: Sportsman Heavyweight, Novice Open, RACE Thunder - Liquid.

I'll try to put together a little blog about my weekend, which was interesting to say the least. Practice day... dry. Qualifying day... wet. Race day... dry.

Word of caution to those riding with TLRs... be careful passing us on the inside. If you make contact, chances are WE won't move much; you'll likely bounce off us and go down. More on that later.

[Sam]

Originally Posted by GlennCauley

Word of caution to those riding with TLRs... be careful passing us on the inside. If you make contact, chances are WE won't move much; you'll likely bounce off us and go down. More on that later.

Never mind later, want to here about it now

[GlennCauley]

Lap 4 (of 8), Novice Open class.
Don't know what position I was in, but there WERE lots behind me. hehe
Corner 3 at Shannonville track, Pro circuit... a 2-part righthander with lots of pavement change.

Some racer tried an inside pass (early apex) on me, hit my right side (knee into fairing), bounced off & crashed! TLR = immovable object. LOL

I was forced to the outside of track, and was heading off... oh NO!!! I slammed on my front binders to slow down. Thank goodness for a great braking system and super-sticky SC0 Pirelli tires. By the time I went off the track I was down to a few KPH... and stayed upright thankfully. Due to the downed rider, the pack was held up so I got back on, got on the back straight and then they red-flagged the race due to that downed rider.

I actually felt bad for a moment when I was about to get back onto the track, and wanted to see if the other rider was okay. That lasted about 0.05sec then I thought... GO GO GO YOU IDIOT, YOU'RE IN A RACE !!!

After a brief wait for rider pickup, we did a full restart with the same grid positions as before. It was to be a 4-lap sprint. I had a relatively good start, held 10th for a while, but slipped to 13th in the final lap. It was my 2nd of back-to-back races.

[Sam]

Sounds like you had great fun, well done for staying upright

[GlennCauley]

Well, considering my last race last September, it was great!

That race in September...

2nd of 2 back-to-back qualifiers (Heavyweight Sportsman) and it was my first grid start in 17years. At the green the front end came up, then down, then up again, then down, then up again (3rd time) then down. By that time most of the field was by me, and I was heading for the outside of corner 1. I had room left until one racer pushed me off and I went full-speed offroading. The people in the tower said it was a good thing my bike went down when it did, since I was heading for the wall at a good clip. That's when I tumbled and broke my collarbone.

So this past weekend, I was *extremely* nervous in my starts (esp. since all my qualifiers were in the wet), and 2 times going into corner 1 I had brain-fade and turned in too late. I went WAAAAYYYY wide and almost off the track, with all my crew almost fainting and me almost soiling myself. I have to learn how to launch my TLR... most riders went by me on my starts, luckily I caught & passed a bunch in corners 1 & 2.

[ffaspector]

Pics?

[GlennCauley]

Working on it.

I forgot to see the photographers at the end of the raceday.
I'm trying to contact them.

[dmilty]

A good buddy of mine came 4th in his 1st ever race ( same race as you novice open). He's now hooked by the racing bug. Glad you did well.

[GlennCauley]

[GlennCauley]

My first competition since my collarbone break was at Shannonville’s Pro Track on the weekend of June 19-20-21. Needless to see, I was very nervous about competing, having a newly-repaired collarbone (early April). I was registered in three classes: RACE Thunder-Liquid, Novice Open, and Sportsman Heavyweight.

I set up my pits in row 1 across from a bunch of novice racers (and 1 pro)… they were super-cool guys who I got to know over the weekend. I was up against some of them in my Novice Open class.