Well they say a picture's worth a thousand words and this just about says it all.

Catfish, (with no number) followed, yes that's right folks. FOLLOWED by #'s 100 (some guy pitted next to us) and wait, who's that back there? Hey, that's PIZZA, # 800!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah he'll probably say something like "Oh yeah, the guy HAPPENS to snap the picture in the 8 seconds that it took me to pass you!" Or some other bull shit like that. That's ok though. I know the truth.

OK, so let's start with a track day report. I'll start on Saturday the 20th. The TiGcraft was still laid up with no front end. "Hey, there's no better time then the future, right?" I had sent it off to Fun Wheels Honda for a rebuild and new springs. I've never done cartridge forks so I left it to my man Bob. He knows his shit. So Saturday morning I went to go get my forks back.

Resprung and with fresh fluid I was ready to rock (or was it roll)! I spent the rest of Saturday putting my bike back together, wiring it and all of that fun stuff. Nick stopped by so we could get all of his stuff loaded. Dave called and said he was gonna take his own truck 'cuz he wasn't quite ready yet and didn't wanna hold us up. OK, I'm glad he didn't wanna hold us up but it seamed silly to take 2 rigs on a 170-mile trip when we live 10 miles apart. 

So we called Dave and asked him if he wanted us to bring the motorhome, and trailer to him. That way we could help him with his bike and load it right in when we were done. He said OK so we packed up and went to Dave's house. 

He wasn't even close. Everybody started mounting his bodywork, checking his injectors, and just lending a hand. Nick didn't like the way my alternator belt was squealing so he wanted to tighten it up. He said it was stretching like a rubber band. We had a spare and decided to chance it.

We got Dave's bike loaded up around 10ish I guess and headed home. Nick split back home and we all knew 4am was gonna come fast. I fell asleep a little bit after 1am. Nick called at 3:18am!!! OUCH!!!

Everybody got to my house at 4. We rolled outta the driveway at 4:12. 

We made pretty good time to Jersey. About half was through Jersey Nick said he hadn't heard the belt in a while. The motorhome was starting to lose power under load (up hills and such). Then after a car next to us pulled up and franticly pointed at the space between the rear bumper and the trailer we decided to pull over and see what was up.

We all knew we lost the belt, we just didn't wanna prove ourselves right. The lady next to us was pointing at the drainage tubing that had come loose. Thanks lady. J

OK more tomorrow

OK it's tomorrow.

We were about a half-hour from the track so we pulled over into a gas station and as Nick started on the alternator and I repaired the drain.  Everybody else went in for coffee and tea. We were probably about 20 minutes; it didn't set us back to far. We got to the track at about 7:30 AM and it was cold probably in the high 30s

We unloaded the bikes went to register and started getting ready to go to tech. Dave got bounced because his chain was too tight. No problem he was up and running in a few minutes.

I had to hop an 8-foot chain-link fence to get to the outlet to plug in our electricity. About 10 minutes after that security team came by to unplug us.  Apparently you're only allowed to plug-in if you're involved with NASCAR! So we decided to start of the generator but first we had to get out in our first session.

  Nick and I were on slicks, mine were brand-new, and we had no electricity for all warmers. We went out for the first two laps following instructor and then when it was our turn to let loose I tiptoed around because the track was cold my tires were cold and needed to be scuffed in. Maybe I was crawling, what's slower tiptoeing or crawling? Which ever’s slower that I was doing. I was talking to myself inside my helmet telling myself that I hope Nick wouldn't pass me because I would probably try to stay with him and possibly crash. He passed me on about the third of fourth lap. He actually waived to me on the back straight. I stayed with him but it was too slick to try to pass. He could get me in certain places I would get back in others and probably on the 10th lap at passed him back. By then we'll both shot. 

Second session was a little warmer we got the generator running at the tire warmers on so we picked up the pace a little. Second session was a lot more fun. This was my first time riding the new TiGcraft. Pegs are so high up, and so far back, that my hips probably would've dislocated if I wasn't wearing leathers. Its spins up pretty quick and the off/on throttle response was a bit harsh. I found myself leaving it one gear higher going into the double apex just so I wouldn't have to try to move my foot to find my shifter and also when I got back on the gas it wouldn't be as violent.

They think we got in three sessions before lunch it was pretty cool there was an Aprilia RS 250 that was a mobile chicane. Once I caught up to him I would stay behind him ‘til there was a bunch of guys and I would try to stick with the faster pack once we all passed him. Broke for lunch had some hot chocolate and bad cafeteria food. Then we went out in the next red session. About halfway through it felt like someone was tattooing my neck. There was no one front of me so it wasn't debris there was no rain on my visor so I opened it to see. "OUCH, OUCH, QUIT IT, OUCH!!!” It was hailing! Being on slicks, Nick and I decided to pit in. Dave stayed out because he was on streets. The hail turned to rain so instead of breaking down our bikes and changing rims we decided to pack it in.

We got all our stuff together packed up the trailer, shut the generator, got everything ready to go and pulled out exactly 12 hours after we pulled out of my driveway 4:12 PM. We made some pretty good time until we got a few miles from the GWB. Then BAM!!! Bumper to bumper traffic. It took two hours to get from that point to the L. I. E. One stop for gas in Brentwood, and we were in my driveway about a quarter after 9. Five hours for three-hour trip (A three-hour tour, a three-hour tour).

Well that’s pretty much it. If you have any questions shoot me an E-mail 

Catfish "at" CatfishRacing "dot" com

OUT!

Here are some pics. Click to enlarge as always.

This page was last updated on:

05/03/2006