Motorsports Park Hastings Sept. 1st & 2nd
Well, Annette and I left Aurora around 9am and made it to Des Moines around 1:15 and had lunch with the Iowa crew out there. We made it to the motel around 7pm or so and checked in. We then left to drop the trailer off at the track.
The track is penned in by train tracks on one side and huge farm/corn co-ops. Basically HUGE corn silo's. So we unhooked the trailer and locked it up and noticed that a truck and mustang were doing laps around the track.
What's up with that? So I pulled up to the only worker type person I saw and asked.
He then asked if I had ever been on the track before?
Nope, not here.
Oh, well, would you like make a few laps?
WHAT!?!?! Um sure, we 'd love to.
So he proceeded to stop the truck and mustang and allowed us out on the track in my truck.
We didn't do anything stupid and I didn't get nutty. I had Annette in the truck and she would had hurled all over me if I did.
But we did get to do 2 laps which was very cool and totally unexpected.
Well, we found out the guy who let us on the track the night before is the owner or one of the owners. So we got to the track and got situated with Bobby & Eric from Iowa. We set up the trailers so that we had plenty of shade since we are in the middle of nothing. So we put the big canopy in front of the trailers and a small one in between them. We also had a nice breeze which helped make things bearable.
The track itself is very Gingerman like which isn't surprising since it is a Alan Wilson track. Actually turn 1 and 2 are almost identical to Gingerman. The track is only about a year old so you can imagine how nice it was. When your knee slider hits the deck, it felt really weird at first cause it was so smooth. It has both some very fast high speed corners and tight technical spots also. I really enjoyed the track and would make the 9 hr drive again to go back out there.
We spent Saturday doing the Trackaddix track day and I got in the fast group. I used to sign up for the intermediate group but usually after lunch, I would be one of the faster guys and I wouldn't have anybody else to learn from. I was able to get down to a 1min 39.8sec's so I wasn't the fastest but far from the slowest.
Another cool thing that they did at the track was take everyone from the track to a local go cart track that they rented for the evening. There was a qualifying session and a 10 lap race for the top 8 folks. Unfortunately, I didn't make the cut but our buddy Bobby did and he then went on to win the race.
Sunday was race day and the weather was being nice to us again. We got to the track and got ready for the one practice session. I wasn't happy with my lap times in practice since I was only able to turn a best of a 41. This was even with putting in some good VP fuel. Well, no one was able to match their times from the day before so I didn't feel as bad but still not happy.
I signed up for Unlimited Superbike to get warmed up for my main Supertwins race. The grids were pretty light so their was only 2 amateurs in this race, my buddy Eric and myself. I got a good start against him but by turn 2, he took off on his 172hp ZX-10r. I had caught up to a expert on another nicely equipped RC51 with Ohlins front & rear. I spent the rest of the race chasing the other 51. I was able to get along side him but I didn't feel comfortable trying to stuff him since I wasn't racing against him. So I got a 2nd out of 2. :>) I did drop my times down a 1min 38.1sec during the race so I was happy about that.
For the Supertwins race, there was supposed to be 5 amateurs but for whatever reason, 1 person dropped out early in the day. I was planning on running some VP to help out with race but with only 4 people in the race, I can't get any contingency money so no VP fuel since it isn't worth running. After making third call, we pulled the warmers of the tires and head up to hot pit line. On hot pit, there was only 2 experts and myself. I thought what the heck? Where's the rest of them at? One other amatuer showed up just before we headed out for our hot lap.
I usually try to run a pretty quick hot lap so I'm up to speed for the start of the race. I pulled up into my spot on the grid and it then seemed like we were waiting for minutes for them to start the race. I start waving my hands trying to get things going and I guess they were waiting for an amatuer to get to the grid. I saw him pull onto hot pit and I thought they were going to let him make a hot lap and line up. So I start hollering and really waving my arms since the rest of us have been sitting for a few minutes at that point. They hold him on the pit lane and he'll have to start his race from there.
They finally got the start sequence going and I brought the rev's up to 5k and waited for the flag to drop. The green flag fly and I start slipping the clutch and rolling on the throttle at the same time. I was surprised to see the guy from the row behind me actually pass me on the start. Well, that didn't last long as I passed him before going into turn 1. I then passed an expert on a Buell coming out of turn 2. After that it was just the expert on his RC51 in front of me. I'd like to say that I was able to chase him down but I wasn't. He was running his best times and was able to drop into the 37's and I slowed slightly to a best of 38.6 for the race. However, I finished 1st amateur and 2nd overall. The other 51 was about quarter of a lap ahead of me.
With finishing 4th or higher at this weekend, I've locked up the Supertwins Amatuer championship for the CCS / Great Plains region.
I pulled back into the pits and did the obligatory smokey burn out. It wasn't that easy to do either with nice hot soft race compound tires on sticky asphalt but I did it! I hope to have pictures soon from the weekend.
We now have one weekend left in the Midwest region and I'm currently in 2nd place by 33 points. It is a double points weekend so I do have a possibility of winning the Midwest region. Granted, my competition is very strong at Blackhawk and I will have to bring my A game.
Chuck C.
2007 CCS / Great Plains Supertwins Amateur Champion
CCS Midwest AM #99
Sponsored by PBI Racing, Dark Horse Racing, DGY Motorsports, Lockhart Phillips, Bridgestone Tires, Win Racing, Oury Grips, CRG Levers, and VP fuels.
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'07 SV650, '04 FZ1, '02 RC51, '97 XR400, '85 XR4Ti
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