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WERA ‘10, Round 3: BeaveRun (Perspective)

Our teammate Jeff had a pretty significant crash at BeaveRun this past weekend. It was a nasty highside that resulted in the bike catching fire momentarily and him being airlifted to one of Pittsburgh’s main hospitals. The track was shut down for about an hour and it wasn’t one of those times when racing is fun. Fortunately Jeff was let out of the hospital late Monday morning and doesn’t have any broken bones or major injuries, but he’s pretty sore and banged up. Amanda Kelly (Blake’s sister and a friend) lives nearby and has been keeping an eye on Jeff since he had arrived at the hospital, up until now being at home. This was one of those times when everyone stops and takes a step back to look at the sport we’re involved in and remember the risks that come with it. It’s also a time when the racing community bonds together and really shows how being part of this sport is truly like nothing else I’ve been involved with - even in all my years of stick-and-ball sports. As we later found out, everything was okay – just a lot of soreness and some bruised lungs. Jeff said his Knox gear was huge and possibly saved his life, and certainly worse injuries.

To get into the details and recap of how the weekend went, it began on Thursday evening for my dad and I. With BeaveRun oddly not hosting a Friday practice, the race weekend wouldn’t officially begin until Saturday morning. This was fine by me as I’ve always felt pretty comfortable around this track. I don’t know what it is. I won my first race as an expert at BeaveRun on an SV650. I won my first race in the 600 class on a 2005 R6 at BeaveRun. And since then, I’ve been fortunate to have pretty good results at this track. So all in all, I wasn’t too disappointed in being forced to save some coin and tires by not turning a wheel on Friday.

With that said, I was still intent on getting to the track early. With work being busy as of late, I was looking forward to getting away and more importantly, making sure we were 100% ready to go after our somewhat disappointing previous event. When we arrived at the track, we were pretty much the only ones there on the big-track side. We spent Friday enjoying the warm weather and just being outside and at the track. The simple things. We tweaked on the bikes a bit, watched the karts run on the smaller track and got in some good sun. I got a little too much sun, being out in it all day – and in part to having the brilliant idea that I’d do my own “Solo 20” around BeaveRun, pedaling around on the bike (since the track was open and all). I was burnt to a nice crisp by the end of the day and would pay for it the rest of the weekend.

Tom had arrived early in the afternoon, while Doug, Marion, Jeff, Rob, JB, Crista, Aaron, Jake and everyone else arrived later on. We all hung out at the track and had a good time; with dad, Tom and I getting back to the hotel around 10:00 that night.

Saturday started off well. Quickly up to speed in morning practice, we were into the 59’s right away and down into the 58’s by the last session of the morning. Things were going well and we had a few tweaks here and there to help the bike along. I wasn’t sure if it was the heat, but the front of the bike felt kind of “soft” throughout the first few sessions – but it was still early in the weekend and I was working to get reacquainted with the track.

For the 20-lap Solo race, I was gridded on the 2nd row. There was some solid competition present between Sam, Justin (Holderman), Dave (Grey), Eric (Spector) and the Wyman brothers who run a number of the AMA events. Jeff and I would have our hands full. As I headed out to the track, I noticed the front of the bike clicking when I touched the front brake. A couple quick grabs of the lever and I knew what problem had resurfaced – the steering stem nut had come loose! This must have been that “soft” feeling I felt in practice. I turned around and raced back to the pits. I yelled to Jake (Arch) who was pitted next to us to grab my dad, as he and Doug had already headed to the starting line. My dad came running up and knew what I meant by where I was pointing. He grabbed a punch and with a hammer, moved the nut enough with the angle he had, to tighten it up. Doug had already moved the nut himself which had been spinning freely. Not good. As it was fixed, I raced back towards pit-out, figuring the race had already started. As I came out, I saw everyone was just finishing lining up. The starter waived me around, which came as a pleasant surprise. I wouldn’t take the warm-up lap, but I’d at least be able to get on the grid and not miss the start.

Figuring everyone was ticked at me for holding up the race and waiting on the grid (I’d have been pissed) I got out there as quick as I could. Trying to force myself to relax after the pre-race drama, I tried to not completely botch my start – and fortunately, only partially botched it. I was 4th into T1 and 5th halfway through the first lap, out of about 24 bikes total. Holderman led with Sam in tow and I was chasing down Spector. As we all ran into T10 off the back straight, Eric tipped in and lost the front-end just as he entered the corner. I narrowly avoided hitting his tail section as he went down and continued on, catching up to Dave and getting into 3rd place. Justin and Sam were moving really well. I caught up to Sam and was able to pass him and then caught Justin on the brakes into T1.

I led for the next few laps, but now I could tell the steering nut was coming loose again. Without time to take off the top triple and properly check and torque it, the quick fix was now backing out. It was pretty sketchy and costing me time. Feeling the front-end loose while at full throttle wasn’t a good thing. And on the brakes, it was anything but confidence inspiring. As I went by the tower, I pointed to the steering stem as I went by Doug and my dad. On the next lap, Justin got around me coming onto the front straight. By now I could really feel the slop in the front end. As I came up to the flag tower, my dad was waiving his arms wildly, signaling for me to get off the track. I agreed. Without getting in the way, I got off line as Sam came racing by. As I exited the track, I looked back and could see the group of Wyman, Dave and Jeff dicing it up in a good battle.

Once back in the pits, we quickly fixed the problem. Extra torque and lock-tight, as well as some temporary silicone to ensure the problem didn’t resurface (odd that we never had this problem with the ’08 R6). As for the race, the finishing order was Holderman winning with Sam finishing 2nd. Jeff was able to move into 3rd which was a solid finish. Times in the race weren’t bad, with Sam and I doing nearly identical best times; both in the 58.3’s.

Dad raced in the Lightweight Solo 20 and finished 2nd, against two other Superbike-spec SV650s. He ran a great race, especially considering he was a little down on power with pump gas – and that it started raining in the last two laps of the race. This is especially impressive to me considering he recently had surgery on his second knee and was limping around in the pits all weekend. Typical Joe. He even suited up for the mini-race at the end of the day which was good fun in the wet.

Sunday morning was dry and warm. Practice again went well and drama free. I think we were fastest in all three sessions we did. We made a couple changes throughout, all of which seemed to help the bike.

600 Superbike was the first race of the day. Starting from the second row with grids much better for me this time around, I had a good launch into T1 behind Sam. We had a good battle of M3 Racing vs. Witchkraft Racing between Jeff, Justin, Sam and myself. The race would be short-lived as red flag would bring us back to the grid for a restart. After a short delay, back into T1 we went and I was 2nd again behind Sam. Jeff and I were pretty close into T1 and I threw my leg out to say, "sorry!" as we went into T2. In the process, I didn't backshift for T4 and ran through there a gear taller, almost running out of track and into the grass. I was shaking my head in my helmet.

I cleaned up my act, starting chasing and was able to pass Sam with a good drive and line through the left kink, which let me get around him just before the right kink. Sam got back by me into T1 and I passed him again a couple laps later. Good fun. With a couple laps to go, I went back one-too-many shifts into T1 and had to pull in the clutch to avoid a potential messy mistake. I ran wide and that opened the door enough to let Sam through, where he would go on to take the win. I’d finish 2nd with Jeff finishing 4th. We were all in the 58’s with our 58.2 being the fast lap of the race.

750 Superbike was next. There was some oil dry on the track from a spill in one of the races before this one, so the pace was a touch slower. Sam and I went back and forth again and I was able to come out on top with the win, after catching some lap traffic in a good spot. Sam had the best time of the race at a 58.514 and myself at a 58.518. Chalk up another close finish between the two of us. Man that’s crazy. Jeff had another solid 4th place finish and was putting down his fastest times around BeaveRun.

600 Superstock was our third race. We made a small change to the front of the bike which I hoped would work well. I got the holeshot and led for the first couple laps before another red flag came out. As we all slowed on the cool down, I came up to see that it was Jeff that had crashed in T10. The bike was still on track and he was off in the grass on the ground. I raced back to our pits to get off the bike and by then, everyone knew he had gone down.

The scene wasn’t good. It was quiet. Everyone was asking what happened. Both ambulances were over at the scene and we were all there watching, along with most of the paddock. Word was that he was having a difficult time breathing and coughing up blood. He had at least been able to get up and off the track after his crash, but wasn’t moving much now. As the clocked ticked away, word was that they were flying the chopper in because the medics thought he might have had a collapsed lung. This was more precautionary than anything, but still a scary situation. Tom had been down there talking to him and Jeff was trying to remain in good spirits.

I certainly wasn’t in the mood to race after all this. I don’t think anyone was. I looked at Tom and my dad and asked if we should race at all. I was ready to pack up. I felt terrible looking to ride after my friend and teammate just got flown out to the hospital. After some discussions, we all decided to finish out the day, rather reluctantly.

By now all my pre-race, tense energy was gone. As they made the calls for the restart of the 600 Superstock race, I put on my gear on and got ready. As the tires warmers were pulled and bike stands lifted, I flipped the switch to start the bike and the temperature on the tach read 63. I looked at it for a few seconds, smiled and had a calming reassurance that Jeff was going to be alright. Pretty weird that happening, I thought …

Lining up on the start, I was more relaxed than I had been all weekend. I got the holeshot into T1 and put down the laps. The gap after each lap was bigger and bigger. I was smooth, relaxed and somehow put in back-to-back 57.9 lap times that were my fastest of the weekend. I was able to block out what had happened up until the white flag or so, where I started thinking on how Jeff was doing. By the checkered flag, we would win by almost five seconds. On the cool down lap, I was all by myself. It seemed almost intentional. I rode around each corner station and as I thanked them, I pointed up – signaling who the win was for. It was emotional and certainly something I hadn't planned – it just kind of happened and I was a bit overwhelmed by it all. At post-tech, I was still the only bike there. I felt alone on the track .. and it carried an eerie sense of symbolism with it. I rode back to the pits and we were all happy with the results, but no one said much. Our thoughts were elsewhere.

750 Superstock was our last race of the day. I was ready for the day to be over. I was able to again get the holeshot and put in consistent laps, enough to keep Sam at bay and win our third race of the day. Best lap was a 58.1. Sam was right there and finished 2nd. We all knew Jeff would be happy about the results (heck, he yelled at me later that if I hadn’t rode, he’d have kicked my ass).

My dad had two great races, winning both of them. With a little race gas and some new tires, he went on to set his personal best time around BeaveRun, winning both races in convincing fashion – all on about one good knee total.

After the races we all packed up and helped load Jeff’s stuff with Rob –although Rob and Bill got most of it. On the road we got updates on Jeff from Amanda throughout the drive, getting home around 1am.

The title of this recap was going to be Redemption. Although when certain things happen, it has a way of changing priorities and the perspective of how you look at things. There was redemption for me, but it was more about remembering the people we have with us and not taking anything for granted. Some may easily disregard such things, but when we’re running around a race track at a buck-fifty and someone gets hurt, it can certainly put things in such regard.

Cheers,

eddie

Monday, June 21st, 2010 | POSTED AT: 4:48 AM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports

4 Comments on “WERA ‘10, Round 3: BeaveRun (Perspective)”

Doug wrote on 23 June, 2010, 12:51 PM
Well said.
Aaron H wrote on 25 June, 2010, 12:20 PM
Nice write up Eddie…..I know everyone’s heart sank when the helicopter showed up….luckily, Jeff is as tough as nail’s…..See ya @ Grattan…
Eddie wrote on 25 June, 2010, 12:26 PM
Yeah Aaron, he is for sure. See you next weekend!
Tom wrote on 26 June, 2010, 11:49 AM
Again, very well said sir!

As this week has come to an end, I have thought endlessly about what happened with Jeff. My many thoughts have brought to mind what I already knew, but events like this really make you think of how fortunate we are to have what we have.

This team is very special. Each person is very close to my heart. For that matter, the entire race community is a special group. All of the support and well wishes offered for Jeff was astounding. Amanda Kelly was incredible in her help and caring for Jeff as he went to the hospital and made his way home and keeping us all up to date on his condition.

It was quite a sobering experience when I was with Jeff prior to the helicopter arriving. He is as tough as they come, that is for sure. I returned to the paddock with shaky hands and wobbly legs, while Jeff wanted to get up and go racing.

We were all pretty shaken after the crash and I know the same thought that Eddie had went through mine. Should we race or pack up? And yes, Jeff would not have been pleased with us had we packed up.

As it turned out, riding was the right thing to do and Eddie made Jeff and the rest of us proud as usual.

I feel like I’m rambling about not much of anything. However, my main point is, to be friends and teammates with this group is an amazing experience. We have some of the best riders around and some of the most incredible people I have ever been fortunate enough to know.

Thanks for everything Eddie, Joe, Jeff, Doug, Gina, Marion, Aaron and everyone else that has offered support to the team.

See everyone at Grattan ….