Jennings Florida 2007.

The first adventure of the 2007 was to Jennings Florida. Mike could not stand not to be riding for the winter so he came up with the idea to ride Jennings in January. Mike called the other member and easily got Craig and later Jack to join him. I had to sit out this trip. Getting Craig and Jack to come long didn’t take much encouragement as they are always willing to ride. The plan was devised, January 20^th at Jennings was set and everyone was registered by Jack. With the plans now in place some maintenance was performed on Craig and Mike’s bikes at Mike shop to ensure they were in top shape. While this was going on Jack was working on re-installing his kickstand that was removed for the CCS races at Barber and doing his own maintenance. Mike and Craig load their bike on Mike’s trusty trailer and Jack loaded his R6 into the “covered” truck bed, this becoming a good idea later. The trailer would rest at Craig’s and on Jack would head to Craig’s to pick him up and then head to Mike’s on Thursday for a very early morning start. Plan is to head south to Florida, through Baltimore and DC before rush hour traffic started.

Flash to 3am Friday morning, everyone is ready to fly and they hit the road well before the sun comes up. The trips along goes smoothly and they are past the congestion points with no problems. I call Mike at about 6:30am to inform them that they were missing all the wonderful weather. An inch of snow had fallen just as they left and since it was the first snow fall of the season it created chaos in eastern Pa. My normal commute is 1 hour but today it’s a 3 and half hour journey through hell. You’d think these people never drove in snow before. Anyways by 9:30 am the partial team is now just past Richmond and making great time. Jack’s Dodge with Mike’s trailer is humming along at about 80 mph getting 18 mpg. This gets about 500 miles per tank and works out well with food and pit stops. Mike, Craig and Jack take turns at the wheel. Jack has his Blackberry from work on hand and is emailing me with their progress i.e.: “Passing We dare to bare”, if you ever been on 95 south of Richmond you’ll know these signs, and looking for weather reports. The forecast looks like sunny and temps in the 60’s. 14 hours clicked off the clock and they arrive at Jennings and pre registering for the next day. Plan is to ride Saturday and book out as soon after the checkered flag drops on their final session and head for home for some sleep and be back to work on Monday morning. They find a room at local motel and hit the bed for some well deserved rest.

Saturday arrives and they head out to the track. Bikes are unloaded and ready to go. This day the Ed Bargy School is on hand to take up one group and 3 other groups, novice, intermediate and advanced. The guys get were put in the intermediate group so they can all run together. Passing rules in this group are very simple, “no rubbing paint.” Sound pretty simple to follow and quite easy to detect when this rule is violated. The rule at Jennings is the first session of the day is a lead around at a slow pace to learn the track. This always works well for most but when your 12^th in line like Jack was it makes it very hard to determine the line. Mike’s been here before with TPM years ago, remembers the track and is up to speed in no time. For Craig and Jack this is their first time here so their pace is a tad slower. Craig and Jack pick up the track quickly and are really enjoy it. Mike calls me at the lunch break to report back that they are all having a great time and just to rub it in. The 3 sessions before the lunch break gives everyone time to take in the track and talk about it. Mike and Jack are used to coaching so therefore are enjoying the downtime between sessions and take the extra time to talk with other riders. After lunch the sessions start up again with Mike still the fastest of the 3, track experience helps here. Craig and Jack trade bikes for a session. Jack enjoys a session on his old bike while Craig takes it easy on Jack’s R6. Mike works on his body position, trying to get lower and more active on the bike. Mike’s old style makes him look like he’s sitting on the couch at home watching TV while the rest of us are doing our best imitation of Yates and Spies. What makes it worse is that he going just as fast or faster then as us. The track day winds to close with the guys are happy and hopefully have gotten their fix for the winter months that lay ahead. March or April are the first TPM events and time will tell if this worked or just fueled the fire to ride more. Usually the latter is the case.

The guys stop at Houlihan’s for some dinner to refuel their selves and plan to stay at the hotel close by. With a stop over night and an early start on Sunday the team is heading for home. The miles clink away as the weather doesn’t exactly get better. With the changing weather traffic tends to get heavy. As they approach DC the weather turns worse, makes Winnie the Pooh’s “Blustery Day” seems like a better option. Traffic is a mess and they elect to take an alternate route north. 301 North seem to be a better route to avoid some traffic and hit the 895 ring around Baltimore. A quick stop for fuel and Mike checks the trailer. Craig’s bike on the passenger side of the trailer and is covered with ice and sprinkles of slush from the road. Mike’s bike on the other side has gotten the worse of it. Slush is starting to buildup on the left side of his bike and trailer. Mike opts to continue inside for a pit stop and some food. Back on the road Mike jumps in the back for some sleep and to try to forget the fate that awaits his bike on the trailer. They arrive at Mike’s house about 9pm Sunday. They inspect the bikes and at this point the left side of Mike’s bike is covered in thick slush and the trailer has even more slush piled on it, not a pretty sight. Craig and Jack head to Craig’s to drop him and the trailer off. They arrives at Craig’s house, Jack snaps a few pictures and heads for home.

With the 18 plus hour trip close to the end the team adds the first chapter in the adventures for 2007. This adds one more story to tell in our older years sitting on the porch in our rocking chairs.

George Benes…

Team Xcedrin member, TPM coach and racer #929.