2 hot days at Summit Point.

Mid July brought some hot weather our way and with the nice weather track days are foremost in our mind. OK, track days are always on our minds, but with nice weather bring them into our heads more often. Craig has some time off and wants to spend a few days riding. Mike and I eagerly agree to a few days of riding also. Jack has business people in and is still nursing a busted up thumb. Craig, Mike and I formulate a plan and prepare for 2 days of riding at Summit Point Raceway. The plan is for me to meet Craig at his place and head to Mike’s for the night before the event. Mike is taking the girls out to the movies and will meet us back at his place. Craig and I arrive well before Mike and the girls and decide to hit a local dinner for some food. The food was really good and we even got a big piece of chocolate cream pie for Mike. “It’s worth 2 seconds!” for us that is….

The TPM schedule accommodates us with a Sunday at the Shenandoah circuit and Monday on the Main circuit. Both tracks are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Shenandoah is a tight smaller course where turning a bike and being fast in the turn counts. The Main on the other hand is more high speed with a few slow turns. For a rider to like both tracks is one thing. For a rider to be fast at both tracks is a major task.

With a 4am wake up call we depart from the Mellen compound and heading southwest towards Summit. Our destination is about 2 hours and a half hours away. Mike’s Saturn is loaded to the top with his gear, the girls stuff and Craig’s gear. Mike and Craig’s bikes are on the trailer behind the Saturn. My wagon takes up my gear and whatever else will not fit. My bike is tagging along behind my wagon. With the mini convoy ready we embark on another adventure. The trip day goes well with a few pits stops for food and to top off the bikes and gas cans. Before we know it we are pulling into the main gate.

With the clock reading just past 6:30 am we find our paddock spot and unload. We have position ourselves along the pit road wall for access to our stuff from either the pit road or the paddock. We start the unloading process, which after doing this for years has become a well oiled process, and in a matter of minutes the bikes or off the trailers and readied for the day. Mike and I head over to the TPM trailer to help out and say hello to everyone. Craig gets his bike teched as mike and I tech each other bikes. We all head back over our paddock spot and prepare for the day. Tire pressures checked and a quick once over bikes just to be sure. Craig need a bit of WD-40 for the clutch lever and some WD-40 on Mike’s chain to quite it down a bit. I’ll just be happy if my bike starts, with the sporadic starting issues I inherited with Lee Rubin’s old bike. I never know if it will kick over or if I have to bump start it. Anyways the riders meeting starts and we all are suited up and ready to start the day.

Gallo in charge of the next 2 days as Glen is off attending to other business. The day is kicked off with the red group and Mike takes Craig out to show him the line. I’m designated to help out the ART basic students on the track in the white group. Shenandoah is a tight little track that requires a great deal of attention and hitting your marks to get around this circuit. Mike and Craig are up to speed in no time while I struggle with the new bike. Its just not like the old R6 and it’s hard to get dialed in. I test ride Andy R6, with the motor that was in my old R6, that Andy had loaned me before, and his bike felt better. Andy takes mine for a ride and notices some differences and we share the information. Over lunch Mike and I adjust my bike to see if we can get it better. A few turn here and there and it’s at a good point.

With lunch over we prepare for the long afternoon of riding. The heat of the day, temps are in the 90’s and humidity is just as high, causes the skies tend to darken and the threat of showers is not uncommon. We get a few stints of rain but nothing to really affect the track. 2 on track incidents, one being Martin Neron catching a false neutral coming off the only high speed section of the track and running into the dirt and finding that race tires have no traction on dirt. He was ok the bike was a different story. The second one was fellow coach Julie. She was trying to help an ART basic student and in her attempt to get in front of the student locked her front tire and when down. She was a little banged up and a real trooper through the rest of the day. She did leave with others for home that night and overnight went to the ER and found she had busted ribs and some blood in her lung. So she was deserves a lot of credit for putting on the brave face. We hope for the best for Julie and a speedy recovery.

Craig is up to his old tricks again, passing bigger and newer bikes and gaining tons of confidence as the day went on. Mike was rolling good also playing in the blue group for a few sessions and doing his typical 200 plus mile tracks days. I’m still having issues, but trying to figure them out. The day ends with all 3 of us upright and happy, which is the way we like to end any day, especially track days. We pack up the gear and shuffle over to the main track and grab a prime paddock spot, under the only covered area in the paddock. Tony Brazley was up the road doing some dirt bike riding in the area and stops by. We get all the bikes, gears and cars over to the paddock and settle in. Mike, Craig and the girls head into town for some food. I hang back to hang out with the few that will be camping for the night. With the sun setting the temps come down to a more comfortable level and make for a nice night. Mike and the gang arrive back and we head over the where Dennis has setup his camp for the night. With Dennis’s grill and my Foreman we get all the food cooked up and we sit around talking for a while. Dennis was kind enough to let us use his DRZ400 to get around on and we all take full advantage of it. As darkness gets close we set up the tent under the covered area, and squeeze the bikes together to make room. We spend time jumping from Dennis’s site, the TPM trailer, where Gallo, Dara and the 2 Mike’s from Andretti Powersports are hanging out. By midnight we are all settled in for the night. Over night there was light rain off and on so it was real nice that we were under the covered area since the rain flap for the tent was sitting in Mike’s car.

Dawn comes around and we all stagger out for the tent and prepare for yet another day of burning gas and wasting rubber or is it wasting gas and burning rubber, either way its fun. Today is a GP Moto day with races after lunch in place of the blue group. White and red groups are the same except blue group riders are allowed in red. Mike and I signup for the SuperSport race and talked Fran and Lee into the race too. As usual ritual starts of getting ready for the day. Bikes are gassed, tire pressures checked and a quick once over and we are ready to ride. The tent comes down to make room for the bikes. We add some popups are extracted to extend the covered areas and hide from the heat. Fran and Lee come over and share the shade and all their popup to ours to extend the shade. The riders meeting goes off and the day is ready to start. Mike and I are assigned to Red so we officially get to ride with Craig. The day starts with the Red group so as the riders meeting is going on Mike and I suit up. Before we know it the first call for Red comes over the PA system. With bikes started and helmets on we head up to the gird. We arrive are asked to wait while Gallo talks a lap to verify fire bottles are at each flag station. Even though the clock says, 9am the sun is warm and we know we are in for a even warmer weather to come. Gallo is back and Terry sends us on to the track. Mike hooks up with Craig and I take a few other riders out. We run though the morning sessions and just enjoy the day. I sneak attack Mike on the front straight. As with any sneak attack you have to run in “game on” mode from the point of the pass until the checkered flag. In this case was only for a few laps. A few riders had some dispute with gravity and lost but for the most part it was a good morning. Dave Z had pulled out onto the track a head for Mike and me in one session. We buzzed by Dave Z on the front straight while he was adjusting his gloves or something. I guess that sparked him on and going into T5 he goes by me. I watch him rail though the carousel and next come a cloud of dust at the exit of Turn 8. It was pretty while it lasted. Dave is alright and back riding after lunch.

We brake for lunch and hit the café for some food and drinks. We hang out in the class room to eat, since it has AC, and eat and cool off. Towards the end of lunch we have a race meeting and get the line up for the race. Since Mike, Fran Lee and I all offered to move to the back of the grid and race each other. Lee got bumped to the 1000cc race, despite efforts to have him run with us in our race. Lee is in race 2 and we head up to the grid and watch the race. Lee does respectable job in the race. Craig is doing his sessions and having fun running with and sometime away from bigger and newer bikes again. Then again there are only a few as old or older then Craig’s F3. Next up is our race. Mike, Fran and I pull up to the grid and wait to get sent out. We had just coached in the white group so we line at the tail of the pack. Terry sends us out on our warm up lap and we take our positions at back of the grid. We line up 2 rows back from the last rider on the grid and wait for the green flag. Once the flag waves we are of to turn one. As the pack closes on turn one a doe crosses the track and a few riders checkup. Mike Fran and I dive to the inside and pass others staring at the doe run off into the woods. Mike leads us into turn 1 with myself next then Fran behind me. Fran pokes at me a few times but slower traffic keeps him behind me. Between turn 9 and 10 Fran passes me and heads off the catch Mike. With Mike and Fran are in a battle I can only watch them get smaller and smaller as the laps wind past. Some days you got it some days you don’t. Today Mike and Fran got it as I battle with myself and the bike to find a comfort zone. Mike finishes ahead of Fran with me taking up 3^rd in our group. We finish mid pack in a 6 lap race so we did a respectable job considering we started 2 rows behind the last rider on the grid.

With the day winding down to a close we pack up and head for home. Mike was happy with a 1:25 and Craig was having just as good of a day. Craig rode a few laps with Gallo and impressed Gallo with his progress. I on the other hand have some work to do to get both the bike and my head to get back. We finish loading and prepare for the ride home. We say our goodbyes and head off for the journey home. We stop at the local KFC for dinner. Apparently assembling an order for 5 people is a major task for the crew on hand today. While we are eating the weather outside turns from overcast to a downpour. We wait for a break and head back to the cars. A quick stop for gas and were are heading west towards Baltimore. The skies would darken again and this time it’s not just a passing storm. Traffic ahead of us slows as leaves and small branches appear in the road. We navigate past them and the rain starts up again. This time it looks like its going to last a bit longer. We run for about 15 or so miles in conditions that any sea creatures would love but in cars with bikes on trailers that are now acting like sails. We dodge flying branches and leaves and hunt for the 3^rd speed setting on the wipers that doesn’t exist but keep trying to use. As we break free of the storm it was time to relax a bit and cruise home.

The rest of the trip home was uneventful, which we appreciate considering the storm early in the trip. Mike, with the girls and Craig as my co pilot we navigate the route to Mike’s. The usual stops along the way for snacks and fuel are welcome and make the trip go by quickly. Within a few hours we arrive at Mike’s, a quick off load of Craig’s essentials and he’s on his way home. I’ll be spending the night at Mike’s and off to work the next morning as is Mike, oh, joy. As always the first day back to work seems somewhat boring compared to ripping around the track with you friends. Since no one is knocking at our doors with a few million dollars we keep plugging away at our jobs waiting for the next track day.

With another adventure in the Team Xcedrin book we add more stories to tell to people in our later years sitting on the porch in our rocking chairs.