Well, The weekend didn’t go exactly as planned. 
 
The week after the final round last year I disassembled the bike and sent the bits and pieces to the ends of the earth thinking that if I got an early start on the motor mods I’d be ready for the first round this year with plenty of time.  Best laid plans…  When Wednesday before the race rolled around and I was still missing some key components I decided plan B was in order.   My brothers bike was sitting there in the corner of my garage still in pieces but with at least all of the important pieces there in boxes around it.  I thought with a few hours and a couple of bucks and I’d be in business.  Again best laid plans…  So after working in the garage well after midnight Wednesday, and Thursday.  Friday, at about 11pm we put the number plates and the old #99 on the beauty.  I decided I’d better change the oil in the thing since I had no idea what was in it and I still needed to drill the plug for safety wire anyway.  As I took out the drain plug most of the treads came out with it. So as I was sitting there thinking the last three nights work were for not,  I remembered Fowler has a few motors down in Georgetown at MSI and the old guy Phil is usually still hanging around at this time.  So my brother and I raced down there and pilfered through the pile of 160 parts.   Sure enough we found another plate with good threads and we were back in business.  Raced home, finished the job and we were ready to go.  As I’m hooking up the battery charger  I realize that while I was in such a rush I’ve have left my jacket with my wallet and race license back in Georgetown.  So back in the car and race back to find Phil closing down the bar just around the corner from MSI, So the planets were aligned for me Friday night at least. 
 
Saturday Morning at the track bright and early to find pretty ugly conditions, but we had a group of new Novi that were counting on us to get them indoctrinated, so on with the gear and away we went.   The first practice session went well, a few laps then some passing drills with O’Mohony and the newbies were looking pretty good.  The old beauty was running well but really down on power, and my handy home weld shift linkage was not giving me the results I was hoping for.  Back at the pits I start to adjust the linkage and it goes past the point of no return were if I put the lever where it needs to be, it won’t go into all of the gears and as I stated earlier the bike was already down on power so I figured that I would need all of the gears I could get.  I struggled through most of the next practice and when I found that I couldn’t keep up with the new novice because I only had forth gear with a occasional showing of third, I thought it was time to pull off.  I packed everything up and when home for another afternoon of fabrication.
 
Sunday morning comes very early, and as I leave my house for the 20 min drive to the track things are looking good.  Dry pavement, high clouds with good patches of stars and I’m thinking things have turned around, and the day looks bright.  As I drive through Auburn I see ahead what looks like snow.  That’s right I said snow! And as I get closer to the track it starts getting deeper!  I pull up to the gate and it’s a winter wonderland, the tree branches are heavy with white snow and it even has that deafening silence that comes with a good snow fall.  All of the easy-ups are covered in it, and the parking lot is full of slush. 
 
Bateman and I are screwing around with my needle height when I realize that the rest of the guys are heading out.  I jump in my leathers and I’m off for practice.  The track is actually sort of dry by now with snow still in the trees lining the back section and it looks kind of surreal.  I quickly realize that the problem with my gear selection lied with the pivot point and not the linkage,  I had shorten the shifter because of the rear sets we were using, it had shortend the throw making it feel like it did not go all the way into gear on most shifts.  I had pilfered them from another buddy’s box of spare parts and would just have to live with it for today. 
 
As the light goes out on the first heat and everybody disappears in a cloud of smoke I realize that this bike is even slower that I had first thought.  I push as hard as I can and it quickly becomes apparent that I’m not making up any ground.    I ride the rest of the heat by myself in the big gap between the first group and the back markers. 
 
Heat 2
As the light goes out I drop back in with Arash thinking that at least I’d have someone to ride with.  He has a much faster bike but is still coming to grips with… well, grip.   He’d motor me down the straight but he was just far enough ahead at the end of it that was pretty sure I could catch him before we got through the back section.  As he was turning it into T5 I slipped around the outside and took the line into T6, he follows me through 7, 8, and 9 then motors by again on the straight.  I’m sure to tell him I think he’s number 1 as he goes by ;)   Next lap is a carbon copy of the last, between T5 and T6 he’s mine, and I hold him off again until the front straight.  The last lap he picks up a little speed and I can’t catch him by T6.  I push as hard as I can on the little beauty, and on the outside of T9 I think I’ve got him again.  I decide that the Bonsai move into the Bus stop will be reserved for when I really need it and third to last place doesn’t really warrant it.  So Arash beats me to the line and fun was had by all. 
 
Hopefully I’ll be working the bugs out of my own bike next race and not my brothers…
 
See you all then.
 
Joel #99