End of the season events are always fun because we get so many riders down from the north and midwest who are already well into cold weather and looking to get in one more track experience before the long winter sets in. This year was no exception as I saw tons of riders from New York, New Jersey, Maryland and even a Vermont or two. The midwest was well represented too with tons of Wisconsin and Minnesota plates.
I guess our most famous "Yankee" is Lenny, a retired New York City policeman. Lenny is a great guy but you can just look at him and tell that he's tough as nails. It gives me chills just to think about what he must have seen and done the past 20 or so years. Another New Yorker that I've missed this year is Walter. We met Walter at a track day about two years ago. He had driven down by himself in an old F150 pickup all the way from Manhattan to Barber. He was pitted next to us with only a chair and a cooler in his pits. We offered for him to come over and sit with us and he turned out to be a very interesting fellow. Apparently he's some sort of metal artists or something.
Back to the track day. It was great weather and there were tons of control riders there keeping traffic flowing smoothly. I had a couple of really good morning sessions but then my bike started acting up.
Part of the control rider paddock.
More control ridersI've had this problem off and on for about a year with my old 1997 YZF600 Yamaha. The thing is having an electrical or fuel problem or something and it always happens mid-corner or accelerating out of corners which is really scary. The few times it happened in the past it was like the bike just lost power for a second then started running fine again. This time I was coming up out of 5 on the gas and it felt just like I had reached up and turned the switch off then on then off then on again. My rear was moving around all over the place and it really was kind of scary feeling.
Video of my little "malfunction"
I talked to a motor tuner guy who was there riding and he said he thought it was carburetor related so I'm going to tear those down and clean them good over the winter.
After lunch I rode a good bit with the problem coming back once more late in the day so I parked it and just enjoyed watching the advanced guys ride and enjoyed the rest of the day. All in all a fine way to end the season even with the mechanical issues.
Track day powered by Michelle sandwiches...yummy.Oh yes, I forgot one more detail for this final trackday...tire warmer meltdown!!!!
We accidentally forgot to unplug the warmers once and when I got back to the pits they were smoking and melted. Oh well, now I have the opportunity to upgrade to a better set so no harm, no foul.
Now it's on to winter maintenance and painting for next season.
