Phew

So last weekend was my second year of promoting the Hawkeye Downs HPRA race weekend. It went well. Participation was up from last year, good competition in all categories, great weather, and almost but not really ran on schedule.



My sprints this year were a little better than last year. The faired 50 lap race was way faster for me, real close to 40mph avg(why go all the way to AZ again?). My increase in speed in this event from last year is due to running with the top on the Cuda (I was still a greenhorn to this bike at this time last year), and it didn't hurt that Warren was on my tail the whole time. I just couldn't get rid of him this year, good work Warren! I need a faster bike.....and better training. At least I've got enough time in the bike to have the handling down. I scraped the bottom on the corners more than a few times during the 50 lap race, nothing like tempting a slidout at 40mph. My stock race performance was less than stellar. Granted I still averaged 27mph or so, not bad considering how hard the 50lap race was directly beforehand, but Sean smoked me. Seans had a great year, setting the unfaired recumbent world hour record twice, and winning every race he's entered this year. So now I have a new benchmark to train for.



Sydney and her son Eric, and his friend Eric came over. They were a little late for the sprints Saturday morning, but with much help from Rick Gritters we got them set up on bikes, fixed a few problems(but not enough of them)on Syd's lowracer, and got them into the shortened hour race. Eric Brown did great, everytime I went to pass him I kept thinking "damn, shouldn't I be catching him quicker?". And that was with him racing in jeans, on a bike new to him, after learning to ride recumbents three days beforehand. He's gonna be real fast with a little more time on the bike. His friend Eric struggled a bit, but by the end of the weekend he was getting it down.
Sydney Stuggled a bit on Saturday as well, her lowracer had a rough week of learning to ride and was subsequently falling apart. Thankfully Rick Gritters made many pit stops to help her out with fixing the many mechanical issues. I don't know what I would have done without Rick, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Somewhere in the rush of Saturday's happenings I managed to misplace my debit card, yay. So I spent a little time digging through my car, clothes, trash cans, and generaly searching everywhere to no avail. Luckily Sean Costin graciously offered to share a motel room with me so I didn't have to do my race tabulations and prize divying by headlamp. Saturday night's dinner gathering was entertaining and informative as usual, just hearing about Aaron Stiles adventures with offroad inline skating made it worth the while.



Sunday morning I overslept, waking up a 8:15 when I wanted to be at the track by 7:00 to work on Syd's lowracer and take care of the rest of my race director duties.
Turns out this is still a recumbent race and not too many people noticed. So I did a bit more maintainence to Syd's lowaracer and she lit it up. What a difference the details make. She laid down the second fastest ufaired 3/4mile tt time of the day (only seven and a half seconds slower than me) and then went on to win the womens lap race, nearly working her way into second overall till she had a small bout with dropping her chain multiple times(due to the missing chaingaurd that fell off the day before). Needless to say Sydney is also going to be very fast with a little more time on the bike(if she can get it away from Eric ;)).



The Hour faired race. Well, I was pretty tired from the day before. I think we went faster this year than last. Warren was stuck to my tail the whole time, but he was getting better at hiding from my mirrors. Rick found some leftover stock car shrapnell on the track(as did a few people) and flatted.


Oh yea, and I almost forgot to mention the Rose Hulman kids came out and made a good showing. A couple of U of IA kids came out Saturday as well. I hope to see more of that next year. Gary Toy did a better job sticking to Sean's wheel Saturday than I did, put a hurt on the Superstock race Sunday, and did a fine job entertaining my parents. Hope to see you(and Wendy) here again next year.

Many, many thanks to my parents for helping out with everything and especially to my mother(Mary) for providing the baked goods(the real draw for this event). Thanks to Luke and Warren for providing the timing. Thanks to Don for running the flags and lapcounting.

Race Pics and Results

DG


PS:Thank you to Garrie Hill for bringing the Kett out for my parents to play with, it's amazing how many people in my family have been riding that thing lately. I would have never guessed.