George McConnel's RC51 BLOG

Date:	April 26, 2009
Track:	Nashville SuperSpeedway
Bike:	2002 Honda RVT1000 (RC51)
Weather:	Mostly sunny and warm, high around 86.
Sponsor:	LearnToRide.Org
Conducted By:	WERA
Track Diagram	The Nashville SuperSpeedway is a combination track. NASCAR racers use the outer oval, basically just a large concrete track with a back straight, two ends and a tri-oval front "straight". The road course drops off the tri-oval into the infield, winds through turns 1-6, then exits briefly onto part of the back straight before dipping back into the infield for turns 7-10. Turn 10 is a long non-banked sweeper that exits back onto the front straight. There are transitional seams at each of the four places where the infield road course joins the NASCAR oval. At these points you have to be careful to choose a line that avoids too sudden a transition or you end up getting jarred really hard. Much like Daytona, races are started from pit lane because the start/finish line is on a steep bank.

Since Nashville is my "home track"

"Cornering Low" on turn 2 and a half

I always enjoy the ambience of racing for the entire several days from the moment the track opens until it closes down on Sunday afternoon. I took mine and Logan's bikes over on Thursday evening, unloaded and then just sat around with the folks for awhile chatting and enjoying some quality time. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do the Friday track day because of work issues, and Saturday morning I was unable to be there because that's the day I ride a photographer around on my bike to make some money during the Music City Marathon.

Logan did do the Friday practice day and managed to get his laptimes steadily improved the entire day. He started by running in the 1:20 area and improved into the 1:16's by the end of the day. Great progress!

Logan rode in the marathon with us on Saturday so he wasn't able to be there Saturday morning either.

By the end of the launch I'm in back. Bummer.

I went out on Saturday afternoon but they were already into the penultimate race of the day, having combined a few races due to low turnout. I pulled the wheels off and did a tire change, starting Sunday morning with my first ever set of Bridgestone 003's.

Sunday morning I arrived early, thinking I was in the first practice group of the day. As it turned out I was in the 5th group, so I didn't have to push hard at all to get through registration and tech. I did, however, neglect to put my faring lower back on before going out for my first practice session. I got the "meatball" flag and realized what I had done before I exited the track. I pulled into my pit, quickly bolted the lower back on, and managed to get two more laps in before the checkered flag. I only got to put four complete laps in, the first of which was a 1:17.157 and the last of which was a 1:13.684. Not too shabby for my first time out in awhile.

During the 2nd practice session I did some steady 13's with a best lap of 12.7, but I was badly fatigued towards the end and ended up exiting the track before the session was over. I was starting to get dehydrated.

When race time came along I lined up in the Heavyweight Twins Superstock

Turn 2 during lap 1 of CSB EX and HWTSS

class on row 9, which was behind the C Superbike experts, but on the first row of the Heavyweight Twins. It was a single wave race, so we all busted a move on the first green flag. I managed a decent (not stellar) launch and quickly slotted in behind the other two experts sharing the front row with me (James Butler and Gill Cutchen). Scott Padgitt had to start from the 2nd row of our grid and got stuck behind me for most of the first lap. When he got around me I managed to hang with him for much of the first infield portion but he quickly walked away once we got out of the 2nd infield section. I did manage to learn a thing or two by watching his lines though.

My 2nd race of the day, race 11, would be Heavyweight Twins Superbike.

Already getting swallowed by the quicker Novices

of the day, I got to line up for the first time ever (at NSS) on the first row of the grid. On my right in pole position was Tim Joyce, whom I had no hope of keeping in sight. To my left should have been Gill Cutchen, but he'd had an incident earlier in the day and was out of this race. Behind me was Padgitt and Butler, who had run with me in the SuperStock race earlier in the day.

I got a bad launch this time, lofting the front tire. By the time I managed to get the front back down I had Padgitt right beside me trying to get to turn 1 before I did. He managed to get just in front of me, leaving me in last place for our class going into turn one. I never had a chance after that, as the other three guys were all easily capable of running laptimes a good three or four seconds quicker than I could run. I did manage to post up a new personal best laptime at NSS during that race though. 1:11.175. Very close to the magical "10's". Of course we all always want more.

Logan made a ton of progress during that weekend, going from 1:20 per lap to 1:14.

The biggest disappointment of the weekend though came at the end. I neglected to put my large Rubbermaid box in my car when I left. The box contained my tire warmers. It would have been a very expensive mistake. But I got lucky because one of the riders picked it up for me and plans to bring it to Barber in May. Can't ask for better than that!

Most important lesson learned during this race weekend: Put my name and phone number on everything. A phone number on that Rubbermaid box would have made all the difference between fretting a couple of days about whether I'd ever see it again and having it back in my hands before getting home that night.