Well.. Here is my hot washup of what turned out to be an extremely memorable bunch of days! For those of you out of the loop, a couple of Vancouver Island’s most enthusiastic motorcycle nuts (Yogi and Don Hatton of Duncan Motorsports) offered to assist local riders get down to Pacific Raceways by offering free return-transport of bikes. As you’ll see, they went miles past merely towing bikes!
Day 1: Staging/Logistics.
Yogi offered up the use of his driveway as a staging area for bikes while we eagerly anticipated the arrival of the Duncan Motorsports trailer. Yogi went even further and made his truck available to go gather those bikes belonging to us “sans camion.” By about 9pm there were well over ten bikes in the driveway (most of them Yogi’s!) and we were finished stage 1!
Day 2: Travel day.
This was a travel day, and with close to 10 of us heading down (and all of us on different work schedules) we trickled across the border in two’s and three’s. A most sneaky way of inserting Team Canada into position! Derrick and I were first on scene (having the slackest jobs I guess??) and did some shopping on the way down through Seattle, arriving to our palatial quarters and the rarefied and exclusive King Oscar. Upon checking in, we spent a good twenty minutes trying to figure out if the odour in our room was peach disinfectant or stale urine. I almost wished it was the latter as I shuddered to think what had to have gone down in order to justify such a strong disinfectant. After a thorough scan for bed bugs and a meticulous sweep with the CSI SpermCam, we settled down for the evening. The other groups trickled in throughout the evening with the event supporters (Yogi and DMS) rolling in past 11. They had some last minute bike chalk issues to contend with and thus had to catch a late ferry.
Day 3: 2Fast Trackday.
This was an extremely professional and well run trackday. Lionel, Rob, Andrew, Terry and Yogi were all in the advanced group and Derrick and I started in the intermediate. This is an apt moment to mention that Don Hatton had brought with him the service manager at DMS, Bernie Wright. This wasn’t a social call either, as Don kept reminding us to use and abuse Bernie’s talent as he was there on the company dime to support us with his wealth of technical expertise. This expertise ranges from being the UK Twins Champion as a rider through to bike builds for the TV programme, “ The Long way Down” and being the chief mechanic for Don’s Dakar team.” And use and abuse him we did! He helped me prep my bike for tech and with a safe mounting of my gopro, and he lent his hand with others as well. We had a fun morning re-learning the track and by the afternoon got bumped to the advanced group. Our egos quickly went from overinflated by passing everyone in the intermediate to severely punctured when we arrived in the advanced group. While we weren’t pylons, it was a clear reminder that no matter what level you ride at, there are always tons of people much much faster than you and that speed is very relative! We finished off the first track day, sweaty and pleasantly tired. We donned our team colours (basically anything with a maple leaf – that would be me in a Leafs Jersey!!) and made a beeline to a Mexican bar/restaurant where we proceeded to drown our shame in cheap margarita’s and commiserate over the Game 7 woes!
Day 4: Eastside Trackday.
The second trackday was hosted by a PNW Ducati Dealership and was well run as well. All of us were running the in the Advanced group now, and the pace seemed quicker than the previous day. I think it could be a combination of more racers showing up to get some laps in before the weekend and too many margarita’s the night before. Before lunch, Derrick and I had made significant improvements on our personal best laptimes. I regret to announce that he bested me with a time of 1:41.2 while I wallowed with a 1:41.6. Much improved over our last visit to the track and we both certainly look forward to improving further! (I certainly never pointed to his much more powerful bike outclassing my 11 year old 600 as a good excuse LOL) Oh yeah.. Everyone else was much faster than that! So… thank goodness Bernie was still around… After 1 or 2 laps in the last session before lunch, 4 bikes in rapid succession went down in T7 after the lead bike dropped its drain plug and puked oil right over the apex. Unfortunately, I was third in line and binned it pretty good. Being the thick headed, ham fisted noob that I am, instead of gracefully accepting the lowside I fought with it for a split-second too long and face planted over the highside, and slid off into the gravel. Jumping to my feet, I barely had time to blink before it was time to dodge another bike sliding towards me! Was definitely my matrix moment of the week! Anyhow..After the fourth bike went down they red flagged the session, and I checked to see I wasn’t leaking anything then rode the bike back to the pits… The pipe was good and thrashed and there was damage to the brake lever. I sat down to feel sorry for myself and then went to grab some lunch. By the time I had polished off a hot dog, Bernie and Don had finished banging, smashing, tweaking and wrenching my rashed up GSXR-600 back into fine form. A quick visit thru Tech and I was back on the track without missing a session! It is absolutely safe to say that without their help, I would have been a sullen spectator for the remainder of that and the following day. Having exploited Bernie’s wrenching abilities enough; we scrounged up enough gear between us and found a bike, and forced Bernie out to the track. His racing experience, though tempered by 13 years absence, quickly shone through as he was politely asked by the track staff to tone it down in the intermediate group! After a few sessions, he and Don reluctantly had to part ways, citing something about a business to run back on the Island!
Day 5: Mike Sullivan Race School
Another fine sunny day and after a mildly disorganized start, Myself, Passaree and Derrick signed up for the new racer school and had some terrific one on one instruction on lines, brake markers and general knowledge useful to a Novice Racer. I hope to race in the WMRRA or the Mission series in the next year or so this course was of benefit to me. The other folks, now joined by Paul, Jim and Mike, tore it up in the Fast group’s open track session, and a great day was enjoyed by all!
Day 6/7: Race Day
Derrick and I had to be back on the Island on Saturday, so we hightailed it back to the ferry and left our racing contingent to (Yogi and Lionel) to battle the other riders as well as the elements on Saturday’s / Sunday’s WMRRA races. I will let them recount their tales of glory in the coming days!
I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude and I’m sure that of the other local riders who took part in this week’s activities, to Don Hatton for his generosity of supporting local riders “takin’ it to the track.” Having the bikes show up trackside with their own EZ-up’s and a factory trained Tech on site was VERY easy to take, and made us all feel like rock stars! Thanks also to Yogi, who volunteered his time into ensuring the logistics were attended to and that everything was loaded in a safe manner. Thanks also to the fellow riders who came down and showed the Canadian spirit of fun, camaraderie, helping each other and of course, kickin butt on the track!!
I hope that if a similar offer is made by DMS or any other local shop, it is well and gratefully received, and that other local riders take full advantage of it!
Cheers, and I look forward to seeing some pix / vids start to surface!
Joe Kiraly
If you want more info click on the Duncan Motorsports link to the right of this article.
