TEAM SWUNK NEWS

A "C" Hair!!

   Team Swunk had a great time on Saturday racing, and the nite time festivities chatting with the rest of the Pacific Coast YSR club were great.  The team was still undecided on if they would run the endurance just with 2 riders.  As the nite grew on, it was certain that they would.  When morning broke, it was still a little damp from the nite time drizzle that fell upon the track.  It was overcast, but cleared up a little and looked like rain would not be a factor.  The team woke up a little late, as usual, and only had about 15 mins to decide which bike they would use for the endurance.  So Razor went out on Hornets bike and vice versa.  When practice was over, they chose Razor's bike as Hornet felt more comfortable on Razor's than Razor did on the Hornet's bike.

   The race had an unusual start to it.  With all the bikes on the left side of the track, the riders would start on the right.  With teammates holding the bikes,  the first riders had to start on their hands and knees and when the flag dropped, had to get up and run backwards to their bikes.  From there, they then bump started their bikes and off they went.  It was a great start, and no crashes to report on.  Each Team Swunk rider was to ride for approx. 20-25mins before changing riders.  I mean, this was a 3 hour endurance race, and after 25 mins of riding, one would definitely become tired and lose concentration.  Team Swunk was doing well,  OOPS, I spoke to soon.  The Hornet just went down in turn 6.  I would give you a better commentary on this, but I had to "Free Willy" if you know what I mean, and missed it all.  It turns out that the Hornet had caught his foot peg into the coping and kicked out his rear tire,  WHAM!  slid off the track into the dirt.  Then, came into the pits to check out damage and had to pull out the shift lever.  Other than that no damage.  Vrooom, back onto the track.  They were now 2 hours and 40 mins into the 3 hour race.  It was about time for the last rider change.  Just then, the Hornet comes in and Razor jumps on.  The Razor completes no more than 4 laps when a few rain drops fall.  I mean a few!!!  Just then, as the Razor thinks, " this is it, we know how to ride in the rain. We'll make up some spots here." Razor comes down the front straight to the checkered flag!!!  "What the HE..!!!",  the race was over with still about 15 mins left.  They called the race saying it was to dangerous for the guys riding on slicks, yet you couldn't have even been close to a slow beginning of a wet t shirt contest.  Well, in the end, Team Swunk finished 4th in their class.  Only to learn that they had been beaten out by 3 rd place by .13 of a second!!  SHITE!!!  You guys can hang your heads high, they finished better than they thought, and to only lose by that slim a margin just makes one think how they could've gone quicker, faster.  To add insult to injury, even though the race was stopped early ( I must stress that ), the 3 rd place finishers on that lap that they called the final ( damn it) they lost their brakes.  Should the race have gone for 1 more lap, Team Swunk would have gotten WOOD!!  Oh well, there is always next year.  And yes, with a track like that, Team Swunk will return to hopefully get a spot on the podium.  Oh yeah, maybe it'll rain for the whole race and maybe they can take first!!  Great racing guys and don't dwell on the fact that you lost by a "C" hair, cause you couldn't get one of those either if you tried!!!

   I'm outta here before they catch me.  SHITE, they couldn't even do that!!  Ed.