[Ducati] 1st Time Racetrack Experiences part 6

[Gleeb Gliber Galactica Gavorti]

    As I rounded the turn I was already thinking of the next part of the track and was adjusting my body and bike in preparation for what was to come.  What I did not know was what was to come was me landing from a small flight, as I crested the apex of the turn.  While I thought I was properly attached to the racetrack (and taking traction for granted), I was actually crossing up my front wheel during it’s brief time away from the pavement.  When my wheel(s) were reintroduced to the track things got ugly.  Very ugly very, very quickly.  Instead of a smooth transition into the next corner I was quite literally catapulted off of my motorcycle.  As the crossed-up front wheel landed at somewhere between 60 and 70 miles per hour, me, my bike and the track became inharmoniously detached from one another and the three of us scattered in all directions.  The bike flipped over the track, I flipped over the bike and the track itself seemed to flip over everything all at the same
 time.  I probably did more flipping than did the racetrack but who is to say for sure?  It was a pretty surreal moment.
   
  Fortunately (some might say unfortunately) for me I have gone ass-over-ears more times than I care to admit.  So I took the event more or less in stride.  
   
  Until this day all of my racetrack experience had been on the sidelines the past two years as a “Corner Worker” (or “Race Marshal”) at Laguna Seca Raceway (or is it Mazda raceway now?) during World Superbike Week.  Therefore I’d had a reasonable amount of experience in what to do when a bike is down on the track.  Instinct took over after my crash and I instantly got up and off of the track.  My bike was still right in the middle of the track and since the corner is a blind one, other riders were likely to become victims of my “miscalculation.”  Once off the track I fervently did my best to wave the other riders around my bike.  I think my efforts at damage control were a success, since everyone saw the situation for what it was and were able to stay clear of my poor motorcycle (and her associated scattered bits).  I’ll also give some credit to the real Corner Worker in the nearby tower, since it was his waving red flag that probably did 90% of the actual alerting of my
 fellow riders.  But I thought it was funny that a rider (me) should so instantly turn into his own Corner Worker. 
   
   There are some that might say I should not have gotten up so soon after such a serious accident. Perhaps I might have aggravated unknown spinal injuries and should have been carried off in a stretcher. But what kind of moron is going to let his self stay lying down in the very middle of a racetrack on the far side of a blind corner with 25 other motorcyclists headed fast and directly at his head? Not this moron ;-) 
  Anyways

   
  My bike was removed from its resting-place in an ungainly manner, by those who were there to do the job. I decided to supervise the situation since I began to experience a few pains here and there.
   
       

   
  ride well
   
  gabriel



"There's nothing wrong with you that an expensive operation can't prolong."  -Python, Monty.
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