Yesterday Glin and I served as pit crew for Tom while he finished his last track day and class at the Portland International Raceway. We weren’t that great as far as pit crews go – we were usually still out walking around the track when Tommy finished a session. We did however circumnavigate the track on the inside and outside, took a few pictures (thanks Hilly) and used zip ties on non-bike things.
This was the first time I’ve been at a bike track and I had a blast. Being 4 feet away from a bike going over 160mph is pretty cool, and the fence and concrete were nice. Hearing a set of 600cc engines whiz by then have a liter bike buzz by, having your head tugged when a group moves past, watching a downed bike slide like a curling stone – all cool. There were a couple bad-asses on the course that were just amazing to watch, but it was also fun to see a friend out doing really well, and looking cooler on the track (thanks to the all black with orange wheels and lego-orange visor) than many of the other riders.
I’ve put up a gallery of still shots that I took with my sister’s D70, her wide-angle lens, and her 70-300mm (sweet), but there are several “in a series” shots that I want to stitch together somehow to show the motion and movement.
Thanks again for the cool shots. I’ve posted just about all of them–including a lot that you didn’t–up on my site. Plus I stitched all of the ones you did in series into animated GIFs so you won’t have to worry about it. Really didn’t take that long, either.
http://procrasti-nation.net
You got some great pictures Freed. Makes me wish I could have been there that day. Guess I will just have to make sure I come to the track day in September.
Does Tommy have to get new tires after every race day? Those tires looked done. The pictures were really cool.
The tires are made to do that. The cooked rubber balls up and sheds off revealing fresh, sticky rubber underneath, but eventually there just isn’t any left and so you still go through quite a few. The faster you are, the more tires you go through. At my pace on those particular tires, I’ll get about three days out of the rear and four or five out of the front. When I’m actually racing, it’s a set of tires for every race weekend, which is two sprints and a couple warmup sessions. That’s actually the main cost of racing.
Looks like it was a “blue-bird” day for racing! I’m jealous to have missed it!
Looks awseome. can’t wait till september when I get to see you ride. Nice pics Freed!