I decided ... I wanted to go racing

From our friend Tim De Bell:

I decided I wanted to go racing. We’ll get to that, but first a little background.

I never rode a motorcycle until 4 years ago. I convinced my wife Jen that having a dirt bike to ride on the trails near our house would make my life complete. The only stipulation was that I would not get to the dealership and buy a street bike instead. “Why would I want to ride on pavement?” I replied.

Off I went and bought an XR250. It’s a good bike, fairly nimble, plenty of grunt and most importantly, sturdy. I rode that around the woods for a year or so and had the bright idea that I could save money riding the XR the 16 miles to and from work. After all, it wasn’t really a street bike, it was a dirt bike with a baja kit and DOT’s. That rationale proved to be somewhat weak, but ultimately I was commuting on my, now a bit scratched up, XR.

After learning the basic street survival skills, I started to look at street riding in a different light. With a bit more bike I could have some real fun and technically be safer. I had enough sense not to get on the highway with the XR, but, for those who haven’t ridden them, there is no such thing as good DOT knobby. I still rode dirt with it so SM wasn’t an option.

I had a picture of a Ducati Monster on my laptop desktop and managed to convince myself that the sun wouldn’t rise and set with any regularity if I didn’t have one of those in my garage. I picked up a used one, stripped it down even more and made it what I wanted.

I love that bike….it’s got curves like Sophia Loren.

The 2V Desmo is a well balanced motor and I had more than my share of grins, and a few gasps, honing my riding skills on that bike.

I was a fan of WSBK and MotoGP prior to really considering going for a track day. After all, I didn’t have a bike I wanted to chance wadding up and renting a bike takes it well out of the “recreational” budget.

Jen came home one day a said she met a guy at work who is a track instructor and I should meet him. We’ll call him Tod……because that’s his name. Little did I know that he had already been on the case explaining to her that going to the track would make me a better rider and, if you are going to go fast that’s the place to do it.

A couple of months pass and I found myself at Pocono, at the East Course, astride Tod’s SV650. After a couple sessions flailing around the track, I finally got into a little groove with the acceleration followed by heavy braking and dipping the bike much deeper than I ever had on the street. Tod explained that you can really get on the front brakes after the front end settles and that made the afternoon that much more enjoyable. I got some good laps for a first day, some passes, and felt very satisfied with the progression of skills I gained during the day.

Skip to a couple months later and I am trying to figure out a way to get back to the track. I had trouble justifying spending the money on a bike that I would ride for a matter of days per year. After many conversations with Jen and many track days missed, we decided that if I wanted to take up track days as a hobby, I needed to do it on my own bike.

I struggled with the decision of which bike to get but ultimately decided on a 600 I4 as I owned a twin and riding different bikes would round me out more as a rider. Besides, I heard they were really fast.

Alex, one of the instructors at Pocono, was selling a 2000 R6. After staring at the pictures of that bike on this very website for a couple weeks I called and he told me that, yes, the bike was for sale but he had an incident at Summit Main the week before and the right side was rashed up. I was realistic about the likelihood of watching my track bike sliding, or worse, tumbling, across the track with my backside rapidly heating up and bruising in places I didn’t even know I had, so we made the deal.

I picked up the bike at the track and rode it for the day to varying levels of success. Long story short, now the left side matched the right.

I went to a couple more track days and gradually worked on my skills. I wasn’t super fast by any particular means, but improving at a gratifying rate. Moving to the intermediate groups in a couple clubs was key in that the freedom on the track came at a good time in my riding education.

Having some friends who race with LRRS encouraged me to at least ride that track. I decided to attend the basic road racing class and stay up to ride the rookie race. I sincerely feel that earning the license is an accomplishment. In retrospect, it takes dedication, specific knowledge, and a not inconsequential set of stones.

I packed up the truck and headed to the 8/31/07 Penguin school with a good friend of mine. We arrived to nice weather, which proceeded, disappear and was replaced with 40 mph winds and heavy rain. We ate and played some cards while holding down the easy-up tent and retired when the weather finally abated. I was more excited than nervous, but wound tighter than an outhouse door spring.

Waking up early, I headed to the Penguin garage about 10 minutes early. This was a treat because I could drool all over the new Ducati’s in the paddock. The 1098 and Hypermotard are both bikes I would compromise my morals to ride. Maybe not, but I really want to ride them….

The morning class session was the standard intro to the track, pit out, pit in, flags and some discussion about body position. We were out in follow the leader sessions by 10:45 which was a pleasant surprise The follow the leader was good in that it provided plenty of time to find the line and markers along the track.

The layout of the NHIS track is challenging and amazingly fun. The elevation changes add another dimension to the riding I had done in the past. The two blind spots on the track are under full acceleration so the approach line has to be spot on.

The afternoon was open session as the track is open for Saturdays racers. The track was never crowded and you don’t sit in the grid for very long on the way out. I was feeling pretty good gradually working up to speed. I spent a couple laps following the CR’s and that really improved my speed through the middle of the circuit. Coming down off the hill through 10 and 11 looks so short as you come out to it but proved to be a sprint through the infield on the line.

We were called into the classroom a couple of times during the afternoon to discuss what the CR’s were seeing on the track. There were a few incidents at 3 and 10 and Steve N. talked about technique through that section and answered any questions we had. At 4 PM we had a scheduled class session that focused on the more procedural aspects of the race. Racer calls, pre-grid, grid and start procedure were all explained in detail as well as a review of the most common wrong answers in a quiz we had taken earlier. It was really to ensure that you didn’t sleep during the class time.

Everyone who completed the course received a card that allowed them to register for the rookie race anytime in the next year. Steve said that it would get you on the track for other club races as well and I have no reason to doubt it.

At that point folks who weren’t sticking around for the races were excused and the rookie racers stayed to review starting procedure again and some Q&A. It was obvious that they intentionally took the time to be repetitive on certain aspects of the class.

During the time we were in the classroom it started to rain again. The track quieted down but Steve talked a bit about the importance of riding in the rain. After a long day and some quality seat time I was thinking of packing it in for the day but at the end of his instruction, Steve said, “Now go ride in the rain.” and I went. This was the best decision I made all day. I was the only one out there without DOT’s (of the three that actually went) and I was acutely aware of that sitting in line, but the simple fact that I was able to feel the bike move around as a result of a wet track made it well worth it. After that, I was much more aware of the position of the bike relative to my body and more sensitive to the feedback of the bike. I am sure it improved my riding the following day.

Jen had arrived while I was in the afternoon session and the infield began to fill up with campers, trucks and tents for the weekend. As she was walking around checking things out and seeing if I was on the track, she heard someone say “Hey, look, only three numb-nuts went out in the rain!” Laughing, she walked up to the two guy’s vantage point and saw that indeed, one the numb-nuts on the track was her beloved husband.

We had an evening meeting for all riders in the rookie race at 6 pm. Other folks who had come from other clubs and previously taken the course attended and we talked about the grid and starting waves, received the forms for the morning registration and told stories for a while. Steve, having ridden and raced for 35 years, had quite a few as you would imagine.

The evening infield camping was great. The people who participate in this sport are a special breed. The sport that you are all passionate about is the one thing that brought you here, the only thing. Because of that, you already know something about everyone there. They either love motorcycle riding or love someone who does. Folks are more relaxed, gracious, and eager to share their experiences with like minded people.

I woke up at 4 and stayed in my sleeping bag until 5. It hadn’t rained overnight, but everything was still soaking form the morning condensation. I got up and started to coals for coffee, completed my paperwork and got out to registration. It was a touch like going to the DMV. Get in one line, get your number and pay some money, get in another line and pay some money. I was given my tech. form and transducer and ran over to the parts trailer for my numbers and a transducer bracket. When I got back to the truck I was completely taken back. My buddy had replaced my rear axle with the one he had to drill out while I was on the track the day before, Jen had coffee and breakfast for me and everyone was as excited as I was.

This wasn’t the first time over the weekend that I got a feeling of modesty mixed with amazement. These folks took time from home, traveled to an unfamiliar place and took care of my needs because they want to and because they wanted to see me safe and successful. I am truly fortunate to have people like this in my life.

I got to tech too late to make the first practice but I knew that would be the case the night before. There is just not time to go through the registration process and make an 8 am practice. The window doesn’t open until 7am and, as a rookie, you have a couple of extra stops to make.

While waiting for my practice call there was a 4 bike incident at the end of the front straight. Someone had blown their motor and a few folks went down into the tire walls in the south end of the oval, attributed to oil on the track. We could not see what happened from our camp but I had a pretty good idea based on the sounds. One of the riders stayed down for a while, however, we could hear him and everyone was relieved it was apparently not a head injury. We got the word later in the riders meeting that he had sustained an injury to his hip and was transported to the hospital lucid and communicating.

I made the second practice, which was red flagged after two laps. Uh-oh, I don’t have tire warmers and my race doesn’t start for 40 minutes. Well, I would have to get some good heat in them on the warm up lap. When the time came I was out to pre-grid in the 1-A spot. Easy to remember however I still wrote it on a piece of tape on my tank just in case. My adrenaline had been up since 4 am and, with so much going on around me, I didn’t want to be the guy pushing his bike around the grid because I lined up in the wrong spot. At this point, I still didn’t have my license and any bone-headed move could eliminate me. It’s a good policy and mainly there to ensure the maximum factor of safety on the track.

I went through the first race launch 100 times in my mind over the last day, but when I got to the starting line it was like nothing I had imagined. I thought a lot about my inputs to the bike to get a jump and keep it in control. What I didn’t think about was the heat, the noise, the people and the scenery of the speedway. It was surreal. The 3 card came up, spin the bike up, the 2 card came up, oh crap, my visor is up, flip the visor down, spin the bike up again…1 card…green flag!

I slipped the clutch well keeping my weight over the front. I had the jump and was leading the pack. When I went to shift into 2nd I missed it and dropped a few positions. After some creative language in my helmet I grabbed 2nd gear and got on the throttle. I managed to recover up into 5th position before leaning into turn one. As I rounded the apex there was a fall in front of me. I didn’t react to it other than consciously focusing op the track on my line.

As the raced progressed I knew I was near the front. I was passed approaching turn 3 in which I held too tight a line and didn’t carry enough speed through the turn 2. I kept my focus following the rider closely and made another mistake in turn 12. At the end of the straightway I overtook the rider ahead of me on the inside. This was the last lap and didn’t want to give up the position.

Coming out of 6 I went faster to 8 and through 9 than I had all weekend, noticeably faster. My turn through 12 and out to the straight was not great. I lost so much speed I was sure the rider following me would be by quickly. As I approached the finish line I was well on my way to 5th gear and the finish flag waved faster and faster. As I crossed the finish line I let off the gas and was passed quickly…whoahhh. He was right there. Neither if us was sure who finished first but we congratulated each other on a good race.

As I took my cool down lap it occurred to me that I had just earned my license. I buzzed around the track giving the thumbs up to the corner workers and with a smile they could probably see through my tinted visor.

When I got back to the truck friends we had made and my crew congratulated me and we talked about the race while enjoying the beautiful day it had turned out to me. I wasn’t sure what place I had come in but I had accomplished what I had come to do. Relaxation quickly turned into another cycle of race prep as I had entered the middleweight superbike race as well.

In that race I was in the 7-A grid, back of the pack. I got a good launch to the middle of the pack by turn 1. There were a lot of bikes there with me but with everyone holding their line, there was some spread by turn 2. Going up the hill into 5 there was a high-side in front of me and an immediate red flag. Restart.

I ran through the race with a good line but it felt a bit slower. 8 laps is a short race by many people’s standards, but the energy spent focusing is significant. After some passing and being passed I crossed the line at WOT and didn’t let off until the turn 1 early braking point based on my experience in the previous race.

I was done for the day and I was proud of myself. My bike performed exceptionally and the experience was beyond my expectations. Lessons I learned about riding, racing and myself won’t be forgotten.

We took a break form packing up to watch the MW Twins race. One of the new friends we made was running and ended up taking 2nd. Watching the race with Jen was tremendous as we chatted about our friend’s performance, the lines we were seeing people riding and what my next challenge will be.


As we made our way home a friend called to congratulate me on my 4th place finish. He had seen it online. That was the first time I had confirmation of my finishing place and it was an awesome feeling. In the MW Superbike I finished 21st, ahead of only 8 people, but the 3rd rookie and even better, my fastest lap times were within 2/10ths of each other for both races. That excited me more. I made mistakes in both races but pleased with my overall consistency.

Was this experience worth the time, cost and sacrifice? Absolutely!

Did it improve my riding? Without a doubt!

Will I do it again? If you have read this far you already know the answer to that!


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