As successful as this weekend was, it was kind of uneventful, too, one of those weekends that nothing too crazy happens. Enough of the commentary, on with this 2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap!
2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap – arrival and overnight
After the last trip to Roebling Road, where it took me seven hours to get there, we left plenty of time for traffic. Of course, that meant we were crazy early. We got to the track at about 2:15PM, and after we registered, we headed into Pooler for coffee at Three Tree Coffee at the Porch, which I highly recommend. The drinks were good, the space is comfortable, and apparently it’s the oldest house in Pooler. Who knew?
Once we got back, we did the usual – set up the tent and paddock, had dinner, and picked up my rental Grom from Joe Fischer. Afterwards, since it was Annie’s first race at Roebling, we walked the track so I could point out some lines.
We knocked off for bed around 9-ish. I went pretty much straight to sleep, but when I woke up around 1:15AM to pee, Annie was sitting outside under the paddock tent, unable to get to sleep because of the heat.
When I awoke, I shut off the alarm and decided to let her sleep, since she didn’t have practice until just before 11AM. She crawled out around 7:30AM, and we got all the preparatory stuff done – registered, bikes tech’ed, breakfast, etc.
2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap – F Superstock Practice
After the crash at CMP, I wanted to get on track and make sure everything was working properly on the bike. I went out and ran both practices, and everything on the bike felt okay.
With that said, everything on the racer wasn’t so great. I cramped up badly in first practice, so I came back in and had a banana, a Biolyte, a bunch of water, and some Advil. Annie commented that looked pretty much like the “please don’t cramp again” diet.
It worked to some extent. I didn’t cramp as badly on the second practice, but I was sore from my prior cramps, and my left hip was still a little tight. Not a lot to be done except keep on hydrating, but it wasn’t great.
2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap – Mini practice
For Mini practice, I told Annie I would lead her around a couple slow laps so she could get lines, which I did. After two laps, I waved her past me on the straight and dropped in behind her so I could see what she was doing. She was doing much better than our last race at CMP – the flowing track seemed to suit her pretty well, and she was getting off the bike more, too. She was struggling a little on right-handers, but overall, she was doing pretty well. We got back in and I gave her a few pointers.
We went to the riders’ meeting and got our grid spots, had some lunch and then got ready for the Mini race, which was right after lunch.
2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap – Mini race
I didn’t see a whole lot of Annie’s race. She caught a false neutral on the start, so I passed her on the straight before the first corner. I passed three or four bikes in the first couple corners, and then settled in about 20 yards behind two racers who were going at it with each other. I kept my eyes on the one in the back, and started to reel them in. I was getting closer every lap, gaining on them particularly in turns four through six, but pretty much everywhere.
As we entered turn 1 for the last lap, I thought I might be able to get at least one of them, if not both. I kept gaining on them, and as we approached turn 7, I was on top of the one in back. As we went through 8, I passed him and tried to close the door on the inside line, but he got me just as we entered turn 9. I dropped into the draft behind him, and I was closing as we approached the line. I waited as long as I could to pull out of the draft, but I crossed the finish line with my front wheel maybe 8 inches behind his, taking 5th.
Annie told me after that she reeled in a couple folks on her own and made a couple passes. She took her first win in her class!
2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap – F Superstock Race
After the Mini race, I chilled for a while waiting for the F Superstock race. It’s probably a good thing the Mini race was exciting, since there wasn’t a lot to talk about for FSS.
When the green flag dropped, I got a pretty good start and latched onto the back of two other racers who were chasing each other down. I was keeping up with them pretty well – not gaining or losing, just hanging on the back of them. I seemed to lose a little on the straight, but I’d gain it right back before turn 3.
About halfway through the race, we were coming out of turn 9, and I missed a shift, and they were pretty much gone.
I’m not great at turning fast laps by myself without anything to chase, and they were too far ahead to really chase them down. I did the best I could, but I started to cramp up really bad on the next lap, and at that point all I wanted to do was finish.
One really weird thing, though. On my last lap, as I was setting up for turn 3, I looked to my left to look through the turn, and did a double-take. About 40 feet off the track was a red fox! I think I let off throttle a little just to look again, to be honest, but there it was, just standing there watching the race.
I didn’t set the world on fire, but I did manage to win my class, even though I was running about a second off my best, a 1:29.7.
2024 Roebling WERA Race 4 Recap – Aftermath
Overall, I can’t complain about a weekend where Annie won only her fourth race, and I picked up another class win!
