I'm still tired.
For those that love motorsport in all it's minor details, I suggest finding you one of these local back alley very club level endurance races and getting involved even as an aficionado photographer like me. The ups and downs of the race must be like the condensed version of a season. Mechanical breakdowns, crashes, high wind, cold temps, hot temps, injuries, oil on track, red flagged race, race direction controversies all rolled in to 24 h.
I took close to 700 pictures following two teams # 50 and 89. The pictures will follow latter. Not all 700!
I arrived trackside at 8:30 AM Saturday to start helping out sorting out the allocated pit area with chairs, tools, replacement parts, and other operating material. Getting the gas jugs mixed and put in the right place. And of course last minute adjustments. One of which was swapping out the cylinder on 89. During this time, practice sessions are going on. The "Cierzo" (local prevailing wind) is blowing strong, with gusts of 60 km/h, 15 degree temps and fast moving scattered skies.
89 is up and running and for Quals we finish a respectable 5th with one bike and around 17th for the other in the general order. There are 4 classes, we ran in the 200 "standard" class and had pole with 50. The start was a "LeMans" start so that plus the distance of the race made starting order not too important but good for braggin' rights.
Quarter to noon is a busy time. Two strokes ripping all around and people push starting multicolored Vespas down the corridors makes for a hectic environment. The bikes are let loose for their formation lap and the wind is pushing hard as ever. It's a beautiful sight, seeing the 50+ Vespas and one Lambretta in pre race silence. Now that I think about it, it was the quietest time of the weekend!
Arranquen Motos! Bikes begin to scatter like ants in all directions as they are push started into a ripping roar. Puffs of blue haze being blown away by the incessant Cierzo. As the bikes regain formations you see the first stint pilots doing nervous pre race stretches or chatting up the neighbors. 10 Sec. Crouch position and they are off and running!
The first laps are easy to follow, but until the field spreads out I found it difficult to focus on a situation. It was like a swarm of bees for the first half lap, and then gradually begins to thin out into a snake. 5 min latter without a time chart you are just watching the moment, like flipping through the channels searching for the most attractive Vespa confrontation. You could just search around the track for a group of 4 or five and be treated to some of the best dicing around. Or focus on a good corner and wait for the action to show up. There is so much of it all the time thought it almost felt like a shame to not be able to witness it all!!
Some other friends of the team show up around 1 PM and get working on the biggest paella I have ever seen. They have the pan and burner walled in by a barricade of boxes so the wind cant blow out the gas flames. Here in Aragon it is common to make paella with non seafood ingredients. I'll post a pic of it! Amazing, fed at least 25 people and a third was left.
Bikes are running good, stint swaps have been good, everything is going smooth until around 6 PM. Bike 89 comes in for a scheduled swap and during the fuel up and mechanical once over is diagnosed with a cracked "cangrejo" and would soon be loosing oil. This part is the gear selector Vespa cleverly installed low and on the right side making it prone to impact with the track in any right hander. Replacement part is put in. While the bike is in the garage, 50 comes in with a loose rear wheel. Vespas are all single sided swing arms, and the first person to use a keeper pin once again saved day, three times actually! An image of the Vespa loosing the rear wheel could have easily happened! After lost time on the respective operations, the bikes and new riders go out to do more circles.
As the evening begins to set in and the lights go on the tourist crowd begins to die down and the locals remain. Things are again running well and both bikes are in the top 6 with over two thirds of the race to go. Time goes by fast.
At twenty to midnight I was watching the bikes go around from the pit wall. It is the main straight followed by a fast sweeping right hander onto the second longest straight. A sudden impact followed by the sound of an asphalt scrapping Vespa turns everyones head to a sparking Vespa and a tumbling rider off into the dust. Then another, and two more together, 5, 6, 7 and maybe 8 bikes go down in succession. Other riders are jumping the pit wall as the corner workers are waving RED flags trying to alert the riders in the dark. The race was stopped and bikes put in the pits while direction made a plan. We scrambled to do some maintenance to the bikes. Once over on the cangrejos and swapped out rear tires. That wasn't planned, but took advantage of the non racing window. Direction decided to restart at 1230 and said nothing of mechanical work done or not and the bikes would go out in some order the deemed correct. And off they went.
The oil culprit was the lone Lambretta. Seems they lost a plug, or whore a hole in something and drizzled the track with oil, corner one the worst. They had to drive around the track with the kitty littler looking for oil the entire track.
From then till 3 AM when I found a mattress in the back of a van, IT WAS CHILLY! It dropped to around 7 C and the wind was still blowing. Nothing like during the day, but still managed to get down your neck and up the pants legs with no problem. OCB blacks and coffee numbed the chill. The bikes were going well and my two good friends had just gone out for a stint, so it was my turn to tuck in.
I definitely slept, and i definitely dram about Vespas and races, bikes buzzing in the distance. I think we won.
I woke up at around 630 and it was cold. No wind, but damn, that mattress in the van was nice! But with 3/4 of the race gone, I was curious of how things had unfolded throughout the night. 2nd and 6th in our class!! 7th over all with #50. The early morning went well. Nothing eventful, just more rider swaps and fuel fills. Bike 89 would finish out the race in a disputed 4th but no more pit issues. 50 finished in 2nd with even more excitement!
Bike 50 started having problems with third gear. At higher revs it would jump into neutral so the last 3-4 hours they were having to do and ungodly amount of shifting to get the times they needed to hold second. They were loosing some time per lap, but not enough to cause worry. Gonzalo, Vespa rider extraordinaire would be heading out for the final stint. Just to give him something else to contend with, as it came in broke the clutch cable. I have no idea what he did, how he did it, what tricks he was doing, but he rode the last hour with a non functioning clutch. The lever was completely limp and had no cable, and still had a ...... third gear. The look on his face coming into park ferme was classic. Amazement, disbelief, exhaustion, and overwhelming joy.
And the Cierzo had died down and we were at a norther european skin sizzling 25 C blue skies and sunny!
