TriHawks

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

I went out to watch my boss race this weekend. He races 600cc supersport semi-pro. There's a great local track about an hour from my house, where he races a couple times a year. Always a good time to go watch the races, plus because I know him, I get to be defacto pit-crew, which is kinda fun. He did pretty well over the weekend, about 7 races total, and took home 3rd place in his last race of the day on Saturday, out of a field of a little over 30. Not too shabby. It still amazes me how much they lean the bikes. Take a gander at this shot, he's racer number 47 ( in front, of course ), and how far over the bike is leaned. He's probably going about 75mph in this picture:



Trihawk

The other big purpose for this weekend, is the Wegman Benefit fund. Since most ins. companies refuse to cover medical costs for anyone injured racing motorcycles ( since it is inherently dangerous, blah, blah, blah ) it's pretty easy for a lot of the guys if they get injured to get swamped in medical bills. The Wegman Benefit, is a NFP organization that provides assistance to injured racers, to help cover medical expenses that insurance won't pay for. Once a year, they come out on one of the race weekends at the race track, and hold a charity auction to raise money for the fund.

Since I know a few racers, the guy that founded the Wegman fund, and have been at various times involved with designing the website for the fund, I've gone to the auction the last few years. Picked up a few things there, as all sorts of stuff gets donated to the auction. I've got over the years: numerous t-shirts, tickets to Cubs games, two pairs of snowshoes, various coffee mugs and other trinkets from pro race teams.

I got one thing at the auction this year. About 20 years ago, my boss was involved with working on a team of engineers who created a 3 wheeled car called the Trihawk. It's a little two seater car, two front wheels, one rear wheel, an open top, and a roll cage. It's a open front suspension, and powered by a little dynamo of a souped up motorcycle engine. There were only a few ever made, and a few years ago, my boss tracked one down, and bought it from the owner. It's near original condition, and perfectly drivable. It is even street legal, and he'll drive it to work from time to time.

Anyway, I digress. He donated a few track rides in the Trihawk to the auction. Normally, the only way to get on the track, is to be a racer, and get out there on your bike. It's not a super big track, so there's not a lot of room, but the Trihawk is not a very large vehicle, so it was okay. Long story short, I was one of the winning bidders, so the next day I got to put on a helmet, strap into the passengers seat, and hang on as he whipped the Trihawk around the motorcycle course. It's not as fast as a race motorcycle, but we hit 90mph+ at some points on the track.



Pain

I posted last week about my tri up at Lake Geneva, and how the hills kicked my butt. I got back race proofs today, from the official event photographer. There definitely is a marked differece in my expression on the run this time, from my previous races. Gone is my normal smile. I posted them up on my website, click the image below for more. This particular shot is about mile 5 1/2, so I'm about a 1/2 mile from the finish, and was really hurtin' at this point.