2005.Sep.26 Trackoholics Trackday @ Grattan. Well, for those of you who haven't run Grattan backward, you NEED TO! Once you get used to carrying the front tire in the air down 10a into the bus stop, trying to modulate wheelies over the back hump, and coming up 3 backwards where you can't see the track ahead of you, it becomes a blast! It was drizzling during the morning drive until we hit the Ionia area, then the rain stopped, but it was still cloudy. The track was extremely wet, and I skipped the first 2 sessions waiting for it to dry up. Matt went out for one lap the second session, and came back in shaking. After that session the sun came out and the track started drying up nicely. There was a small stream running across the track between 1 and 2 that didn't dry up all day, prompting caution while running through there, and killing your drive onto the straight, but other than that the track surface was excellent, the sun came out and the temps stayed around 70. This was my first time running backwards, which meant learning the track and braking markers, while trying to stay out of everyone else's way. There were some extremely fast guys in advanced, including Eric Spector, an AMA and WERA National Champion, and the pace they were running was insane. He passed me on the back tire between 2 and 1, then proceeded to slide BOTH tires about a foot sideways through the stream into 1, then wheelie out of 1 down the straight. Talk about some stones! I sprained my ankle playing basketball Wednesday night, so I'm going to use my limited mobility as my excuse for being slow today (i'm slow, i know it, get over it.) The last session I was able to drop to 34's, Matt was into the 33's, and Arshag was running 32's. Not fabulous times compared to our clockwise-direction times, but I was happy with it since it was the first time out. Only 2 crashes all day, 1 of which was ridden back to the pits. I think the ambulance drivers slept all day, as they never had a run. Any photos out here that look professional were taken by Karoline Sheldon from Foto Madness (http://www.fotomadness.com).