Rain Racing!

[Triple J]

I figured a few of you might think this was funny/interesting/crazy.  

WMRRA is one of the few club racing organizations that races in the rain (as far as I'm aware...edit, I guess more race in the rain than I thought)...kind of a necessity given that we're in the Pacific Northwest, and one of our tracks is on the edge of a rain forest. The 1st 2 rounds this season have been wet, so we're all getting plenty of seat time on rain tires...no biggie. My Early Heavyweight GP race this past Sunday was exceptional though...started as a normal wet race, but turned into a full-on deluge about lap 6.5 of 8. Probably would have been red-flagged but by the time the call would have been made we were on the last lap anyway.

I will never again pregnant dog about the pros being wusses and calling for a red flag when it rains hard! Rain tires are normally pretty awesome, and let you get within about 10 seconds of your dry race pace...but at this point they were worthless!

Here's me going thru T13...normally this is a full throttle kink which leads to the straight...not so much now for the full throttle thing:


This is T9...same race as me, but it's a rider in the Formula Thunder class, which was a wave start ahead of my class. This corner is usually 4th gear on the gas hard. The lap before it was just normal wet...which probably explains why he hit it so fast.

[derby]

WMRRA is one of the few club racing organizations that races in the rain (as far as I'm aware)...

CMRA races in the rain... WERA does, too, iirc.

[Triple J]

CMRA races in the rain... WERA does, too, iirc.

I didn't think CMRA did...does it ever rain in Texas though?   Their heat is probably worse than our rain though!  OMRRA does too...but they're our neighbor so they have about as much choice as us. I know AFM doesn't (which surprises me). I almost consider WERA pro even though I know they're club level.

[duccarlos]

Just about any club racing in Florida needs to consider racing in the rain. Anyway, it sucks to ride in the rain normally. I can't imagine the level of suckiness while I'm trying to pass someone.

[ZLTFUL]

CRA races in the wet at Brainerd...but then again, Brainerd is the only track on the schedule. LOL.

Had an AMA pro pass me in the wet at Road America on the brakes for t12. Normally no big deal as I was a slow advanced rider at the time. What impressed me is that he did it with ~10 inches of track on the outside...and there was standing water throughout the turn.

That said, 160mph in the rain makes the drops sting through your leathers. Hehe

[1.21GW]

Silly questions perhaps, but I'm asking anyway: how do you see in that kind of rain?  Do you use Rain-X or the like, or does the speed just blow most of the drops off?

[Triple J]

In typical rain the biggest problem is fogging. Rain on the outside just blows off (although some use Rain X too). To prevent fogging people either use a Foggy insert, Fog City shield attachment (what I use), Pinlock attachment, or put duct tape across your nose and onto the hemet breath guard.

In the really hard rain I don't think anyone could see anything though, regardless of fogging.

[ZLTFUL]

I tried something from my paintball days that worked really well...rub a coat of Dawn dish washing liquid onto the inside of the shield and then wipe clean/dry. Didn't totally prevent it but it seemed to clear faster in most conditions.

[zooom]

when I think of rain racing...I think of 2 things...in general, BSB...and that 1 video of qualifying from Donnington a few years ago of Kiyonari on the Buzz Lightyear colored Honda sliding around in a wild fast out of control lap.

[ZLTFUL]

I can handle wet...I can handle torrentially wet...it's 42* and wet that sucks. Hehe.