From: Ken Kluge
Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2000
Subject: Who's da Man? Ken's da Man!

Last weekend I succeded in qualifying and racing in my first AMA national
race at Willow Springs Raceway.

Before I go into the details I would like to thank those that helped make
this possible.
Kevin and Clara Carter, who helped with everything from changing tires,
climbing through windows, encouragement, to making fun of me when I screwed
up :)  These two where an outstanding crew and I could not have even come
close to achieving what I did without their help.
Tim Hallbeck, who flew down on Saturday to come help and watch the racing.
It good to know that I have a friend like this that will go through all that
trouble to come down and support his buddy.
Kerri, Lawanna, and Trampus, for welcoming me home from the races with beer
and BBQ, and helping to get things unpacked. This was a great way to return
home. Sorry I wasn't more enthusiastic, but exhaustion had seat in.

It started back on wed of last week when me and Kevin Carter left from Santa
Cruz to head down for practice on Thursday. 2 1/2 hours out we discovered
that I had left my AMA license at home so we turned around and headed back.
Clara Carter went to my house, crawled through my bathroom window got my
license and drove out to meet us in watsonvile so we only lost about 3
hours. We arrived at the track at 4am in the morning. Thursday was practice
and my first time back at willow springs in almost 2 years. (second time
there ever) The goal was to run 1:28.00 lap times as we thought that the cut
off for qualifying would be 1:30.00 and this would give a little margin. I
thought that it would take atleast the full first day to do these times but
I was pleasantly surprised to come in from my first session and find out
that I was doing 1:28's right off the bat. The next session was down to the
1:27's, then we came across the second problem. The tires where shredding
really quickly, and I quickly discovered that I would end up using quite a
few sets this weekend. Friday was a couple more practice sessions and I got
down to running consistent 1:27's and was getting more comfortable with the
track. At the end of the day I qualified for Formula Xtreme with a 1:27.018,
in 21'st position. (out of 35 that qualified). Saturday saw another practice
session in the morning and then 750 Supersport qualifying where I qualified
in 13th position (out of 28) with a 1:26.740, my fastest time yet. Then came
the 750 SS race where I promptly blew it by trying to start the race in
neutral. As people where flying by me and I was fearing for my life I
shifted it into first and took off probably back around 23rd. Pissed off I
put the hammer down and started blowing by people like a mad man. By the 8th
lap I had gotten all my positions back but a huge rear slid at around 100mph
going into the back section of the track and then subsequent slides in
almost every turn told me that I had over cooked my tires and I was getting
tired from going to hard at the begining. Over the next 7 laps I promptly
went backwards to 20th where I finished. The Formula Xtreme race was next
and I was very tired by this point. I got a good start though and held my
own throughout the entire race to finish in 22nd. I accomplished what I had
gone there to do, complete an AMA National race.

The Formula Xtreme race will be televised on Tuesday night at 5pm and 9pm on
speedvision. I am #110 on a blue and white 2000 GSX-R, with red and white
leathers and a helmet with flames on it.

Now for the sales pitch: I went through 6 sets of tires this last weekend
and am now poor so I am selling all my take off's. These tires are worn for
the track but will still make excellent street tires. I have 3 sets of
Dunlop D207 Stars, and 2 sets of Pirreli Dragons, both GP compounds. I will
sell the tires for $50 each or $80 a set so let me know if you want some
tires.

Kenyon Kluge
AFM # 96 AMA # 110
kkluge@extremenetworks.com
Terminal Velocity Racing
www.ttvracing.com

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