AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

Jason and I rolled in on Thursday to ride at the trackday before the AFM weekend. With a whole day to test, I wanted to put Phil’s revalved forks through a few tests, as I’d never run them at Infineon before. The day was essentially a whole bunch of data collection, playing with fork height and nearly every clicker on the suspension. I ended the day in the high 46’s, with a lots more info but still a few significant handling complaints.

Chris Van Andel showed up Saturday to help out with setup and generally lend his capable hands to the team’s racing efforts. With only 4 sessions of practice, we made a few significant moves with suspension that made the bike progressively better, and I was starting to feel really good about the bike. In the last practice session, I started pushing a bit harder, to pick up the pace and see if we could set a decent laptime for the day, and build confidence for Sunday’s races.

That all came to a screeching halt in turn 3 on the last lap of practice. I came a touch too close to the inside curb and my peg caught, immediately sending the bike out from under me, putting me on my back in an asphalt luge up the hill towards the corner worker’s booth. Having not crashed in over year, it was an unfamiliar feeling, and I was chewing myself out for making such a simple stupid mistake while I watched my pretty bike go sliding up the hill. We came to a pretty easy stop, and I was happy to see the bike was in amazingly good shape, all things considered. The team did a fantastic job replacing the broken hard parts, and after some more cleaning and a once-over from Gerry of GP Frame & Wheel the following morning, the bike was 100% ready to race.

Sunday practice ended up being more of a bike shakedown than anything else. A few laps to check over the bike, and that was it. With 1:45.9 as the best time on the sheets for practice all weekend, I’d have to step it up quite a bit in the races to be in the ballgame.

600 Superbike

The front of the 600 grids was a bit thin this weekend, giving me my best grid position of the season – outside of row 1. With everything lined up in my favor, I promptly got one of the worst starts of my life, getting the front end up in the air and letting 6 guys get ahead of me into turn 2. I passed Billy on the brakes into 9 on the first lap and took off after Berto, but the harder I pushed, the slower I seemed to go. The gap grew a few 10ths per lap, and I finished in my all-too-familiar 6th place, although a DQ officially bumped me up to 5th. Best lap: 1:43.3

I spent 10 minutes immediately after the race talking through what worked and what didn’t about each and every corner on the track, replaying the areas where I was losing time, and finding out why I was slow. I was early apexing most corners on the track, spending more time on the brakes and giving away max corner speed to get my direction change done. The next race, Formula Pacific, would have to be treated as practice, working on a few of these spots.

Formula Pacific

Gridded in 14th against a bunch of 1000s, I knew I’d be circulating at the back, but it was valuable track time, and I put it to good use. Running 2 seconds per lap slower than the previous race, I tried a few different approaches to turns 2, 4, 5, 8 and 9, being disciplined about turn-in, and focusing on full throttle points.

Somewhere around lap 6, as I came through the 8s, I found something I didn’t know I’d been often missing while racing this year – enjoying riding. With no one ahead of me to catch, and no significant threat from behind, I had a moment to take in my surroundings. As I flipped the bike into the left, and back over to the right, grabbing a shift as I stood the bike up, I suddenly realized how much I enjoyed that section of the track. Lap times were out of my mind, and it was just me and the bike, playing on a track. It somehow felt very unfamiliar. It was as if I’ve been looking at each corner as an enemy, to be beaten, instead of enjoying riding each part of the track.

When I came through the 8s in the next lap, I got a little overeager and broke the front end loose on the transition from left to right, but just laughed and kept going. It wasn’t a significant mistake – just something to note and keep going. If I hadn’t been having so much fun, I might have given it more thought and gone fishing for a solution in my riding or suspension. Something to consider…

I finished in 11th, with a best lap of 1:45.2. With only the FP podium ceremony to relax, the team threw a new tire on the rear, and I downed a bunch of water.

600 Production

Again gridded in 4th, I got a better start, following Lenny and Berto into turn 2. As we came through the first few turns, I tried to remind myself to hit my marks and not throw out all of the things I’d practiced in the previous race. Liko came by me with a tight pass into 7, but I stayed on pace and watched him pass Berto even tighter into 9. That brought both of them right back to me, as I had to slow up to avoid running up on them in the middle of 9. Liko pulled out a quick gap on Berto, and I focused on holding pace with Berto and seeing where I could pull him in. As we worked our way around the track, it was pretty obvious that I was getting absolutely murdered through 5 and 6, but pulled it all back in from the entrance of 7 down to 9. In my moments of practicing and having fun through the 8s during FP, I’d found some speed that was paying off.

In the 4th lap, I closed up right behind Berto coming out of 11 and stayed with him up into 1. When he ran wide out of 2, I was tempted to look up the inside into 3, but I decided to not force the situation and instead set up the pass for 7 or 9, where I knew I was stronger. However, in that decision, I gave up a little of my mental intensity, and dawdled through the next few corners, giving him back a bit of a gap. That put him out of reach as we came through the 8s, and I went back to work to close the gap down again. He’d yank me out of the carousel, and I’d pull it all back in down the hill into 9. I ran out of time to make a move when the red flag came out on the 7th lap, ending the race. I finished 4th, with a best lap of 1:43.1. It was good to finish the weekend with solid laps, with a view of the front the whole time.

On the other hand… 2 rounds at Thunderhill, tons of suspension changes – which I thought were improvements – followed by 2 days of practice at Infineon and we end up with exactly the same laptimes as the last round. How is that possible? If someone arbitrarily moved the knobs on my bike, would I adapt and run the same 1:43s I’ve been running most of the season?

In the 2 days since Sunday, I’ve had time to reflect a bit more, and it seems like there are a few possible answers out there.

Number one: The fact that we’ve been changing the bike so much all the time has caused me to spend a ton of my attention trying to feel out the bike, vs. just working on my riding. I don’t settle down to the business of going fast until mid-day Saturday, and that’s been the case for much of the season.

Number two: Talking with Jason for an hour on Saturday night, we both concluded we have the same bad habits of turning in early on a whole bunch of corners, and we both do it more the faster we try to go. It’s a natural reaction, but it just results in working harder for nearly the same lap time.

Number three: As I started to notice while racing FP, I’ve developed a habit of looking at the track as the nemesis, fighting to hit all the “right” brake and throttle points on the “right” line, and just squeeze the margins to find time. When I miss a mark, I’m likely to do something else to try and correct it that just makes me slower. It’s become very mechanical, not fun, and slow. If I can find ways to enjoy each section of track, and work with the flow, vs. fighting it, I believe I’ll be far better off. That’s a little bit vague, but I think there’s something to it. Once I relaxed in the 8s this weekend, it became far easier to go fast there, on a variety of lines.

Now that I’m done with the self-critique… it really was a pretty good weekend. I got out of a crash with the lightest damage possible, and didn’t miss a single lap. Laptimes were pretty good, and my overall results of 4th and 5th were the best of the season, bringing me up to 4th overall in 600 production and 5th overall in 600 superbike.

Thanks to all the regular Z2 folks for putting my bike back together, swapping wheels, and doing all the mundane stuff that makes my life so much easier. I want to show you guys the podium results your efforts deserve, and hopefully we’ll put that all together at the next round. Chris V – your adjustments on Saturday were spot on, and I wish I’d had more time to explore the limits of the rear end grip we got with that last change. Chris MacGuire – thanks for being the hardest working tire guy in the paddock, with the best tires too. The Pirellis rocked.

Overall Weekend Results:

Race Started Finished Best Lap Total Starting Riders
600 Superbike 4th 5th 1:43.3 32
Formula Pacific 14th 11th 1:45.2 12
600 Production 4th 4th 1:43.1 28

Thunderhill – Take 2. After last round’s front end issues, I gave Phil Douglas both sets of my forks to doctor up and give us some options for round 5. Stiffer springs in the Ohlins forks, and his full re-valve work on the stock ’08 forks.

Friday practice. The stiffer springs were an immediate improvement in the Ohlins forks. The bike tracked out of exits much better, holding a tighter line and taking care of my main complaint. Braking was far more stable as well. However, I wasn’t quite happy with the way it felt mid-corner and in transitions. We tried raising the front, but didn’t see any major gains. Jason suggested we swap bikes for a few laps in the afternoon. I immediately felt far more confident on his bike with the re-valved forks. We agreed that the Ohlins stuff just felt nervous while not hard on the brakes or gas.

The Ohlins stuff has worked better in the past, but with Phil not at the track this round, I had a quick decision to make for the last session of the day. We ditched the Ohlins stuff, swapped on my 08 re-valved forks and matched Jason’s settings exactly. I immediately went out and turned faster, more confident laps.

Saturday practice. With a whole new front end, I spent much of the day just getting comfortable and re-adjusting reference points, while attempting to work on my drive out of 15 and entrance into 1, weak points from last round. I finished the day with a 1:55.3, beating my best race laptime from the last round by a few tenths – without race gas – exactly where I wanted to be for Sunday.

My weekend went from pretty confident to concerned Sunday morning, when I pinched a nerve in my neck while pedaling my bicycle. Unable to turn my neck more than half way either direction, I got a massage from Denise of and started icing the thing like crazy. From past experience, I knew I wouldn’t be back to 100% for a couple of days, but the worst would go away within 4-8 hours. It was slightly settled down by first practice, and I went out for some easy 1:57 laps with Jason, making slow deliberate upper body movements to avoid exacerbating the neck situation.

600 Production

With a couple of hours before my first race, my neck had a chance to calm down a bit more, and I wasn’t feeling too hampered by it by race time. The downside to all that downtime was the challenge of staying focused. With a whole morning of watching other racing, I didn’t work hard enough to prepare myself mentally.

Starting from 5th position, I got an OK jump, in 5th through turn 1, but simply didn’t have my mind up to race pace and ready to go. For the first lap, I let what seemed like an army of guys by me. Down to 10th by turn 6, I didn’t get up to a decent pace until the 2nd lap, once they’d pulled a few seconds on me. With that gap, I wasn’t able to see where I was weak or strong and adjust any of what I was doing. Unable to close down the gap, I rolled through the race in that position doing consistent 1:54’s, finishing in 6th, due to crashes, mechanicals and DQs. Not the performance I expected from myself.

Between races, I ran through that first lap in my head over and over. The goal for the 2nd race would be putting in a solid first lap, no matter what. Green flag. Go.

600 Superbike

Gridded in 7th, I got a good jump, 3rd through turn 1 behind Lenny and Liko. I got on the gas early and when Liko went for the brakes I rolled around him into turn 2, pulling up behind Lenny in the middle of turn 2. Damn, we’re here. Let’s go get him! The tires were hooking up great, and I found myself running up on him in 3. Without any setup, I foolishly looked up the inside and gave away my drive up the hill into 5, giving away an early gap. As we rolled through 6, 7, and 8, I pushed hard, and was rewarded when Lenny looked back over his shoulder going towards 10. Yeah, I’m still there. Let’s go!

Through the next couple of laps, I held the gap, pulling Lenny in through 1-4 and on the brakes into 14, but gave it all the way when it came time to get on the gas in 6,7,8, and 9. I started losing touch with Lenny on the 3rd lap in the back half of the track and became increasingly aware of my tires starting to slide. The early pace had worked them pretty hard, and I wasn’t getting the same feel out of them. Pulling Lenny back in was getting less likely and I focused on putting in clean quick laps. On lap 4, the hoard started to show up. When Liko came by me, I started to see just how badly I was giving away time in the back half. I could eat folks up in 1,2,3,4 but just handed it all back in spades later. 1:54’s weren’t enough to hold them all off and I gave away 4 positions before the end of the race. I finished 6th with a best lap of 1:53.3, cutting 2.3 seconds off my best time from Round 4.

While I’d seen my first podium of the year in front of me for a few laps in the early stages of this race, and 6th is a long way from a podium, I was very happy with this result. Even with some pretty screwed up approaches to key corners in the back of the track, I managed to hold onto Lenny for a while, running good first laps. A more intelligent approach to those corners and some more time fiddling with these new forks and I’m confident we could have been running for the win.

Thanks Phil for all the work getting the forks done, and thanks to the whole Z2 crew for continuing to be so supportive and helping me go focus on racing. The next two rounds are looking very good, with some testing and coaching time lined up. Putting a few more key things together with my riding, and going hard flag to flag, we’re going to be in pretty good shape. Can’t wait.

I am my own harshest critic. At the end of every race weekend, I look back at what I did and ask myself “did I get everything out of myself and my bike”? Invariably, there’s a laundry list of things I could have done differently. In large part, race reports are a way for me to gather my thoughts and make sure I remember the lessons I’ve learned and improve my program.

After struggling with getting the bike to exit out of certain corners during the last 2 rounds at Infineon, Jason and I planned to do everything possible to get the bikes dialed in for Thunderhill. Phil at Aftershocks went through and refreshed both shocks and forks and improved some of the valving. A test day with Z2 at Thunderhill on June 4th gave us a chance to check it all out and try to improve our corner exit issues. I came away with a slightly better bike, but needed a different rear spring to get the good rear traction Jason was getting from his bike. I’d considered buying more spring sizes at the beginning of the season but just let that concept slide. Preparation lesson #1.

I showed up at Friday’s open test day at Thunderhill with 2 new springs. After Phil showed up and we got the spring swapped out, my drive traction was way better. We spent the rest of the day fiddling with the knobs to get the rear end tuned so it would stay in place mid-corner and get the chassis re-balanced. Mid-afternoon, I felt like we were converging on a good setup, but in chasing Somy Hoffman for a few laps, I realized just how far off the pace we were in a few areas. Trying to pick it up, I found myself fighting to get the bike to finish turns. As soon as I’d open the throttle, the front end would track wide, and I’d end up pulling hard on the inside bar to keep it in line. We finished the day with some significant geometry changes, but no major improvement. Low 1:57’s were all we managed.

In Saturday practice, with Phil back at the shop, his helper Jason Hauns took over as head suspension fiddler. Now that I was really paying attention to this turn finishing issue, it was starting to become clear that the front end just wasn’t behaving. Our rear spring change had changed the overall balance of the bike. We had lots of traction, but the front wasn’t playing well with the back. After a few calls to Phil, and trying multiple adjustments, we ended the day concluding I probably needed different fork springs, and made some rear end damping adjustments that somewhat compensated for the issues up front. Preparation lesson #1 (again). Know exactly what is in both ends of the bike, and bring other springs.

Sunday morning’s 1 practice session was spent focusing on how to ride around the issues and avoid getting eaten up too badly in 1,2,3,4,6 and 8. The bike behaved pretty well in 11-15, except for a somewhat unpredictable drift on the gas out of 8, 13 and 15. I’d have to give away some room out there to make sure I stayed on track. With only a 1:56 chasing Liko on race gas, I knew we were pretty short of where I was hoping to be for the races.

Race 1: 600 Production

Onboard video

Gridded in 7th, I had a pretty good outside line heading into turn 1. I got away well, but I gave away positions in 1, 2, and 3. The fresh SC1 rear was sticking well though, and helped compensate for my tracking issues. A red flag on lap 2 gave me a second shot at the start with my new traction confidence.

I held 5th until turn 9 when Somy Hoffman came by. With Tinagero and Hoffman both unable to get around Berto, I had a lap to size up the situation, and passed both of them into 14. Closing down on Berto, I outdrove him out of 8, but wussed out on the brakes, and couldn’t complete the pass in 9. He held the outside line and gapped me down the hill. That was my shot to get by and head after Liko and I didn’t take it. Robert came by into 14, and I found myself battling both of them for the rest of the race, with Somy joining the party as well. I was strong between 11 and 15, but was inconsistent fighting the bike around the rest of the track. We passed the checkers in a pretty close group, with me in 6th. Best laptime: 1:54.3

Race 2: 600 Superbike

Onboard video

As I rolled out to the hot pits to warm up the tires a minute before the warm up lap, I noticed my left clipon had moved towards me a bit, presumably during the last race. I banged the bar back out to its normal marked position and headed out on the warmup lap. I’d need to pay close attention to any movement in the race. I knew I was pulling really hard on the inside bar in turn 8 to get the bike to finish the turn, and had no desire to have a moment in that area of the track.

Gridded 5th (inside of the 2nd row). My start was ok, but with the tighter turn around the corner, Berto came back by, and I found myself in 4th, and held that for the first few corners. After another half-assed pass attempt into 10, I drove past Berto out of 13 and set off after Liko. Hell yeah. 3rd place and charging. Let’s do this. No such luck. As I came through 8 on the second lap, the front end gave me a big smooth slide. It came back together ok, but it was far from inspiring. As I came through the next few corners, I got a very not-sticky feeling from the front end. For all my other complaints about the bike this weekend, the front hadn’t been actually sliding in the corners. This was something new and weird. Combined with the rear tire starting to go off due to our aggressive compression settings in the rear, the bike was getting more out of shape every lap.

Sebastiao and Santa Coloma passed me on lap 3, and Berto came by in a tight move into 3 on lap 4. Coming through 5a, he threw up a hand in apology, but his hand came back down on his kill switch! Barely avoiding hitting him, I drive by, only to be passed by him around the outside of 1 on the next lap. With my only goal to bring home the strangely handling bike, Eccleston and my teammate Jason come by me on the 2nd to last lap, with Iturrioz joining them in the last lap. To my dismay, as they came through 8, I watched Jason go down, with his bike hitting the berm and going airborne with a few flips. Cursing, I looked back, confirmed the big gap behind me and brought it home in 9th, with a best laptime of 1:54.8.

As I pulled in, I asked the guys to check tire pressures to see if there was something out of whack with the front. Nope. Spot on. The rear was a bit high, and was tearing, but nothing too crazy. Later, as we packed up for the day, we notice that the left fork had slid up in the triples by 6mm. I’m not sure whether that happened during the turn 8 slide moment, or at the end of race 1. Either way, it explained the front end sliding issues. Preparation lesson #2. Go over anything adjusted on the bike twice. Then do it again.

I left the track with a deep sense of unfinished business. The bike could have been much better if I’d planned better, had other springs on hand and pushed the pace sooner in practice to reveal the issues. On the other hand, I’m not sure if we would have been able to clearly identify issues and keep it on 2 wheels pushing any sooner.

The front end is already in Phil’s capable hands, and we should have a much better bike (and other spring options) soon. Can’t wait to give it another go next round.

Thanks Z2 for your support this weekend, Phil for all the suspension efforts, Sam and Kyle for helping in the pits, and Joe for the schweet pics!

Another rider’s misfortune became my good fortune early in the race weekend. I’ve been trying to get on Ken Hill’s schedule for a 1-on-1 day of coaching for some time. At this Friday’s Z2 trackday, Ken’s student irreparably crashed his bike early in the day. I picked up the 2nd half of the day of coaching and worked with Ken all afternoon.

My plans for the weekend revolved around fixing my approach to the carousel and continuing to work on braking into turn 7. I was losing time hand over fist in these areas, and needed solutions in a bad way. Having Ken for the afternoon was a godsend, because I didn’t really know how I was going to fix the carousel… just that it needed fixing. Shawn Reilly had given me some good pointers for these corners, but I was having a really hard time turning a verbal description into actual brake/throttle position, turn in points, etc.

In the first afternoon session, Ken picked out 3 areas to work on: carousel (obviously), 7 (the exit – which I didn’t realize was an issue), and a different approach to turn 2. After the 2nd session of riding and video, I was understanding and applying – to a limited degree – his new approaches to all of the corners. Turn 6 was still psyching me out a bit, and after listening to me beat myself up about it for the 10th time Ken turned to me and said “Go get suited up. We’re going for a 2-up ride”. Damn it. I hate being a passenger on anything, let alone a bike on a racetrack. Oh well, if this was the way to sort it out, then that’s how it’d have to be.

We meandered around the first few corners, then as we came around 5, Ken pinned it up the blind hill. That’s a hell of a rollercoaster when you’re not at the controls. By the time I got my stomach back in its place, we were coming around 5 again. This time, I took the opportunity to just watch the track and let him worry about where we were going. Turns out, there’s a whole lot more time and distance in a straight line to be on the gas AND on the brakes. I’d reduced it to nothing in my head, and the view from the passenger seat was exactly what I needed to reset my perspective.

After a full afternoon of working on these 3 corners, plus trying out some pointers on pretty much every other corner on the track, I finished the day with unimpressive 1:47 laptimes, but a wealth of new knowledge. It looked like I could drop full seconds off last round’s times if I could just get some repeatable improvement in these areas.

Saturday practice has typically been the time where I’ve tried to push, sort out suspension issues, and get as close to race pace as possible. Given everything I’d learned with Ken, the plans changed a lot. The 4 sessions were spent applying all the input from Friday. Bike setup would have to wait until another day. This weekend would have to be about the rider. With that in mind, I put in some quality practice sessions, with some pretty unquality laptimes – a 46.3 was all I hit, but reminded myself that literal laptimes weren’t the goal. I finished the day with a entrance to 6 that was losing me a lot less time, a drive out of 6 that kept me on par most of the time, a turn 7 that kicked ass when I got it right, plus lots of other little gains in 2, 3a, 5, 8, 9a.

Sunday morning. My schedule was race 2 – 600 Production, followed a while later with race 7 – 600 Superbike and Formula Pacific back-to-back. With that schedule, the back-to-back races would give me a feel for what an 18 lap AMA race might be like, testing focus and endurance more than our usual sprints.

600 Production

Due to the new 4-wide gridding structure, my 5th place grid spot was 2nd row. With the wall to my left, I knew I’d have to get a good jump if I wanted to be near the front out of turn 2. My launch was only ok, and I got pinched off, rolling off for a second to avoid running up on Sebastian. Heading up into turn 2, it was Hale, Liko, Sebastian and Barnett ahead of me. My drive out of 6 sucked and Berto pulled past me on the outside, pulling in front of me into 7 before getting on the brakes early. Hung out behind him, Wiwi dove inside of both of us to take over 5th. After Sebastiao crashed in 8a and Berto and I both passed Barnett, I settled down to click off some better laps and get back in front of Berto. Jacob Rower came by me with a really tight pass into 4 – standing me up, and Eccleston joined the party a lap or two later. With yellow flags out on half the track, I couldn’t find a good spot to pass Berto until the very last corner, squaring him up and beating him to the line by a .02 seconds. I finished in 6th and set my personal best laptime of 1:43.2, with an average lap of 1:44.5

600 Superbike

From the second row again, I got a better start, in 3rd into turn 2. Billy Scott passed into the lead as Lenny missed a shift. Eccleston came around me through 3, showing off a weakness which Liko would take advantage of the next lap, passing me in the same spot. Hoffman passed me into 7 when I didn’t keep with the plan and let the guys in front of me dictate my brake marker. I got him back out of 11, and set off after Billy Scott. My line into 6 was too tight, killing my drive. Hoffman drove past me between 6 and 7, but got on the brakes early, and I passed him right back into 7. Billy was getting closer, but I spent too long committing to a place to pass him. After almost outdriving him out of 7 twice (one the areas Ken guided me), Berto took advantage of my lack of a plan around Billy in the carousel and drove around me on the way out. I re-passed him into 7 a bit tight (sorry man!) but he got he better of me into 8, and we both passed Billy through 10 and 11 as his rear end spun up out of 9. I spent the rest of the race chasing Berto as we both tracked down Eccleston, but couldn’t get it done before the checkers. I finished 5th, setting a new personal best 1:42.9, with an average lap of 1:44.3

Formula Pacific

With a quick splash of gas and drink of water I headed out for FP. Gridded at the back, I got past a few guys into turn 2. Kunzelman came by me on the second lap, and Santa Coloma came by on the gas out of 6. He braked way early into 7 – it seems like everyone was braking early after working on this corner with Ken – and I almost passed him back, but thought better of it. He was on his 1000, and I knew he usually had about 2 seconds more pace on that bike, which should be able to pull away from my 600. Sure enough, he kept up a good clip working up through the field, and left me to deal with Harley Barnes. I tracked him down a couple laps later, and took another couple to set up a pass into 9. After that, I settled down to gap out Harley and see if I could close down on Kunzelman again. No dice. He kept up his pace, and I finished in 9th, with a best lap of 1:43.0, an average of 1:44.0 with 5 of 8 laps in the 43’s.

I can’t thank Ken enough for his help getting my head wrapped around some of my problem corners and showing me how to improve a bunch of other areas I didn’t know about. Chris, that new Pirelli SC2 front is outstanding. Sam, Tom and all the other folks at Z2 – your helping hands and encouragement make all the difference.

Shortly after Round 1, I attended a 3 hour classroom session with Ken Hill, where he reinforced a bunch of core concepts – approach to corners, utilizing brakes, and body position. It was a really good reminder of just how much the basics matter. I’d fallen out of the habit of thinking my way around a track, and it really showed down at Buttonwillow. I have every intention of finishing this season with the ability to comfortably run with the leaders in every race, and I need a solid foundation to be able to go fast every round at every track.

I spent the next Z2 trackday at Infineon tearing down some of my bad habits with body position, while trying some new approaches to corners, ignoring lap times all day. I swapped my Ohlins front end from last year’s bike onto the ’08 as a test, and immediately realized why I’d been battling this new bike. The Ohlins cartridges had far better feel while trailing to the apex of a corner. The stock stuff was great up to a point, but when really pushing it into a corner, it stopped giving any feedback. I came away from the day with a better bike and some better lines.

Friday’s PTT trackday gave me a bit more time to work on the same things, with fresh muscles and brain, but I finished the day slow overall, only running 1:48’s. Saturday’s practice was intended to be all about going faster, but I finished the day only running 1:46’s with some other 600 riders walking me out at about a second a lap. Not the best baseline going into Sunday’s races. However, I wasn’t having any moments out there, compared to some of my competition who blew corners all day or crashed out.

600 Superbike

With a inside grid spot on row 2, I knew I’d need to get a great launch to get clear of the front row, or I’d get pinched up against the wall and blocked into turn 2. As the green flag waved, that’s exactly what happened, and I found myself in 9th going into turn 2, following the pack. I got around Jason going into turn 2 on the second lap, but by that time, the field had checked out, and I found myself doing lonely laps a couple seconds behind Billy Scott. I tried to keep my head down and run clean, quick laps, but I slacked a little bit, and on the second to last lap, Gabe Santa Coloma came around me into the 9’s – geez, I must have been dawdling. I squared him up to drive past him out of 11, but he missed a shift, and I had nowhere to go. I rolled off to avoid him, giving Hoffman the opportunity to come by into turn 1. I couldn’t reel them in on the last lap, and I finished in 10th.

Formula Pacific

In my first time racing this class, I was at the back of the grid, in 22nd spot. Against 1000s, my bike is totally outclassed, but it’s a great opportunity to ride with good riders, learn from their lines, and work on being consistent for 10 laps vs. our regular 8 lap races. I got an ok launch, bringing me up to Hoffman and Tinagero, also on 600s. Now that I was running closer to these guys, I could see where I was losing time. I was absolutely getting destroyed on the exit of the carousel, and a bit into 7. I could pull them in a bit everywhere else, but I was losing it all between 6 and 7. They slowly gapped me, and I rode some lonely laps until the second to last, when I saw someone coming up behind me as I came around turn 11. I put my head down for a fast lap to retain my spot. He came by me on the brakes into 7, but I squared him up and held my position to the checkers. 16th place. 1:45’s all race, except for the lap where I let Brad catch me. Next time, race flag to flag!

600 Production

With one race to go before the weekend finished, I desperately wanted to end on a high note, evidence that all the effort I’d been putting in was actually paying off. So far, it seemed like it wasn’t making that much difference. As I tried to let the music get me amped up and focused on going fast, I remembered something my teammate Jason mentioned earlier in the day – something about races just being the result of your practice. The point was, nothing would make me miraculously 3 seconds faster – music, red bull, race gas, or anything else. The best I’d run all day was a 1:45.3, and without time to work out my issues with turns 6 and 7, I wasn’t likely to go much faster than that without riding over my head. With next round’s pace likely to be in the 41’s for the win, consistency and learning from other riders was more important than riding a second faster out of control. Race flag to flag, and let the results be what they will be.

I was starting on the outside of the second row, with a good view of the wide line into 2. I got a good launch and stayed on the gas up the hill, slotting in behind Sebastiao for 2nd. Woohoo! That’s only the second time I’ve started that well. Stay on the gas! I was able to hold onto him into the carousel, but on the way out, he got a much better drive. I made it up on the brakes and held with him for another 2 full laps. Although I wanted to make a block move on him to lead a race for the first time, I knew our pace wasn’t much faster than I’d been doing all day, and there were probably a few guys nipping on our heels. Getting into a battle wasn’t going to help anything.

Hoffman came around me in the carousel on the 3rd lap, with Tinagero and Hale diving past me into 7 on the 5th lap. It was pretty obvious where I was getting schooled. Aside from my bad exit to 6, my line and braking into 7 wasn’t working, and set me up for a horrible drive on the way out. Oh well, not going to mess with it now. I kept my head down and clicked off laps. Berto came by a little later (into 7 again, I think). On the last lap, as we swept out of 4, Hoffman highsided in the middle of the track. We all narrowly missed hitting him at 90mph. I finished the race in 5th, with the 4 other guys only a couple seconds ahead.

I’ve never finished a race with the leader only a corner away, and it felt really good to run clean laps near the front. I ran very consistent low 45’s and a lone 44, with no significant moments. Sticking to the program and racing flag to flag, the results in this race were good, and there’s a lot to work with and build on for the next round.

Despite a bad choice of gearing that required feathering the clutch out of 9 and 11, I was getting a better drive than most of the other guys. Given my bone stock motor and pump gas, I wasn’t getting pulled as hard as I thought I would on the long straights. Hopefully by next round, we’ll have a little motor work done, and the race gas will actually show up at the track. But first, I have 2 trackdays to figure out 6 and 7, and hopefully pick up a second or two.

Thank you Z2 and Pirelli for your support. Sam and Tom, your help is invaluable. Chris, thanks again for great tires and great service.

Race videos: http://ridemerchant.com/video/2009/4.26/

“The fact that you’ve done a certain lap time does not mean you can do it again. You have to earn it every time”. I heard this from someone, I’ve passed it along to others, and I re-learned the lesson yet again at this race round. I ended last season with a best finish of 4^th in 600 superbike, turning low 1:52’s. This year, I’m on a new ’08 R6 with better parts, support from Z2, and more physically fit than I was all last season. I should be able to just go out there and work on getting into the 1:51’s, right? If only it were so simple.

Coming into this weekend, I’d spent only 2 track days on this new bike, wrestling with the suspension, finally reverting to my teammate Jason Lauritzen’s setup from last season – since his bike has exactly the same shock and front end. That got the bike to a point where I could at least ride it, but given our different riding styles, I knew I’d have to make adjustments this weekend.

Along with adapting to the new bike, I started to realize very quickly how much I’d have to adjust to the new team as well. After spending all of last season doing everything myself, leaving tools on the wall for suspension tuning and swapping tires frantically between races, this concept of having folks available to help all the time was a bit strange. I like doing things myself, knowing that they’re getting done, and only needing to trust my work when I go ride the bike. Having other helping hands on my bike is going to take some getting used to. That said, the support was phenomenal, and we figured out better ways to work together throughout the weekend.

Friday’s practice was spent slowly realizing I just couldn’t make Jason’s setup work for me. The bike wouldn’t track predictably, in or out of the corner. I assumed it was me over-riding the bike, but I couldn’t get more comfortable no matter what I tried. Jason from Aftershocks had been waving a piece of paper at me most of the day, with some setup numbers Phil had sent along with him. I had glanced at the numbers in the morning, realized they were wildly different than what I was riding, and decided to adjust from where I was at, instead of starting over. Well, that didn’t work, and by 3pm Jason was applying Phil’s magic formula to the bike. Immediately, the bike started going where I wanted it to, and I finished the day with slow laptimes, but a bike that behaved pretty well.

As we started practicing Saturday, I realized I just didn’t have the track time to accomplish everything I needed to do to run near the front on Sunday. It was taking me a lot of laps to unwind the whacky things I’d been doing to try and ride the crappy suspension setup for 3 days. Instead of just pushing brake markers and trying to get on the throttle harder, I decided to step back and look at the building blocks, and make sure I was at least doing everything right that I knew about. To that end, I followed Jason and Ken Hill for most of the afternoon. While Ken was purely focused on teaching Jason for their day of 1-on-1 coaching, I was able to watch him and pick up a number of approaches to corners. More importantly, following the guy reminded me in every corner that there are ways to go faster without pushing harder. By the end of the day, I was more comfortable, a bit wiser, but not particularly faster. I wish I could have spent a day with Ken, picking his brain, and then spend another day working on braking, but no such luck. Time to race.

Sunday dawned wet and cold. I found myself debating the value of my chain and sprocket combination… since it put the tire so close to the swingarm, I couldn’t fit a tire warmer on the rear wheel. On sunny Friday and Saturday, running without warmers wasn’t an issue, but at 50 degrees, guessing at cold pressures was going to cause issues. However, the 48 sprocket was giving me good drive onto the front straight, and I wasn’t willing to switch gearing and shift points right before the races. In hindsight, I should have taken the wheel off to warm it and set temp, then re-mount it.

600 Superbike

Starting from 4^th, I got away well, and I slotted in behind Lenny into turn 1. We were red flagged in the first lap. On the restart, I followed Lenny into turn 1 again. I did my best to keep tight on his back wheel, but Eccleston came by me into turn 3, with Elena coming by shortly after. I held down 4^th for a little while, but Berto and Tinagero passed me, with Sebastiao bumping me out of the way into the sweeper. Thankfully I caught a glimpse of his bright yellow suit and stood the bike up a bit to make it a bump rather than a punt. I finished the race in 7^th.

750 Production

Jason and I added this race just for fun, since 2 races in a weekend was a bit light, and it was back-to-back with 600 Superbike, so pretty easy to run the same used tires and then switch to fresher tires for the 2^nd 600. Nice theory. I started 3 rows from the back of the grid, on the inside, pretty well stuck from getting a good launch. As we went jamming into turn 1, I got a first hand reminder of how scary the mid-pack can be. A few guys went bowling for riders, but everyone bumped their way through turn 1. I held back, planning to pick people off one by one. That didn’t go as planned, as the 5 guys ahead of me insisted on trying to pass each other in every turn, with one nearly cleaning me out when he briefly lost control headed into riverside. We were red flagged, and the restart went roughly the same way, minus a couple of riders. I wrote off getting anywhere near the front, and focused on riding clear and safe, making passes where possible. Seeing Jason go down in a cloud of dust made me even more conservative, and I brought it home in 14^th. I won’t be running this race again. I’ll run Formula Pacific as a 3^rd race, if the schedule works out well.

600 Production

After spending some time looking at Jason’s very broken bike between races, not crashing moved up my list of priorities significantly. The very cold and windy day had resulted in a number of crashes all around, and I was determined to not put the other Z2 bike on the ground.

I got a better launch than Lenny this time, but got on the brakes WAY too early into turn 1, and was passed up the inside, with Elena coming around the outside into 2. I knew she was gridded on the 3^rd row – wow, killer start. I found myself fighting the bike on the exits of all the fast turns, trying to keep it from drifting wide. The wind was strong, but steady, so there was definitely something else wrong. After having to shut down the throttle twice on the exit of the esses to avoid running off where Jason crashed, I backed it down a notch, and focused on running clean lines. After finishing 9^th, I pulled in and checked the front tire. It was at 30 lbs. hot. That’s more than 3 lbs. lower than I’d been running all weekend. I’ll be running tire warmers from now on.

My big takeaways from the weekend:

- Work on braking, braking, braking. I was giving away 5-10 bike lengths into a bunch of the corners, on initial brake markers alone.

- Don’t spend much time comparing suspension notes with Jason. We’re different riders. I need to find what works for me, stick with it, and develop it.

- Use the tire warmers. Reduce variables. Make sure the tire pressures are exactly where they need to be after every session.

- Get time working with Ken Hill

Thanks Z2, Pirelli, and all of my other sponsors for helping make this weekend happen. With 2 more development trackdays at Thunderhill and Infineon, we should be in much better form for round 2.

The main objective for the weekend was breaking the two bad habits I seem to have developed: going way slower in practice than races and going slow out of the gate for the first couple of laps. The high end results I was looking for were 1:51 laptimes, and a podium finish in one of the 600 races.

We rolled into the track Thursday night, having been away since round 1 in March. It’d be a whole new ballgame, starting from the 2nd row, needing to run a whole lot faster than we did back then. Jason and I dug in quickly, getting into the 55s and 54s respectively. Not bad, but I wanted 53s on Saturday, which would give me 51s if I kept my standard 2 second race pace gains I seemed to have every weekend.

Switching from a 46 to a 47 rear sprocket on Saturday made the difference, bringing the times down to mid-53s. I would have liked to try a 48, but I’d cut the new chain 2 links shorter to get a short wheelbase not realizing how much shorter that really was, and I didn’t care enough to buy another chain. 53’s were right on target for Sunday. The trick was going to be starting hard. 600 Production was set as race 1. No time to get comfortable and find the speed. We’d have to go fast right out of the gate.

SundayRace 1 – 600 Production

I let myself get squeezed up the inside into turn 1, and a whole flock of guys went flying by me into turn 2. I held tight in 2, getting back pastLiko, then snuck past Andy into the esses as he had a little bobble. Chasing Gorman down in lap 2, I closed down on him in Riverside, but didn’t pay attention to my reference points, turning in too early to the left toward lost hills. I had to pick the bike up to avoid running into the dirt, but clipped the curbing, pushing me even wider into the dirt to the right. Scrubbing speed the best I could, I tried to gauge whether I’d go shooting across the track over lost hills, right into traffic. Briefly considering ditching the bike, unable to steer it, I held on, working the rear brake until I made it to pavement, then turned hard right to stay off the racing line as much as possible. Back on the gas. I’d given away positions to Jason, Bryce, and Andy again. I picked off Andy on the front straight and charged after Jason, both passing Gorman a few laps later, but I was unable to close in on Jason before the checkered flag. 6th place with a best lap of a low 1:52. Not bad, considering the minor fiasco in lap 2, but not great. Full race video here.

Race 2 – 600 Superbike

This race went much like 600 production, as my braking into turn 1 and 3 was giving up massive amounts of time and creating passing opportunities for everyone behind me. As I chased Sebastiao, Matt, Bryce and Gabe into the sweeper on lap 3, Bryce completely misjudged his pass, crashing out Gabe and running Sebastiao off track. I picked off Matt on the front straight and put down some solid laps to create a gap behind me, and finished 4th, with a best lap of 1:52.1. Better, but still not the podium I’d been looking for. Full race video here.

Race 3 – Formula Pacific

Jason had convinced me we should run this just for fun, but it turned out to be a non-event for me. I suited up a set of slicks I’d picked up for a good deal and went out for the warmup lap, but pulled off the grid when David Bell came up and told me I was smoking. Turned out, the 190 rear wouldn’t fit the swingarm with my chain length and 47 rear sprocket, and was rubbing and melting the tire. Since I didn’t want to go buy another 180 for F1, I decided to switch the sprocket back to a 46 to gain some chain slack and space between the tire and swingarm.

Race 4 – Formula I

A 46 sprocket and a 190 rear tire ends up being a pretty horrible gearing combination for Buttonwillow. I found myself unable to get a good drive out of the last corner, turn 2, into the esses, and lugging over cotton corners. I spent the race following the pack of riders hung up behind Billy Scott, and was unable to find a way past them, finishing the race in 9th, with a best lap of 1:53.6. Not exactly the way I wanted to finish the day. Full race video here.

My reaction after that weekend has been wishing I could go back down there and knock off the other 2 seconds needed to be a leader. It’s hard since I know exactly where on the track I can get that time, and I won’t be able to go sort it out in practice then battle again until March. But hey, it’s forward progress. Next year will be the year to contend for podium positions every race.

Now that official results are posted for the season, here’s the wrap-up.

600 production

- Didn’t race round 1 due to illness, round 6 due to crash in F1

- Best finish: 6th

- Finished 9th in points overall

600 superbike

- Didn’t race round 1 due to illness

- Best finish: 4th

- Finished 9th in points overall

Formula I

- Crashed out of round 6

- Best finish: 5th

- Finished 7th in points overall

Not bad for a first year on a 600, but I’m itching to get back on the bike and practice certain skills for next year’s campaign, and get an ‘09 R6 set up as soon as possible. But first… it’s time to figure out sponsors. To be contending at the front next year, financial and technical support are going to be crucial.

I was reminded again this weekend of just how much our intensely individual sport is really all about the people we do it with.

Through the last 2 years, I’ve become good friends with Brian, Blaise, Dave, Jenn, Jason, Cassie, Jason and Ricky.  They’re the usual suspects when we pit together, and we constantly help each other out with stands, warmers, patching bodywork, straightening footpegs, and making sure everyone has a beer in their hand and a smile on their face at the end of the day.  It was only natural that Dave, Blaise, Jason and I got together for this year’s endurance race.  When crashes and other challenges kept Brian, Cassie, Jenn and Ricky off endurance teams this year, they all pitched in and helped us with our 4 hours of mayhem on Saturday.

Thanks to Cassie’s manual scoring of every lap, killer pit stops with the help of Brian, Ricky, Jason and Jenn, the riders were able to focus on putting in solid 50+ minute sessions, all clocking consistent laptimes between 1:47 and 1:52.  When I stumbled off the bike from my session, a cold gatorade was thrown in my hand before I could even hit the chair, and I was doused with water by another member of the pit crew.  Everyone pitched in for 4 hours of very clean racing, and the preliminary results show us in either 2nd or 3rd in 750s, and maybe 3rd overall.  Taking home a little hardware to remember the event will be pretty cool, assuming the results stand.

Sunday’s races got off to a bit of a slow start for me.  Jason and I realized a fresh set of tires wasn’t going to work for 3 races, so I ran 600 superbike on shagged practice tires, and he skipped F1, so we could both focus on 600 production.  Watching people pass me in 600 superbike while I slipped and slid around at 1:45 laptimes wasn’t much fun.  Jason blew by me a few laps in and finished 8th, from the 4th row.  Right on!  I finished a sloppy 11th.  I’m probably going to ditch F1 for the BW round to make sure I have tires for 600 superbike.

Anyway, I suited up the new rubber for F1, and got a pretty good start, but just didn’t get my head in the game.  With the better tires, I found myself tapping out my gearing in a few spots, causing me to try an extra shift, which just ended up making me slower.  I crossed the line for 10th, but ran just about the same 1:45 laptimes.  With only 1 race before 600 proddy, I had just enough time to swap out the rear sprocket for an extra tooth, and sit down with the ipod and get focused.

Race 3, 600 Production.  Starting from the second row, I get a solid start into 4th, but Berto comes by me into 3 and starts to walk away.  As I dive into the carousel, guess who comes flying around me.  Jason!  That punk ass started from the 4th row, and just passed me for 5th!  I’m starting to get a little riled up at this point.  I’ve spent entirely too much of my day getting passed, and feeling like I’m going slow.  As I’m thinking that, Liko comes diving past me into 7, and then Ryan Gorman tries an outside pass into 9.  Alright.  Last race of the day, and I’m gonna get to think about this one for the next few weeks.  Jason’s not getting away.  I put my head down and start pulling him in.

A few laps in, I draft Jason down the back straight and dive past him into 7.  He brakes with me, but shoots long, and I grab the lead.  Woohoo!  The next lap, he comes diving past me into 7, and I try to square him up the exit.  We end up driving side by side into the 8’s, and we’re both laughing in our helmets, since we know neither’s giving up.  I give him just enough room, he gives me just enough room, and I intentionally run over that curbing to the right.  As soon as both wheels came off the ground, I lose my drive, of course, and he goes shooting by.  I chase him down for the next lap and a half, drawing him in a bit in 11, and then hold off on the brakes a bit longer into turn 1.  CRAP!  He’s decided to get on the brakes early to try and square up the turn, since I was outdriving him up the hill in the previous laps.  I get on the binders hard, right in his wheel tracks, with the wall to our right.  I can’t lean the bike in and maintain maximum braking, and come REALLY close to his tail section as he starts to turn in.  I take a quick look at the very dusty asphalt that’s wide of the proper racing line, and decide to not try and tip it in and trailbrake hard through that, opting instead to finish braking upright and ride across the dirt about 30 ft off the apex.  With no one behind us for a solid 10 seconds, I had plenty of time to dirt track across that and maintain my 7th position, but Jason was 4 seconds gone.

As I took the checkered, I had a huge grin on my face.  Racing is fun, but racing head-to-head with someone you know really well is something else entirely.  Jason and I pushed each other to mid-1:43 laptimes in that race, both setting personal bests.  We also have a video to review and compare our approaches, and teach each other.  Combine some of the better corners from both of us, and we’ll be a second or two lower next time out.

Thanks Jason, Jenn, Cassie, Jason, Dave, Blaise, Ricky and Brian for the awesome weekend.  Special thanks to Dave for putting his bike up for us to thrash on for 4 hours.

Here’s the video from the 600 Production race: http://www.ridemerchant.com/video/2008/9.28/greg.html

Thanks to being in my friend’s wedding on Saturday night down in the bay area, I wasn’t able to attend any of the practice for this weekend.  With the new pavement, tire and suspension setup from last round at thill was going to be largely out the window.  Oh well.  Gotta play with the cards you have.

I rolled in at 1:45am Sunday morning, passing out in Jenn and Jason’s trailer until 6:15.  Gametime.  Oh wait, the story starts earlier than that.  Let’s back up a second… til about 11am Saturday, when I loaded the bike in the truck – ‘Hey, where’s the bike key?’.  After some frantic searching, calling my friend Tom, with whom I’d just done a Willow Springs day on Monday… I headed to the wedding, bike and gear in the back of the truck, ready to go, but no key.  On my way to the reception, I got the good word from Jason confirming that I could wire out the ignition and start the bike without a key.

Ok, back to the track, 6:15am.   Coffee.  Truck unloaded.  Waking up.  Mostly.  Jason grabbed Brian Esslinger for a wiring explanation then wired out the ignition and put in a push button.  Fired right up.  We also had to get gas in the bike, so we put a screwdriver through the key lock on the tank.  No biggie.  I’ll put a keyless screw type cap on later.  We’re ready to go.  Not really.  A quick tire swap for a harder compound on the front, registration, tech inspection, and 10 minutes til first practice.  That’d be the only practice actually, and my first race was #2.  I went out after Jason and put together some crappy laps, and watched him get away a second a lap or so.  Great.  Mr. second-weekend-on-a-600 is putting it to me.  This should be a GREAT set of races.

Quick gearing swap to add one tooth in the rear.  15-46 became 15-47.  No time to test it, but it should be a lot better, if I can figure out how to deal with some of the resulting shift points.  Fresh tire on the rear.  20 minutes til race time.  Watched the first lap of race one and turned on the ipod to get focused.

Race 1: 600 Superbike

Gridded 9th, on the outside of row 2, I had a good shot at turn one, with very little seat time and nothing but the Linkin Park song echoing in my head.  Green flag.  I didn’t get a great jump, but headed into turn 1 in 8th.  Go Go Go.  Eccleston tried to come underneath me into 4, but didn’t get it done, only to sneak under in 6.  As I chased them, trying to figure out shift points and remember how to go this pace, the group in front put a solid 4 second gap on me by lap 2, leaving me stranded in my own race as I finally got down below 1:56.  Somewhere around lap 3, Tim Kamholtz came by me, and I chased him for a while, but ultimately finished 9th, with Willis crashing out of the lead early.

Sloppy first few laps, but settled in ok.  Time to up the ante.

Race 2: Formula I

Having about 2 hours plus lunch to reflect on things, a few shift point tips from Berto, plus some suspension tweaks from Dave Moss, I gridded up with a better mindset than the last race.  Green flag.  I was neck and neck with O’Sullivan for the lead into turn 1, but got swarmed as we turned in and got back on the gas.  I really have to remember that the entry speed to that corner is WAY lower from the starting grid than a regular lap.  Gotta stay on the gas.  Again, I found myself in 8th after the first half lap.  This time, I stayed with the pack a bit better, and came onto the front straight at the end of lap 2 with everyone strung out within a few seconds, and Billy Scott about a second and a half ahead of me.  I could see an equal gap had formed ahead of him.  He looked back over his shoulder, and I could see he realized he was out of the race ahead.  Game on.  This pace is pretty easy.  Let’s pull him in and go after the guys ahead in the next lap.

Cut a couple 10ths off into turn 1, then pulled closer on the way out of 2, rolled hard into 3 – typically my weakest turn, I could see the gap getting smaller, flipped it back to the left into 4, trailing across the apex – a little sloppy on the turn in, cracked on the gas, then crschsrschshsrhsch… hey, I’m on my ass, following my bike, scraping along.  Dammit, and the race was about to get good.  I picked myself up and ran away from the bike, did a quick shakedown, and helped the cornerworker pick up and move the bike as soon as the field had passed.

Well crap.  Broken clipon on the left side, dirt everywhere, but otherwise didn’t look too bad.  I was immediately hopeful that I could get her back in and fixed up for race 9.  Sadly the cornerworkers only cut me loose to run back across to the pits, but it was too far to push a 1-barred bike in the time it took the next race to do their warmup lap.  I’d have to wait for the crash truck – and that damned truck didn’t end up running until the end of race 8, Formula Pacific, leaving me basically no time to patch up the bike.  They finally rolled in with it just as the podium ceremony was ending, sending my race’s bikes out on track for warmup.  The guys I pit with did a valiant job of trying to get the bike cleaned up and ready to go in case the race was red flagged, but we threw in the towel when the race reached halfway.  A red flag wouldn’t go to a restart at that point.  Thanks Ricky, Dave, Jason and Clay!  I really appreciate the help, and you know I’ll return the favor when I can.

Here’s the bike, unloaded Monday morning:

The once-nice paintjob is definitely going to see some Krylon after I get the fiberglass patched up.  Since I was already dragging the bellypan, it was due for some work anyway.

Looking forward to Infineon… 2 days of practice, plus the 4 hour endurance race on Trogdor’s 750 with Jason and Blaise.  All that seat time should set me up well for a good showing on Sunday.

Congratulations Jason on a stellar weekend!   Top 10 finishes in all 3 races from grid positions ranging from 19th to 26th.  Killer performances, with a 6th place finish in 600 production, still reeling in 4th and 5th as the 6 laps ran out.  2nd race weekend on that R6.  Damn.  My teammate is going to kick my ass out there if I don’t watch out.

Oh yeah, and that blog updating via iPhone idea… well, if I’d had some downtime maybe that would have worked, but I found myself rather busy most of the weekend.  Maybe next round.  We’ll get some endurance race action too.

I’ll be posting updates throughout the weekend via my iPhone. Stay
tuned. Should be some fun pix.