AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

Jason and I had spent the 4th of July weekend down at Buttonwillow testing a new suspension setup from David Behrend at Fast Bike Industries, our Ohlins wizard.  That testing had gone well, with some significant geometry changes, but we weren’t sure how much would apply from Bumpywillow to Thunder Hill.

Rolling out for practice, it was immediately obvious that this setup was pretty darned close.  I ran some easy 1:56’s, and for once this season, was above Jason on the practice timesheets.  All other events of the weekend aside, this was probably one of the biggest wins.  I’ve wrestled to be quicker in practice all year, and it was good to be generally in the ballpark immediately.

Because the bike was so good right away, I held off on trying a few front end adjustments I was considering, and focused on my drives out of a few key corners, and maximizing the 10ths of seconds consistently, for better laptimes.  I knew the bike could be better, but I knew I could be too, and I made an intentional decision to work on myself instead of the bike.  It’s a decision I’d later regret.  Just before my first race the next day, Mike Canfield commented to me, “The club guys practice on Saturday.  The really fast guys test.”  That’s been ringing in my head ever since.

We finished practice with some consistent low 1:55’s, and I packed it in before the last short session, feeling confident that with a fresh front tire and race gas, we’d easily be back in the 53’s (last round‘s best pace), probably 52’s, and maybe lower yet.

Sunday was a hurry up and wait situation, with my 3 races packed at the end of the day – 9, 11, and 13.  This left me with nothing but time to watch my teammates race, suit up fresh tires, and generally go stir crazy.  Not my favorite thing.

First race – Formula 1

Starting from pole, I had every intention of getting the holeshot and doing my best to put a gap on Berto.  Lenny would do what Lenny does best, but with him effectively out of the points, where he finished didn’t matter much.  But as they say about the best laid plans…

I choked on the start in epic fashion, letting the revs drop way too low, and found myself wandering into turn 1 behind a flock of riders.  From there, it only got worse.  As the boys at the front started to pull a gap on me, I started pushing harder, but couldn’t keep with them.  After a few laps of watching them pull away particularly on the way into and in the middle of corners, I started wondering if we’d over inflated the front tire.  Bad thought.  My laptimes started dropping off as I started paying far too much attention to what was happening between the forks.

Pulling into the pits after finishing in 7th place, we checked the tire pressure, only to find it absolutely spot on, and looking great.  Decision time.  I’d just completed a race where I didn’t feel like I could push the front of the bike.  Knowing I’d just handed the points lead in the class over to Berto didn’t help, and I wanted to set the record straight in the next race.  Although I knew the new tire was of course a better piece of rubber, I knew my setup had worked pretty well on the practice tire from the previous day.  Faced with the options of making front end changes with zero testing time, or swapping the tire, I decided to swap the tire.

Race 2 – 600 Production

3rd in the points behind Lenny and Berto, I really wanted to chip away at Berto’s points and make up for the previous race.  My start wasn’t much better, with Lenny, Tyler, Berto and Jason ahead of me by turn 3.  They started pulling a gap on me, but after 2 laps, I started getting comfortable again, and pulled it back in, passing Jason on the 3rd lap, then Berto in 14 on lap 4.  As we headed around turn 2, I knew he’d be setting me up for his patented outside pass, and sure enough, I heard him coming around me in 3, and he just barely squeezed underneath into 4.  Getting done cursing in my helmet, I focused on staying right on his rear wheel to re-pass back into 14, but no dice this time around.

I found myself following him around turn 2.  Ok, last lap, but no time like the present to try to figure out this turn 3 business, right?  As I followed Berto into the corner with every bit of his corner speed, but my more shallow line, that used front tire started telling me it’d had enough.  As my bars started to turn, I learned a fun lesson about my turn 3 challenges – I’m hanging on the bars way too hard there for some reason, covering up the feedback from the tire.  Too late to recover, I found myself sliding on my back toward the dirt, watching Jason ride by.

The NMP out there on the dirt bike was fantastic.  He made sure I was ok, then helped me pick up the bike and push it most of the way across the infield.  The grid guy waved me across the front straight after the race finished, and David picked me up on the scooter, giving me a break from pushing the bike in the 100+ degree weather.

As I cooled off in the trailer, the team ran through options to get me back on track for the last race of the day.  My bike was well beyond repair, and Jason’s had started overheating in that last race.  While I was still chugging water and trying to catch my breath, the team all pitched in to prep Jenn’s bike for me, swapping a rear tire, gassing it up, and getting tech to come over and check out me and my gear.

Jenn‘s bike has a bone stock motor with bone stock suspension, so there was no way to match any of my settings.  Shawn recommended at least setting the preload, but since I was starting to feel significantly dehydrated, I opted to stay in the trailer until the last minute, and just ride it in whatever state it was in.

Race 3 – 750 Superbike

My goals for this race were to preserve 2nd place in the points, while not crashing someone else’s unfamiliar bike.  As the green flag dropped, things got exciting pretty quickly.  As I was following Lenny, Kevin and Brian around turn 2, it was obvious that the front end was too soft.  Oh well for that preload setup, huh?  As we crested the top of turn 5, I had a fun little mini-wheelie where the front tire caught in the transition, forcing me to roll off and let it settle out on the down side.  Hrm… rebound’s a bit off.  I decided to back off the pace a touch before I ended up on the ground again.  Carter came past me a corner or two later, and Nick Hayman passed me into turn 9.  I glanced back to see Joy Higa not that far behind me.  Ok, that’s enough already.  Let’s see what this bike can do, carefully.

Babying the bike while trailing into corners left me with a lot of time to make up on the gas.  As I started to get a feel for it over the next few laps, the pace started to pick up, and Nick started to come back to me.  I started thinking we’d be able to pick him up by the end of the race, and pushed a bit harder.  Closing in up the front straight on lap 5, I gave away a bit through the first few turns.  With a great drive out of 6, things got a little sideways, literally.  The rear and the front both started drifting as I grabbed gears toward 7, and I reconsidered just how badly I wanted the points from that position.  Taking it back a notch, we finished in 6th, with some laps in the 1:56’s.  Not bad for a stock bike setup for someone else.  These Yamahas are really, really good, right out of the box.

I can’t thank my team enough for getting me back out there for my last race.  After making some bad decisions and not getting the results I wanted from the first 2 races, getting back out there and salvaging points was a great way to end the weekend.  Jason, Jenn, Mikey, Tom, David, Kyle, Sam, Shawn – thank you all for your efforts this weekend and helping keep my season on the tracks, despite my best efforts to derail it.

Thanks to all my sponsors who provide me with the best stuff around – Z2, Yamaha, David at Fast Bike Industries, CT Racing Pirelli, Leo Vince, Yamalube, Motion Pro, Race Image Graphics, Helimot, Suomy, Factory Body Works, Igartua, 4theriders, Sidi, Tech Spec, Ink Monkey, GP Frame & Wheel, CRG, Mach 1.

Round 4 – Thunderhill

After blowing up my motor last round, the past 3 weeks have been busy trying to get it put back together.  As the realities of a day job and the rest of life influenced things, it just didn’t happen.  I found myself swapping in last year’s tired 8k mile race/track day motor a few days before the weekend.

I showed up on Thursday night and woke up to Thunderhill’s version of hurricane Katrina.  40mph winds really make certain corners of that track exciting – not in a good way.  Add in continuing brake fade issues from Infineon, and it didn’t exactly add up to a useful practice day.  I was well off of any reasonable pace all day, seeing a 1:58 at best.

The wind was about half as strong on Saturday, and I pushed in early practice to get up to pace, but was working really hard with no forward progress on the laptimes.  After 2 practice sessions, it was clear we needed to make some bigger changes.  Chris Van Andel started pulling apart my brakes to tackle the lingering brake fade issues, we threw on a better rear tire, and I had a little discussion with Jason.

We had both received a setup tip from a KFG the previous day that seemed like it‘d be worth trying.  It was a drastic change, but Jason was willing to share with me how it worked for him in the morning.  I can’t say enough about how great it’s been to race with Jason over the past couple of seasons.  Our goals are to 1) win races 2) beat each other, in that order, but when it comes to sharing data, we’ve both had very open communication.  We want to battle each other on an equal footing, and also realize that with identical equipment we can split testing and learn faster together.  In this case, I liked what I heard, discussed with Chris, and made the change on my bike.

With brakes, the suspension change and a better tire, things all started falling into place.  We immediately dropped down to consistent 1:56’s on the 2nd lap.  Not earth shattering, certainly, but the bike suddenly felt like something I could push much harder.  A red flag brought the 4th session to an early halt, so I planned to use the tag team race as a bit more practice on this new setup.

The tag team event was a total blast.  A Le Mans start is something else.  If you’ve never tried to sprint in full leathers, all I can tell you is 40 ft. is a LONG way, and you get to look pretty ridiculous in the pics later on.  I got a pretty miserable start, but made up spots in the first turns and tried to head after the leaders.  However, I found myself fighting rear end grip, and could only manage 1:57‘s.  When I pulled in after 30 min and handed the arm band off to Jason, I found my thunderhill special hard rear tire was over-inflated.  Well, not exactly the practice I wanted, but definitely some laps dealing with rear slides.

Jason put in some solid laps in the 1:55’s, and brought it home for a 1st in the middleweight class.  After so much time battling each other, it was pretty cool to be able to race as a team and win together.

Sunday morning warmup on the same hard race tire, at a reasonable pressure, didn’t yield anything better than a 1:56 again, so I knew I’d have to really step up my game in a hurry, and trust the grip out of a fresh soft compound rear.

Race 1: Formula 1
Starting from pole, with Berto and Gabe to my right, I knew I’d have my hands full.  They’d both run 1-2 seconds faster in practice all weekend long, and weren’t far behind in the points.  A first attempt to start the race halted with a red flag after a bad crash on the starting grid.  With Gabe unable to get his bike back out for the restart, my main competition was Berto, with Lenny starting from the 3rd row… racing out of the championship points, just to have fun.

Getting the holeshot put me in the lead early, but Berto wasn’t having any of it, and came charging around me in the middle of turn 3 on lap 2.  Closing back in on the back straight, I grabbed the lead back on the brakes into 14 and led up the front straight.

Berto wasn’t having any of it, and passed me back in turn 3 in an instant replay of the previous maneuver.  Seriously?  Do I go that slowly through turn 3?!?!?  My next attempt to pass on the brakes into 14 came up just a bit short, and Berto slammed the door shut to keep the lead.  I managed to get by him a lap later, but as we came into 3 for the last time, the guy served me one more time, passing me like I was tied to a post.  A little bobble in 7 opened the gap a bit, and I found myself too far away to retry the pass on the brakes into 14.  Berto took a ridiculously inside line to protect anyway, so I lined up on the outside to wind up to draft up the front straight.  I didn’t time the 2nd apex right at all and found myself heading up the straight just outside of Berto’s draft with zero tow, and a checkered flag ahead.  He took the win by 1/10th of a second, and dented my lead in the championship by a few points.  With Gabe bringing in no points this round, it’s shaping up to be a battle between Berto and me.  Can’t wait for the rematch next month.

The best laptime from this race was a mid 1:53, matching my best at thunderhill from last year.  Not bad for being in the 1:58’s the previous morning, but definitely off the pace I knew we’d see from Lenny in the 600 races.

Race 2 – 600 Production

Sitting 3rd in the points in this class, behind Berto, I wanted to finish ahead of him, and redeem myself in turn 3.  That lasted for a whole 2 laps.  After an ok start behind Lenny and Tyler, I couldn’t get myself out of the 1:55s, and found myself passed by Jason, then Berto.  Tyler Oghe came by on lap 4, but crashed out shortly after, leaving me to finish in 5th.  Certainly not what I was looking for.  The SC1 I’d used in the previous race had definitely lost a bit of its grip, but I knew I was giving away time in 3 and 5 in a bad way.

Race 3 – 750 Superbike

2nd in points in this class, I planned to focus on holding onto Lenny for as long as possible, learn what I could, and at least finish in 2nd.  Things didn’t quite go that way, as Lenny never took off, and instead hung out right in front of me for a lap.  Expecting him to take off, I didn’t force the pass, and chose to hang back and learn instead.  Kevin Nekimken didn’t wait, and drafted us both up the front straight.  Not expecting him to gap us, I didn’t force the issue with Lenny, and hung on his back wheel, waiting for him to bring us both back to Kevin just before he inevitably stretched out the lead.  Big mistake.  Lenny hung around long enough for Jason to catch up to us before bugging out on the 4th lap to reel in Kevin for the win.  All too soon, I found myself with Kevin just out of reach, Jason passing me, and the checkers ahead.  A drafting move on Jason didn’t pan out and I finished 4/1000’s of a second behind him for a very disappointing 4th.  This race was a hard lesson in never assuming anything about your competitors.  How and when they choose to go fast, and for what reasons, has nothing to do with my race.  We’re sprint racing, and if I’m not within a second of the leader, there’s no reason to hold back.

Race 4 – 600 Superbike

After blowing up my motor last round, I was starting 8th overall, with not much to gain from this race, if I didn‘t finish on the box.  A good start put me into 4th by turn 3, behind Lenny, Tyler and Jason.  As Lenny and Tyler started to stretch things out, Jason started slowly creeping away too.  After a couple of laps of this, I finally decided to stop pushing and just focus on turns 3, 5 and the exit of 11, which were all giving me problems for various reasons.  As Tyler Oghe came past me to take over 4th, I used him as a gauge for improvement in my problem corners, and just focused on smooth laps without errors.  I finished in 5th, and actually pulled Jason in a bit at the end.  Looking at my laptimes afterward, I’d dropped back into the 53’s for the first time since the first race of the day, with the least energy, and the worst tires of the day.

Leaving this weekend, I feel like we’re on our way toward a really good setup for this bike, and I’m armed with some really good things to practice in certain corners.  A few minor riding and suspension adjustments, and I think we’ll be consistently a second or two faster next round.

Thank you Chris Maguire for your stellar tire support this weekend, Chris V for massaging my brakes back to life, tweaking suspension, and everything else you do.  Thanks Tom, Mikey, Kyle, Sam, Jason and everyone else who helped make this weekend happen.

Thanks Z2, Yamaha, David at Fast Bike Industries, CT Racing Pirelli, Leo Vince, Yamalube, Motion Pro, Race Image Graphics, Helimot, Suomy, Factory Body Works, Igartua, 4theriders, Sidi, Tech Spec, Ink Monkey, GP Frame & Wheel, CRG, Mach 1.

First off, I have to thank Gerry at GP Frame and Wheel for getting my bike measured and straightened after the crash, and Sam for painting another set of Factory Bodyworks, just in time for the weekend.  Thank you Jason for driving the bodywork down, Manny for sending along a new exhaust bracket, Chris for making me a new set of stickers, Helimot for getting my suit fixed in time, and Jason Hauns for doing the suit pickup and delivery. Thursday evening at the track turned into a chilly late night in front of the trailers, putting everything together, with lots of helping hands.  Thank you all for making my weekend possible.

Go fast in practice.  Aside from good results on Sunday, this was my main goal for the weekend.  It’s become pretty obvious that the gap between my track day/practice pace and race pace is the biggest thing holding me back from getting faster sooner.

Friday’s Z2 track day started very cold and windy for a May day at Infineon.  Having just finished a complete tear down, reassembly and straightening, I spent the first session or two shaking down the bike.  By noon, the basics were sorted, but the brakes weren’t behaving well.  I found a minor leak at the top banjo bolt, swapped that with one of Jason’s spares, and went back to practice.  As the afternoon progressed, my lap times weren’t coming down, and the brakes were only getting a little better after multiple attempts to bleed them.  The day ended a session early due to ambulance transports, and I ended my day with a best lap of 1:47.  With 1:42’s last race weekend, we weren’t even in the ballpark.  Going fast in practice… fail.

Saturday dawned to a slightly warmer and less windy day.  Despite flushing a bottle of fluid through the brakes, I was still experiencing brake fade after first practice.  Chris Van Andel, my crew chief, pulled the calipers off and started working some magic.  I rolled out for 2nd practice and immediately found my brakes were back.  Thanks Chris!  I spent the session re-acquainting myself with reasonable brake markers and making sure the fade was gone.  3rd session.  I started pushing to drop the lap times but didn’t get lower than a 1:46.  End of session, we found the rear tire was just coming apart on the right side.  2 races and 2 Saturdays of practice had basically killed it.  Not wanting to spend on a fresh tire, we opted to flip this old tire, and just practice dealing with a sliding rear tire.  4th practice dropped the times into the low 45s.  Better, but getting there too slowly.  This is where we should have started the day.  Go fast in practice – officially not a passing grade this weekend.

Sunday morning.  First practice was again very slow, with a best lap time of 1:46, despite a new set of Pirellis front and back.  We’d have to pick things up a lot in the race.

Race 1: 600 Production

As I rolled up to my 3rd place grid spot, I took a good look at turn 1.  I needed a strong start and a good tow from Lenny to get myself up to speed as quickly as possible today.  Revs up, 1 board sideways, clutch feathering out, green flag!  I let the clutch out with great timing and zero finesse, putting the bike into a 2mph 12 o’clock wheelie.  As the bike came down, I watched 2 rows of riders roll by.  By the time I got the clutch engaged and re-launched, I was somewhere around 20th position, watching Lenny heading toward the bridge.  Pinning it through 4 gears up the right side of the hill, I passed about 6 riders before turn 2, another 2 heading out of turn 2, 2 more in the middle of 3/3a, 2 more down into 4, and split another 2 before the middle of 5.  Coming out of the Carousel, I was in 5th, but Jason and Berto had half the back straight on me.  The best I could do was put my head down and click off good laps, hoping their battle would come back to me.

As a few laps went by, it started looking like it would be a long lonely race in 5th place.  That all changed in turn 7 on lap 5, when Sebastiao showed up.  I’d forgotten that he was back there, charging up from the 8th row.  He wasn’t messing around, and passed me into 9.  Alright then.  Let’s see if we can hold on and go with him.  Heading into turn 11, Sebastiao grabbed a little too much brake and low sided in front of me.  Oh well.  No tow.  The rest of the laps clicked by uneventfully, and I rolled home in 5th with roughly the same gap to Berto and Jason as we had in lap 1, with most laps in the 1:44’s.  Not fast enough…

Race 2: 750 Superbike

Jason and I were starting from 2nd and 3rd respectively, with Timmer filling out the first row.  After my abysmal start in the first race, I babied the clutch and got off to a conservative 4th into turn 2, with Timmer chasing Lenny.  Jason didn’t waste much time and set up a clean block pass into 9.  I used that to close up on Timmer and pass him into 11.  Time to go.  Jason was setting a good pace, and after race 1, I knew I could benefit from the time behind him to get my brain up to pace.  With Lenny already gapping us out, making a break from Timmer was the main goal.  The next few laps clicked by, staying close to Jason while watching over my shoulder as Timmer started to drop back a half a second a lap.

Then the lappers showed up.  Jason got under a guy going into 7, but I got hung up on the exit, giving Jason a half a second gap.  He got around the next lapper into the 8s, and I caught him on the way out.  Another half a second.  Waiting to pass Jason until the last couple of laps might have backfired in a big way.  As we came into turn 7 on lap 7, the strategy all unraveled as Jason found some dirty pavement and too much front brake, low siding out of 2nd place.  I was happy to see Jason up with the bike by the time I made it around again.  With a couple of seconds back to Timmer, I negotiated my way around a few more lappers and brought it home in 2nd, lapping into the 1:42’s, matching my best times at Infineon.

Race 3: 600 Superbike

A 5th place starting position put me up against the wall, and my start got me up to turn 2 in 6th.  A pass early brought me to 5th, but Berto charged by me out of turn 11 with a tight pass between my shoulder and the wall.  Jason and Sebastiao were gapping us out, and I wasn’t happy about it.  As we came around the Carousel on the 2nd lap, Berto’s bike suddenly shut off in front of me.  I avoided running him down and found myself in 4th place, with a really bad drive up the back straight.  Head down, close down the gap.  Driving out of Carousel for the third time, I started grabbing gears, but the 2nd upshift never happened.  The bike stopped making power around 14k RPMs, and I knew something was wrong.  Exiting 7, I could hear a growing ticking noise, and power kept dropping off.  Before I entered the 8s, I knew the motor was done.  Coming out of the 8s, I threw up my hand to let Timmer know I was in trouble, and I pulled of track.  Pulling into the pits, Chris and Tom heard the motor and confirmed it was probably a spun bearing.

As soon as Jason pulled in from the race, we started talking about options.  Formula 1 was 5 races away, at the end of the day.  As the points leader in the class, I really wanted to finish well and keep the championship battle alive.  Jenn’s bike had my backup motor (last year’s), and neither of them were planning to race Formula 1.  After some brief thoughts about motor swaps and borrowing Jenn’s bike, Jason offered me his bike for Formula 1.  How cool is that?  It’s all the same basic hardware as mine, and after comparing notes, our suspension setup was already pretty close.

With Tom and Chris’ help, the plan came together.  Jason would race in race #11, 750 Production, then ride directly down to the hot pits, where Tom would change the suspension setup to my numbers.  I’d roll out for the warm up lap of race #12 to see what the bike felt like.  We’d have that race to make any adjustments before race #13, Formula 1.  As I watched Jason racing, I couldn’t help but keep my fingers crossed that he’d make it back uneventfully.  He put in a solid performance, holding off a threat from Sebastiao to take 2nd.  As the checkers flew, I rode the scooter down to the wall, met Tom and Jason, and took off for the warm up.

Jason’s bike was weird.  The bars were farther in, changing all of the leverage.  The front end seemed sluggish.  The chain length was shorter by a link, changing the wheel base, causing the bike to wheelie more easily.  The shifter was super high.  How did he ride this thing quickly?  As I pulled into the pits, we started making changes.  Lever down, bars out, damper back out 10 clicks.

Waiting for race 12 to wrap up, I had a little chat with Jason.  I was going out for good clean consistent laps.  No risks, I said.  The goal was to bring it home in one piece, with some good points.  Jason gave me a skeptical look and said “Let’s see how you feel halfway through the first lap.  If you’re feeling froggy, go for it.  Don’t hold back because it’s my bike”.  Heading out for the Formula 1 warm-up, the bike felt much better with the bar and damper adjustments.  It was far from comfortable, but now I felt like I’d have a fighting chance.

Starting from pole position, I got a pretty good launch, and found myself in the lead into turn 2.  The next couple of corners felt like my first track day in A group.  I could only think about how slow I was tiptoeing around, with a pack of wolves behind me.  When Berto came by me in the Carousel, I was only surprised that it had taken so long.  Alright then, stay close and see if you can find a rhythm.  As we braked into 7, Berto left the door open.  Wide open.  Ok, it was 2 feet, but that was plenty.  I snuck back into the lead, and gained a bunch of confidence in the front end.  Rolling through the 8s, I found that the slow steering let me get away with a little more body motion without upsetting the bike.  Hmm.  I can work with this.

Berto came by me again out of 10, and I couldn’t immediately get him back.  As we came out of the Carousel on Lap 2, Lenny showed up and passed both of us up to turn 7.  I expected him to walk us out, but with his 2 DNF’s in this class, the championship battle is between Berto, Gabe and me.  Although I was being pretty conservative on corner entry due to the heavy feeling of the front end on Jason’s bike, I wasn’t losing out much to Berto.  Coming around turn 11 on the 2nd lap, I looked at Jason giving me gap signs on the wall and remembered our conversation 15 minutes before… “Don’t hold back”.  Well then, let’s go.

Passing Berto on the brakes into 7, I knew I’d need to make zero mistakes if I wanted to hold onto this.  Listening to Berto’s bike behind me, I didn’t need to look back to know how close he was.  He’d close down into turn 1, but we were pretty even through 2, 3, 4.  I heard him a couple of times up the inside into 6, but the pass never came there.  My brakes into 7 kept me safe through the 8s and down into 9, but he was all over me on the way out of 9a every lap.  A few laps in, I grabbed an extra gear into 10 and missed my brake marker into 11 while counting downshifts.  I added about 10 feet to the track as I missed the apex.  Berto didn’t, but I was a wheel ahead, and returned the favor from 600 Production and nosed past him at the wall.  The next lap or two seemed like an eternity.

I couldn’t help looking back in turn 11 at Gabe and Timmer hot on Berto’s heals.  As we came around for the last lap, I let out my best war cry from turn 11 to the white flag.  Let’s go!  Bring it home.  11 long corners later, I found myself still yelling as I took the checkers, just a few tenths of a second ahead of Berto.  I’ve never had a 2nd place finish that felt that much like a win.  I can’t thank Jason enough for letting me borrow his bike for the race, and even more, for encouraging me to race it hard.

Chris, Tom, Jason, Jenn, David, Sam, Kyle… I couldn’t be more proud to be part of this team.  Somehow you made a crash and a blown motor seem like minor speed bumps, and made the weekend a success despite it all.  With 5 podiums and personal best lap times all around, it was a complete pleasure to watch everyone in action, supporting and bringing out the best in each other.

To the sponsors who make all of this possible – Thanks Z2, Yamaha, David at Fast Bike Industries, CT Racing Pirelli, Leo Vince, Yamalube, Motion Pro, Race Image Graphics, Helimot, Suomy, Factory Body Works, Igartua, 4theriders, Sidi, Tech Spec, Ink Monkey, GP Frame & Wheel, CRG, Mach 1.

We left Round 1 with a points lead in Formula 1 and high hopes for the season.  As I rolled into Infineon Raceway on Thursday night, my goals were pretty simple – go fast, stay on both wheels and get solid results in all classes, particularly F1.

Friday’s practice was my first real day at Infineon on the 30mm Ohlins front end we are running this year, with the support of Fast Bike Industries.  It’s so good, I had to rethink my approach to a few turns.  I caught myself turning in way too early in a number of places, and found some new confidence in old problem areas.  Charging up the hill to 6 and getting on the brakes late over the top was becoming really fun by the end of the day.  Even when the bike was moving under braking, it felt really predictable.

That said, I ended the day with some relatively slow laptimes, and some obvious problem areas with my riding.  Thankfully, Ken Hill was willing to set aside his packing and take the time to unwind my approach to turn 9.  He gave me a way to think about it differently, and hopefully break my bad habit of turning early.  I ended the day less than thrilled, but with a plan.

Saturday’s practice got off to a pretty slow start.  I had no major complaints about the bike, but I wasn’t near the laptimes I knew I needed for Sunday.  Although 1:43’s were good enough for wins at this round last season, I knew consistent 1:41’s would be required to even think about battling with Lenny and Cameron.  My infrequent 1:46’s from the morning weren’t close.  I always go significantly faster on Sunday, but not THAT much faster.

As lunch came closer, my crew chief Chris sat me down for a little chat.  “How hard do you run in practice?” he asked.  “90%?”  After some thought, I honestly answered, “about 85%”.  I’ve known for a while that my slow practice pace is really holding up my ability to go fast in the race, but like all bad habits, it’s been hard to break.  The conversation with Chris that followed helped put some structure around the whole issue, and made it pretty clear that if I was going to go faster, I’d need to use practice for its purpose… finding the limits of the bike, and myself, and making adjustments to both.

The last practice of the day went significantly better, with 44’s on the board, chasing Jason and Sebastiao.  Hanging with them for a few laps and seeing areas where I could make up time was a huge boost.  Some things I’d been doing intermittently in practice were obviously working, and I was able to put them in the bank for the races the next day.  Running on pace, with your competitors really helps.  Who woulda thought?  Big DUH moment of the day.

Sunday morning practice.  I think we ran a high 45 or two in that session.  Not fast, but for a morning warm up, not bad.  This “go fast in practice” thing is going to take some getting used to.

Race 1 – 750 Superbike

With Lenny, Jason, and Timmer to my left, I knew I’d be in for a fun run.  Jason was high on his 2^nd place finish from Buttonwillow and I knew he wanted to do at least as well this time around.  At the green flag, I got a pretty good jump and latched onto Jason’s back wheel as he latched onto Lenny’s.  As we started to put down the laps, it was pretty clear that Lenny wasn’t pushing super hard.  Jason didn’t need another invite, and passed him into 7.  Knowing that wouldn’t last, I kept close to both of them to see how Lenny would come back… and he did, on the brakes into 11.  As he pushed a bit too wide, taking Jason with him, I briefly put my wheel into the lead as we drove up the front straight.  Lenny was done screwing around though, and put down a 1:41 (laptimes later showed).  Chasing him, the best I could manage was a 1:42.9.  Obviously Jason thought he could do better, making an unsuccessful move past me into 9, then making it stick a bit later.  As I followed Jason for a lap or so, we hit traffic from the back of the previous wave, and I learned a good lesson about being the first guy through.  Jason caught one pretty good break, then I got hung out 4 wide between 400s and 650s in the carousel which lost me a couple more significant seconds and pretty much finished the race for me.  With no one for miles behind, I backed it down to save the tires and energy for the other 4 races in the day.

Race 2 – 600 Superbike

After an amazingly bad start, I found myself fighting for positions and fighting the bike.  Although nothing had changed from the first race, I was working my butt off to do 1:43’s, with nothing to show for it except lost positions.  Bringing it home in 7^th was not my idea of a good time, and I sat down with Chris to see what we could do about it.  The best I could describe the issue was a tucky feeling from the front end in high speed sections of the track.  After some listening, he proposed a 1-click adjustment to the front.  It made sense to me, so we went for it.

Race 3 – 750 Production

I pushed on the warm up lap a bit, and Chris’ adjustment certainly didn’t feel any worse.  Alright, let’s see what this can do.  I made up for the last race’s start, launching from the second row onto Lenny’s rear wheel heading up the hill into 2.  As we came out of turn 4 into 5, I knew we had something better with this setup.  Hanging with Lenny through there was no problem, and we made time on the brakes into 6.  His exit was still significantly better, but I could work with this.  Ken Hill’s coaching on my entrance to 9 was paying back in spades, and I made up for the time I was giving away elsewhere.  As we came past start/finish for the first time, I was still right behind him, and didn’t feel like I was working too hard.  Coming out of 6, he looked back as he always does, and I figured he’d pull the pin.  Well, he really didn’t, and as I closed down on him in 9 again, I started to think it was time to push a bit harder, close it down, and see what we could do.

Heading into the 3^rd lap, I got a better drive up the hill to 7, and as I came out of the 8’s, I stayed on the gas just a little longer, looking to make up more time in my new favorite corner.  It might have all worked out, but I was busy staring at Lenny and all that time I was making up, not remembering my conversation with Ken.  I let the bike drift toward the corner too early, forcing myself to tighten it up at max lean still on the brakes, and my tire finally said “Enough!” and I found myself sliding into the dirt, with Sebatiao right behind me.  He later said he tucked the front trying to brake and avoid hitting me.  I only got a small tap on the back from his windscreen, so I’m thankful it worked out the way it did.

After we got the bike rolled behind the tire wall, it took all of 3 seconds to determine I wasn’t riding this back in after the race.  Both the front and rear brakes were out.  A quick conversation with the turn worker revealed that I probably wouldn’t get the bike back to pits via the crash truck with enough fix time before my most important race, so I pushed it out a gate leading to a spectator area, waving at the grandstands.  David BenJamin was on top of it, and caught up to me with a scooter before I made it very far.  A quick push back to the pits, and the whole team jumped to work putting the bike back together.  I can’t say enough about how fantastic all the guys are.  They literally pushed me away and made me settle down and cool off, while they took care of the bike.  Thanks Chris, Tom, David, Mikey, Sam, and everyone else who pitched in.

Race 4 – Formula 1

After a quick shakedown lap with the previous race’s warmup, I found myself gridded up for F1 in my first pole position start of my life, followed getting the holeshot.  It didn’t last long, with Gabe Santa Coloma coming around me out of 6.  With a freshly repaired bike, I wasn’t going to push to return the favor, despite my desire to win this race.  After the 2^nd lap, it was clear that although the bike was working fine, I was pretty well spent.  The red bull wasn’t making up for being on my 4^th race, after crashing, pushing a bike, and all those fun diversions.  With a decent gap back to Berto, I started watching Jason’s signals from the wall like crazy, and rode just as hard as I needed to hold onto 2nd.

Race 5 – 600 Production

Really?  We’re not done yet?  Starting from 3^rd, I got an OK start, but it all went backwards from there, and I crossed the finish line in 6^th, with nothing left in the tank, both the bike’s and mine.  Looks like I need to put in more miles on the bicycle to make sure I have something in reserve for days like this.

I can’t wait to see what we can do in Round 3.  Working harder in practice to get the right setup earlier should pay off, and I know a few places I can make up time regardless.

Thanks to Z2, Yamaha, David at Fast Bike Industries, CT Racing Pirelli, Leo Vince, Yamalube, Motion Pro, Race Image Graphics, Helimot, Suomy, Factory Body Works, Igartua, 4theriders, Sidi, Tech Spec, Ink Monkey, GP Frame & Wheel, CRG, Mach 1.  Special thanks to Ken Hill for the great coaching on Friday, and to the guys in the garage for getting me rolling again and keeping me in the points.

6 months off from racing sounds like a long time, but somehow, the first round always shows up just a bit sooner than you’d planned.  Despite the long weekends and evenings, there were a number of things that weren’t as ready as I would have liked.  However, 2010 was already light years ahead of where we were at the beginning of 2009.  In addition to smaller efforts to improve our race program, Chris Van Andel joined as crew chief and Fast Bike Industries came on as our Ohlins suspension support.  It’s been great working with both of them so far, and I can’t wait to see what we can do together this season.

As I drove south to Buttonwillow on Friday night, the goals for the weekend kept running through my head. 1 – Bring home good finishes in all classes.  2 – Put in on the box.

I’d heard the weather Friday was beautiful, and Saturday morning was no different.  If it held, race times on Sunday would be somewhere near track record pace.  The bar was high for practice.

The first few sessions of practice weren’t exactly fast, with a few setup issues to work through.  Chris made front end changes, giving me more feel and stability on corner entry, but as the sessions clicked by and my pace came up a bit, it was apparent that we had significant rear end issues.  We worked through a range of shock adjustments, but finished the day without getting any real solutions.  After practice ended, we pulled the shock and made a spring change.  Although this directly violated the “make gradual changes” mandate Chris had laid out Saturday morning, we just weren’t seeing the performance we needed out of the other spring.

Sunday morning, race day.  I wasn’t willing to push the new rear end to race pace in Sunday morning’s practice, but it immediately felt better.  No time to make adjustments to the clickers… we’d have to run it as is, but I felt like I had a chance to be in the ballpark.

Race 1: 600 Superbike

Starting from 5^th place, I got a good jump and found myself behind Lenny and Sebastiao going into turn 1.  Although I knew these guys had been running 5 and 3 seconds faster than me in practice, I pushed to stick with them, but ended up just over-riding the bike and burning more energy.  Once Jimmy Wood came by me and Sebastiao, I wasn’t able to hold onto Sebastiao and watched Pascarella, Timmers, Jason and finally O’Hara pass me.  That is NOT the way I wanted my weekend to go.

Back in the pits, I was exhausted.  With a 5 race schedule for the day, I wasn’t going to survive riding this way, and it frankly wasn’t fast enough either.  I’d have to find a way to trust the bike, ride relaxed and smart, and find a pace I could maintain.

Race 2: 750 Production

Without KFG gridding (I had 1 round of points from last year), I’d be starting from the 6^th row.  Although this really took away any shot at getting to the leaders, it also let me treat the race more like practice, figuring out how to ride the new rear spring setup, not pushing over my head, and learning from every lap.  As the first few laps clicked by, I worked my way up to 7^th behind Andy Carman.  Although I knew I could force a pass and pull away, there was a 6+ second gap ahead of him with little chance to gain any more points.  I decided to hold off and just work on Carman, using him as a reference point, trying different lines and comparing what worked better.  The plan worked great, except I missed the white flag, and didn’t get the pass done before the checkers.  Woops.  If those 4 points end up making a difference at the end of the year, I’m going to be kicking myself pretty hard.

Race 3: Formula 1

My 3^rd place finish at the last round of 2009 put me on the outside of the 3^rd row on the start for this race, with a pretty good shot at turn 1.  As the green flag dropped, I swept around the outside into 6^th, then everything went to hell as Kelly Barnett highsided in the middle of the track, pushing Lenny Hale off track and checking everyone else up as they avoided hitting him.  I came around turn 2 in 4^th, looking back to see Lenny’s bike in a pond, and chaos in turn 2.  Fully expecting the race to be red-flagged, I followed Gabe, Jesse and Joy through 3, 4, and 5.

As I crested wheelie hill without a red flag out, I realized this thing might go the distance.  Game on!  I got by Joy before the horseshoe, and set after Gabe and Jesse.  The two of them were playing games 2-wide into a few corners, and being weak on the first half of the track this weekend, I waited until the next drive off of lost hills to make a pass on Gabe.  Jesse promptly out-braked himself into the horseshoe and opened the door, giving me the lead for the first time in my life!  Heading out of the esses, I collected myself as well as I could and put my head down for some fast laps.  I wasn’t quite sure who else was on the grid, but I knew this was my chance to make a break.

On the front straight 2 laps later, I looked back to see a familiar red R6 about 2 seconds back.  I knew Berto probably wanted this win every bit as badly as I did… this would be a fight to the checkers.  As I came through the first half of the track, I could feel him closing in.  I knew I was struggling through the slower sections, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it now, just avoid mistakes.  I pushed through riverside and over lost hills, braking deep into the last corner.  Heading toward the white flag, I looked back again (Sorry Jenn!  I totally forgot to read your signs on the wall!).  Berto was right there.  GO!  Riding wide through the first half of the track, I came out of the bus stop and gave it everything I had.  I later found out Berto went for a high pass around riverside, but just couldn’t quite make it happen.  As my knee touched the curb in lost hills, I knew it was all mine if I just hit all my marks.  I’m stronger than Berto on the brakes, especially into the last 2 major corners.  I braked deep into the horseshoe, set up a drive through the esses and charged toward the last corner.  Thinking backwards instead of forward, I pushed my brake marker too far, and found myself off the apex by a few feet.  Pick up the bike, go, go, go!

To the line

There it was.  Checkers.  No one ahead.  First win.  A hand shake and thumbs up to Berto around turn 1, wheelie to 3, then I yelled in my helmet until I ran out of breath.  Man, winning feels good.

Back in the pits, the whole crew was waiting to congratulate me.  I’m fortunate to have such a great group of friends.  I think they were almost as happy to see a win as I was.  I can’t thank them enough for helping me so much this weekend.

Race 4: 600 Production

With a 3^rd row grid position, I followed Lenny and Jimmy Wood into turn 1.  Knowing these two would yard me out, I focused on putting in good laps and running my own race.  Joey Pascarella came by me with a tight pass into the last corner of the 2^nd lap.  The rest of the race clicked by with Joey putting a couple second gap on me, finally finishing in 4^th.  Not bad.

As I pulled into the pits, I found Jason and crew pulling apart his clutch.  That story is mostly his to tell, but we all spent the next 20 minutes frantically swapping his fried clutch for the next race.

Race 5: 750 Superbike

With an ok 3^rd row grid position, I got a great start into turn 1, in about 6^th place.  As I came through 2, I looked up to see Jason leading the race!  He’d holeshotted the race with that replacement clutch and was leading Lenny.  Man, I wanted to get up there and play too, but I had some work to do first.  Passed Nekimken and one other to 4^th in the first lap, Carman into the horseshoe on the second lap to 3^rd place, but the gap to Jason was a solid 6 seconds.  When Timmer came by on the 3^rd lap, I kept pushing, but I was spent and couldn’t push harder without making mistakes.  All I could do was watch Timmer as he started reeling in Jason.  As the checkers flew, Jason held onto 2^nd by 2/10s of a second.  Right on!  For my part, I rolled across in 4^th, with a gap in front and back.

What a weekend.  After a shaky start in practice, and being slow to get my head in the game, Sunday afternoon came good, with solid finishes and a win!  Next round, I’ll be starting all 5 races from the first 2 rows, and 1 on pole.

I can’t thank the team enough for all their efforts and support.  Special thanks to Chris V, Tom and Mikey for all the tuning, tires, warmers, fill ups, and all the efforts that let me race 5 races on Sunday.  Thanks to Z2, Yamaha, David at Fast Bike Industries, CT Racing Pirelli, Leo Vince, Mach 1, Yamalube, Motion Pro, Race Image Graphics, Helimot, Suomy, Factory Body Works, Igartua Yamaha, 4theriders, Sidi, Tech Spec, Ink Monkey, GP Frame & Wheel, CRG and Ken Hill Coaching.

Before I write about the beginning of 2010, a few notes about 2009 are probably in order.

2009 Round 7 at Infineon brought me my first podium of the season – a 3rd place in Formula 1.  Also, I finished the season 3rd overall in 600 production, from consistent results every round.

I can’t thank the whole Z2 crew, Pirelli and all my other sponsors enough for their support throughout the year.  We learned a lot, and I’m looking forward to starting 2010 on the high note where we finished 2009.

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.