AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

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!

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.