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!

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.

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/

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.

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.

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

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.

Sunday. Time to get some music playing, sort the brain out, then GO. The one morning practice was a bit better, putting down a high 1:46. At least I was closer to the ballpark, and the rear end was sticking much better. New tires. Gametime.

Race 1 – Formula I

I kindof psyched myself out for this race, knowing that the front runners would be doing 1:41’s, and I was practicing at 1:46. Oh well, points put me on the front row. Gotta get up and go. Green flag. With a good jump from grid spot 4, I went into turn 2 in 2nd place behind O’Sullivan. Then the sharks swarmed me, and I found myself in 8th by the end of lap 1. Yeesh. Time to settle in, learn from following the other guys and get my pace up. After relaxing a bit, I started putting together some slightly cleaner laps, pulling closer to Stan Riner. I could tell that my approach to 9 was way too conservative, and tried a much later braking point. Oops. Too far. I couldn’t make the turn and had to scoot through the hay bales, losing the ground I’d made up on Stan. Looked like that’d be it for the race. Then Scott Schwanbeck came by me while I was doing some other goofball maneuver, and I found myself chasing him to the checkered. Due to O’Sullivan and Andy Allen crashing out, I finished in 7th, posting a best lap of 1:45.25. Not too surprising, given that I’d spent none of my practice at that pace. Losing 3 seconds between practice and races makes for some pretty inconsistent riding. I ended up in the wrong gear at least once a lap, and had some seriously irregular braking markers.

Race 2 – 600 Production

Since many of the fast guys decided to go race AMA or WSMC this weekend, the grid was pretty light for both of the 600 races, putting me in the 3rd row for this race. On the start, I got a bit of a weak start, getting pinched against the inside wall, losing a spot or two going into turn one. I spent the next lap or two making a couple passes to get out of traffic, ending with a pass on Andy who was circulating slower than pace, with a somewhat beat up bike from the F1 crash. After that, I found myself with clear track up to Matt Eccleston and Michael Pesicka. I pulled the gap in by lap 5, and looked for a hole to get through. Matt was trying everything possible to get by Michael, and it made for a tough moving target. I ended up watching a bunch of pass attempts and re-passes between the two of them, taking the opportunity to run some consistent laps and feel out places on the track where I could gain ground. I tried passing Matt into 7 once, but got hung up on the brakes by Michael in front of me, and Matt came back around both of us. I made a last ditch attempt to square off turn 11 on the last lap and beat one or both of them to the line, but ended up nearly highsiding myself out of the race as I got on the gas too hard too soon, and I finished 2 seconds behind Michael.

Due to DQs from illegal equipment on production bikes, I finished 6th overall, with a best laptime of 1:44.6. Better, and I actually felt comfortable and mildly consistent at that pace.

Race 3 – 600 Superbike

Again, the grid was pretty light, so I started in 9th- a second row start. With a decent jump, I went up the hill into 2 in 5th place behind Berto. Just like Formula I, I had a very weak first lap, and Sebastiao, Michael, Matt and Gabriel Santa Coloma ALL came by me. Sweet. Gotta love that. Just what I get for being a wus. It took me another lap to get up to pace and start pulling Mike, Matt and Gabe back in. I could see Sebastiao just ahead of them as I came out of 7 every lap, watching him tip into the left part of the 8s. Same thing, lap after lap, and I kicked myself every time, realizing I was running his pace but gave away 4 positions on that damned start. With my rear spinning up frequently, I couldn’t make any inroads on the guys in front of me, and finished in a close group with Matt, Michael and Gabriel – only 1 second apart. Best lap: 1:44.4

Not a bad weekend all in all. I hit my goal of top 10 in every race, although that objective was made much easier by some conspicuously absent fast guys. But hey, top 10 is top 10. The big takeaway is much the same as last round. Do what’s necessary to go faster in practice. Running 3-4 seconds faster in races than you’ve been practicing all weekend is very difficult – at least difficult to do with consistency and control.

Jason had an awesome first weekend on his R6, running 1:46s, finishing in the top 15 in all 3 classes, and a 9th place in 600 Production – all from the back of the grid. Good stuff.

A few videos from the weekend: http://www.ridemerchant.com/video/2008/8.17/

I need to remind myself of this quote more often. While it’s not 100% true for a relatively new rider like me, who can learn a lot from slowing down and observing what’s going on… it’s still a good guideline for any racer.

The weekend started on Friday morning, with the open test and tune day run by AFM. A lot fewer people than the regular Saturday practice, and more sessions to work with. I basically totally wasted my time. Since I’d had a great practice day on Monday at Infineon, thanks to a few suspension adjustments, I mostly chased my tail trying to get the suspension to handle as well at Thunderhill. No such luck, and I was riding in the 2:02 range at best.

Saturday, I decided I’d mostly ignore suspension bits and just focus on getting through sections of the track better, with mild success. The breakthrough realization came when I took Jason’s SV (now Jenn’s) out for 2 laps to test the new slipper clutch he’d just thrown in. Jenn wasn’t practicing Saturday, and someone needed to give it a once over before she raced it Sunday. My god. That thing seemed SOOO easy to ride. Given, the suspension is well sorted, and the slipper clutch made corner entry extremely predictable, but the main sensation was that everything was happening slowly, and I had all the time in the world to focus on opening the throttle really early and setting up my lines way in advance.

This sensation had me scratching my head… and I talked to Shawn Reilly and some others about it. I asked why it was so difficult to get the R6 around the track when the SV was so damned easy. The short answer was… it’s all in your head. The R6 just makes things happen that little bit faster which puts my brain into reactive mode, instead of thinking a few turns ahead all the time. Alright, we’ll just go throw the R6 around like it’s an SV, and try and get the brain ahead of the bike. As the temps rose well into the 100s, I clicked off a few 1:59s to end the day, which was a significant improvement. However, that’s only a second quicker than I’ve done on a 80hp SV650 at the track. Not going to cut it for Sunday… but we’re moving in the right direction.

In the evening, Andy Allen, another R6 rider who I battled with at Infineon in Formula I, gave me a little advice about a few spots on the track, since he was lapping in the 57’s in practice. I really appreciate his openness with advice to someone running around his pace. Good guy.

I wanted to drop into the 58’s in Sunday morning’s only practice session, but no such luck. Only a few 59.5s again. Still, they were very comfortable, and Andy’s approach to certain turns definitely helped.

Race 1: Formula I

My first front row grid position ever. 5th, outside position, looking at a left hand turn 1. Pretty daunting and thrilling at the same time, knowning that the 4 guys to my left have run 2-3 seconds faster than me previously, and there are a hord of pretty quick guys right behind me.

Green flag! I get a pretty good jump, staying parallel with most of the front row, but as I tip in for turn 1, the back of my bike clearly gets snagged on some part of some other bike. It’s pushing me wide, but I hold my line as best I can, staying on track. A second later, the pressure releases and I glance over my shoulder to see Liko running off track and up the hill. Bummer. Looking at pictures later, it looks like he got a bad jump on the start, and was probably trying to sneak into turn 1 tight, but I took his line just as he was getting there, not seeing him coming.

I gave away a few spots while the boat anchor was attached, and focused on trying to get those back early. I got around one or two guys, then Andy Allen. Since I’d be battling with him at Infineon, I really wanted to finish ahead of him this time too.

After 3 laps or so, I looked back and saw that I had a decent gap behind, and a decent one ahead. That was a mistake. Of course, knowing I had a gap slowed me down a bit, and as I rounded turn 2 on the last lap, the swarm got me. Matt Eccleston came by, closely followed by Stan Riner then Andy Allen again. Dammit, dammit, dammit. With only one lap to go, I couldn’t close it down, and I finished in 7th, with a 4th place available if I’d kept my head down. Best laptime was a 1:57.5. Now we’re talking.

Race 2: 600 Production

All the fast clowns showed up this weekend, so I found myself gridded on the 5th row, with Ricky Corey right in front of me (last year’s 600 champ), and a bunch of really fast guys scattered to the front. I got a decent jump into turn 1, picking off about 1 row of riders by turn 2, then set to work on one rider at a time. By half a lap, it was obvious that the 3 guys in front of me weren’t keeping up with the group ahead of them. Gotta go. In the next 2 laps, I picked them off, making a kinda close block pass into T10 in the process. Once free, I set off after the group ahead, but to no avail. They had about 5 seconds on me, and were running the same times, so I got to watch Andy’s back from 5 seconds away for the rest of the race. The only excitement was when Sebastiao Ferriera came by me at the beginning of lap 4, but I took him back a few turns later, and developed a gap quickly. And that’s how it ended… in 14th place, from 20-something. Not bad. Need a better jump to run with the guys at my pace though. Best laptime of a 1:56.9. Woohoo. 56s were the outside goal for the weekend, and I just clipped it.

Race 3: 600 Superbike

I threw in race gas for this one, just to see what it’d be like, since the bike’s mapped for it. Should gain 5-6 HP. Again, gridded a ways back. 6th row this time, 24th position, outside. Sucks when you don’t race the first round, and gridding’s done purely by points in the class. Gotta get a good start to make this happen.

Green flag! Good jump, and a hole develops up the right side by the wall. Well, kindof a hole… but good enough to sneak through. Keep it pinned! We go diving into turn 2, and Berto’s 2 bikes ahead of me, and it looks like 10+ bikes ahead of him. There’s my rabbit. If I can keep chasing him, I should get close to the top 10, even with all the fast guys on the grid. A group of 4-5 riders quickly develops in front of him, and between us, moving at a decent clip, but they’re clearly running just under the pace. Berto’s picking off someone every lap, and I’m doing my best to follow suit. The battle’s pretty tight, with everyone running low 57s.

I’m being a complete chicken through T2, T3, T5a, giving away 6 bike lengths a lap, but close it up well into 10, and out of 13. 13 and 15 are killing me though, with the rear spinning up like crazy on the way out of those corners. Tire pressure’s clearly a little off, and since I haven’t been running this pace in practice, the rear suspension’s not really in the ballpark. Oh well. Still going ok. Most of the passes stick, but on the last lap, coming into turn 14, Eccleston comes FLYING by me on the brakes. I can’t square him up, but focus on a good drive up the front straight. Open the gas early, early, early! I pull onto the straight right behind him, drafting for all it’s worth, pull wide, and go past him by a bike length or two. Fun stuff!

Finished 11th, with a best time of 1:57.0. Almost top 10. Not bad for starting 24th, and had a blast doing it.

Can’t wait til Infineon and apply lesson #1: Get up to pace early in practice, and then work with the bike to raise the bar. Racing takes care of itself.