AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

Buttonwillow backwards. Last race weekend of the season. My last races as a Novice.

I can’t help but think back to the beginning of the year; the first-time racer, struggling to figure basic AFM registration and tech processes. 8 race weekends later, I’m stunned by how much I’ve learned about myself, bikes, and racing; not to mention all of the good friendships that have developed. I can easily say it’s been one of the best times of my life.
I rolled into Buttonwillow Thursday night, to take advantage of the track-operated trackday on Friday. With no familiarity with the track, I needed the extra day to learn some lines, check out gearing, and try a new front tire I’d been given. By the end of the day, I think my best times were probably in the 2:05 range, based on some other folks I followed with laptimers. I didn’t bother to put mine on. I’ve realized that the timer just slows me down. Speed is a derivative of good lines, throttle control, braking, body position, and all the other little things you do in every corner on the track. Looking at the number each lap doesn’t tell you how to go faster. Listening to your bike and body every lap and watching others can tell you that.

Saturday practice started cold and windy, and the wind didn’t let up all day. It made some of the turns very interesting, especially the high speed Riverside turn (100mph+), with the wind pushing you wide. In hindsight, it was great practice, making it easier to rail through that turn on Sunday. My best times for the day were in the 2:03 range. I could only find a few 2:01s on other 650 twins riders timing sheets, so I knew I was in striking distance.

Sunday

Race 1: 600 Superbike

As my “optional” race, on a severely outclassed bike, I planned to use this primarily as starting practice, so see how many people I could get around by turn 1. Good starts have been the key to good finishes for me this year. Green flag. Starting in 54th position, the back of the pack seems to be nearly parked for the first couple turns. I dove for the inside line as fast as I could, throttle wide open nearly to the apex. Jason started in around 28th position, and although he picked up some spots on the start, he was only about 4 bikes away by turn 3. Grin. Starting from the back of the pack can be fun. Sadly, the race was red flagged for a crash 1 lap later. On the restart, my bike wouldn’t start for the warm up lap. I rolled it back to the pits to replace a spark plug holder and tighten down some other wiring. At least it wasn’t an important race, and I got my practice start.

Race 2: Formula IV

Second row start. I’ve done relatively well in this class throughout the year, and a few folks didn’t show up to this round, so I found myself in a great spot on the grid this time. Green flag. I got a good jump, diving into 4th or 5th position going into turn 1. In the next lap, I picked off Kevin Heiss, but was passed by Gator the lap following. A red flag shut the race down the lap following due to a 4 rider crash out in Club Corner.

On the restart, I got a bad jump, and found myself swallowed up by a few riders into turn 1. I have a pretty strong motor, so I expected to be able to get around some of these guys on the back straight, but Jay Kinberger proved me wrong. He’s got a rocket for a motor. I couldn’t reel him in until the slow technical parts of the track, and didn’t force a pass until Gator and Brian Harp came FLYING by both of us in 2 consecutive turns. Ok, screw this, time to go. A half a lap later, I found a good spot and got past Jay, but it was too late to get back in touch with the front runners. 4 relatively boring laps later, I finished in 7th. Not bad – matched my best performance to date – but I knew I could do better.

Race 3: 650 Twins

Due to the race schedule, we had a massive 4 hour break in between races, leaving me lots of time to ponder the game plan for this race. Due to my mediocre finishes in this race during the year, my grid position was 3rd row, right between Jason and Brian Harp, who both start pretty well. Not a good set of cards to work with here. Ok, well, I was pretty happy with the 7th place from the first race. This is the last race of the year. Time to just have fun, put my head down and go as fast as I can. These are 6 lap sprint races, after all.

Green flag. I nailed the start, jumping through 1 row instantly, and snaking up the inside to dive through turn 1 side-by-side with Jeff Hagan for a moment ( oh yeah! ), leaving only 3 riders ahead of me. As I ran through the Esses, I realized I was having no trouble keeping up, and in fact was off the throttle to avoid running up on them. As we get onto the back straight, none of them pull a gap. I guess my motor IS strong. This could be interesting. The next lap or two is a bit of a blur. I think I passed Bill Fox somewhere in lap 2, and find myself about 2 seconds behind Dan Sewell as we head onto the back straight on lap 3.

The back straight in the backwards configuration is called the drag strip for a reason. It’s forever long. On an SV, you tap out in 6th gear about 2/3rds of the way down it, just hanging out near the rev limiter, trying to make yourself very small on the tank and get that last mile an hour out of the bike. This gave me lots of time to think as I stared at Dan’s bike in lap 3. I was sitting in podium position for the first time, and would achieve my outside goal for the year if I finished like this. I was totally happy to finish right there. Ok, but that’s not the way racing works. I know that if I stopped pushing, I’d fall off pace and be swallowed up by the talented guys behind me. Remember the plan before the race. It’s the last race of the season. Let it all hang out. Ok. Dan, I’m going to chase your ass down and take second.

Bit by bit, I pulled in the gap. As we passed the white flag, I pulled parallel to Dan. He saw me and we both went diving into turn 1 way too deep trying to out-brake each other. My front end started pogo-ing as I hammered the brakes. Bam! Skip! Bam! Skip! I guess I could have used a little more pre-load on the front suspension. I overshoot the apex by at least 10 feet, but so does Dan, and I get the bike settled down and throw him a little wave to apologize for the hairball passing as I head into the Esses. 2nd place baby. I just need to keep it together for this lap.

As I come over wheelie hill heading into the last 6 turns of the track, I see Dan’s shadow behind me. I just need to keep a good pace on a protective line into turn 2 – the only good passing place before the finish line. As I come over the next hill, I see Jenn ahead. Oh crap. We’re going to lap her, and it looks like it’ll happen right as we head into turn 2. My plan for protecting the line is totally out the window. It’s going to be a free-for-all. I stay right on her rear tire on the entry to the turn, with Dan pulling up to my right. As Jenn turns left, I dive inside, thinking about sneaking in before the second apex of the double apex turn. Dammit, I can’t do it. It’s way too tight, and I didn’t carry enough momentum through the first apex. Dan was on the outside line, but as soon as I went in, he pulled right in behind Jenn, following her through the second apex. Crap, I painted myself into the corner here. I back off and let him through and focus on a good drive into the last turn.

We fly by Jenn on both sides, but I’m 2 bike lengths back from Dan going into the turn. Get on the gas! Get on it early and hard! Drive! Drive! Drive! Drifting wide, out towards the paint, I keep drifting, and I’m over the curbing with both wheels in the dirt. Oh crap. The front end goes into a big tank slapper, and I have visions of tossing myself onto the pavement 200 ft. from the checkered flag. The bike settles down and jumps back on the pavement. I get back on the gas, look back through my cloud of dust and see Gator’s too far back to close it up. Checkered flag. 3rd place. What a way to end the season.

I’m going to miss going racing every month with all the great folks I’ve met this season. It’s been a total blast, but the down time will be good too. I’ll probably be racing a 600 next year, but keep the SV around, now that it has a fresh strong engine and some new bits here and there. I love running with the 650 Twins crowd, so I’ll race as many of those as I can next year.

Until then, it’s time to get muddy on the dirt bike.

I put in the new shift star and spring (’05 model design) on Thursday.  While I was at it, I swapped in the shift shaft and “claw” from my blown spares motor.   Shifting on a stand in the garage didn’t tell me a whole lot.  The old Factory Pro shift star worked ok in a no load situation as well.  The ‘05 seemed a little more firm, but I’d have to test this on a track.

I headed up to Reno Friday afternoon to join Jason, Jenn, Ricky and the Zoom Zoom crowd for a trackday at Reno-Fernley.  Long drive, with snow at the top of Donner pass, but I’d never visited the track, and I needed an answer before I head for Willow Springs on the 15th.

The crowd was great, the weather was a bit brisk, and the transmission works!!!  That track is super-bumpy in spots, and has lots of leaned-over shifting going on.  If the transmission was going to act up, it should there, but NOTHING.  Not a single missed shift or false neutral all day.  As a reference point, Jason and Jenn’s bikes were bumping out of gear all over the track.  Jason’s ordering the ‘05 stars for both bikes this week.

Aside from some brake drag on the front wheel, which I’ll be fixing with caliper cleaning this week, the bike seems rock solid.  Here’s hoping it behaves itself through the end of the season.

Team racing!

Once a year, AFM holds a 4 hour endurance race, featuring multiple bike classes, 2-5 riders for each bike, with pit stops for fuel and rider switches.  When Brian Davis (of MotoShoes) asked me to be part of a team riding his ‘03 R6, I said sure.  Honestly, I didn’t see the allure of riding to the point of exhaustion without knowing how you’re actually stacking up against the other teams.  But, I figured it’d be a good chance to get to know the track better and build some consistency.

I was completely blown away by how fun it was.  Despite putting almost zero thought into our strategy, we managed to figure out some basic signals to scribble on a whiteboard to allow the pit crew to tell the rider how long he’d been out there.  With pitting strategy a more significant factor than laptimes, we were all watching the clock, prepping the next gas can with the right amount of fuel, running to the wall with the pitboard, staying hydrated, or watching others do their furious pit stops.  4 hours went by like it was nothing.

Brian’s bike served us very well, despite Jason crashing it in Friday practice at about 80mph.  I managed to run some 1:48.0s while riding about an hour and 10 minutes.  For being an unfamiliar bike that wasn’t set up for me, that wasn’t too bad.  It’s 1.5 seconds faster than I’ve ever run on the SV at that track, and it’s not a horsepower track.  I’m definitely picking up a 600 or 750 for next year.  I really like the way inline 4’s behave.

To top it off, we finished 5th in the 600cc class, which was quite respectable.  Only some really serious teams with fast riders and planning beat us.  Cool stuff.

Regular racing

Friday practice had been a bit weak… with a late oil change/clutch problem wasting one session, and riding Brian’s bike taking up another session.  The front end never felt very stable in turns, and I had was fighting with it to turn in some spots.

Sunday morning’s 1 practice session made me realize just how bad the handling was.  Compared to Brian’s, which I’d been riding so much the previous day (while very tired, in particular), the SV was steering like the Queen Mary.  I had to hammer the brakes to get the front end to turn in the turn 8 Esses.  No such issues with Brian’s bike… I’d just roll off the throttle a bit.  I took the SV over to Dave Moss for a little adjustment, where he pointed out that my fork oil was shot, and I was bottoming out the forks.  Some pre-load and rebound adjustments later, I threw on the tire warmers and went to the riders meeting.  Formula IV was the first race of the day.

Formula IV

Continuing a bad trend with my first race of the day, I got a really weak start, losing spots to at least 5 riders before turn 1, and a few more before turn 4.  Ugh.  This sucks.  I put my head down, but didn’t find much help from the adjusted suspension.  Turn in was slightly better, but the front end didn’t feel stable mid-corner, so I totally chickened out in the carousel, entering it really slowly, not carrying much corner speed, and not tightening up my line for the drive out – lap after lap.  To top it off, the transmission started jumping out of gear as I tried to upshift in a few corners… exits of 7, 8, 9, 11.  What the hell!!!  We just rebuilt this damn thing, and I switched it to GP shift so I could hit the shifter harder and make the shift stick.  Why won’t it stay in gear!?!?

I let the handling and shifting get the better of me, and didn’t manage to make much headway through the pack.  I ultimately finished 15th, with a best lap of 1:49.9, no better than last round at Infineon.  On the bright side, not having good corner speed or drive, I found I could brake much deeper into 7, 9 and 11 than I ever had before.  Every challenge is an opportunity to learn, but at the time, it’s pretty disappointing.

650 Twins

Between races, we backed out a bit of preload on the suspension, since I wasn’t using the whole suspension travel after Dave’s initial adjustment, and I tried to loosen the front axle to fix some front wheel drag.  Most importantly, I got my head back in the game a little bit.  Time to start well, and push hard to the end, regardless of bike issues.

It wasn’t to be.  As the green flag dropped, I got a pretty decent jump, but when I went for 2nd gear, I got nothing.  Right back to first gear.  Crap!  1 row of riders goes flying by.  I shift again.  Nothing.  Another row goes by.  Again. Clunk.  Ok, we’re in gear, but what the hell just happened?  I’ve never had it miss a shift to 2nd gear.  I only make that shift a couple times a weekend.  The gears should be in perfect condition.  No time to theorize.  Let’s go.  As I make my way through the first few turns, picking up positions, the bike misses another shift, then another, and then 2 in a row coming out of turn 7.  Crap.  Keep riding.  You can’t change it now.  I make up all my positions on the brakes through the next couple laps, and eliminate a few shifts and just lug the bike around turns 2/3/4/5/6 in 4th gear.  Better to stay in gear and be slower than to miss shifts and be an unpredictable hazard to the guys behind me.

4th lap.  I briefly consider pulling in, since the gear jumping is getting worse and I’m swallowed up by guys 2 at a time trying to find 4th gear, then take them back 2 at a time on the brakes.  It’s not pretty, and I’m sure they’re getting pissed off, but I can’t voluntarily not finish a race when the bike’s still rolling.

5th lap.  As I come out of the carousel, Ari Henning makes an outside pass on me, but I drift wide before I see him, and we collide.  Ok, no big deal.  Just a little bump.  We’re both still on the gas.  He throws up a hand to acknowledge the iffy pass, and I nod and wave back.  No problem.  Bumping happens.  I tuck in and give chase, intent on getting him back on the brakes into 7.  I get up next to him and go for the brakes…  I go for the brakes again… shit.  I look down, and there’s no brake lever.  110+ mph.

It’s amazing how fast your brain thinks sometimes.  I flash back to yesterday, when Jason Butler’s bike had brake problems and flipped right in front of me going into turn 9.  I’d avoided him with some heavy braking that time.  My brain tells me this one’s not going to go as well.  There’s a mental blur as I shoot through 2 or 3 riders braking or turning into 7.  Straight ahead, avoid the concrete barrier to the right, and shoot through the opening into the giant parking lot out beyond 7.  Downshift, downshift, light on the rear brake.  Incidentally, rear brake at 100mph doesn’t do much.  Finally the bike slows down, and I turn it around and I head for the cornerworker’s station. 

I hammer the bars with my fist, my first reaction being anger at being sidelined with a broken bike.  2 seconds later, I remember just how close I came to colliding with another rider or a wall, and realize just how well things went.  Time to watch a race from the sidelines.  I don’t get any time to do so, as the race is redflagged due to another incident in turn 11, and I ride slowly back to the pits.  Oddly, I’m recorded as finishing the race, as it was redflagged before a couple riders behind me could complete a lap more than me.

I was going to ride 600 superbike, but without a functioning bike and happy to be in one piece, I headed to the stands to root for Jason instead.  The 600 superbike race was redflagged on the second lap, as Shawnery and Brian (my endurance race teammate) collided in a very messy crash in turn 8.  That saga has been chronicled elsewhere, so I won’t re-itterate it, but thankfully both of them will be fine, although it’ll take Shawnery a bit longer.  It’s tough seeing friends hit the ground hard.

As I write this, the forks are at Aftershocks getting new oil, and a new shift star and other related parts are on their way in from Suzuki.  1 more race this season.  This bike needs to work.

Based on some other conversation, I just remembered that technically I achieved expert status after the last race weekend.  Yay, white plates for the bike.  It’s pretty pointless, in my opinion.  The “criteria” for expert status is just participating in 6 race weekends while keep it on 2 wheels most of the time.  My actual finishes and overall points in the class have nothing to do with it.  Dead last every weekend would have achieved the same thing.

The thing I do care about a little bit is here: http://www.afmracing.org/downloads/results/2007/topnov-07.html.  Overall Top Novice for 2007.  I’ve pitted with 4 or 5 of these guys every race weekend: Christian (Gator), Jason, Oliver, Rick, Blaise.  It’s fun to be part of the group of relatively quick new guys, pushing each other a few seconds faster every weekend.  The competition between each of us is more fun than the overall points in any race.

I finally pulled some of the pics of the camera.

Race bikes and bbqs.

Kneeriders.com founder RB’s Duc, and Paulie’s 1000RR.

Ricky, Gator and Oliver talking strategy.

Jason – “This is where my head goes!”

Oliver.

Bailey – trackdog in training, soaking up some warm asphalt in the afternoon.

Riding Without Excuses

The story starts shortly after Round 5 at Infineon.  Given the unsafe state of my bike’s transmission, a rebuild was going to be required before round 6.  Jason generously offered to show me how to do the whole job in his garage in Sacramento, and we tore the bike down and found out which transmission parts we’d need.  After multiple delays with our sources, we had all parts but 3rd gear and no ETA on delivery.  Zoran came through as usual, dropping off that gear in Sacramento on his way to the track on Thursday evening.  Jason and I dug in and didn’t finish the rebuild until 8am Friday.  Jason went off to work without sleep and I crashed out for a few hours before packing everything up and heading for the track.  Between the parts delays and some challenges with cam timing and weird engine noises part way through the re-assembly (at 5am, mental mistakes happen), I’ll admit I had my doubts that we’d succeed.  I can’t thank Jason enough for pushing through all of this and making my weekend happen.

Saturday practice:

I spent the first session or so taking it easy on the fresh motor, giving the rings a chance to wear properly on the top end, and clicking solidly through the gears.  In hindsight, I wasn’t firm enough with the transmission.  The motor started popping back a gear in some places on the track – one of the two symptoms we were trying to fix with the rebuild.  I was pretty bummed about that, after all the effort we put in.  However, the more dangerous false neutrals weren’t happening at all, so that much was positive.  I finished the day with my best lap time at Thunderhill – a 2:02.7.  Ok, but Jason, Oliver and Gator were all running those times or better, so I wasn’t very optimistic about Sunday.

Race 1 – 650 Twins:

I found myself on the grid looking back to see Elena Myers gridded right behind me, a field of fast guys around me, and a transmission that couldn’t seem to stay in gear all the time.  Great.  Well, I thought, I’ll just take it easy through the first lap, see how it sorts out, and pick people off one by one, trying not to get badly beaten by a 14 year old girl on her first outting with this class in AFM.

Riiiight.  As the green flag came out, I was immediately swallowed up by riders who were actually hungry to get out in front.  As we went through turn 3, Jason ran wide while trying to get around traffic, nearly going well off-track.  I back off another notch, not wanting to get caught in anything.  When I finally get into some sort of rhythm, I’m well back in the field, chasing Jason, as he’d had another off-track excursion.  Rather deflated about the race, I circulate around with Jason, enjoying the chance to dice it up with him, but otherwise bummed to be so far back in the field.  After briefly going airborne over the curb in turn 11, and some gear jumping from my transmission,  I finish 15th, behind Jason, with a best lap of 2:02.2.  I pull into the pits rather disgusted with myself and my bike.  I know I could have done much better.

Race 2 – 600 Superbike:

Jason and I added this race as our optional/have fun race, since the Open Twins race was moved just before Formula IV in the schedule.  No sense blowing ourselves out before a race that mattered.   Jason headed for the hot pits as my bike failed to start.  After some failed attempts at bumpstarting, I pulled back into the pits, and watched the race start without me.  I pulled a plug to check for spark, and found the sparkplug holder was so loose it wasn’t even contacting the plug.  Some monkeying around, and I had a working bike 10 minutes later.

Race 3 – Formula IV

Before this race began, Zoran wandered over on his goofy 3 wheeled scooter to  congratulate Gator on his 2nd place finish in 650 Twins.  I mentioned the shifting problems I was still experiencing, and asked what else it could be, given that we’d replaced the whole output shaft’s gears on the motor.  In typical Zoran fashion, he said, “It’s not a pu***y”, making a rather graphic gesture with his finger, “It’s a lever.  Hit it hard.”

Before I headed out to the grid, I sat and collected my thoughts for a moment.  It’s the last race of my schedule, the bike isn’t that bad, and I’m not that thrilled with my performance so far.  Screw it, it’s time to let it all hang out.  Ride the damn bike, make it go into gear, push the tires til they slide, and most of all, go fast from the moment the green flag comes out.  If I have a moment or two out there, so be it.  At least I won’t have any excuses.

Green flag.  I get a great jump, getting by a few riders as we go into turn 1.  I find myself at about 8th place as we dive into turn 2, with a freight train of front runners in front of me.  Hell yeah.  Let’s do this.  I keep pace with these guys for 3 or 4 laps, keeping Hagan within 5 seconds of me for the first time ever.  As we come through turn 3, Oliver chucks his bike down in front of me in a shower of sparks and a couple of somersaults, but looks ok.  I’m getting worn out at this point, and I’m having a hard time keeping pace with the leaders.  I back off a bit, not wanting to make any mistakes, and just bring it home with a top 10.  No more than 3 turns later, I get shown a wheel in turn 9.  Crap.  That’s what I get for backing off.  I hold him off for a full lap, but he gets me in 9 on the final lap, and I see my 6th place turn into a 7th.  Oh well, I’ll take it.

I find out later that I turned a 2:00.7 the second lap of the race, my best time at Thunderhill by 2 seconds.  Better yet, the transmission never jumped out of gear, and I never had a hint of tire slide.  I guess Zoran’s advice was right on, as usual.  The bike’s solid, and I’ve got plenty of room to go faster.  I just need to keep getting on the bike and riding hard, and leave setup issues in the pits.

Aside from all this on-track fun, the pit situation was great, with Jen, Jason, Eric, Trogdor, Gator, Rick and Oliver’s bikes all lined up together.  One of the best crowds in town.  The Kneeriders.com party was off the hook – pictures from that event will probably find their way online somewhere else

This was the first time I’d shown up with zero tracktime since the last round, planning to use only the Saturday practice to get dialed in for Sunday.

Saturday was quite disappointing. I spent the day chasing a rear tire slide issue, working with Dave Moss to sort out the suspension, to keep the rear end from moving around so much when I got on the gas out of corners. I had minimal success, with my best laptimes in the 1:52’s. My best race time from last Infineon round was 1:49. Definitely not going to do the trick. Also, as the day went on, the transmission on the bike got worse and worse, with more false neutrals and jumped gears. Not fun. I let these issues get to my head a little too much, and never spent any time really working on lines and reference points.

Sunday. 650 Twins was the first race of the day. After a pretty crappy start, juggling a jumpy clutch, I circulated around the track with no better than 1:51 laptimes, and finished 18th. Midway through the race, the transmission jumped out of gear in the middle of turn 6 (The Carousel), leaving me coasting through the rest of it, marginally in control. When I clicked it back in gear, it went down 2 gears, spinning up the rear tire, nearly high siding, as 2 or 3 other riders blasted by. What fun.

I spent the downtime between races doing an oil change to maybe help the tranny behave better, and fitting a fresh tire on the rear. I took it out for the warmup lap of race 6 after lunch, and the new tire was awesome. The old one didn’t look worn, but I guess it was toast. Too bad I wasted Saturday’s practice trying to adjust around it.

Race 2: Formula IV. This went marginally better, until I hit the carousel again. The bike jumped out of gear as I hit the hill going in, leaving me coasting all the way around, until I could get the bike vertical and click it into gear. Yay. No drive up the straight into 7. That’s good for a second, at least. Second lap, same thing. 3rd lap, I coasted into the carousel, without brakes, to keep the rear wheel loading the transmission. No false neutral. Well, that works, kindof. I’m just losing at least a half second every lap by coasting into that turn. I finished the race in 15th, with a best lap of 1:50. Ugly.

Aside from my performance, the weekend was fantastic. I brought my new puppy, Bailey, out to the track, and she adapted to all the noises, smells and people really well. She should be a great track dog when she gets past puppy phase. Jason and Jenn were amazingly generous as always, letting me keep Bailey in their trailer with their two 4-legged kids.

The pit garage was great too. Thanks to Eric and AMSOil, we had a garage again, packed with Trogdor, Blaise, Jenn, Jason, Cassie, Oliver, Eric and me. After hours of bike re-assembly due to an incident on Friday, Blaise picked up 3 top novice trophies on Sunday, and Trogdor picked up 1 as well. Jason finished top 10 this weekend, and Jenn put down better times in every race all weekend. Cassie did well in her first round at Infineon, and Oliver finished 4th and 3rd this weekend. Pretty damn good for a garage full of first year novice racers.

A few pics of the fun.

The garage.

More of the garage.

The infamous Helmet-Man!!! Actually, just Jason drying out his helmet and gloves.

Waiting for race 2 to start.

Coming around turn 11.

Thirsty puppy in Cassie’s lap.

The little 8 pound monster, trying to look intense.

Chasing Tom down at Willow Springs (7/2/07)

Closeup from AFM Round 4 at Thunderhill  (Thanks Joe! http://www.4theriders.com)

100+ degrees for 2 days straight, with lots of drama – crashes, seized engines, breaking wheels, last minute changes, great racing, jackrabbits. Yes, I said jackrabbits.

Saturday practice was definitely slower than I was hoping for. My best laps were only 2:04s. Nothing to write home about, for sure.

Rick Ford’s (one of the SV contingent) magnesium rear wheel started wearing badly, and he wasn’t going to be able to race Sunday, due to lack of spares for his custom setup. Jason generously offered his bike, since his back and freshly pinned collarbone were going to make for a pretty questionable race for him anyway. But loaning a race bike? What a guy. Sadly, Jason’s bike decided to crap out on Sunday on the warm up lap of the first race, with what looks like a seized engine. The motorcycle gods were not loving Ricky this weekend.

Sunday’s races kicked off with a bang, literally. After a helicopter ride for a 600 production racer, the 750/Open GP race got even crazier. A 750 rider high sided out of 13, leaving his bike sliding most of the way down the back straight, into the shadow of the walkway over the track. Some of the Open GP riders got around it, but one of them had a blocked view and ran straight into it at about 120mph. He went airborne, and I hear the fireball was amazing. He should be ok, with a few broken bones, I believe. Exactly how this scenario wasn’t avoided is still being investigated. There were 30 seconds to shut down the race before the second wave showed up.

I signed up for 3 races this round. Open Twins, Formula IV, and 650 Twins. The first is just a screw-around/practice race, since the big Ducatis can destroy my little bike. The other two are the ones that really count.

Open Twins

I got a good start from the back of the grid. Then the madness started. Someone had already tossed their bike on the right side of turn 9 on the warm up lap. Another guy decided to join the party shortly after, and tossed his on the left side, followed by a high side going onto the front straight. Everyone loves dodging bits of plastic on the track. But why leave it at that? As I came down 9 on lap 4 or 5, a good sized jackrabbit came flying across the track, right into my path. I didn’t have any other riders close around me, so I got on the brakes way early for 10, hoping the little monster would hold his course. I missed him by about 2 feet, max. At about 2ft. tall (including ears), I think he would have taken me out as I sent him to bunny heaven.

And back to the racing. I pulled some 2:03s to end up 11th overall. Not bad, but the grid was only 17 people. One major problem though… as I started going faster in this race, my front end started getting really bouncy, and I nearly lost it going through the little bumps in turn 6. I rolled over to Dave Moss’ trailer looking for answers, and he dialed in a ton of rebound damping, asking if I’d ever had the front end set up. I keep trying to remember. After my last fork refresh by Aftershocks, did I get one of the suspension gurus to fiddle with the knobs? Oh well. No time to wonder. I jumped out for the warm up lap of the next race to test it out. It rode like a totally new bike. The front end was planted so well it was almost hard to ride, being used to the pogo stick I had before.

Formula IV

With only enough time to gas up the bike and dump water down the back of my suit, I gridded up hot and tired. I got an ok jump on this one, but took it easy for the first few laps, since I had no experience with this new suspension setup. After a little dicing early, and watching 2 front-runners toss it away, I was left alone with no one coming from behind, and out of striking distance of the guys ahead of me. Time to back off and focus on getting a feel for this suspension. I finished 12th, rolled into the pits, and kicked back to recharge for the last race.

650 Twins

Game on. My brain’s working better, I’m hydrated, and I know my bike can go faster now. 3rd row grid spot. I wheelied the start (should have put that new clutch cable on) but didn’t bother trying to bring it back down, banging it into second gear, carrying the little low wheelie to 3rd gear. 1 guy got around me into 2, but I basically hung with the pack through the first few turns. As we came up over turn 9, the landscape was pretty interesting. The top 4 guys were starting to gap the field, as expected, but the next 8 were bunched really tight. Oliver was in there, Gator, and a few of the Twin Works guys. Ok, game on. Let’s see what this suspension can do. The battle was pretty furious. I passed and re-passed Oliver, Roy Sean, and Mackey. Man, what a lesson in racing. I dove in on the brakes into turns 9 and 10 harder than I ever have before. I also realized just how much planning helps. With such equal bikes with low power, setting up the drive onto a straightaway early and getting past before the braking zone is much cleaner, and doesn’t sacrifice speed through the next corner. Gator broke through the pack early and started running after the top 4. That dude ran great this weekend. I took longer, but finally got through everyone in that pack but Frost, to finish 7th overall. Laptimes were pretty whimpy, not doing better than a 2:03, but that was with some crazy dueling all over the track every lap. It was a fun race, and I know I can make that bike go way faster as I get the hang of it.

Top 10. It feels good to have hit my goal for the weekend, but Round 5 at Infineon is coming soon. What’s the goal there? Run 1:47s? 2 seconds faster should be doable. Where that places me will depend on other traffic.

I also need to decide what to do with my engine. The false neutrals and jumping back a gear persisted, and I doubt I’ll make it the rest of the season without a rebuild.

I spent Friday and Saturday up at Thunderhill for 2 days of fun with the ZoomZoom crew.  Jason and Jennifer’s trailer was ground zero for the fun, with Eric Snyder(536), Rick Ford (933), Dave Zavatson(990) pitting with us, and Kristy Miller(636) next door.  With lots of good bbq and cold beverages after hours, this group kept the fun going non-stop.

We ran the track backwards on Friday, providing a unique opportunity to learn a “new” track and practice wrapping my head around new corners and lines in a short amount of time.  It was also a great opportunity to not worry about lap times, and focus on basic body position and bike setup.  We’ll never race this configuration because some of the turns don’t have enough runoff in the event of a get-off.  Taking it back a notch during a trackday minimizes the risk, but it’s not an option for racing.

One of the highlights for Friday’s practice was taking Jason’s bike out for a spin.  For a bike which is theoretically the same (first gen SV650), it felt like a completely different beast.  The overall geometry is different, the suspension oil weight, level, preload, rebound and compression settings are all different.  However, after comparing notes, we felt we could have run our regular pace after a few laps of adapting to the bike.  It was a great opportunity to realize that at our level, while dialing in the bike is important, improving the rider’s ability is far more crucial.

Saturday was a bit more focused on dialing in lap times with the regular counter-clockwise direction.  I haven’t been on the track since last fall, and only spent a half a day on the SV when I first bought it.  I had times down to just under 2:07 by lunchtime, which wasn’t horrible.  Winning times next round should be around 2 flat.   I hooked up with Zoran of TwinWorks for a session after lunch, to get some of his insight.  He chased me for a few laps, then buzzed by for me to follow.  Damn, that dude moves.  He’s willing to get really close to other riders he’s passing, and put the bike on the very edge of the track at speeds where the bike is wobbling a LOT.  That kind of confidence in your skills only comes from lots of seat time.  Chasing him, I dropped another 2 seconds to a 2:05 flat, in regular trackday traffic.  After coming in, we talked through most of the corners, and I learned a bit more about where I can pick up speed.

I also brought my street bike (’06 GSXR 750) for a little fun with 130hp.  I toned things down a lot in the interest of keeping both wheels down with all my nice pretty street plastics in one piece, but still had some fun.  I was turning 2:06s, mostly by blasting by bikes on the front straight.  Ahhhh, power can be fun.

I need to find another day or two of practice at Thunderhill, particularly with some top 10 SV riders.  One session running with Zoran was more useful than a whole day of practicing alone.  I’ll need to find another couple seconds to break into the top 10 in Round 4 at Thunderhill, but I think that should be doable.