Well, this weekend started off with a lot of suspension issues for me. Not only was I chattering through the corners, I was scraping more of the belly pan and leveraging the tyres again. Drifted both wheels through a couple of turns several times chasing a decent set up. It's a part of racing.
On with the show:
Set up as usual on Friday later afternoon. Spent the night and woke up to a cool but nice day Saturday.
Went out for a few practice sessions and it was apparent quickly that I needed some serious suspension work. Notice the wide line trough turn 2.
There were 2 suspension folks there. Phil with Aftershocks helped me initially and got me in the right direction. Then I went to Dave Moss with catalyst reactions and we got deeper into it.
Things were improving but I was still pushing, sliding and chattering through most corners and was losing time with my competitors.
My lines were getting better but my times were not good enough. By the end of Saturday it was not looking good.
SUNDAY! SUNDAY! SUNDAY!!!!
Sunday alwasy brings optimism. I slept well and felt good. First race was the 450 super bike race. I was gridded in last, I think there were 15 competitors. I managed a 9th place finish. Not bad for first time racing in that class.
As the day progressed, delays began to happen. Seems there were not only a lot of crashes, but a couple required helicopters. Hope those guys are ok.
Never a good sign.
With the first race out of the way, I spent my time between races trying to get some lunch and get the suspension working decent. At least three times I tried to get something to eat but was called back to Dave Moss' for more suspension testing.
It was just about time for race #9 which was the 500 race. I was eyeing 3rd and a trophy. My times were getting better and I was close to the one guy I had to beat. Unfortunately. more delays.
As we sat around, the announcer called 2nd call for our race. We don our helmets and gloves, fire up the bikes and off we go for the warm up lap.
Here's where it gets messed up. Usually I go to the far end and do 3 warm up circles then head to the area where they let you onto the track. I have never, let me repeat, NEVER got to just go straight out to the track. We've always had to wait several minutes before they let us go. I go down one side and back up the other. I go for a second circle and as I come up I notice everyone else is gone. I jam towards the track enterance with another guy and the officials wave us off. The other guy blows through and after he goes, the officials literally JUMP in front of me so I can't go. They say I was too late. I couldn't have been more than 5 seconds behind everyone so I'm thinking they're just trying to get all the races in since there were so many delays.
So, off to the grid I go with cold tyres while everyone else is on the warm up lap. The title of this pic is "sad"
Actually, I was super p.o.'d :pissed:
Everyone else finally comes around, we get gridded, (btw, I'm in the last wave which made it even more frustrating) and wait for our green flag.
I'm thinking, "this is gonna blow" and it did.
Two board, One board, Sidewaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays, GREEN FLAG AND OFF THE GO!!!!!!
Except for me. Decent start, pass a few through turn one but have to back way out of it for turn 2 and the rest of the lap while I get heat in my tyres. By the end of lap one I'm in last place and I'm PISSED! :pissed:
Head down after that and I'm in full charge mode.
I catch and pass 2 bikes but since we had all the delays, they shortened the race to 7 laps. It took me 6 laps to catch the 4th and 5th place riders. I had a lap to try and pass them both for 4th. It was about that time that we came up on lapped riders.
They got between us and I pushed as hard as I could just to catch them at turn 7. Unfortunately more traffic was there and I couldn't get around the rolling road block that was 4 bikes in front of me.
What was really scary was the way I was scraping the belly pan.
close up of said bellly pan
I was shaking and losing grip all over the place. Many close calls but I managed to keep it on two wheels and finish 6th.
I'd like to thank my sponsors, Blunt/Niles Racing for all their support. Thank you guys. You're the best! :thumbs:
Big thanks to Glen (deaded) for his support as well. Don't they look good in their shirts? :rockon:
As always, thanks to my lovely wife Noelle. As Ralph would say, "Baby, you're the greatest". And thanks to everyone who shows up in person or in spirit.
Next race is back at Infineon on May 24th. If you don't have anything going on we'd love to see you there. :thumbs:
Thanks for reading my report.
