The track day had a really light turn out, but I was pretty much out there riding all day. I had one of the SF Brewsday group out on the track for the first time so I was working with him. Then I had 3 others who wanted me to work with them. I rode something 10 sessions that day. Two hours were back to back without any breaks for water, that’s what just about did me in. At least with the C group I don’t have to push so I can relax a bit, but it’s really hard to stay in and use proper body position when you are not any where close to being at pace. I was really pleased with all four of them. They improved, got smoother, happier, had a long more confidence, and got a bit quicker by day’s end. That is what makes a great day!
I ended up working the next weekend. Work really is getting in the way of my fun. I would have liked to spend the day getting ready for the races, or replacing that clutch cable on the sprint. My next street bike will be a naked one, that is just way too much plastic to have to mess with.
The split weekends are nice but I’d really rather just have them together, it would free me up more to go dirt biking or for a road trip. I hear AZ hwy 191 calling, but it just isn’t going to happen. So I spent Sat, working on getting things ready for Sunday’s races. Packed up the truck and headed down to the track. I was hoping that the Tire vendor would be there, so I could change put the new rear tire on that I needed. I needed to change the front too, but figured if I was really short on time I could get by for practice and that first race. Turns out he didn’t make it and I didn’t have time with registration to change both…. But at least I got the rear tire on, but just barely. I only made it out for 4 laps of one practice session on the 675 and I got 1 lap on the 250. Not really, my ideal way to start off the race day.
Working for the club can really make it hard to focus and this was one of those weekends, that just didn’t go as smooth as it could have. Note to self: check grids more then twice!
I was pretty frustrated, and borderline mad when I headed out for my first race. I noticed in the hot pit that my forks weren’t even. I just thought, you’ve gotta be frickin’ kidding me, what do I do about it now? Not race? That just didn’t seem to work for me.. so went out anyway and thought I’d see how the bike felt. Figuring I’d end up with a lot of brake drag and hoped that was the worst thing that would happen. Well, maybe I need to start all my race wknds that way…. I got a great start, was third into turn 1A, but then I had to brake to avoid running into Brandon’s front tire. It might have actually worked out well for me I was able to get under him into turn 2 and beat him into turn 3. Which put me back into 4th, since when I had to brake Mark got by me. I was able to stay with Xen and Jeremy for the first lap, then I had Greg get by me, and he forced me to stand up the bike in the double apex and run wide. I stayed on his back tire until he got by Mark, he did the same done head type of move on Mark and forced him to the edge of the track too. I made a number of tries to get around Mark, but dang he’s wide when he knows you’re behind him. I ended up running a new personal best time for this configuration that was 1.9 seconds faster than my previous best. WOW!!! I didn’t even know it until 3 days later when I finally got around to looking at the GPX. My focus when the race ended was on getting a new front tire on the bike, since I’d ended up knee saving it int the double apex on the second to last lap. I had been planning on taking Mark on the front straight, but lost too much on him when that happened.
I still wasn’t very pleased with a few people at the track and I was really still mad at Brian, since he was the last one to touch the forks on my bike. Turns out the fork where uneven because one of the pinch bolts was missing and there was at least one more that was loose. Lesson for me was that I can’t trust anyone else to work on my bikes. I fixed the fork, found a replacement bolt, changed out the front tire and then tried to get calmer.
The next race up for me was the 250 race, I didn’t expect much since I’d only gotten one practice lap. I got an okay start, I got in front of Chris. (who because he got beat by a girl, isn’t allowed into the bar at home or so he tells me.) I don’t know how Xen does it, but he’s just crazy fast on that 250, next was Dennis, who’s been racing longer then I’ve been alive, and then there is Mr Riffe. I managed to catch up to him after getting stuck in a mess during the first two turns. I staked him the entire race, getting closer and closer. He’s really gotta stop looking behind himself coming out of the hairpin. I don’t think he could believe that I was right there and had to keep checking to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Of course, after that race, he told me that he was taking back the offer to help me suspension on that bike, since I was fast enough now. haha. Once I get that bike jetted properly and actually get some suspension work done, it’s going to be interesting.
The next two races weren’t really note worthy. I just kind of ran around by myself. But, the last race of the day. I talked Kelcey into riding my 250. I should have warned him about dragging the side stand mount in the hairpin. I got a fair start, but didn’t really have anyone to chase, so I held up and waited for Kelcey to catch me on the 250. He went flying around me in turn 7. I followed him for rest of the next lap, I watched him hit the side stand mount and almost wreck my bike. Good thing he’s such a talented rider. He and I went back and forth for the rest of the race. He came off the track grinning like a fool saying how much fun those lil bikes are.
This was the third race weekend in a row that I’ve had people at the end of the day telling me how well I was riding. That with the improved times I’m feeling pretty dang good about the last race of the season. I just might be able to get to the 55s.