It takes me awhile to get around to writing these. In part this time because I didn’t have a computer at home, and because I want to let things kinda settle before I started to write. This was probably one of my top 3 least fun race days ever. But, it still beat being at work!!! 😉 Just to warn you up front this is another really, really, long post.
Doing the club secretary duties and trying to get myself set up to race is wicked stressful. It was made harder this time by the fact that my computer died on Friday. I had to re create a number of things that I had already done and there were things that I was missing that would have made my day smoother. It just set a tone for the whole day, which was less then ideal for racing.
Since the past two years, I’ve been given the choice of moving up to the expert ranks and I’ve declined moving up to the expert ranks. This year I was going to stay out of all the novice classes and only run AM. There are pros and cons with it both ways, the main driving force behind my decision is that I know from racing with other clubs that I’m no where near fast enough to run with experts any where but Abq. Most of the guys who insist on moving up when they don’t run the fast lap times are doing do more outta ego then anything else. There are few who’ve chosen to move up that can’t get below 59 second lap times. I’ve managed 58s and a few 57.9s and I still don’t think that’s fast enough to justify moving up, but that’s not here or there and I don’t have a say in it for anyone but myself. Where I was going with that rant …. I ended up in 6 races for the day. I had only wanted to do 4, but the two Novice classes needed more people to make them fill. There wasn’t anyone else that I could con into it so I did it. I’m pretty sure that I won’t be needed in the Nov O class again, since it filled up nicely, but the Nov U class is another story. I’m going to have to stick with that one for the rest of the year.
Let’s just say that with the track conditions on Sunday, no one was running record lap times. It remains to be seen if this is going to be an ongoing issue or if its just due this being the windy season, but the track was filthy!!! Not quite as bad as it was the week before, when the club officers had to get out there and shovel the sand off the track, but far from being in good condition.
So I’m on the fence with the track days being on different weekends from the races. I like the fact that I’m not so tired on Sunday, but it’s like not having any practice before you go racing. I know that we got 2 practice sessions that were quite long, instead of the 3 10 minute sessions we were supposed to have. It was nice to have the longer practice sessions.
The first up of the six was the Novice GTO, it was one of the classes I just there be a warm body. I figured I’d practice my launches, as they always need work, and see how it played out. It seems to go for me, the launch was horrible and I entered the first turn at the mid to back of the group. I did about 2 laps, I just couldn’t get my head wrapped around racing. Lack of concentration is a bad thing on a race track, so I pulled off, figuring that I’d keep my focus on the AM races. I’m not sure it was the best way to set the tone for the day, but it’s what I did.
Next up was the AM Super Twins, funny but yes, the d675 is legal. I had yet another awful launch. I’ve got to practice those, and get some coaching. They are either great or the awful, there’s no middle ground. I lost ground in the first turn when one of the guys drifted wide and I had to roll off to avoid running into him, otherwise I’d have gotten a great drive out and been able to get around 3 of them. That would have put me into 2nd place. Oh well, instead I had to fight my way around a Buell 1125r, it took me like 3 laps but I finally got around him and other guy. We came up on the second guy, the guy on the Buell chose to go high and around the outside, I went under both of them. Which landed me into 6th, not the finish I had in mind, but it was a fun race.
Next up was the AM GTU, this one is back to back with the AM ST. That actually works to my advantage; I’m fastest at the end of 30 minute endurance races, go figure. However, there was a hold up on pit out and my bike started to over heat. I wasn’t happy about that. It kinda threw me off, and I was too busy watching the temp gauge at the start and had another less then stellar start. I ended up in 3rd on exit of the first turn. I actually thought for a minute (actually a couple of laps) that I was going to be able to catch Brian, who was struggling with the switch to GP shifting. I would have too, if I’d paid better attention and ridden more defensively so that Dave couldn’t have gotten in front of me, when I mis-shifted coming into the hairpin. Once that happened he slowed me down, enough that there was no time to catch Brian. I stayed behind Dave for a couple of laps, seeing where he was strong, and was going to return the favor, but he brake checked in an odd place coming out of turn 2 and I almost ran into him. It killed my drive and I couldn’t get around him. Then we came up on lap traffic, and he held up for 2 corners so I wasn’t able to get around Dave. My fastest lap of the day was once I got around the traffic and was running Dave down to get around him. I just needed one more lap. I don’t know how I missed the white flag but, I did so had to settle for 4th. I’m going to blame it on the dust that was coating everything and the wind creating small lil’ brown outs in places on the track.
Next up was the Nov GTU race, it was the other one that I hadn’t really wanted to do, but I wanted to make sure there was at least 6 riders. It just so happened that I had one of my rare good launches. I found myself out in front coming into and out of the first turn. First hole shot of the year. So I just kept going. I could hear the other d675 behind me for a couple of laps. Now since I was the one who’d dragged him around the track his very first time out there and since he’d talked a lil’ bit of smack in the paddock. I thought I’d see if he could get around me. I just kept a steady pace, that wasn’t as fast as I could go, but I wanted to give him some thing to chase. After about 4 laps he fell back and just kept falling back every lap after that. It ended up being my first win of the season.
AM GTO was the next race, now this is one that I’m torn on running. There are some very fast experts who do this race instead of running in the ULGP. I’m usually at the back of the pack. I do learn something every time I’m out there but I really hate being in the midst of the pack at the start slowing anyone down, anyone but Doug. Actually I love getting in his way. LOL. However, I was quite tired by this point, I had another bad launch and I just didn’t have a good feeling about it. The wind was really starting to kick up and there were times when the dust was so thick that you couldn’t see the next turn. After I made 3 mistakes, with turn in braking and missed a shift all within 2 laps. I knew that I needed to just give it up and head back to the pit. I’m glad I did, just about the time I got out of my gear in the pit, they red flagged the race. Doug went down at the entrance of turn 7 and it was pretty bad. There was a large amount of oil and he wasn’t look too good either. Turns out he had to get stitches in his hand, had some broken bones in his hand and his bike is a disaster. After a ½ hour clean up effort they restarted the race, I didn’t go back out for the restart.
Last race of the day for me was the Formula Femme, which we combined with the Super Vintage right after they finished the AM GTO, (see why I didn’t go back out?) The FF was gridded up in front of the vintage bikes. Edda got the hole shot, but I was right behind her right into turn 3, from there out she started pulling on me and then I had Dennis go flying by me on a vintage bike… oh the shame. 😀 I tried to catch back up but wasn’t able to. The winds were getting really bad by this time, much worst then in the previous race, I didn’t feel comfortable pushing, not when the track is so dusty that you see clouds of dust coming off the bike in front of you. So I settled for running the last half of the race by myself. It got more interesting as we started into lap traffic. I finished in a very comfortable 2nd.
In all it was a nice day, I could have done without the wind and the wind wouldn’t have been so bad without all the dust. I’m beginning to question why Sandia moved the motocross track down closer to the road track’s turn 7. There’s a huge pile of dirt and sand that’s been blown there. Not to mention all the dirt that’s blowing onto the track. If this is a trend that continues, for the whole year, I may not go back there to race again.