CCS SW Race#1<\/p>\n
This is a long post… sorry I just felt talkative.<\/p>\n
I’ve been dying to get some track time since the YCRS in Dec.\u00a0 This 6 month down time is a killer, I’d really rather race for 3-4 take 1 to 2 months off and repeat.\u00a0 If only things I could control these things.\u00a0\u00a0 So since I wasn’t able to make it down to Arroyo for their February track days.\u00a0 I decided to check out the track over in Phoenix.\u00a0 Convenient, since CCS Southwest was having their first race of the year.<\/p>\n
Now the challenge to making this work was, getting all of my stuff back together, since things were scattered all over the state.\u00a0 Bikes were in Abq, trailer was in Farmington, my leathers were in Florida, and I didn’t have a truck (that I could trust to get me there and back) to pull the trailer.<\/p>\n
First was to get the truck situation sorted out.\u00a0 I sold off the Dodge, (good riddance) I traded in my car and bought a 2011 Toyota Tundra.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m in love with this thing.\u00a0 Then I had to make sure I put some miles on it before I could tow with it.\u00a0 Not a problem.\u00a0 The trip up to CO for the MRA banquet took care of that.<\/p>\n
Huge Thank You to Brian for working on the trailer over the winter.\u00a0 I still can’t believe how much better it looks.\u00a0 The only downside was that he didn’t bring all of my stuff back with the trailer…. um… my axle tool??? He also has a thing for throwing my locks away.\u00a0 \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n
Next was getting a functional bike, who knew that would have been so tricky.\u00a0 The ‘A’ bike still has a blown head gasket, and we’ve been waiting on Triumph to ship parts.<\/p>\n
The ‘B’ bike just needed some tweakin’ but for what ever reason it is impossible for Dave to get the correct parts for any of my bikes the first time.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So on the second attempt, we finally got the correct sprockets.\u00a0 Aaron tuned the bike for the new Arrow exhaust.\u00a0 (THANK YOU, PJ!)\u00a0 Good thing too,\u00a0 the map that was on it was horrible and had it making no HP at all.\u00a0\u00a0 Aaron did such a good job that the bike ended up with a 13hp gain!!!!!<\/p>\n
So once I had the trailer, truck and one of the bikes.\u00a0 I was pretty confident that the weekend was a go.\u00a0 On the way outta town I had to make stops to pick up fresh rubber for the bike and to pick up my leathers.\u00a0 I really should have stopped to pick up my beacon at Sandia, but decided to do that on the way home instead.\u00a0 I’ve gotta stop leaving that thing places.\u00a0 Ya’d think the big piece of tape across the instrument cluster of my truck with BEACON written on it would have helped me with that… but not.<\/p>\n
So technology is a wonderful thing and I love gadgets, but Nav systems are a double edged sword.\u00a0 That dang thing took me all over the place before it took me to the race track.\u00a0 It added about an hour to my trip.\u00a0 That and thanks to the head wind I had the whole way there the truck got horrible mileage so the drive over to Phoenix was kinda long and painful.<\/p>\n
However once I got to the track things were great.\u00a0 Tyler from CCS found me wondering around and came over to introduce himself. I got a quick tour of the track and overview of how they handle the track days \/ race days.\u00a0 What a great group of people.\u00a0\u00a0 So after parking the trailer and wondering around to check out the place I headed back north to stay at Debbie’s place.\u00a0 She was kind enough to let me crash there, and didn’t mind my coming and going at all kinds of strange hours.<\/p>\n
So Firebird main is a very interesting track.\u00a0 When I mentioned heading over to ride it, I had it described to me as racing in the walmart parking lot only more dangerous.\u00a0 So after riding, it I think it was an accurate description.\u00a0 I’m still surprised that they don’t have up any airfence, but then again where would they put it?\u00a0 There is A LOT of concrete and tires, with no run off.\u00a0 I thought that coming onto the straight at PMP was a bad but FB’s tower turn makes turn 10 at PMP look super safe.\u00a0 Sandia is no longer the most unsafe track I’ve raced on.\u00a0\u00a0 Matter of fact it’s looking quite good now.\u00a0 But, Firebird is a track and it’s the rider’s choice to ride it or not.\u00a0 I chose to ride and race it, but decided that there were places that I wasn’t willing to push the limits of my skills.\u00a0 So I was going to have to settle for slower lap times then I would like.\u00a0\u00a0 That and I had a couple of the ladies from registration inform me that, since was going to be the only female out there… crashing wasn’t an option for me. lol.<\/p>\n
Saturday’s track day got off to a slow start for me, it was colder then I’d hoped for.\u00a0 So I skipped the first session out.\u00a0 I did the next two slowly picking up the pace. \u00a0I spend most of the sessions sliding around on shagged tires that were 2 compounds too hard for that track.\u00a0 But, I didn’t need to have the best grip to learn the track or pick out reference points.\u00a0\u00a0 I did decide after a couple large slides that it was time to change to new tires.\u00a0 So that’s what I did over lunch time.\u00a0 I’m glad they are a really friendly group, since I had to go and borrow an axle tool to be able to get my front tire off.\u00a0 I know how it feels to loan tools to people you don’t know well.<\/p>\n
It’s hard to learn a new track when you aren’t really comfortable and you are kind of afraid of making mistakes.\u00a0 I ended up make quite a few.\u00a0 Dang it, I so want to be perfect, maybe in my next life.\u00a0 Twice I went off the track, but luckily in places where I actually had some run off.\u00a0 There were only certain turns were I ever got up to the speeds I knew were on pace.\u00a0 The rest I was going through a pace where I knew that I wouldn’t have any trouble, i.e. super slow.<\/p>\n
By the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable on the track and doing alright.\u00a0 I did get some great advice from some of the local racers.\u00a0 They were very helpful and encouraging.\u00a0 I couldn’t have been too slow since they didn’t feel the need to move me down to a slower group.\u00a0 My only goal was to be a little faster then the 2 vintage racers that I knew from Sandia.\u00a0 I mean really, I’m faster then them at home I had to be faster then them there.\u00a0 Even if they knew the track and had raced on it before.<\/p>\n
Sunday morning was even colder. \u00a0Go figure, I thought AZ was supposed to be warm?\u00a0 The colder temps in addition to all the rain that we got over night made coming onto the straight away, very scary.\u00a0 All that VHT compound that is down for the drag strip burn box and the better part of the drag strip, is super slick when it’s cold and when it’s wet, as well… dang…\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I walked out along the grand stand with one of the other racers to get a better idea of what we were going to be riding on.\u00a0 There was only one brave soul who went out for the first session.\u00a0 You could see the spray coming off the bike as it went down the straight.\u00a0 You could also hear the tire break traction spin up and then grab again.\u00a0 Not, a comforting sound.<\/p>\n
In attempt to make things safer then gave us more practice sessions and delayed the racing for a bit.\u00a0 A very smart thing to do.\u00a0 I went out for the last two practices just to see how it was.\u00a0 I’m really not a huge fan of sliding across the track surface toward a concrete wall.\u00a0 The track did get better and better as the day went on and the ‘race’ line dried up.<\/p>\n
My first race (MW superstock) got off to an interesting start.\u00a0 There were quite a few new racers who’d just done the school so lining up for the start was not as smooth as it should have been.\u00a0 I couldn’t get to my start position with the way they had lined up across the track.\u00a0 They were on the wrong rows.\u00a0 So I just rolled with it and started from the back.\u00a0 I don’t get the best launches with the B bike so by the time we got to the first turn I’d managed to be at the back of the group.\u00a0 No great surprise.\u00a0 I wasn’t there to win everything just to have a great time.\u00a0 That’s one of those things I really need to work on this year.\u00a0 I need to have more drive and not be so laid back during races.\u00a0 I stayed with the group through the back section of the track but once we got to that tower turn and started coming onto the front straight, I lost huge amounts of time.\u00a0 Just one of those risks that I wasn’t willing to take.\u00a0 I took my time every lap through there.\u00a0 It really hurt my times, but better to make it to the next race then crash out.<\/p>\n
The second race (Unl superstock) was much better.\u00a0 I had a decent start, I stayed with the pack until the tower turn again, but since it was much drier I was able to take it a lil quicker but I was able to get on the throttle much sooner then I could in the first race.\u00a0 What a huge difference that makes with lap times.\u00a0 I caught back up to a couple of bikes in the back section only to have them pull me on the straight.\u00a0 Once in the back section again, I was having to check up to avoid running into one bike.\u00a0 But again on the straight he pulled away from me.\u00a0 I almost got by him in turn 5 but decided to wait.\u00a0 Turn 9 (coming to the grandstand) I went up the inside and the made the pass.\u00a0 He tried to come back around in 10 but that wasn’t the best idea, since with my line through there I could get back on the gas much sooner and my bike pulls like a maniac.\u00a0 I’m guessing that I pushed him out wide and he couldn’t make the turn.\u00a0 Since he couldn’t catch back up on the straight.\u00a0 I managed to keep the gap growing until the end of the race.\u00a0 Which gave me 3rd place.\u00a0 Making it the first podium of the year.\u00a0 Not a bad start.<\/p>\n
My last race of the day (mw superbike) was the last race of the day.\u00a0 The launch was my best of the day, I carried 2nd until the first turn… I’ve gotta get better on the brakes.\u00a0 Two guys went by; I stayed with them up until turn 4 where I completely blew the entry, which killed my drive out.\u00a0 For a second I thought I might be going off the edge of the track.\u00a0 I was starting to make up some ground until the tower turn were I slid again and then I mis-shifted on the straight.\u00a0 From there I’m not sure what happened to me, but it got worse, I missed a down shift in turn 1,\u00a0 I blew turn 3 and 4 this time and had to down shift in a less then ideal spot to be able drive through the back section of the track.\u00a0 Only to have all the same things a happen again on the next lap… Big surprise the other 2 riders managed to get around me and gap me.\u00a0 Oh well.\u00a0 I slowed down and worked on fixing the turns that I kept messing up. Since there was no one else left to go around me.\u00a0 I really hate finishing last.<\/p>\n
In all it was a great start for the year and it gave me a number things to fix and work on before I do the next race in April.\u00a0 I enjoyed the group there so much that I’m going to have to find a way to make back there for some more of their races.\u00a0 It was great to meet some new people that I really hope I get to know better.<\/p>\n
Aside from the drive home being long, it still managed to go by quickly.\u00a0 That’s what happens when you’ve spent the weekend ignoring your phone and have to play catch up, beg your friends to forgive you for ignoring them.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have to say I’m really loving the new truck, it’s amazing improvement over that 17 year old dodge that I was driving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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