Diomede Racing

When you are setting up your pit at 7am and you are already hot and sweating you know it’s going to be one really HOT day.  I’m not a fan of racing on days with 100 degree temps, but ya gotta do what cha gotta do.  Next year, the club may want to rethink running the new config during the hottest months of the year.  It’s so much work to ride, and doing it when it’s so hot, is really not ideal.

I had planned on running in 5 races, but the last one of the day was the Formula Femme was a no go since I was the only female.  Bummer.  As it turns out I only did 3 races, decided that if I did the 4^th one that I might not make it home. I don’t like racing when it’s that hot out, I still believe that we should only do 6 races and take off at least one month during the summer.   Down to business, racing recap.

Race #1 for me was the Am Super Twins.   It’s my first year running this class and it has the most number of bikes in it.  Normally, Daryl runs my ‘B’ bike and I ride the ‘A’ bike.  However I didn’t get the forks back in time for the B bike to be ride able.  So Daryl rode is street SV in the race.  I was back to less the awesome launches for this one.  I ended up into the first turn in 7^th but by the time we completed the first lap I’d moved back up to fifth and that’s where I stayed.  I wasn’t able to get around Daryl. Which was just sad, since he was riding that acient SV of his that had half the horse power of mine, but he’s got some great defensive lines and is really hard to pass.

Race #2 was the Am GTU race, this one is back to back with the ST race.  Not the best scheduling on such a hot day.  I did at least remember to take a bottle of water to pit out so that I could down it between the races.  Not sure I would have finished the second one if I hadn’t done that.  As it was it was a hard race for me, I managed a decent launch, and I knew that I had someone right behind me for most of the laps.  He kept trying to put a wheel up the inside and I worked very hard to keep him behind me.  But, as the pace picked up I started to bottom out the forks coming through the new first turn.  Finally, it bottomed out so hard that I thought I might end up going off the track.  So that’s when I lost third place and had to settle for fourth.

Race # 3 was Novice GTU,  I had the pole position and I got the hole shot, however with the forks now bottoming out every lap.  I fell into second and then on the next lap I fell back to third in the same spot.  With the guy in first now far enough gone I knew I wasn’t going to catch him.  So I just hung out behind second watching and planning were to go around him.  One the last lap I got around him in the third turn, I put my head down and left him about 3 seconds behind when we crossed the start/finish line, he had no idea that I was back there that close.

Tags: Uncategorized // Comments Off on June SMRI Race Day

Tags: Uncategorized // Comments Off on Trail Braking, how many of you actually know what it entails ?

The June SMRI track day was great; but I find this year that I’m suffering from indifference when it comes to riding at Sandia. Most of the time I’d just rather not ride there, it’s that indifference that’s hurting my racing there too. It’s the main reason that I took my time getting out onto the track Sunday morning; also registration makes it tough to get my stuff ready.

My main motivation for finally getting it together to get out there was prodding from Brandon and a couple others that I’d worked with at the past track days. Brandon wanted some more help, so I pulled it together so I could get out there for the session before his, to warm up the tires and figure out where I was going. This was the first time this year that I’ve ridden the new configuration.

Now, my first couple of laps out there were interesting, trying to remember all the things I needed to work on from the YCRS school I’d just finished. Finding the apexes for the new transition turns was really difficult. Each one of those transition turns has a number of ways paths, and different places you can apex them. I wasn’t comfortable and I was wicked slow, but that only lasted 3 laps. By the time I was on the 4th lap, I was much more comfortable trailing the brakes to the slowest part of the corner. Now, I wasn’t by any means moving around the track at a record pace, but I was quick enough to not get passed except by 3 people and they’re ones that if they hadn’t passed me I’d have been shocked.

Once I was finally getting into it, I finally got around to helping out some of the track day riders. At the last track day I’d worked a great deal with Brandon and I did the same this time out too. He’s got some skill, he just doesn’t seem to trust the bike,k tires or himself. We’ve been working on body positioning and we still need to get him moving off the bike. Like most of the riders, he’s good about moving his butt, off the seat, but he keeps his head over the bike and almost over the center. Each time we head out there he gets a little faster, but I can tell when he’s getting tired. He slows down and stops moving off the bike.

In the last session, Charles headed out there on a vintage bike. He’s such a smack talker; he was talking about how he it was on this time out and he was going to school me with that bike. LOL. I followed Brandon out; we went back and forth with my leading a lap and then following him for a lap. Until, I saw Charles starting to catch up to me, then I passed Brandon, so I could run just fast enough to keep Charles behind me. After a few laps I let him get a lil’ closer but made sure that he couldn’t get too close. It was a great deal of fun to toy with him like that. He loved it, too.

Tags: Uncategorized // Comments Off on SMRI June Track day

YCRS

See it, do it, teach it, if you can pull that off then you’ve got a pretty good handle on the information.  Right?  I’ve been to the Yamaha Champions Riding School (YCRS) twice now, each time I came away with so much information that I had to wonder how long I was going to be able to hang on to all of it.   This time, I didn’t have to wait long to get back on my bike.  The school ended on Friday, by Sunday I was back in NM working with students at a local track day. I’ll get to that during a subsequent post.

Now, I’ve read in my training materials for ‘train the trainer’ courses that most people can only retain new information for about a 6 month period.  Then they will need to have a refresher.  This information was in part why I waited a bit before coming back for my YCRS ‘refresher’.  I believed that things would make more sense this time around.  I’d pick up on some of the things that I’d missed first time I was there.

After the first class I was dying to get on the track to see if I could translate everything I’d learned into a real life situation.  Unfortunately, I ended up having to wait for a couple of months, to get in some track time.  Since I saw a 5 second drop in my lap times at HPR, my first time out this year over the lap times that I was turning in August last year.  I mean really, at track I hadn’t seen in more then 8 months.  5 seconds, that’s huge.  I really had high hopes that this class would get me even lower lap times.

I thought I knew just what we were going to be doing, this time, drill and lecture wise.  I was mistaken; everything was quite different this time.  There was of course, some things that were the same as the first class, but there were so many things that were done differently this time. That the course seemed so new and fresh, not at all like a repeat or refresher.  The staples for the course are van rides to and from the track that I didn’t get to partake in this time.  Since this time I was staying in SLC with friends.   I kind of missed it.  It took me a lil longer to get focused on the tasks at hand in the morning.  It’s too easy when on your own to let your thoughts wonder to things unrelated to riding.   There was still van the rides around the track to get all the students focused on the correct things like apexes, brakes, corner exits, and entries.  There were demos in the vans and on bikes of things that could go wrong, how things work when done correctly.   Let’s just say that after riding around the track in the van with Nick driving, I really didn’t need any coffee.  I would like to take a moment to suggest to the track to make sure that ALL of the bolts holding the seats in place in the vans are tight.

I had made it a point to talk with the instructors during the World SBK races about what I saw as my biggest issue with my racing was.  For what ever reason, I often kill my speed in certain types of corners.  I know that at first they thought it was because I was stabbing the brakes on entry, but I knew that isn’t it.  I’m pretty darn smooth; anyone who has spent time following me around a race track will confirm that.  I’m just not as good with the brakes as I should/could be.

One of the major differences between this class and the first one I attended, was that they require every student to get what they need out of the class.  Yes, you did read that correctly.  Since I’d talked with them about how the first class didn’t really fix the trouble I’d been having.   We also had a guest instructor for this class who spent the whole time out on the track with us.  It was great to meet Scott Russell. Man, can he ride; I’m just sorry I didn’t get to do a two up ride with him.

The first day was spent making you think more about your riding and your positioning on the bike more then anything else.  Their focus is about making things as safe as possible.  Doing things differently with your body position in order to minimize the amount of negative input given to the bike. Giving your self more time and the ability to focus on the bigger ‘things’ while coming into a corner.

Now I could be way off, but looking back at the course and giving it some thought…. The morning of the second day, I’m willing to bet that the exercises we did were picked in order to focus on my braking issues.  As well as at least two of the exercises on the third day, there’s no doubt about one of them.  Since Nick stated that drill where we had to maintain the brake at least 10 feet past the slowest part of the corner was just for Kim.

Humm, I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they picked on me the second day, during the morning classroom session.  However, they made their points so clear, that I had a couple of the students ask me at the end of the day how I could possibly have a problem with braking when I was able to go so fast.  LOL.  There was really a huge difference in my riding between day one and two.  I was faster then I had been the day before.

The third day there was even more improvement, I was so much more comfortable on the bike.  I know that my exit speeds had come way up.  I was spinning up the rear tire at times.  Since we’d worked on so many things to make me safer I was able to deal with it and not have any trouble, I also had a better understanding for how to avoid it, once I knew where that limit was.  It’s hard to be able to get on the throttle that hard, if everything else isn’t going the way it should.

I was even more pleased with the things I came home with from this class then I was the first one.  I left there wishing that I could do a school with them at least once a month.  If could get more consistent instruction from them, I’m pretty sure that I’d be able to totally kill the competition during my first expert year.  Now, I’ve just got to figure out how to get back to work with them over the winter, in preparation for moving to the expert ranks next year.

Huge THANK YOU to Nick, Ken, Dale, Shane, Mark and Scott.

Tags: Uncategorized // Comments Off on Yamaha Champions Riding School @ Miller Motorsports Park

WSBK at Miller is just some of the best fun I’ve gotten to have since last year when I was out there for the race.  Got to see some of the racing peeps that I only get to see once in awhile now a days.  The only draw back to the weekend was having my back decide to be a pain.  It was so bad on Sunday that I slept on the heating pad that night, trying to make it stop spasm it didn’t work.  I woke up on Monday is almost just as much pain.  I had to resort to modern chemistry to get through the day.  Not something that I like to do, but now and then you just have to do it. It really hasn’t been good since then.

Some of the highlights include getting to see Jonathon Green and Steve Martin, the meet and greet dinner where they had some WSBK and AMA racers there to answer questions.  Melissa Paris is not only a talented rider, she is very funny and friendly.  Getting to do rides up the canyons in UT for the Pirelli Diablo Russo II tire launch.  How can you go wrong riding bikes all day, and some different and exotic bikes as well.

Overall the best part of the weekend was spending time with Mike and Lindsay, who made me play RockBand 3.  Those evil doers, I’m now going to have to go out and buy that so I can play at home.

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »

SMRI Race #3

This was only one of two scheduled combo weekends for the club, track day on Saturday and racing on Sunday.  Having to work registration both days’ kinda puts a damper on my excitement for the weekends.  It’s a lot of work to get myself ready to race and to do all the office duties before I get to hit the track.  I was really lacking motivation for the races.

There was only a few note worthy things about this race weekend.  The weather was nearly perfect, by that I mean there was only wind at the end of the day and it wasn’t enough to blow you off the track, or stand you up mid corner.  I actually had good starts for all four of my races.  I might actually be figuring this out, shame it’s taken 3 years.  I guess I’ll start with the last race just to mix it up.

4^th race of the day was Formula Femme; I was actually bummed with this one.  Not because of how I rode or the finish… I won it.  But, because Edda had gotten hurt a couple of races before this one and she wasn’t in good shape.  It just put a black cloud over the race, since she should have been out there with us and she should have won it.  Now this race actually taught me about defensive lines and just how hard it is to pass someone who runs them.  I was behind Dennis for all the but last lap and I was working at getting around him the whole time.  I made a few mistakes so that kept me from passing him a few times.  In all it was an awesome lesson.

Nov GTU wasn’t nearly as exciting as it could have been.  I got a great start and that was the high point of the race.  I didn’t keep Donny behind me for more then a lap and then I just couldn’t get myself to go.  For the first time I put a new tire on right before the race and didn’t scrub it in except on the warm up lap, I know that it messed with my head a little bit.  It shouldn’t have, but I kept wondering if it was going to slip or spin up on me at some point.

Am GTU was the most boring race of the day for me.  Travis and Xen checked out and I just cruised around all by myself fast enough to keep the rest behind me.

Am SuperTwins was my first race of the day, I like this class since it is the biggest gridded race of the day.  I got to start from the front row and I had a good start.  I got passed the three that got off the line better then me, but then lost two spots.  About the second lap I had Hannes go by me and then he and I had the best battle so far this year.  I got around him in the hair pin he got around me in the next turn.  I tried to sneak up the inside of 6 and he slammed the door on me.   I got by him again coming into the hairpin and he out powered me out of it.  We repeated that for most of the remaining laps until I go hung up on a lapped rider.  It was a blast.

Tags: Uncategorized // Comments Off on SMRI Race #3 @ Sandia Motor Speedway

MoM Round #2

My go fast picture from the weekend

I’m getting to this write up pretty quick.  It hasn’t even been a week, but since I have another race this weekend and then my vacation after that.  I need to or I might not ever get it done.  May is turning out to be just as crazy of a month as I thought it would be.  No time to do any of the things other then what I have to get done in order to make it to the next race day.  Working for a living is really getting in the way of my fun.  Okay, who wants to support me so I don’t have to work?  Anyone?  Oh well.

I left for Miller on Friday morning after working for a half day.  It’s quite exhausting working and then driving 10 hours.  But, I was so excited to get there that the exhaustion wouldn’t catch up with me until later.  The main reason for this trip was to bring a Birthday present up for Lindsay.  Mike contacted me about picking up a bike in AZ when I was over there for a visit and then bringing it up with me.  It’s really hard to keep a bike as a birthday present secret.  I had to make sure that I didn’t talk to Lindsay much or I might have slipped up.  I will say it was great fun, hinting right at it and her not getting it.  I got to the track at a decent time, and Mike had someone distract Lindsay so we could unload the bike and hide it without her seeing it.   After that we all headed back to SLC to rest up for Sat.

I like that they have practice on Sat.  I really needed that time to remember where I was on the track and to find my reference points.  I also needed to do some work on my braking techniques, since this is the perfect track for that.  If you make a mistake you’ve got run off.  It’s not like Sandia where if you run off the track you are in trouble.  I managed to steadily drop my lap times down in throughout the day, but I hit a plateau and was getting frustrated the last two sessions.   Mid day is when Mike decided to give Lindsay her new bike.  It was just perfect.  He and everyone else had been toying with her all day and she had gotten some little presents that we all convinced her was the end of it.  So when she saw the bike her reaction was priceless.   I can’t wait to see pictures of her riding it.   It was on the car ride back to town that the exhaustion caught up to me.  It was all I could do to stay awake at 7pm.

I had a nice talk with Mike about it Saturday night and he came up with the idea of putting the chatterbox on my helmet so he could follow me around the first session hollering in my ear to see if we could get me past my hang up about the trailing the brake into the corner.   I think that the aha moment for me was agony and ecstasy when he told me to stay on the brakes, until the apex and he didn’t care if I was going so slow that I fell over.  I was thinking no way, what is he talking about that’s not going to happen.  Well I did almost fall over.  I couldn’t believe that as fast I was coming in there, that I ended up going that slow, it gave me more confidence to come in there even faster and wait just a lil’ bit longer before I went to the brakes.  That one piece let me drop my lap times another second yet, the laps felt more controlled and comfortable then they had when I was going slower.  It was another piece of the puzzle for me that I’d started to put together while at the YCRS in December.

With practice going so well I had high hopes for the races going really well.  I think they did, even if it wasn’t obvious from my finishing positions.  I had three races that day; the first one was right before lunch. The winds were starting to blow about this time, but not too bad.   I had a decent start, but I’m not a huge fan of coming into that first off camber turn with a bunch of prov-novices who don’t really understand some of the finer points of racing.  So I just let them go, and found a nice safe path through the turn.  Then I started to work harder at catching some of the others and keep some behind me.  It was uneventful I just concentrated on my braking into the corners.  The times came down just a bit more.  So I didn’t even bother to look to see where I placed.

The next two races were back to back after lunch.  It was about lunch time that the winds really took off and I mean took off.  They were somewhere around 35+mph with gusts over 60mph.  I had a great start for the AMGTU race, but I hit neutral on the way to the first turn so I dropped way back.  I had really wanted to get in front of Mike, and I would have if I’d gotten the gear.  He got away from me in that turn, but I kept him in sight for the whole race.  Just about ½ way through, I notices I was gaining on him.  It just gave me the little nudge that I needed to keep pushing.  I’m thinking that I’d have caught him with just one more lap, but that was where the race ended.

I came in got a drink of water from Lindsay, and then I went back out for my next race.  I just wanted to work on the braking some more.  I had another decent launch, so I wasn’t the last one into the turn.  A number of people didn’t go back out for this race, the winds were so bad that they didn’t want to get blown off the track again.  I hadn’t noticed the wind so much in the previous race but I sure did this time coming through fast and faster.  Kinda scary.  I did notice that coming into the attitudes you didn’t really need to brake, you just had to sit up and the wind did all your braking for you.  After a lap or two the other women in the race got around me.  I wasn’t really concerned about it, but after another lap it bugged me.  So I figured that I should just give it up that easy.  I really concentrated on markers and braking, in 2 laps I had caught back up to her and was in a position to get back by her.  I noticed that she was weaker on the inner parts of the track and figured that was where I’d get around her.  I went into agony and late braked her there but she came back across my front tire and I had to stand the bike up to brake harder.  Not really the kinda move I’d make, but then again I’ve gotta stop being so nice or so I’m told.   It killed my drive but I still almost got her again in at the top of the attitudes.  This was my weaker sections, so she pulled on me.  I did get back up on her into Toole but wasn’t able to pull off the pass.  I did get around her coming out, but she got me back on the brakes in club house.  I was really hoping to get around her at release, but I spun up my back tire and lost drive.  Funny, how fast the races end when you have someone to play with.  Again, if there had just been one more lap…..  on the other hand I dropped my lap times down 3 more seconds during this race. I was quite pleased about that.   This just makes me more excited to be going back to do another YCRS right after WSBK.

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »

MRA Race #1

It’s not even the middle of May and it’s already been a crazy month.  The first of May started off with a crazy SMRI track day that we had to cancel due to bad weather.  The next weekend was the first MRA race of the season.  I love HPR and that club, so I just had to figure out a way to go.  Work just gets in the way, so I wasn’t able to head up for the open track day on Friday.  I had to work and then drive up once I got off, its one long dang day when you get into work at 6am, work 8 hours, and then drive 6.5 hours to the track.

I usually skip my first practice; it’s just a habit for me.  I need the extra time to get through registration and tech.  But this time I was really on top of things and I made it out there on time.  The track was in perfect condition.  I’m always surprised at how nice and smooth it is there, it’s also kind on the tires compared to Sandia.  I felt comfortable out there and it didn’t feel like it had been 9 months, since I’d been there.  I came off the track running the same times that I had the last time I was there.  Not a bad first session.  Each session out things just got better and better, my times were just a little quicker each time.

I had opted to run the Nov GTU and GTO races on Sat, just to get my self into the swing of things.  The first race for me was the Novice GTU race.  Now last year that race was like a meat grinder in the first corner, so I was a little concerned about the start.  I managed to have a decent start.  I was gridded mid pack in the first wave.  I hit the first turn in a rather large pack.  I’ve never liked that, but this time it wasn’t so bad. I held my position and even gain a couple of spots by the time we were all through.  That was the most exciting part of the race, once we’d completed the first lap I didn’t pass anyone else and I only had one guy go by me.  I was alone on the track and it stayed that way until the last two laps.  Then I had a guy from the second wave catch me and go by.

Novice GTO was about the same, except I’m going to have to make it a point to recheck my grid positions.  I gridded up in the wrong spot and had to move.  I couldn’t get straight in my position, but I wasn’t so worried about it.  I was pretty sure that the guys behind me were concerned at my being a crooked on the grid and that was confirmed later by the guy right behind me.  I would have had a better launch if the guy 2 rows front of me hadn’t stood it straight up and then get crooked in the air.  He came down right across my path.  Frack.  I got around him and had lost a few spots, but I did get a couple of them back in the first two turns.  I love how hard that SE accelerates outta the turns.  It’s so much stronger then the 07 I raced last year and it finishes the corners much better.  I managed to run down a couple of guys in the first half of the race.  I will say that my confidence is much better this year.  I was able to make some passes that I would have never done last year.  The second half of the race was about the same as the first race.

The one thing that made me super happy about the day was that I was running 4 seconds faster at the end of the day then I was last year, and I was more confident in my ability to pull off passes then I had been.  YCRS I think should get the credit for that.

After the races things are always interesting, but this time not quite the way I would have liked.  However, thanks to the new help over at the Vanmar pit, my rear wheel was made lighter by taking off a lot of extra metal.  Thanks Jeff!  😛  Told you that I wasn’t going to let you live it down.

Then there is XBAM.  Bree, is amazing at fixing my poor aching back and shoulders. I feel so much better after she works on me at the track.  I also sleep better.  It awesome to have her at the track working on all the racers.  I wish she could travel with me.

Sunday the only race I had was the Ladies of the Rockies.  I love that one and it is the main reason I go up there to race.  It is the one race that never makes me nervous.  I just try to hang on to the back of Wyeth for a few corners and then I’m all alone.  This time it wasn’t much different, except I had Donna to watch run away from me too.  I managed to keep them in sight for almost one lap.  Then I was alone until Mike and Shannon caught up to me.  Now, Mike pulled a pass that kinda pissed me off and if I’d panicked I’d have taken out Shannon.   I was pissed off enough that I decided to run them both down and stuff them back.  I managed to get back around Shannon, but wasn’t quite brave enough to get Mike.  Shannon got back around me in 4 turns later and I kept trying to get back by him until the race ended.  That lil’ incident was the push I needed to drop yet one more second from my lap times.  I thought that was far more cool then the 3rd place I ended up with.

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »

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 2^nd 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 6^th, 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 3^rd 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 4^th.  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 2^nd.

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.

Tags: Uncategorized // Comments Off on April 17th SMRI Race #1

Even though I’ve likely gotten more track time then 99.99% of NM riders, I was dying to go to Sandia Motor Speedway to get on the track.   It’s my home track, for better or worse.    It’s the one place where I can really judge if my riding has improved.  So did it???

The feedback I got from the Expert racers that I was control riding with was.   YES!   I had two of them tell me that YCRS was money well spent and that they can’t wait to see what I can do in the races this coming Sunday.  Nothing like a little bit of pressure before you hit the grids, but I will say that I haven’t felt that good on the bike in a long time.  I’m finally riding the d675 like I thought I should be.  I wasn’t worried about passing, or getting on the brakes.  Which were major things for me last season,  I’m going to have to say that Yamaha Champions Riding School was the main reason for it.

As far as day went for the club and others,  I believe it was one of the best.  There was only two crashes and they were both minor, both bikes were ride-able after some minor adjustment and repairs.  The turn out was light due to the weather forecast being less then ideal.  It was pretty darn cold in the morning, but it ended up being really nice.

I spent most of my time dialing the A bike in, but I did spent some time with two girls who were new to the track.  One had never been on the track before and she was really new to riding in general.  She ended the day with HUGE improvements, and was looking really comfortable out there.

Even with the track being in less then ideal condition (cold and dusty) I was able to put in some hot laps in the Advanced group.   No one was putting in super fast laps (fast expert race pace) but I was able to hang with the expert racers,  I wasn’t getting passed but once maybe twice a session with them and I was able to reel in and get around a few racers that had been faster then me last year.  It just gave me more confidence and made me more excited for the races this coming Sunday.

Tags: Uncategorized // Add Comment »