Diomede Racing

I’ll just start off by saying it would have been impossible to plan a more perfect weekend, between the weather, the track and the group of people.

We left on Friday afternoon,  after I stopped off at PJ’s to pick up my 2010 SE 675.   This poor bike had been at the dealership since Oct, when it blew a head gasket while I was doing a track day at Miller.   Aaron finished with the bike Thursday and put it on the Dyno to see if  it was running right.  This would be the first test of the new parts that Triumph said would keep it from blowing out another heat exchanger. 

There were three of us that caravaned out to Willcox, AZ from Abq, NM.  It’s not too long a drive when you have company, or someone to torture along the way.  That new truck of mine,  is so awesome.  I kept leaving poor John WAY behind on the hills.  He and I have the same size trailer, his is a bit newer and lighter, he also only had one bike in his.  I was hauling two bikes and extra gear.   Have I mentioned how much I like this new Tundra?  LOL. 

We got out there later in the evening, and headed over to the track to drop the trailers.  I don’t like having them in the hotel parking lots, too many people mess with them.  There was already a large number of people there.  Daryl decided to sleep in my trailer, why?  I’ve no clue.   I’m sure it was part of the deal with his wife,  go but don’t spend a lot of money.  There was no way I was camping, it was still getting down to freezing temps at night and since I left Alaska, I no longer want to be cold all the time.  AZ Trackdays was there with a very nice rig and they were showing movies..  Nice.

The day started off on the cooler side, but not bad.  The riders meetings went smooth both days, and I helped tech  bikes both days.  I’m surprised at the number of people who have chains that are too loose or too tight.    I’ve always enjoyed teaching so I really like going out in the mornings with the novice riders.  It’s fun to watch them improve and once they’ve had some time to work on the things you talk about, they really improve.  Both days ran smooth as silk and I ended up riding something like 420+ miles, which wasn’t as much as a couple of the other control riders.  I might have been closer if I’d done all the A group sessions, but with shagged tires I don’t like to take those chances.  I did a couple and pushed it until the tire got really loose and I slide in half the corners,  then I just back off and worked with people the rest of the day.  

I really hope that next year we can work out a schedule that allows me to ride with the TI2TT group more often… like all of the weekends.

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CCS SW Race#1

This is a long post… sorry I just felt talkative.

I’ve been dying to get some track time since the YCRS in Dec.  This 6 month down time is a killer, I’d really rather race for 3-4 take 1 to 2 months off and repeat.  If only things I could control these things.   So since I wasn’t able to make it down to Arroyo for their February track days.  I decided to check out the track over in Phoenix.  Convenient, since CCS Southwest was having their first race of the year.

Now the challenge to making this work was, getting all of my stuff back together, since things were scattered all over the state.  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.

First was to get the truck situation sorted out.  I sold off the Dodge, (good riddance) I traded in my car and bought a 2011 Toyota Tundra.   I’m in love with this thing.  Then I had to make sure I put some miles on it before I could tow with it.  Not a problem.  The trip up to CO for the MRA banquet took care of that.

Huge Thank You to Brian for working on the trailer over the winter.  I still can’t believe how much better it looks.  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.  😀

Next was getting a functional bike, who knew that would have been so tricky.  The ‘A’ bike still has a blown head gasket, and we’ve been waiting on Triumph to ship parts.

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.    So on the second attempt, we finally got the correct sprockets.  Aaron tuned the bike for the new Arrow exhaust.  (THANK YOU, PJ!)  Good thing too,  the map that was on it was horrible and had it making no HP at all.   Aaron did such a good job that the bike ended up with a 13hp gain!!!!!

So once I had the trailer, truck and one of the bikes.  I was pretty confident that the weekend was a go.  On the way outta town I had to make stops to pick up fresh rubber for the bike and to pick up my leathers.  I really should have stopped to pick up my beacon at Sandia, but decided to do that on the way home instead.  I’ve gotta stop leaving that thing places.  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.

So technology is a wonderful thing and I love gadgets, but Nav systems are a double edged sword.  That dang thing took me all over the place before it took me to the race track.  It added about an hour to my trip.  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.

However once I got to the track things were great.  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.  What a great group of people.   So after parking the trailer and wondering around to check out the place I headed back north to stay at Debbie’s place.  She was kind enough to let me crash there, and didn’t mind my coming and going at all kinds of strange hours.

So Firebird main is a very interesting track.  When I mentioned heading over to ride it, I had it described to me as racing in the walmart parking lot only more dangerous.  So after riding, it I think it was an accurate description.  I’m still surprised that they don’t have up any airfence, but then again where would they put it?  There is A LOT of concrete and tires, with no run off.  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.  Sandia is no longer the most unsafe track I’ve raced on.   Matter of fact it’s looking quite good now.  But, Firebird is a track and it’s the rider’s choice to ride it or not.  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.  So I was going to have to settle for slower lap times then I would like.   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.

Saturday’s track day got off to a slow start for me, it was colder then I’d hoped for.  So I skipped the first session out.  I did the next two slowly picking up the pace.  I spend most of the sessions sliding around on shagged tires that were 2 compounds too hard for that track.  But, I didn’t need to have the best grip to learn the track or pick out reference points.   I did decide after a couple large slides that it was time to change to new tires.  So that’s what I did over lunch time.  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.  I know how it feels to loan tools to people you don’t know well.

It’s hard to learn a new track when you aren’t really comfortable and you are kind of afraid of making mistakes.  I ended up make quite a few.  Dang it, I so want to be perfect, maybe in my next life.  Twice I went off the track, but luckily in places where I actually had some run off.  There were only certain turns were I ever got up to the speeds I knew were on pace.  The rest I was going through a pace where I knew that I wouldn’t have any trouble, i.e. super slow.

By the end of the day I was feeling pretty comfortable on the track and doing alright.  I did get some great advice from some of the local racers.  They were very helpful and encouraging.  I couldn’t have been too slow since they didn’t feel the need to move me down to a slower group.  My only goal was to be a little faster then the 2 vintage racers that I knew from Sandia.  I mean really, I’m faster then them at home I had to be faster then them there.  Even if they knew the track and had raced on it before.

Sunday morning was even colder.  Go figure, I thought AZ was supposed to be warm?  The colder temps in addition to all the rain that we got over night made coming onto the straight away, very scary.  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…    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.  There was only one brave soul who went out for the first session.  You could see the spray coming off the bike as it went down the straight.  You could also hear the tire break traction spin up and then grab again.  Not, a comforting sound.

In attempt to make things safer then gave us more practice sessions and delayed the racing for a bit.  A very smart thing to do.  I went out for the last two practices just to see how it was.  I’m really not a huge fan of sliding across the track surface toward a concrete wall.  The track did get better and better as the day went on and the ‘race’ line dried up.

My first race (MW superstock) got off to an interesting start.  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.  I couldn’t get to my start position with the way they had lined up across the track.  They were on the wrong rows.  So I just rolled with it and started from the back.  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.  No great surprise.  I wasn’t there to win everything just to have a great time.  That’s one of those things I really need to work on this year.  I need to have more drive and not be so laid back during races.  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.  Just one of those risks that I wasn’t willing to take.  I took my time every lap through there.  It really hurt my times, but better to make it to the next race then crash out.

The second race (Unl superstock) was much better.  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.  What a huge difference that makes with lap times.  I caught back up to a couple of bikes in the back section only to have them pull me on the straight.  Once in the back section again, I was having to check up to avoid running into one bike.  But again on the straight he pulled away from me.  I almost got by him in turn 5 but decided to wait.  Turn 9 (coming to the grandstand) I went up the inside and the made the pass.  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.  I’m guessing that I pushed him out wide and he couldn’t make the turn.  Since he couldn’t catch back up on the straight.  I managed to keep the gap growing until the end of the race.  Which gave me 3rd place.  Making it the first podium of the year.  Not a bad start.

My last race of the day (mw superbike) was the last race of the day.  The launch was my best of the day, I carried 2nd until the first turn… I’ve gotta get better on the brakes.  Two guys went by; I stayed with them up until turn 4 where I completely blew the entry, which killed my drive out.  For a second I thought I might be going off the edge of the track.  I was starting to make up some ground until the tower turn were I slid again and then I mis-shifted on the straight.  From there I’m not sure what happened to me, but it got worse, I missed a down shift in turn 1,  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.  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.  Oh well.  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.  I really hate finishing last.

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.  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.  It was great to meet some new people that I really hope I get to know better.

Aside from the drive home being long, it still managed to go by quickly.  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.    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.

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Yippee!  Only a few more days until my first race of 2011.  I can’t wait.

So I have pulled out all my notes from the YCRS class in December, started looking at track maps and I’m searching for YouTube video of the track.   I’ve never even seen the track.  Last thing I want to do is embarrass myself out there and end up a rolling chicane.     LOL.  I’m sure that I won’t, or at least I haven’t yet.  I just don’t want anyone watching me ride to know that I’ve never seen that track before.

From what I’ve seen so far, it kinda makes Sandia look like a really safe track.  Driving out of a corner coming on to drag strips is always a lil’ sketchy.   If it’s cold going across those burn boxes make me really nervous.  Not to mention all that concrete along the track.  Wow.

So far the only major down side I see to all this is that, it looks like I’m going to be making the drive by myself.    Xen is flying out, like a rock star.  Bum.  Murrea is taking all his stuff out there on Thursday.

The ‘B’ bike is ready to go.  Can’t wait to see how it feels the the custom map that Aaron over at PJ’s put on it.  Huge improvement over the 94 hp it was making when I dropped it off there.

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So the banquets are happening, it’s great to see everyone after such a long break.  It’s time to start getting the bikes ready for the season.  Mine have been living at the Triumph Dealership. … waiting on parts.  I think the boat got lost at sea.

Then of course at least one of the part that actually showed up was mislabled and it wasn’t the part we needed….argh.  At this point it’s just comical  I’m really glad that I wanted this stuff done early so I wouldn’t have to worry as the season got closer.  At this rate, it’s still going to be a rush.  Oh well.  The B bike will be ready first as it didn’t need much work.  So if the weather is good I’ll be hitting Deming in Feb. to do a shake down on it after tune up it had.

That reminds me.   Those of you who think you know how to work on bikes…..  Some of  you shouldn’t work on your own bikes.   I bought this bike off a guy who was quite proud of his mapping skills.  Not.  They put the bike on the dyno before making any changes to it to see what the new exhaust was going to do for it.   The air/fuel ratio looked like an EKG graph and it was makin a whooping 91 HP.  So after removing that ‘custom’ map and replacing it with a standard Triumph map.  It was back to making 101hp, so once the last part shows up and they get it back on the dyno.  They are going to put a real custom map on it.  I’m hoping to get up to at least 105hp.

With the bikes getting all tuned up and ready I’ve started to do the same for myself.  Time to get fit so that I can ride 430 + miles a weekend on the track and not be tired.  I have a nickname to live up to from last year…

I went dirt biking yesterday.  My fourth time out there and on one and I really loved it.  Standing on the pegs, staying centered/loose and letting the bike bounce around under you is  just like playing human lunge line with the green horses I used to ride.  That was my favorite thing when I was still riding horses.    I’ve got to get me a dirt bike so that I can go out and play more often.  That way I don’t have to depend on the kindness of my friends.  That and I can ride a bike that I don’t have to kick start, or should I say TRY to kick start.  I couldn’t kick that bike over if my life depended on it.  I’m sure the guys were tired of doing it for me too.  It’s a great workout, so much so I was going to skip the aerobics class, but decided that do go anyway.  Needless to say between those things and working I didn’t make it past 10pm last night.

Come on summer!!  I need track time.

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This is a school that I had been wanting to attend for quite some time.   I’ve had the chance to work with a couple of the instructors at the races and track days, their advice was always well timed and useful.  I had the a feeling that this school would lead me to a few breakthroughs and help me with some confidence issues I’ve been having.  In short, it delivered!

The school got off first thing in the am when they picked us up at the hotel.   The school gets students discounts at the Hard Rock Casino, for convenience, I decided to stay at the Hard Rock.  (Yup, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)

The instructors are the ones driving students to and from the track, it’s a great idea.  The instructors are consistent from school to school.  Varying on the number of students that enroll.  You get Nick Ienatsch, Ken Hill, Dale Kieffer, with Shane Turpin and Mark Schellinger if the needed.  Also you’ll get various guest instructors.   You get to meet them without gear on and see who they are, talk to them and it gives them time to start talking to you about how the school works, things that they want to get you thinking about,  how they approach coaching and it means you get to spend more time on bikes and less in a classroom.   The other really great thing about this is they use the vans to help you learn the track.  You get to ride around the track with them talking to you about it, them pointing things out to you, explaining cone placement and they also demo some of the issues that come up on the track with lines and braking.  Believe me, you don’t really need coffee once they are done with this part of the morning.

Of course there is classroom parts, but they are kept to a minimum,  on this I was a bit torn.  They had so much information to give the students that I know I missed things and I’m sure there was a whole lot more wasn’t covered.   Now, there are many ways to do things, and all schools have what they believe to be the right way, but they didn’t really approach it that way.  It was from the angle of what will make you safer, crash less and go faster.   Which is a different spin from the other schools I’d been to, and I’ve done a number of different schools.  I’m sure it could have  just be me, but I’ve gotten the impression at some of the other schools.  That they feel after a certain point, you are as fast as you are going to get and they don’t seem that interested in getting any more speed out of you.  I didn’t get that from any of the instructors at this school, it was actually the opposite impression.  I had one tell me there wasn’t any reason I couldn’t go faster.  There was a huge difference in my riding between the first and second days.

One of the great things about LVMS outside course is the number of configuration options that can be used.  The school used a different configuration the second day.  So once again we spent the morning in the van learning about the differences of this layout and discussing ways to make sure that you can figure it out new tracks quickly and get up to speed on them in just a few laps.  This was a huge deal for me, as I like to travel to new tracks every year and I don’t want to rolling chicane.

For most of the people who attend this school.  The amount of track time you get will be on the edge of too much.  I thought it was great and could have spent more time out there, but I”m also used to control riding for trackdays and putting over 200 miles a day on the bike.   There are well timed spaces during the track drills so that people don’t become dangerous and they really focus on the safety aspects of riding fast.    I heard a number of students talking about sore muscles the next day, which is great.  They learned new things and worked hard at them.

There were a number of drills that I can’t wait to practice on my own bike.  I’m just a little concerned that I could end up practicing some things the wrong way.  The braking drills for me made a huge difference, and they are ones that I still find my self going over in my head trying to make sure that I don’t lose any of the things that I learned.  Practice makes permanent, not perfect, unless you practice perfectly every time you can do yourself a dis service.  I’ve been an instructor for horses and the MSF long enough to know that you aren’t always doing what you think you are doing.  It is very necessary to either tape yourself or have someone watching.

I wish I had the time to go back once again in the next few weeks to help solidify the things we worked on.  I did both nights go back to the room each night and make additional notes so that I would have more to refer back to once I was able to get my own bike back onto the track.  I will be going back this year, I’m really hoping to do that during my trip out to Miller for WSBK.    What an epic trip that could be,  take my bike out, watch WSBK, do the open track day the day after, and then 3 days of working with the YCRS.

Many thanks to Nick, Ken, Dale, Mark, Mark, Jill and Phil for making the school such a great experience.

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It looks like this might be the last race report for the year. I still hoping to make it down to the last race with ASMA, but with the truck still out of commission I’m guessing that may not happen.

So how did it all end up?  Not as good as it could have, if my bike would have been functional for all the races, but not as bad as I thought it was going to.   I finished out the year:

1^st Formula Femme

^3rd Novice GTO

3^rd Ladies of the Rockies (with the MRA)

4^th Novice GTU

4^th Amateur GTU

7^th Amateur GTO

None of those results would have been possible without the help of my sponsors and large number of others who helped me out this year.

I really need to thank my 2010 sponsors:

PJ’s Motorcycles:  That mostly goes to Aaron, he has gone above and beyond with that ’10 SE d675.  I know that he is really glad the season is over and that he won’t be getting any more calls from me on Sunday.

Race Tech:  Lenny, who spent a lot of time with me at Sandia one Sunday trying to dial in the front end on that SE.  When that failed to work, he stopped by and completely rebuilt the forks in the parking lot of the Triumph Dealership on his way to another race.

XBAM: Bree is fantastic at making me feel great so that I can go out there and ride, even with all of my past injuries.

Speedin’ Motorsports: For working on the bikes under a very tight deadline.

Chick Hawk Tire Warmers: Their warmers are the easiest to use and offer great flexibility.

Leo Vince Exhaust: Helping bikes sound and perform amazing.

Michelin Tires – aka Vanmar Racing & Fastline Racing:  Without those fantastic Power One Tires I wouldn’t be able to make it around the track.

Suomy Helmets:  They have protected my head more times then I would like to admit.

Woodcraft cfm:  Without these parts, I wouldn’t have made it to any races.  They went above and beyond to make sure that I had the parts I needed after a lowside at HPR.

Amour Bodies:  Body work that fits and holds up to crashes.

Tachyon XC:  Cameras that work every time.  I recorded more then 30GB of video with two cameras this summer.  Video that was fantastic for figuring out where I could improve and helped the students I filmed improve.

I also need to thank a few people for helping me out this year:

Brian, Thank you for putting up with all of my crazy ideas (moments) and letting me talk you into going to strange tracks/places.  For loaning me your bike for 3 races, (owner of Speedin Motorsports) also for working on my two broken bikes when we got back from Miller, as well as towing my trailer around to different tracks this year so I could race some other locations.    I’m looking forward to more trips next year.

Daryl for loaning me bikes for 4 races this year, supplying me with tires and helping me with so many other things during the race weekends.

Ray & Cathy: for the advice, company, coming to my rescue, feeding me and Brian, providing me a place to sleep at the track and for towing my new bike across the country.

Edda & Charles: for giving me a place to crash this year, and great advice / help with my riding.

Shane for spending time working with me on the track and loaning me his bike as well, it was a privilege to ride that super bike of yours.

John & Chaz for helping out in the pits and for all the small things this summer.

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So since I had a ‘new’ 675 for this event.  I thought I’d post up a report about it.  The new ‘A’ bike is the one I just picked up from Jebus.  I also took my SE out there but it didn’t last the weekend.  What a surprise, NOT.  Just for clarity, I’m call the 2010 SE the B bike, as in B for broken.  Yet, again.   The new A for awesome bike, is the 07.

So I left Santa Fe Thursday morning, at some obscene hour. So I could pick up the two others I was traveling with.  The plan had always been to put Brian’s bike in my trailer and pack it with all that we could and hook it to his truck.  Since my truck won’t seat 3 people as comfortably as his does.  But, this just hasn’t been my year.  On the way to Farmington, my truck went into ‘limp’ mode and I couldn’t do more than 50 mph and I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it.  It’s the second time this truck has let me down!  First it left me stranded in CO when the clutch went and now there is something else up,  what kills me is there was no ‘check engine’ light.  It just started to run like crap, and wouldn’t go anywhere.    Oh well, enough about my lame truck.  It was a long drive to SLC, but with good company it went by pretty quick.

Back to the bikes and the fantastic track.   OMG, Miller is an amazing place.  Running the full track is the most fun I’ve had in a while.  It’s kinda hard to remember where you are at any point.  There are 23 turns, but most of them are multiple apexes.  So even one I knew where I was, it still took some doing to figure out the fast way around… and I really didn’t find the fast way, but Brian did.  Sometimes I hate him.  He’s so good at going fast at new tracks, that I get jealous and frustrated that I can’t do the same thing.   Then again, I’m never going to be as good on the brakes as he is…. He’s just scary late braking.

We rolled into SLC about 9 pm, it was great to have a place to stay and even better to be able to stay with some of the people who we’d be chasing around the track.   Brian got a run down of the track on a map from another rather fast guy.  I really should have been paying more attention to what was being said.

Friday morn, we headed out to the track, it was the second time I’d been there but it’s so much different when you are racing.   We hit registration and then found the garage I’d rented for the weekend.  Since there was a high chance for rain I really didn’t want to be pitting out of the trailer, it just bites to do that in the rain.   The open track day there was quite informal and since it was our first time, it was not what we expected, I mean really, you tech your own bike?

The first session I decided to follow the school group around just so I could see everything at a slow pace.  Then I headed out with the race bikes for the next group.  The B bike seemed to be holding together well and I was quite pleased with how it felt.  I knew that I was going to need to pad on it, but I had gotten a call that the pad they sold me wouldn’t work on the SE.   Why was I not surprised, every time that I try to get stuff for it, they order the wrong part. So I tracked down  new pads, (special thanks to Lindsay)   I was just starting to trust it and think that maybe buying the other one was a mistake.   That didn’t last long.   I did 3 sessions on the SE and then noticed that there was oil on my kick stand and the lower.  (Yes, I had the kick stand on… it makes control riding easier.  I do take it off for the races.)      See now why I referred to the 2010 SE as the B bike?  That bike is just surrounded by drama.  I really don’t like drama.

So at that point I had to get the some new rubber on the new A bike so I could get a feel for it before the races the next day.   That turned out to be harder than I would have thought.  Turns out who ever changed the tires on the A bike last broke the valve stem.  (Again, Lindsay to the rescue, she picked me up a new valve stem so we could get that rim fixed for the next day.)  So I had to pull the rear off the B bike an put that one on the A bike.  Not an easy task with only one rear stand, good thing I had the rain tires mounted on my spare rims. I managed to get one afternoon practice session on the A bike.  Not quite how I would have like the day to go.

I wasn’t as quite on the A bike as I had been on the B bike, but figured it was just do to needed to set the suspension for me.   Again, not quite as simple as it should have been.   Brain tried to set the front sag, only to find out that the forks have a huge amount of stiction, you push down and they stay down , ya pull up and they stay up…. Not good.   Since we didn’t have a lot of time, and we still had to get the bike back to Mike’s place so we could get it safety wired for the races.  There wasn’t time to deal with the suspension; I just had to ride around it the next day.  All I can say about ‘THE Michael Carr’ is that he is the one of the two most amazing guys I know.  He hauled my bike back to his place and bought a drill press, just so we could get the A bike ready for the races the next day and then was up working on it until 11pm.  He also showed me some new tricks for wiring.

I really wish that race weekends would start at a more reasonable time in the day.  This getting up before it’s light out just isn’t my thing.  We hauled the bike out, and I got to work putting it together for tech.  It passed, of course.  Then it was time for practice.  Unfortunately, it was then that we discovered that the A bike also had a bit of an oil leak.  Nothing like the other one, but you could see it on the right case cover, seeping around the top.  It wasn’t so bad that I was worried, but we did top off the oil before the 1.5 hour endurance race.  I just signed up for it so that I could get some more track time.   I also decided to run the Sportsman race instead of AM O.  I’m slow and I just didn’t’ need to get humiliated in the AMO race.

I had one of the worst starts ever.  I so did not expect them to use flags, and pretty much jumped the start then almost stalled it … I was way behind heading into the first corner and stayed there for the whole race.  But, it was good practice and I knew that my starts would just get better.

I didn’t even try to launch the bike for the endurance race and gridded about 2 rows behind the last guys.  I didn’t see the point of getting in the mix when I was just there to get more time on the track.  I ran about 22 laps on the one tank of gas, since I’d mounted the lap timer where I could see it I knew that my times were continuing to drop even after 20 laps.  I was surprised that the tires didn’t really go off.  I just kept trying to figure out better ways though each corner and would try to stay on the tail of the guys that would pass me.  I kinda surprised that only two went around me more than twice.  I pulled in and was going to just call it a day, but Brian informed me that I was in 10^th and there was only 13 minutes left, so I went back out.   The last two laps were uneventful and it’s a good thing that the race wasn’t longer, the sun setting was starting to make it hard to see the exits of the corners.  I managed to finish in 9^th.  Not too bad.

Back in the garage, we fiddled with the bike some more and thought about pulling the forks off the B bike to put them on the A bike.  But, that meant changing brake calipers and a lot more work then Brian could do in that short a time frame with out the right tools.   So we left the bike and headed back to the house to crash.

Once again, we headed out to the track super early, after stopping for breakfast we got there just in time for the rider’s meeting.  More practices, and then time for Brian’s first race for the weekend and my first for the day.   Neither of us got the best start, but at least Brian didn’t stand his bike straight up off the line.  I saw the flag go and then all I saw was sky.  I was a little concerned that it was going to go over but it set back down and I went.  I still managed to pass a few people coming into the first corner.  That didn’t last long by turn 5 I was toward back again.  It was still fun and each time out I figured some things out.

The next race was about the same, but my start was so much better.  I spent the whole time chasing down Tim, but just couldn’t get by him until the last lap and I would have had him, if it hadn’t been for a red flag.

The last race I got off line great , but still can’t figure out turn 5.  I lost like 8 places there, it was buggin me something fierce, that I kept blowing that one.   I stayed out in front of Tim for two laps then he got me in 5 and I got him back in Faster.  We went back and forth like that until the last lap, he got around me in the club house turn and I got him at the line.  It was one of the most fun races I’ve had this year.

Loading up the 4 bikes was such a let down, I didn’t wanna go home.  We headed back to Mike’s for our after party.  Since there was no way that we were going to leave SLC, until Brian and Anthony had gotten their Crown Burgers.  They had been talking about it all weekend.  The trip back to Farmington was uneventful. I would have like to say that my last leg back to Santa Fe was too, but no such luck.  The truck had more problems and I had to stop for awhile before I could drive the rest of the way.  Then I got stopped twice for driving too slow…. WTF.  That was a first and second for me.   It took me 4.5 hours to do a drive that should be under 3.  Still waiting to hear what’s up with it, how much it’s going to cost and then it’s going to be sold and I’m getting a new truck.

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BMW held a private track day for about 20 of their customers on Sunday.  We (SMRI) set up everything and provided training to those who were interested in having some one on one instruction.   It was a typical trackday for everyone to go out and try to go fast.  The dealership, wanted people who hadn’t been to the track before and who weren’t comfortable with being out there with all ‘those crazies’ on sport bikes.  The goal was to get them comfortable with the track and the concept that you could use the track to improve your street skill and be safer out on the street riding the corners.

We started the day with 3 groups and the largest of the three was definitely the school group.   Each of the students had a instructor to work with, and the instructors moved from one student to another so that there was some different ideas passed along to them through out the day.

There was a couple of students that I worked with a number of times.  It was amazing to see their progress throughout the day.  I managed to get about 11GB of video during the day, of course not all of it is useful.  I’m still working on editing and uploading it to  YouTube.  If you’d like to see it search for ZiaThunder.

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At the time this sounded like such a great idea, but the reality of it was less then ideal.  For yet, another race weekend I didn’t have my own bike and I had to beg/borrow rides to be able to get out there.

I did have my bike for the track day the weekend before, and it was so great to get out there on it.  I really love riding that bike and it’s so darn easy.  I didn’t have my beacon out there but I’m pretty sure that I moved along just fine, since I rarely got passes in the Advanced session.  I had a great time working with a few of the Nov and Int. groups.  It was fun to see some of them improve through out the day.

So rather then go into details about each of the races, since there was issues with the bike that I borrowed.  Let me just tell ya that Daryl is an amazingly talented rider to be able to ride through the things that his SV was doing.  I just couldn’t deal with it,  the bike was freakin me out!  It started out by stalling in a corner, then it was over revving,  then sputtering and cutting out when ever you leaned it over in the corners.  After he and Aaron worked on it, it was cutting and and then it would behave like the throttle was stuck open.  I managed to do most  of my races on  it, or at least start them and then I’d end up coming off the track midway through, once I’d thoroughly scared my self with it.

It was over all an education, even if it was a disappointment that I couldn’t actually race.  I just can’t bring myself to really push when I’m on other people’s bikes.  I did do two races on Brian’s bike again.  But, riding a bike that shifts the wrong way on a track that you’d never ridden the bike on was another great learning experience.  I still managed to win the first race on it and place 2nd in the other.

I really would just like to get my bike fixed, so that I don’t have to rely so much on the kindness of my friends.

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