Kurt'sSV
Tue 9/21/04, 11:00AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, September 18-19, Round 9
This month was to be the start of cold mornings again at Willow Springs. We were very unprepared for the temperatures when we got out of the truck Saturday morning. Once we got the bikes unloaded we went to check in. Shandra was signed up for the new racer’s school and we needed to get her ready to go so there wouldn’t be any chance of her being late for class. The number one rule of new racers school is don’t piss off Danny (Farnsworth). The way to not piss off Danny was to not be late for class. We were pitted right in front of the class room so that wasn’t going to happen. She got her bike teched and was off to sit in the classroom for several hours.
Meanwhile, back on the track, I was going to practice all morning before the endurance race. The morning was crash free in almost every session so we got a lot of track time. I went through a tank of gas before noon. I even impressed myself by doing a quick tire change on my own to I could get the rubber flipped on the rim.
When my race finally came around I was gridded fourth. The three other guys with more points than me all showed up for this final round in the SoloGT-Lights endurance races. As expected, Bradley Adams and Richie Thorup took off out of sight on the first lap. Craig Smith on the 299 bike was holding me up for the first couple of laps, but I didn’t want to try to pass him just yet. As we would exit turn one he would look back to see where I was. I was hoping that he wanted to set a slow pace because he did not have the endurance to last the entire race. If I could hang with him for the first half of the race, I knew that I could be fresh to push him the second half of the race. Well, after six laps Smith must have decided he was tired of seeing me behind me and he picked up his pace. I wasn’t surprised by this because I knew his normal sprint race pace was about two seconds faster than mine. After that I was kind of on my own. Every once in a while I would catch someone from the GP class, or be caught by one of the overall leaders, but pretty much I was left to my own thoughts. What is good about an endurance race, even if it is a bit dull, is that you get a lot of practice in a “race” environment. I really worked on staying wide entering nine, upping my corner speed going into one and my overall corner speed and line through four.
The wind had picked up a lot during the race and it made it difficult turning the bike into the wind for turn one. I ran a little wide a couple of times and had flash backs of when I crashed back in January. But now, instead of being afraid of running off and hitting the dirt, I was instead just flirting with it. I would let the bike drift out, but before I got to the edge of the track, I would turn my head to the inside some more and tighten my line. My comfort level had greatly improved.
I crossed the finish line in fourth place in my class. Fourth is also my place overall for the 2004 SoloGT-Lights class. I only did three of the five endurance races, so fourth is pretty good. Next year I would like to shoot for second, hell, maybe even win the series. To do that, I’ve got a lot of improving to do.
Sunday was probably the windiest day all season at WSIR. We couldn’t keep the canopy up for very long because of the “breeze”. The wind could be attributed to several of the morning’s crashes. Some of the get-offs were pretty big. In one race a bike when cart-wheeling off at turn eight. The bike was brought back to the pit in pieces. After the race was over, the race winner got tangled up with someone else and crashed, the result being his bike catching on fire. One person got their bell rung pretty good from a crash in nine, but for the most part, the crashed riders were okay.
For the 550Superbike race I was gridded ninth. I don’t know how many people there were in the race, but I know there were more than in the previous two months. The wind was blowing like a hurricane and I knew that turning into eight was going to be tough. Saturday I got a bad start, and when the green flag dropped on this race my start wasn’t any better. I don’t think I was concentrating on the flag man enough, or I didn’t keep my revs high enough before I dumped the clutch. Whatever it was, I didn’t rocket past anyone off the line this time. As we were taking off I looked over to my right at JC Gibbs on his FZR 400 to compare his start. He stayed even with me which meant my start must be sucking. I saw Brienne Thomson’s bike jump around in front of me. Her front end must have come up. At least I wasn’t the only one getting a bad start. A person who got a great start was Ken Ritchie on the 680 bike. He flew past me and was up with the leaders before we reached turn one. He said that launching those two-stroke jet skis taught him how to launch a bike well, and he wasn’t exaggerating.
I got sandwiched going into turn one and was not able to keep up with the lead bikes through turn two. I’m not sure what was wrong, but my head wasn’t in the race. I think I was tired. Down the back stretch and round turn eight we went. By the start of the second lap we were spread out. The 680 bike was really the only one I could consider being in contact with, but even he was a bit ahead of me. I closed the gap a little entering turn one, but did not gain any ground around turn two and was starting to wonder where I was could be able to catch him. Just then the answer presented itself. To me it looked like Ken had blown turn three and was about to ride off the track, but he got his bike slowed and turned in real late. This allowed me to close up almost all of the ground. I got a little closer going over four and down to five, but that was it for a while. He didn’t take five any worse than I do so we stayed about equal distance down the back straight and into eight. I might have closed up some in eight, but if I did, it wasn’t much. In turn nine I saw I could make my move, but I was too much of a chicken to try it. Instead I just squared off the turn to get a good drive out of nine for a run at him down the front straight.
I knew his bike was faster than mine, but today the draft was going to be the equalizer. With the wind blowing into our faces so hard, he had to push a lot of air and I was getting to stay in his calm wake. I just stayed tucked in and right behind him as we made a mad dash for turn one. I was inching up on him and thought I could try a blocked pass entering one on the brakes. I hopped out of his draft after we went by the cones but couldn’t manage to get up along side of him. I don’t even know if he knew I was there, but I let off some so he could lead through turn one. Because I slowed so much my drive then sucked coming off the turn so I lost a bit of ground to him. Going into three I made it all up. I couldn’t pass him under the brakes going in to three since Ken doesn’t seem to like to brake until he’s almost through the turn and into the dirt, but I was able to get on his rear wheel heading up to four. At this point I needed to decide where I would try to make a pass. I knew I didn’t have anything for him down the back straight or even in eight, so would I have to pass him in nine? That’s a place where I have yet to pass anyone in a race. It’s a tough turn because you’re going so fast and then the turn just tightens up so much so quickly. I’ll pass people in practice in nine, but only when there’s a massive speed difference between us. As I’m pondering my fate in this race the opportunity suddenly appeared. I carried more speed exiting four B and Ken went much wider so I gassed it as hard as I could and forced my way by him down the hill and was in front entering five.
On the fourth lap I got passed entering three by an Aprilia 250. It was bike number 925, Kris Provost, and I remember that he beat me a couple of months ago. Being that he had just ran me down I was not sure if I was going to be able to repass him. I was just going to have to try to hang with him and see if I could find a weakness. His obvious weakness turned out to be lack of horse power and with the strong wind I was able to easily pass him down the front straight by using his draft to slingshot by him. I was sure to pick up my pace around two and stayed a little closer to the inside entering three to make it more difficult to pass me on the inside there. Shandra said that I was not really able to completely shake this guy, but I put enough space between us to keep him from being able to make another move on me.
While I knew my times were going to be slow on the stopwatch, I was satisfied when I crossed the finish line in seventh. It wasn’t easy running down Ken or keeping ahead of the 925 bike for the rest of the race. I was able to do it because I did not make any big mistakes. I stayed smooth on the bike and kept myself calm so I could concentrate on what I was doing. Maybe if I was a little more awake at the start of the race I could have hung on to Gibbs and Clinton Whitehouse for a bit. Maybe next month I can, if I’m not such a sleepy head.
Big thanks to Shandra for being my one man pit crew (she loaded both bikes and all the gear up into the truck by herself before I got to her house on Friday). Also thanks to Zack and Will for riding out to watch and to Todd and his girlfriend for watching the races, too.
Thanks to my sponsors: Jadeblue Creative, Tustin Martial Arts, Galfer, Lockheart Philips and SoCalSVRiders.org.
This month was to be the start of cold mornings again at Willow Springs. We were very unprepared for the temperatures when we got out of the truck Saturday morning. Once we got the bikes unloaded we went to check in. Shandra was signed up for the new racer’s school and we needed to get her ready to go so there wouldn’t be any chance of her being late for class. The number one rule of new racers school is don’t piss off Danny (Farnsworth). The way to not piss off Danny was to not be late for class. We were pitted right in front of the class room so that wasn’t going to happen. She got her bike teched and was off to sit in the classroom for several hours.
Meanwhile, back on the track, I was going to practice all morning before the endurance race. The morning was crash free in almost every session so we got a lot of track time. I went through a tank of gas before noon. I even impressed myself by doing a quick tire change on my own to I could get the rubber flipped on the rim.
When my race finally came around I was gridded fourth. The three other guys with more points than me all showed up for this final round in the SoloGT-Lights endurance races. As expected, Bradley Adams and Richie Thorup took off out of sight on the first lap. Craig Smith on the 299 bike was holding me up for the first couple of laps, but I didn’t want to try to pass him just yet. As we would exit turn one he would look back to see where I was. I was hoping that he wanted to set a slow pace because he did not have the endurance to last the entire race. If I could hang with him for the first half of the race, I knew that I could be fresh to push him the second half of the race. Well, after six laps Smith must have decided he was tired of seeing me behind me and he picked up his pace. I wasn’t surprised by this because I knew his normal sprint race pace was about two seconds faster than mine. After that I was kind of on my own. Every once in a while I would catch someone from the GP class, or be caught by one of the overall leaders, but pretty much I was left to my own thoughts. What is good about an endurance race, even if it is a bit dull, is that you get a lot of practice in a “race” environment. I really worked on staying wide entering nine, upping my corner speed going into one and my overall corner speed and line through four.
The wind had picked up a lot during the race and it made it difficult turning the bike into the wind for turn one. I ran a little wide a couple of times and had flash backs of when I crashed back in January. But now, instead of being afraid of running off and hitting the dirt, I was instead just flirting with it. I would let the bike drift out, but before I got to the edge of the track, I would turn my head to the inside some more and tighten my line. My comfort level had greatly improved.
I crossed the finish line in fourth place in my class. Fourth is also my place overall for the 2004 SoloGT-Lights class. I only did three of the five endurance races, so fourth is pretty good. Next year I would like to shoot for second, hell, maybe even win the series. To do that, I’ve got a lot of improving to do.
Sunday was probably the windiest day all season at WSIR. We couldn’t keep the canopy up for very long because of the “breeze”. The wind could be attributed to several of the morning’s crashes. Some of the get-offs were pretty big. In one race a bike when cart-wheeling off at turn eight. The bike was brought back to the pit in pieces. After the race was over, the race winner got tangled up with someone else and crashed, the result being his bike catching on fire. One person got their bell rung pretty good from a crash in nine, but for the most part, the crashed riders were okay.
For the 550Superbike race I was gridded ninth. I don’t know how many people there were in the race, but I know there were more than in the previous two months. The wind was blowing like a hurricane and I knew that turning into eight was going to be tough. Saturday I got a bad start, and when the green flag dropped on this race my start wasn’t any better. I don’t think I was concentrating on the flag man enough, or I didn’t keep my revs high enough before I dumped the clutch. Whatever it was, I didn’t rocket past anyone off the line this time. As we were taking off I looked over to my right at JC Gibbs on his FZR 400 to compare his start. He stayed even with me which meant my start must be sucking. I saw Brienne Thomson’s bike jump around in front of me. Her front end must have come up. At least I wasn’t the only one getting a bad start. A person who got a great start was Ken Ritchie on the 680 bike. He flew past me and was up with the leaders before we reached turn one. He said that launching those two-stroke jet skis taught him how to launch a bike well, and he wasn’t exaggerating.
I got sandwiched going into turn one and was not able to keep up with the lead bikes through turn two. I’m not sure what was wrong, but my head wasn’t in the race. I think I was tired. Down the back stretch and round turn eight we went. By the start of the second lap we were spread out. The 680 bike was really the only one I could consider being in contact with, but even he was a bit ahead of me. I closed the gap a little entering turn one, but did not gain any ground around turn two and was starting to wonder where I was could be able to catch him. Just then the answer presented itself. To me it looked like Ken had blown turn three and was about to ride off the track, but he got his bike slowed and turned in real late. This allowed me to close up almost all of the ground. I got a little closer going over four and down to five, but that was it for a while. He didn’t take five any worse than I do so we stayed about equal distance down the back straight and into eight. I might have closed up some in eight, but if I did, it wasn’t much. In turn nine I saw I could make my move, but I was too much of a chicken to try it. Instead I just squared off the turn to get a good drive out of nine for a run at him down the front straight.
I knew his bike was faster than mine, but today the draft was going to be the equalizer. With the wind blowing into our faces so hard, he had to push a lot of air and I was getting to stay in his calm wake. I just stayed tucked in and right behind him as we made a mad dash for turn one. I was inching up on him and thought I could try a blocked pass entering one on the brakes. I hopped out of his draft after we went by the cones but couldn’t manage to get up along side of him. I don’t even know if he knew I was there, but I let off some so he could lead through turn one. Because I slowed so much my drive then sucked coming off the turn so I lost a bit of ground to him. Going into three I made it all up. I couldn’t pass him under the brakes going in to three since Ken doesn’t seem to like to brake until he’s almost through the turn and into the dirt, but I was able to get on his rear wheel heading up to four. At this point I needed to decide where I would try to make a pass. I knew I didn’t have anything for him down the back straight or even in eight, so would I have to pass him in nine? That’s a place where I have yet to pass anyone in a race. It’s a tough turn because you’re going so fast and then the turn just tightens up so much so quickly. I’ll pass people in practice in nine, but only when there’s a massive speed difference between us. As I’m pondering my fate in this race the opportunity suddenly appeared. I carried more speed exiting four B and Ken went much wider so I gassed it as hard as I could and forced my way by him down the hill and was in front entering five.
On the fourth lap I got passed entering three by an Aprilia 250. It was bike number 925, Kris Provost, and I remember that he beat me a couple of months ago. Being that he had just ran me down I was not sure if I was going to be able to repass him. I was just going to have to try to hang with him and see if I could find a weakness. His obvious weakness turned out to be lack of horse power and with the strong wind I was able to easily pass him down the front straight by using his draft to slingshot by him. I was sure to pick up my pace around two and stayed a little closer to the inside entering three to make it more difficult to pass me on the inside there. Shandra said that I was not really able to completely shake this guy, but I put enough space between us to keep him from being able to make another move on me.
While I knew my times were going to be slow on the stopwatch, I was satisfied when I crossed the finish line in seventh. It wasn’t easy running down Ken or keeping ahead of the 925 bike for the rest of the race. I was able to do it because I did not make any big mistakes. I stayed smooth on the bike and kept myself calm so I could concentrate on what I was doing. Maybe if I was a little more awake at the start of the race I could have hung on to Gibbs and Clinton Whitehouse for a bit. Maybe next month I can, if I’m not such a sleepy head.
Big thanks to Shandra for being my one man pit crew (she loaded both bikes and all the gear up into the truck by herself before I got to her house on Friday). Also thanks to Zack and Will for riding out to watch and to Todd and his girlfriend for watching the races, too.
Thanks to my sponsors: Jadeblue Creative, Tustin Martial Arts, Galfer, Lockheart Philips and SoCalSVRiders.org.