Kurt'sSV
Wed 8/24/05, 8:44AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 8, August 2005
This month Michael Bisig (Jiggy) came up with me to the track to race. He stayed the night at my place on Friday since I’m 90 minutes closer to the track than he is. He didn’t arrive until 1:00 a.m. We both like to talk a lot, especially about racing, so we chatted it up like a couple of girls for another hour and didn’t get to bed until 2:00. We got to the track a little before 10 Saturday morning and spent the next two hours setting up and prepping our bikes for the afternoon practice sessions, all at a leisurely pace. This was the first time Mike had ridden his bike since Zoran rebuilt his GSX-R 750 forks and put a steering damper on his bike. He immediately felt more comfortable on the bike and was consistently putting in laps much faster than he had before. I was taking it easy during practice and still trying to get comfortable with a new shifting strategy that my dad’s friend, former WSMC #1 plate holder, Earl Roloff, was trying to coach me. I didn’t care so much about how fast I was going, but just that I got that new shift point down to a good rhythm because it should translate into a faster lap time.
I did the SoloGT-Lights race again because I like an easy trophy. I was wearing my old suit because it is perforated, and along with it being 15 or more degrees cooler this month, the race was a lot easier to do than in July. As always, the race was not too eventful for me. I did, accidentally, learn a new strategy for launching my bike and it worked great! I would have easily gotten the hole shot, but for some reason my bike would not up-shift to second. It finally did on the third try, but my drive was killed and Tim Martinez and Craig Smith drove by me. Smith took the hole shot, but I almost stole it from him with a blocked pass. Martinez motored by Smith between one and two and I went around him in the middle of two. I didn’t see Smith after that. From then on I was by myself. Eric Angel, who was in my class on an FZR 400, crashed pretty good after his rear stepped out on him real bad going over turn six. I thought they were going to red flag the race, but they were able to get the crash truck and ambulance over to him without stopping us, so that worked out well. Angel wasn’t hurt too bad, but his bike was a mess. It was a good looking FZR, too.
I caught a few people from the GT-GP class that started ahead of my class after half-way and one lapper from my class toward the end of the race. Around lap 12, my fuel light started blinking and I knew I was in trouble. Before the race I kept thinking I needed to put about a gallon of gas in my bike, but I kept forgetting. Now I was screwed. A few laps later I decided that I had better slow down a bit to try to conserve fuel. I began short shifting on the straights and not going wide open in a lot of other places. On my 19th lap, the two leaders from the GP class caught me and put me a lap down, which I was grateful for because I didn’t think I could go another lap. I ended up finishing the race, and a (very slow) cool down lap, but was basically on fumes when I pulled into the pits.
After a poor night’s sleep, Mike and I were back at the track Sunday morning preparing for the 550 Superbike race. It was warm, but there was no wind, so there wasn’t any reason why I couldn’t run a fast time today. Mike was gridded last in 15th. At least he was going to be able to pass several people on the start. That should have been fun. I was gridded in 2nd. My new found method for launching my bike worked incredibly well. The instant I let the clutch out, everyone else disappeared from my peripheral vision. I knew I wasn’t even going to be contested for the hole shot, but due to having no one else to gauge my speed off of, I almost blew the turn. My line was pretty wide because I let off the gas and turned in too late, but I carried a ton of speed and got back on the gas hard, so no one caught me before I got to turn two. Between two and three Martinez pulled along side of me. I knew I would out break him into three, so I wasn’t worried. I lead over the omega section and was feeling really good about my chances in this race, but exiting turn five, Andy Palmer went around the outside of me. I stayed on his tail over the crest of turn six, but he started to put a little space on me. Then Martinez powered by me right before we got to the turn seven kink. We all went into turn eight pretty much nose to tail with each other, and I’m sure Clinton Whitehouse was right on my rear wheel as well.
Once out onto the front straight it became apparent I was in trouble. Martinez and Palmer began getting further and further away from me the closer we got to turn one. I knew Martinez’s bike was faster than mine, but I didn’t know Palmers was, too. I closed up on them a little bit entering turn one, but would just lose ground again between one and two. I could keep up with them by making up time entering turns one, three and nine and that was the only way I could keep in touch. Palmers bike was fast enough that he could keep close enough to Martinez to make a pass under braking in one and three, though Martinez could pass him back on a straight. I was close enough to watch all this, but there was nothing I could do about it. My only chance was to chip away at their lead on me and pass one, or both of them under braking entering three.
Lap five must have been a really clean lap because Whitehouse and I set the second and first fastest laps of the race on that lap. We had caught one or two guys from the 500 singles class before then, but by lap six, we started catching lots of people and that threw a twist into our race. I really had to keep my corner speed up to try to hang with Martinez and Palmer, so if we were coming up on a lapper, I had to make sure I got by them in a way that didn’t slow me down. Fortunately, Willow Springs is so wide, that it wasn’t really an issue. The leaders in 500 singles were side by side coming out of turn one when we caught them. Palmer was in the lead at this point and he and I went under those two guys on Ascots but Martinez split the two and didn’t miss a beat.
By the seventh lap it looked like I was starting to get close enough to maybe make a move in turn nine or in turns one, three or nine on the last lap. The three of us went by a lapper entering turn three, but we could see another lapper ahead of us as we went up the hill to turn four. Unfortunately, Mike had high sided himself out of the race in turn 4B on lap six, so there was a waving yellow there. We caught the lapper at the top of the Omega, and as we rounded the corner to 4B, where the waving yellow was, Martinez and Palmer drove past the guy, but I checked up for a second since the rule states no passing under a waving yellow. I went past the lapper after the 4B waving yellow, but by that time, Martinez and Palmer had gapped me and that was my race. I did file a protest after the race for their passing under the waving yellow, but it was over turned.
I backed off some on the last lap since I didn’t have a chance at second or first, and that almost cost me third. Going over turn six, Clinton Whitehouse went around me. It really surprised me because I had no idea he was back there. I knew Martinez, Palmer and I had been running a really fast pace, so I didn’t think he was able to keep up, but he did. I wasn’t too worried about being able to beat him to the line because my bike is faster than his, so I just stuck right behind him into eight. I tried to make a pass entering nine, but he came down and closed off my line. I had to hit the brakes pretty good to keep from hitting him, but that allowed me to square off the corner and get a good drive out of it and take third place back.
So I did turn the fastest lap of the race and improved my personal best by over a second to a 1:31.3, but I was pretty disappointed with third place. I road out of my boots and felt I deserved better than third, but that’s not how it goes. It’ll cost a lot of money to get my bike to go faster, so until I can afford that, I’ll just have to ride the shit out of it.
I’d like to thank Mike for piting with me this weekend. That made it a lot more fun. Sorry you crashed, buddy. I’d also like to thank Earl Roloff for the advice he’s been giving me about how to get around Willow the fast way. 1.1 seconds is a massive improvement in one month.
Thanks to my sponsors: Tustin Martial Arts, Dunlop, Galfer, LP Team Privateer and SoCalSVRiders.org.
This month Michael Bisig (Jiggy) came up with me to the track to race. He stayed the night at my place on Friday since I’m 90 minutes closer to the track than he is. He didn’t arrive until 1:00 a.m. We both like to talk a lot, especially about racing, so we chatted it up like a couple of girls for another hour and didn’t get to bed until 2:00. We got to the track a little before 10 Saturday morning and spent the next two hours setting up and prepping our bikes for the afternoon practice sessions, all at a leisurely pace. This was the first time Mike had ridden his bike since Zoran rebuilt his GSX-R 750 forks and put a steering damper on his bike. He immediately felt more comfortable on the bike and was consistently putting in laps much faster than he had before. I was taking it easy during practice and still trying to get comfortable with a new shifting strategy that my dad’s friend, former WSMC #1 plate holder, Earl Roloff, was trying to coach me. I didn’t care so much about how fast I was going, but just that I got that new shift point down to a good rhythm because it should translate into a faster lap time.
I did the SoloGT-Lights race again because I like an easy trophy. I was wearing my old suit because it is perforated, and along with it being 15 or more degrees cooler this month, the race was a lot easier to do than in July. As always, the race was not too eventful for me. I did, accidentally, learn a new strategy for launching my bike and it worked great! I would have easily gotten the hole shot, but for some reason my bike would not up-shift to second. It finally did on the third try, but my drive was killed and Tim Martinez and Craig Smith drove by me. Smith took the hole shot, but I almost stole it from him with a blocked pass. Martinez motored by Smith between one and two and I went around him in the middle of two. I didn’t see Smith after that. From then on I was by myself. Eric Angel, who was in my class on an FZR 400, crashed pretty good after his rear stepped out on him real bad going over turn six. I thought they were going to red flag the race, but they were able to get the crash truck and ambulance over to him without stopping us, so that worked out well. Angel wasn’t hurt too bad, but his bike was a mess. It was a good looking FZR, too.
I caught a few people from the GT-GP class that started ahead of my class after half-way and one lapper from my class toward the end of the race. Around lap 12, my fuel light started blinking and I knew I was in trouble. Before the race I kept thinking I needed to put about a gallon of gas in my bike, but I kept forgetting. Now I was screwed. A few laps later I decided that I had better slow down a bit to try to conserve fuel. I began short shifting on the straights and not going wide open in a lot of other places. On my 19th lap, the two leaders from the GP class caught me and put me a lap down, which I was grateful for because I didn’t think I could go another lap. I ended up finishing the race, and a (very slow) cool down lap, but was basically on fumes when I pulled into the pits.
After a poor night’s sleep, Mike and I were back at the track Sunday morning preparing for the 550 Superbike race. It was warm, but there was no wind, so there wasn’t any reason why I couldn’t run a fast time today. Mike was gridded last in 15th. At least he was going to be able to pass several people on the start. That should have been fun. I was gridded in 2nd. My new found method for launching my bike worked incredibly well. The instant I let the clutch out, everyone else disappeared from my peripheral vision. I knew I wasn’t even going to be contested for the hole shot, but due to having no one else to gauge my speed off of, I almost blew the turn. My line was pretty wide because I let off the gas and turned in too late, but I carried a ton of speed and got back on the gas hard, so no one caught me before I got to turn two. Between two and three Martinez pulled along side of me. I knew I would out break him into three, so I wasn’t worried. I lead over the omega section and was feeling really good about my chances in this race, but exiting turn five, Andy Palmer went around the outside of me. I stayed on his tail over the crest of turn six, but he started to put a little space on me. Then Martinez powered by me right before we got to the turn seven kink. We all went into turn eight pretty much nose to tail with each other, and I’m sure Clinton Whitehouse was right on my rear wheel as well.
Once out onto the front straight it became apparent I was in trouble. Martinez and Palmer began getting further and further away from me the closer we got to turn one. I knew Martinez’s bike was faster than mine, but I didn’t know Palmers was, too. I closed up on them a little bit entering turn one, but would just lose ground again between one and two. I could keep up with them by making up time entering turns one, three and nine and that was the only way I could keep in touch. Palmers bike was fast enough that he could keep close enough to Martinez to make a pass under braking in one and three, though Martinez could pass him back on a straight. I was close enough to watch all this, but there was nothing I could do about it. My only chance was to chip away at their lead on me and pass one, or both of them under braking entering three.
Lap five must have been a really clean lap because Whitehouse and I set the second and first fastest laps of the race on that lap. We had caught one or two guys from the 500 singles class before then, but by lap six, we started catching lots of people and that threw a twist into our race. I really had to keep my corner speed up to try to hang with Martinez and Palmer, so if we were coming up on a lapper, I had to make sure I got by them in a way that didn’t slow me down. Fortunately, Willow Springs is so wide, that it wasn’t really an issue. The leaders in 500 singles were side by side coming out of turn one when we caught them. Palmer was in the lead at this point and he and I went under those two guys on Ascots but Martinez split the two and didn’t miss a beat.
By the seventh lap it looked like I was starting to get close enough to maybe make a move in turn nine or in turns one, three or nine on the last lap. The three of us went by a lapper entering turn three, but we could see another lapper ahead of us as we went up the hill to turn four. Unfortunately, Mike had high sided himself out of the race in turn 4B on lap six, so there was a waving yellow there. We caught the lapper at the top of the Omega, and as we rounded the corner to 4B, where the waving yellow was, Martinez and Palmer drove past the guy, but I checked up for a second since the rule states no passing under a waving yellow. I went past the lapper after the 4B waving yellow, but by that time, Martinez and Palmer had gapped me and that was my race. I did file a protest after the race for their passing under the waving yellow, but it was over turned.
I backed off some on the last lap since I didn’t have a chance at second or first, and that almost cost me third. Going over turn six, Clinton Whitehouse went around me. It really surprised me because I had no idea he was back there. I knew Martinez, Palmer and I had been running a really fast pace, so I didn’t think he was able to keep up, but he did. I wasn’t too worried about being able to beat him to the line because my bike is faster than his, so I just stuck right behind him into eight. I tried to make a pass entering nine, but he came down and closed off my line. I had to hit the brakes pretty good to keep from hitting him, but that allowed me to square off the corner and get a good drive out of it and take third place back.
So I did turn the fastest lap of the race and improved my personal best by over a second to a 1:31.3, but I was pretty disappointed with third place. I road out of my boots and felt I deserved better than third, but that’s not how it goes. It’ll cost a lot of money to get my bike to go faster, so until I can afford that, I’ll just have to ride the shit out of it.
I’d like to thank Mike for piting with me this weekend. That made it a lot more fun. Sorry you crashed, buddy. I’d also like to thank Earl Roloff for the advice he’s been giving me about how to get around Willow the fast way. 1.1 seconds is a massive improvement in one month.
Thanks to my sponsors: Tustin Martial Arts, Dunlop, Galfer, LP Team Privateer and SoCalSVRiders.org.