Kurt'sSV
Tue 12/20/05, 8:29AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 12, December 2005
I’m back! I’m back. Back at the sport I love after a few months off. Right after my crash in September I thought maybe I should try a different hobby, but after a few weeks and a track day on my dad’s bike, I couldn’t wait to get back to motorcycle racing.
I had decided to return to racing in January of 2006, but the fact that I had only fallen from 2nd to 3rd place overall in 550 Superbike really made me want to get out there in December to prevent me falling to 4th overall. I was only 6 points up on Clinton Whitehouse who held the 4th spot. While my bike was back together and working just fine, I did not have any bodywork on my bike, yet, specifically a belly pan. You have to have a belly pan/catch pan on your bike to race. Luckily for me, Stevan Correa got a hold of me the Wednesday before race weekend and he happened to have a spare belly pan that I could use. So with the borrowed belly pan and borrowed motocross number plate zip-tied to the front of my bike, I was ready to roll!
Tom Shao and I went up together and Stevan met us out there to pit with us. Practice on Saturday was rather windy and I was rather rusty, so I didn’t go very fast out there. I did do practice starts and saw that I still had it. I’ve figured out how to launch the shit out of this bike and during practice I could go from 4 rows back to enter turn one in 5th place against 600s, 1000s, bigger twins, whatever.
After a fun dinner with Tom, Stevan, Jiggy and his pit buddies, and the Trackdaz guys, we awoke to a soggy Sunday morning. It actually rained during our second warm-up session, yet while we were all out there on slicks or DOT’s (or a combination like Tom and I), none of us on light weight bikes fell down. Kudos to us.
The rest of the day was dry and even the breeze was mild, so when it came around for race time in the afternoon, it was pretty nice out. I had my front row starting spot back and keyed in on the starter. When that green flag flew I was off like a shot. The front end was pretty light and squirrely when I started going and every time I up-shifted, the bars danced around a bit in my hands. Without any bodywork on the front of the bike, there was less weight over the front wheel, a problem I anticipated, just not something I anticipated being this much of a problem. Regardless, I was still going strong for turn one in first place. Apparently my start was so good that Tom described it as “almost comical” because I guess I made everyone else look like they were asleep on the line.
Being “rusty” like I was, I let off of the throttle kind of early and even touched the brakes a little as I went into turn one. I was still in first, but this allowed Tim Martinez to close in on me enough that he motored up along side of me between turns one and two. Once he pulled up next to me, I was surprised he did not continue past. I’m thinking that he short shifted into 5th gear while I kept ringing it out in 4th. His bike doesn’t seem to have the greatest midrange power, so with that poor timing on his up-shift, he couldn’t get all the way past me. He was on my inside though. He let off the throttle for turn two and a split second later I did as well, but he had the position so he led into the turn. Once in two, he walked on me and that was that. I didn’t figure I was going to have anything for him this day, anyway.
When I crested turn six for the first time the front end wiggled a whole lot. I think the term “tank slapper” is used too readily by a lot of people. I mean, your front end wiggles some, but so what? The chassis is supposed to flex when you’re riding it hard, so in my opinion, your bars have to be moving back and forth really far for it to be considered a real tank slapper. Being that I didn’t crash as I went down the hill I couldn’t call the front end wiggling a full on tank slapper, but it was pretty close. Once I got to flat ground again the bars steadied and I thought I was good, but just before I turned the bike into turn eight, they started wiggling again. Having no fairing on the bike killed its aerodynamics and lightened the weight over the front tire even more making it unsteady. This unsteady feeling caused me to let off the throttle some and take it slower through eight which meant I went slower through turn nine as well. Exiting onto the front straight, Clinton Whitehouse started pulling up along side of me. We were side by side going into turn one and I had to give it to him. I was expecting him to pass me, actually, because I didn’t think I had anything for him that day, either. Plus, if I finished behind him, I’d still beat him in the overall point standings, so I was happy to be in third.
I kept it easy on the throttle going over turn six to keep the front end from wiggling so much, which worked. Unfortunately it meant having to go slower and by turn seven on the second lap, I got passed by an SV. It was the number 688 bike and I thought to myself, who the hell is this guy (Chris Rogers)? I followed him around, trying to keep up with him because I wanted to get back past the guy to ensure Clinton couldn’t gain more points on me than necessary. On lap three I was still babying it with the throttle down the back straight, so in turn eight I got passed around the outside by an FZR 400! Shit, now Ryan Sturz on the 595 bike was passing me. Now I was screwed. With Clinton in 2nd and me in 5th, I’d lose the 3rd place overall standing in the class. This was starting to get me pissed. If I couldn’t keep my overall podium standing in the class, then coming out this weekend would be totally for naught. It couldn’t just be “oh, I went out and raced and had fun with my friends, blah, blah, blah”; if I didn’t accomplish my goal, then I would be upset and depressed by failing. Nothing else about the weekend would have mattered. I had a lot more to gain than these two guys in front of me, so if I was going to pass them back, I was going to need to pull my skirt down from over my eyes and go to work.
Entering turn two on lap five, Sturz and Rogers almost came together. This caused them both to check up and allowed me to make up all the lost ground on them. Going into turn three I tried to make a pass on Rogers under braking, but couldn’t quite do it. The move ended up working against me a little because my tight line into three slowed me down a bit. I went over turn six and down the back straight hard and didn’t have too much trouble with the front end. For some reason, Rogers took a real tight line in turn nine which forced him to wait to get on the throttle on the exit. I was right behind him in the turn, so on the exit, I drove past him really easily and zeroed in on Sturz for 3rd place at the start of the last lap.
We went by a lapper from the 500 singles class after we got out of turn two. I almost got Sturz on the brakes entering turn three, but couldn’t quite do it. I was a little wimpy on the throttle exiting turn five, so as we came down the hill after six, Rogers pulled up along side of me. I tucked in as well as I could and hoped he wouldn’t keep rolling by me. He didn’t, and I knew I had motor on him, so once I kicked it up into sixth gear, I pulled away from him. I ducked under another lapper from the singles class entering turn eight behind Sturz. I closed up on him all the way in turn nine and got on the gas hard at the exit. It must have been frustrating for him to see me roll up along side of him and then pull away as we neared the finish line. But hey, that’s racing.
I finished the race in 3rd, giving me 3rd overall in the class. I was really relieved, but that was a tough race. I’ll be really glad to have full fairings on my bike next month. My bike wasn’t set up to be ridden naked. But that was it, I accomplished my goal. At the awards banquette I will receive a 3rd place trophy for 550 Superbike along with a 2nd place trophy for the SoloGT-Lights class. Not bad for my second year of racing.
I’d like to give a lot of thanks to Tom and Stevan. Without them I couldn’t have raced and kept myself on the overall class podium. I had my bike over at Tom’s more than once so he could work on the bike’s electrical system. And Stevan gave me the parts I needed to get on the track to race. I’d also like to thank Jan for giving me a new sub frame to replace the one that got bent in the crash. Racing really is a team sport. Thanks guys.
Now on to the 2006 season.
I’m back! I’m back. Back at the sport I love after a few months off. Right after my crash in September I thought maybe I should try a different hobby, but after a few weeks and a track day on my dad’s bike, I couldn’t wait to get back to motorcycle racing.
I had decided to return to racing in January of 2006, but the fact that I had only fallen from 2nd to 3rd place overall in 550 Superbike really made me want to get out there in December to prevent me falling to 4th overall. I was only 6 points up on Clinton Whitehouse who held the 4th spot. While my bike was back together and working just fine, I did not have any bodywork on my bike, yet, specifically a belly pan. You have to have a belly pan/catch pan on your bike to race. Luckily for me, Stevan Correa got a hold of me the Wednesday before race weekend and he happened to have a spare belly pan that I could use. So with the borrowed belly pan and borrowed motocross number plate zip-tied to the front of my bike, I was ready to roll!
Tom Shao and I went up together and Stevan met us out there to pit with us. Practice on Saturday was rather windy and I was rather rusty, so I didn’t go very fast out there. I did do practice starts and saw that I still had it. I’ve figured out how to launch the shit out of this bike and during practice I could go from 4 rows back to enter turn one in 5th place against 600s, 1000s, bigger twins, whatever.
After a fun dinner with Tom, Stevan, Jiggy and his pit buddies, and the Trackdaz guys, we awoke to a soggy Sunday morning. It actually rained during our second warm-up session, yet while we were all out there on slicks or DOT’s (or a combination like Tom and I), none of us on light weight bikes fell down. Kudos to us.
The rest of the day was dry and even the breeze was mild, so when it came around for race time in the afternoon, it was pretty nice out. I had my front row starting spot back and keyed in on the starter. When that green flag flew I was off like a shot. The front end was pretty light and squirrely when I started going and every time I up-shifted, the bars danced around a bit in my hands. Without any bodywork on the front of the bike, there was less weight over the front wheel, a problem I anticipated, just not something I anticipated being this much of a problem. Regardless, I was still going strong for turn one in first place. Apparently my start was so good that Tom described it as “almost comical” because I guess I made everyone else look like they were asleep on the line.
Being “rusty” like I was, I let off of the throttle kind of early and even touched the brakes a little as I went into turn one. I was still in first, but this allowed Tim Martinez to close in on me enough that he motored up along side of me between turns one and two. Once he pulled up next to me, I was surprised he did not continue past. I’m thinking that he short shifted into 5th gear while I kept ringing it out in 4th. His bike doesn’t seem to have the greatest midrange power, so with that poor timing on his up-shift, he couldn’t get all the way past me. He was on my inside though. He let off the throttle for turn two and a split second later I did as well, but he had the position so he led into the turn. Once in two, he walked on me and that was that. I didn’t figure I was going to have anything for him this day, anyway.
When I crested turn six for the first time the front end wiggled a whole lot. I think the term “tank slapper” is used too readily by a lot of people. I mean, your front end wiggles some, but so what? The chassis is supposed to flex when you’re riding it hard, so in my opinion, your bars have to be moving back and forth really far for it to be considered a real tank slapper. Being that I didn’t crash as I went down the hill I couldn’t call the front end wiggling a full on tank slapper, but it was pretty close. Once I got to flat ground again the bars steadied and I thought I was good, but just before I turned the bike into turn eight, they started wiggling again. Having no fairing on the bike killed its aerodynamics and lightened the weight over the front tire even more making it unsteady. This unsteady feeling caused me to let off the throttle some and take it slower through eight which meant I went slower through turn nine as well. Exiting onto the front straight, Clinton Whitehouse started pulling up along side of me. We were side by side going into turn one and I had to give it to him. I was expecting him to pass me, actually, because I didn’t think I had anything for him that day, either. Plus, if I finished behind him, I’d still beat him in the overall point standings, so I was happy to be in third.
I kept it easy on the throttle going over turn six to keep the front end from wiggling so much, which worked. Unfortunately it meant having to go slower and by turn seven on the second lap, I got passed by an SV. It was the number 688 bike and I thought to myself, who the hell is this guy (Chris Rogers)? I followed him around, trying to keep up with him because I wanted to get back past the guy to ensure Clinton couldn’t gain more points on me than necessary. On lap three I was still babying it with the throttle down the back straight, so in turn eight I got passed around the outside by an FZR 400! Shit, now Ryan Sturz on the 595 bike was passing me. Now I was screwed. With Clinton in 2nd and me in 5th, I’d lose the 3rd place overall standing in the class. This was starting to get me pissed. If I couldn’t keep my overall podium standing in the class, then coming out this weekend would be totally for naught. It couldn’t just be “oh, I went out and raced and had fun with my friends, blah, blah, blah”; if I didn’t accomplish my goal, then I would be upset and depressed by failing. Nothing else about the weekend would have mattered. I had a lot more to gain than these two guys in front of me, so if I was going to pass them back, I was going to need to pull my skirt down from over my eyes and go to work.
Entering turn two on lap five, Sturz and Rogers almost came together. This caused them both to check up and allowed me to make up all the lost ground on them. Going into turn three I tried to make a pass on Rogers under braking, but couldn’t quite do it. The move ended up working against me a little because my tight line into three slowed me down a bit. I went over turn six and down the back straight hard and didn’t have too much trouble with the front end. For some reason, Rogers took a real tight line in turn nine which forced him to wait to get on the throttle on the exit. I was right behind him in the turn, so on the exit, I drove past him really easily and zeroed in on Sturz for 3rd place at the start of the last lap.
We went by a lapper from the 500 singles class after we got out of turn two. I almost got Sturz on the brakes entering turn three, but couldn’t quite do it. I was a little wimpy on the throttle exiting turn five, so as we came down the hill after six, Rogers pulled up along side of me. I tucked in as well as I could and hoped he wouldn’t keep rolling by me. He didn’t, and I knew I had motor on him, so once I kicked it up into sixth gear, I pulled away from him. I ducked under another lapper from the singles class entering turn eight behind Sturz. I closed up on him all the way in turn nine and got on the gas hard at the exit. It must have been frustrating for him to see me roll up along side of him and then pull away as we neared the finish line. But hey, that’s racing.
I finished the race in 3rd, giving me 3rd overall in the class. I was really relieved, but that was a tough race. I’ll be really glad to have full fairings on my bike next month. My bike wasn’t set up to be ridden naked. But that was it, I accomplished my goal. At the awards banquette I will receive a 3rd place trophy for 550 Superbike along with a 2nd place trophy for the SoloGT-Lights class. Not bad for my second year of racing.
I’d like to give a lot of thanks to Tom and Stevan. Without them I couldn’t have raced and kept myself on the overall class podium. I had my bike over at Tom’s more than once so he could work on the bike’s electrical system. And Stevan gave me the parts I needed to get on the track to race. I’d also like to thank Jan for giving me a new sub frame to replace the one that got bent in the crash. Racing really is a team sport. Thanks guys.
Now on to the 2006 season.