Kurt'sSV
Tue 2/21/06, 9:25AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 2, February 18-19, 2006
The January race weekend was a forgettable experience. There was nothing fun about it. This race weekend was totally the opposite. It was a long three days at the track and probably the best three days I’ve had in six months. Tom and I joined Shandra on Friday for practice and pitted with her in her MotoGP garage. It was a good day of practice. No major disasters shutting down the track for a long time. The only bike to blow a motor was one of the new Ninja 650’s. Glad I ride a Suzuki. Saturday practice was where the real fun started. The whole Twin Works Factory team came down to race since the cold was better than the rain they were going to have up North. While I don’t place as high in my races with all of them down, those clowns make the weekend all the more fun.
Our first race of the day was the first race of the day. Between Stevan, Tom, myself and the five Twin Works guys, we made up half of the grid for this first race as it was WSMC’s new “Formula Twins Light Weight”, which is, essentially, a 650 twins class. It was cool having all eight of us roll out of our pit at the same time, like we were some gang of hooligans. I was gridded eighth, which isn’t too bad as it puts me on the outside of the third row, directly behind the pole position, which for this race was occupied by #357, miss Shandra Crawford (WSMC normally grids on points, but since no one had any points in this new class, we were gridded in the order WSMC received our registration forms).
I got a good launch at the start and looked to be heading into turn one in third place behind Andy Palmer and Chris Rogers. Just as it was about time to tip in, Zoran slipped underneath me, taking the position. He then proceeded to almost high-side himself off his bike. His rear stepped out so far it looked like he was dirt tracking. He drifted out wide and had to check up to regain control of the bike and this looked like it could have been my one and only chance to EVER pass Zoran, he got back on the gas quick enough to prevent me motoring by him before turn two. Going into turn three I got passed on the brakes by both Jay Avasino (TWF rider) and Kurt Spencer. Going up the hill, like Zoran did in turn one, Spencer stepped his rear tire out pretty good as well. The irony of those two both losing the rear in turns was that they were running huge 180mm rear tires. Guess my little 160mm provides some pretty good grip.
Turning the bike at the top of the Omega toward 4b, I got stuffed by WSMC assistant race director Jeff Rheaume on, what I can only assume is an old EX500. I wasn’t worried about him too much, though, because I’d just out motor him on the back straight, which I did. Going into turn eight I was closing in on Chris Rogers and was thinking about passing him in turn nine. As we started to go through nine, back came Jeff on that weirdo bike of his and he scooted on by both Rogers and myself by taking a super tight line – something that really wouldn’t work very well on an SV. Watching him do that made me put off passing Rogers until after we exited the turn and I out motored both of them down the front straight.
For the next lap or so I was on my own until Michael Metcalf (TWF rider) block passed me going into turn 2 on his Ninja 650. It was a good place for him to squeeze by me because turn two is the one spot on the track that he is weaker than me. Getting in front of me for turn two held me up and gave him a clear shot at the braking zone for turn three where he is stronger than I am. I wasn’t done just yet, though. My bike had motor on his stock Ninja, so in the fast sections I could make up time on him. Between my bike being faster and me being faster in turn two, that should overcome his superior brakes and maneuvering in the other parts of the track. But as our race wore on, the wild card was thrown in. There were three races going on out there at once, and the third and final wave that was released was the 500 singles class. These bikes don’t go fast in a straight line and they don’t really go fast through the corners either, so hitting these lappers was what sealed my fait in my battle with Metcalf. He was able to slice through these other riders a lot faster than I could and that created a gap too big for me to cover.
The race was still fun, though, and with Zoran pulling off on the last lap, I took fifth in the class. Next month I should be gridded second for this race as I was the second WSMC regular to finish – that’s assuming the Twin Work’s guys don’t come down to beat up on us retarded kids again.
Being that I had tax refund money to burn, I entered myself in the Middle Weight Twins class as well. This is the class that is dominated by the Ducati 749R, but the grid is mostly made up of Buell XB-12’s, so I was just doing this class for more practice before 550 Superbike. I got a good start from the last row (second to last spot on the grid) and saw that I was catching two Buell’s on the race for turn one. I was surprised that I was rolling up on both of them being the size difference in our motors, but I guess my bike being that much lighter allows it to accelerate from a dead stop quicker. While I was expecting the Buell on my left to start scooting over to the right to set up for turn one, he didn’t, and this allowed me to split both of them. It was a tight squeeze, but I pulled it off and it felt pretty cool. I bet they were surprised when they saw the red leathers and chrome WHITTINGTON go between them. Once we got spread out I put plenty of distance between myself and the guys behind me, but there was a few seconds gap between myself and Palmer, who was the next rider in front of me. I stayed pretty much equidistant to him for the next several laps until the bike started losing power going into turn eight. It would bog and bog, then pick up again, then bog some more. I knew I was in trouble and was afraid something was really wrong with the bike, so I signaled to pit in and pulled out of the race. Once in the pits, I realized what had happened – my bike ran out of gas. Turns out if you want to keep your bike running, you have to keep putting gas in it. Just because there’s gas in the bike when you bought it, doesn’t mean you don’t have to refill it every now and then. So that sucked. At least that didn’t happen in 550 Superbike, though if I would have stayed in the race it looked like I would have finished seventh.
After putting plenty of gas in my bike, I headed out with most of the rest of the guys for 550 Superbike (Zoran decided to sit this race out so he could watch his guys duke it out). I was gridded on the inside of row two for this race, but still thought I had a good chance at taking the hole shot. When the flag man did his thing I got another good launch. When I saw JC Gibbs’ bike wheelie off the front row, I knew I’d make it into turn one in first place. I took the hole shot and headed for turn two with my head down. I knew I was going to get caught, but I wasn’t going to let them get me without a fight. I tore through turn two as fast as I could and upon exit, found myself still in first place. As I was heading for turn three with nothing but clear track in front of me, I seriously thought to myself “well, . . . now what do I do?” Nobody caught me on the brakes going into three, nor down the hill to five, or even on the back straight. As I was setting up for turn nine I started wondering where the hell was everybody. Did I miss a red flag or something?
Going across start finish to begin the second lap I was still in first place, but knew my time was short. Hitting the braking zone for turn one Avasino went by me on my inside, and as I started to tip it into the turn, Spencer went around my outside. I was expecting that to happen, so with a grin on my face, I pulled back on the throttle and gave chase to the two yellow bikes. They were battling with each other pretty good and going down the hill to turn five, almost made contact wtih each other. I was hoping they’d bump each other enough so I could catch back up. Going down the front straight to start lap three, Palmer motored by me. I slipped right in behind him and got a great draft. Of course he’s so big, I could draft off of him in my pick-up truck. Even with my horse power deficit, the draft sucked me back into him and I was almost able to make a sling-shot move to go by him before we entered the braking zone for turn one. Palmer didn’t pull away from me too quickly and I was hoping I could pull something together to make some good laps and catch back up to him. That hope all ended when we started catching the people at the back of the heavyweight twins class that started in front of our race.
I got by the first guy okay, but the next one proved to be rather difficult. I knew I needed to get by these guys as cleanly as possible because I was sure Clinton Whitehouse and JC Gibbs weren’t far behind me. My fairing seemed to be rattling a bit, so instead of concentrating on my entrance to turn two on the fifth lap, I glanced down at my fairing stay to see if something had come lose. I couldn’t tell, but that split second slowed me down. Exiting the turn, Whitehouse pulled up next to me, but I was able to out brake him going into turn three. Coming down to turn five, I caught a TL1000R. I couldn’t get around him in five or before six, so I hoped I could get a good draft off him down the back straight and pass him in eight. My pass attempt in eight failed so I tried to go under him in turn nine. The TL unexpectedly swung down in front of me, abruptly cutting off my line, forcing me to hit my brakes and miss my down shift. He did end up cutting off Whitehouse as well, which helped me out. Coming out of turn nine, I was still in sixth, which gave me no power, plus my drive was poor anyway. I quickly downshifted into fifth and pulled away from Whitehouse, but Gibbs was able to drive past both of us and get in behind the TL.
We were starting the last lap, so I knew I didn’t have any time to waste now. Gibbs and I got along side of the TL in turn two and we both went under him on the brakes in turn three. Once the TL was out of the way I just needed to stay close to Gibbs to allow me to motor by him in the fast sections. My bike isn’t too much faster than his FZR 400 and he gets a good drive out of turn five, so it wasn’t until the very end of the back straight that I was able to pull up next to him. I knew that he was going to swing his bike down pretty hard for the early apex of turn eight, so I just had to make sure I was going to be there to block his line, but also make sure he couldn’t take out my front wheel. My plan worked. I dove for turn eight and blocked his line for the apex. After that I just kept the throttle pinned and pulled away. Coming out of turn nine to head for the checkered flag, I got into the draft of a Buell from the other class. It didn’t matter if I passed him or not, but I almost did beat him to the line. He crossed start/finish .06 before I did, though that statistic doesn’t matter. What did matter is that I finished fourth in the class and picked up some good points.
I’d like to thank my parents for coming out to watch, Stevan for loaning me a front rim so I can have a spare and giving me some gas so I could make sure I’d finish my last race . Thanks to the Twin Works Factory team for adding a lot of laughs to the weekend, though next month I’ll enjoy finishing higher in the standings without them there.
Thanks also goes to the sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Lockhart Phillips and Michelin.
The January race weekend was a forgettable experience. There was nothing fun about it. This race weekend was totally the opposite. It was a long three days at the track and probably the best three days I’ve had in six months. Tom and I joined Shandra on Friday for practice and pitted with her in her MotoGP garage. It was a good day of practice. No major disasters shutting down the track for a long time. The only bike to blow a motor was one of the new Ninja 650’s. Glad I ride a Suzuki. Saturday practice was where the real fun started. The whole Twin Works Factory team came down to race since the cold was better than the rain they were going to have up North. While I don’t place as high in my races with all of them down, those clowns make the weekend all the more fun.
Our first race of the day was the first race of the day. Between Stevan, Tom, myself and the five Twin Works guys, we made up half of the grid for this first race as it was WSMC’s new “Formula Twins Light Weight”, which is, essentially, a 650 twins class. It was cool having all eight of us roll out of our pit at the same time, like we were some gang of hooligans. I was gridded eighth, which isn’t too bad as it puts me on the outside of the third row, directly behind the pole position, which for this race was occupied by #357, miss Shandra Crawford (WSMC normally grids on points, but since no one had any points in this new class, we were gridded in the order WSMC received our registration forms).
I got a good launch at the start and looked to be heading into turn one in third place behind Andy Palmer and Chris Rogers. Just as it was about time to tip in, Zoran slipped underneath me, taking the position. He then proceeded to almost high-side himself off his bike. His rear stepped out so far it looked like he was dirt tracking. He drifted out wide and had to check up to regain control of the bike and this looked like it could have been my one and only chance to EVER pass Zoran, he got back on the gas quick enough to prevent me motoring by him before turn two. Going into turn three I got passed on the brakes by both Jay Avasino (TWF rider) and Kurt Spencer. Going up the hill, like Zoran did in turn one, Spencer stepped his rear tire out pretty good as well. The irony of those two both losing the rear in turns was that they were running huge 180mm rear tires. Guess my little 160mm provides some pretty good grip.
Turning the bike at the top of the Omega toward 4b, I got stuffed by WSMC assistant race director Jeff Rheaume on, what I can only assume is an old EX500. I wasn’t worried about him too much, though, because I’d just out motor him on the back straight, which I did. Going into turn eight I was closing in on Chris Rogers and was thinking about passing him in turn nine. As we started to go through nine, back came Jeff on that weirdo bike of his and he scooted on by both Rogers and myself by taking a super tight line – something that really wouldn’t work very well on an SV. Watching him do that made me put off passing Rogers until after we exited the turn and I out motored both of them down the front straight.
For the next lap or so I was on my own until Michael Metcalf (TWF rider) block passed me going into turn 2 on his Ninja 650. It was a good place for him to squeeze by me because turn two is the one spot on the track that he is weaker than me. Getting in front of me for turn two held me up and gave him a clear shot at the braking zone for turn three where he is stronger than I am. I wasn’t done just yet, though. My bike had motor on his stock Ninja, so in the fast sections I could make up time on him. Between my bike being faster and me being faster in turn two, that should overcome his superior brakes and maneuvering in the other parts of the track. But as our race wore on, the wild card was thrown in. There were three races going on out there at once, and the third and final wave that was released was the 500 singles class. These bikes don’t go fast in a straight line and they don’t really go fast through the corners either, so hitting these lappers was what sealed my fait in my battle with Metcalf. He was able to slice through these other riders a lot faster than I could and that created a gap too big for me to cover.
The race was still fun, though, and with Zoran pulling off on the last lap, I took fifth in the class. Next month I should be gridded second for this race as I was the second WSMC regular to finish – that’s assuming the Twin Work’s guys don’t come down to beat up on us retarded kids again.
Being that I had tax refund money to burn, I entered myself in the Middle Weight Twins class as well. This is the class that is dominated by the Ducati 749R, but the grid is mostly made up of Buell XB-12’s, so I was just doing this class for more practice before 550 Superbike. I got a good start from the last row (second to last spot on the grid) and saw that I was catching two Buell’s on the race for turn one. I was surprised that I was rolling up on both of them being the size difference in our motors, but I guess my bike being that much lighter allows it to accelerate from a dead stop quicker. While I was expecting the Buell on my left to start scooting over to the right to set up for turn one, he didn’t, and this allowed me to split both of them. It was a tight squeeze, but I pulled it off and it felt pretty cool. I bet they were surprised when they saw the red leathers and chrome WHITTINGTON go between them. Once we got spread out I put plenty of distance between myself and the guys behind me, but there was a few seconds gap between myself and Palmer, who was the next rider in front of me. I stayed pretty much equidistant to him for the next several laps until the bike started losing power going into turn eight. It would bog and bog, then pick up again, then bog some more. I knew I was in trouble and was afraid something was really wrong with the bike, so I signaled to pit in and pulled out of the race. Once in the pits, I realized what had happened – my bike ran out of gas. Turns out if you want to keep your bike running, you have to keep putting gas in it. Just because there’s gas in the bike when you bought it, doesn’t mean you don’t have to refill it every now and then. So that sucked. At least that didn’t happen in 550 Superbike, though if I would have stayed in the race it looked like I would have finished seventh.
After putting plenty of gas in my bike, I headed out with most of the rest of the guys for 550 Superbike (Zoran decided to sit this race out so he could watch his guys duke it out). I was gridded on the inside of row two for this race, but still thought I had a good chance at taking the hole shot. When the flag man did his thing I got another good launch. When I saw JC Gibbs’ bike wheelie off the front row, I knew I’d make it into turn one in first place. I took the hole shot and headed for turn two with my head down. I knew I was going to get caught, but I wasn’t going to let them get me without a fight. I tore through turn two as fast as I could and upon exit, found myself still in first place. As I was heading for turn three with nothing but clear track in front of me, I seriously thought to myself “well, . . . now what do I do?” Nobody caught me on the brakes going into three, nor down the hill to five, or even on the back straight. As I was setting up for turn nine I started wondering where the hell was everybody. Did I miss a red flag or something?
Going across start finish to begin the second lap I was still in first place, but knew my time was short. Hitting the braking zone for turn one Avasino went by me on my inside, and as I started to tip it into the turn, Spencer went around my outside. I was expecting that to happen, so with a grin on my face, I pulled back on the throttle and gave chase to the two yellow bikes. They were battling with each other pretty good and going down the hill to turn five, almost made contact wtih each other. I was hoping they’d bump each other enough so I could catch back up. Going down the front straight to start lap three, Palmer motored by me. I slipped right in behind him and got a great draft. Of course he’s so big, I could draft off of him in my pick-up truck. Even with my horse power deficit, the draft sucked me back into him and I was almost able to make a sling-shot move to go by him before we entered the braking zone for turn one. Palmer didn’t pull away from me too quickly and I was hoping I could pull something together to make some good laps and catch back up to him. That hope all ended when we started catching the people at the back of the heavyweight twins class that started in front of our race.
I got by the first guy okay, but the next one proved to be rather difficult. I knew I needed to get by these guys as cleanly as possible because I was sure Clinton Whitehouse and JC Gibbs weren’t far behind me. My fairing seemed to be rattling a bit, so instead of concentrating on my entrance to turn two on the fifth lap, I glanced down at my fairing stay to see if something had come lose. I couldn’t tell, but that split second slowed me down. Exiting the turn, Whitehouse pulled up next to me, but I was able to out brake him going into turn three. Coming down to turn five, I caught a TL1000R. I couldn’t get around him in five or before six, so I hoped I could get a good draft off him down the back straight and pass him in eight. My pass attempt in eight failed so I tried to go under him in turn nine. The TL unexpectedly swung down in front of me, abruptly cutting off my line, forcing me to hit my brakes and miss my down shift. He did end up cutting off Whitehouse as well, which helped me out. Coming out of turn nine, I was still in sixth, which gave me no power, plus my drive was poor anyway. I quickly downshifted into fifth and pulled away from Whitehouse, but Gibbs was able to drive past both of us and get in behind the TL.
We were starting the last lap, so I knew I didn’t have any time to waste now. Gibbs and I got along side of the TL in turn two and we both went under him on the brakes in turn three. Once the TL was out of the way I just needed to stay close to Gibbs to allow me to motor by him in the fast sections. My bike isn’t too much faster than his FZR 400 and he gets a good drive out of turn five, so it wasn’t until the very end of the back straight that I was able to pull up next to him. I knew that he was going to swing his bike down pretty hard for the early apex of turn eight, so I just had to make sure I was going to be there to block his line, but also make sure he couldn’t take out my front wheel. My plan worked. I dove for turn eight and blocked his line for the apex. After that I just kept the throttle pinned and pulled away. Coming out of turn nine to head for the checkered flag, I got into the draft of a Buell from the other class. It didn’t matter if I passed him or not, but I almost did beat him to the line. He crossed start/finish .06 before I did, though that statistic doesn’t matter. What did matter is that I finished fourth in the class and picked up some good points.
I’d like to thank my parents for coming out to watch, Stevan for loaning me a front rim so I can have a spare and giving me some gas so I could make sure I’d finish my last race . Thanks to the Twin Works Factory team for adding a lot of laughs to the weekend, though next month I’ll enjoy finishing higher in the standings without them there.
Thanks also goes to the sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Lockhart Phillips and Michelin.