Kurt'sSV
Wed 5/24/06, 8:26AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 5, May 2006
This month it was back to superstock spec for the bike and with the Twin Works guys coming down, it was back to being off the podium. At least the weather was great for the weekend. Saturday was sunny but windy, which wasn’t too bad on the track and kept it feeling cool. Our pit did have more than its share of crashes. Jay Avansino took three rides in the crash truck. One was ‘cause the ran out of gas, one was due to a low side on his own in turn two. His second crash was the most exciting and was just caused by bad luck. He, Kurt Spencer and Zoran were riding together and were just about to pass a Harley single when it blew its motor and went down. It took Jay with it and forced Spencer to ride off into the dirt. Zoran was able to slip underneath and escape. In the endurance race, Cody crashed hard on the first lap which resulted in a broken engine case. You can’t fix that. Tom also figured he’d crash, too. Like Jay, Tom was able to repair his bike and race on Sunday.
For our first race of the day, Formula Twins Light Weight, the weather was perfect. The track was warm and there was no wind. I was in pole position on the front row with Jay and Kevin Jump on his Kawasaki 650R. Cody would have been on the front row as well if it wasn’t for the day before.
I got a good launch, but so did Jay and Jump. It was immediately obvious that Jump had bought a lot of horsepower for his motor since last month, as he out motored me to turn one with Jay. Of course Zoran got a great launch and beat me to turn one, too. Spencer went by me going into nine on the first lap and set his sights for the front. The lead Twin Works rider eventually did a fast lap of 1:28.7 on his way to a race win. That fast of a lap time hadn’t been done by an SV in a couple of years.
Jump’s bike was really fast, which enabled him to put some distance between myself and Jay. So it was just he and I, I assumed. Going into turn two on the third lap, a bike started to pull up next to me. At first I assumed it was going to be Tim Martinez, but to my surprise it was Chris Rogers. I beat him into turn two and then going into three, he apparently crashed out behind Jay and I.
Jay was a bit gun shy in turn two since he crashed in that turn twice on Saturday. I used this to my advantage and closed up on him in that turn, and turn nine, every lap. One lap I pulled up next to him in turn two and went side by side with him to turn three. I hoped that I could try out braking him into three, but that was a joke. Jay’s a lot better on the brakes than I am. On the fifth lap we caught a bike from the 500 singles class in turn two, and because a single blew up on Jay the day before when he tried to pass it, he held off from making the pass, assumedly waiting until the exit. This gave me the chance I needed to go around Jay and put myself into 4th place. Jay got me back in turn one at the start of the sixth lap, but I did my best to keep it close.
Exiting turn one of the seventh lap, I ran a bit wide and thought that Jay would gap me here because I had to wait a while to get on the gas. Then I noticed Jay was running wide, too, so wide that he eventually road off the track. He got back onto the track pretty quickly, but I still took the lead from him. I stayed in front of him this time until turn three on the last lap where he got me on the brakes. I thought if I could stay close to him, I could get him in nine. I got too anxious on the back straight, up-shifting into sixth way too soon which slowed my acceleration. Jay was too far ahead to try anything in nine, so I had to settle for 5th place in the race. That wasn’t too bad because that still meant I would be 14 points up on second place overall in the class, Kevin Jump.
550 Superbike wasn’t until the afternoon and some wind had kicked up by that time. Not a lot, but it meant we wouldn’t be running lap times quite as fast. Again I got a good launch from poll, but so did Tim Martinez, Jay, Zoran and Spencer. I was right on Spencer as we went into two, but when we got into the turn, I found that I had a problem. My rear tire wouldn’t stay underneath me. It kept sliding out and I was having to let off the gas. I was afraid my tire was shot and that maybe I should pull off instead of risk getting high-sided. This forced me to let the other four guys go, but the tire acted okay over four B and six, so I decided I’d stay out, but slow down until the next person behind me passed me. Then I’d race them.
Going into turn nine, Ryan Sturz went screaming past me on his FZR 400. I motored him on the front straight to take my position back. I took turn two easy since I didn’t know what the tire would do, and this allowed him to catch back up. To my surprise, he beat me on the brakes going into three. I followed him around to set up a pass exiting nine, again. His bike popped out of gear when we exited nine, so I flew by him and didn’t see him again.
My tire started feeling okay, so I was able to pick up my pace a bit. I could see that I was keeping Tim Martinez in sight and thought maybe with some luck, I could catch him. As with last month, Tim had some trouble getting past people who he caught at the back of the Heavy Weight Twins class that started as the wave before us. They allowed me to catch up, and exiting turn nine, Tim’s bike also popped out of gear. I went by Tim pretty fast and focused on the guys from Heavy Weight Twins in front of me. I pulled up along side of a Buell exiting turn two and out broke him into three. I knew this would help me gap Tim. Going down the hill from four B, I passed a 748 and got in behind a TL 1000 to draft down the back straight. I went around the TL in eight, but when I was going for nine, a bike went flying by me. I thought, who the hell is that? Then I noticed the number 1 plate on the red Ducati 999 and realized who it was. Kopecky ran a couple of laps in the super fast 1:23 range allowing him to lap up to eight place in his own class, and up to fourth (me) in the 550 Superbike class.
So I crossed the finish line as the first non-yellow bike in 550 Superbike. That’s actually okay because that still meant I increased my lead on everyone in that class vying for its championship.
Next month, I’m hoping for no yellow bikes so I can get back to winning.
Thanks to my sponsors and class sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin and LP Team Privateer, and Little Big Racing and VP Fuels.
This month it was back to superstock spec for the bike and with the Twin Works guys coming down, it was back to being off the podium. At least the weather was great for the weekend. Saturday was sunny but windy, which wasn’t too bad on the track and kept it feeling cool. Our pit did have more than its share of crashes. Jay Avansino took three rides in the crash truck. One was ‘cause the ran out of gas, one was due to a low side on his own in turn two. His second crash was the most exciting and was just caused by bad luck. He, Kurt Spencer and Zoran were riding together and were just about to pass a Harley single when it blew its motor and went down. It took Jay with it and forced Spencer to ride off into the dirt. Zoran was able to slip underneath and escape. In the endurance race, Cody crashed hard on the first lap which resulted in a broken engine case. You can’t fix that. Tom also figured he’d crash, too. Like Jay, Tom was able to repair his bike and race on Sunday.
For our first race of the day, Formula Twins Light Weight, the weather was perfect. The track was warm and there was no wind. I was in pole position on the front row with Jay and Kevin Jump on his Kawasaki 650R. Cody would have been on the front row as well if it wasn’t for the day before.
I got a good launch, but so did Jay and Jump. It was immediately obvious that Jump had bought a lot of horsepower for his motor since last month, as he out motored me to turn one with Jay. Of course Zoran got a great launch and beat me to turn one, too. Spencer went by me going into nine on the first lap and set his sights for the front. The lead Twin Works rider eventually did a fast lap of 1:28.7 on his way to a race win. That fast of a lap time hadn’t been done by an SV in a couple of years.
Jump’s bike was really fast, which enabled him to put some distance between myself and Jay. So it was just he and I, I assumed. Going into turn two on the third lap, a bike started to pull up next to me. At first I assumed it was going to be Tim Martinez, but to my surprise it was Chris Rogers. I beat him into turn two and then going into three, he apparently crashed out behind Jay and I.
Jay was a bit gun shy in turn two since he crashed in that turn twice on Saturday. I used this to my advantage and closed up on him in that turn, and turn nine, every lap. One lap I pulled up next to him in turn two and went side by side with him to turn three. I hoped that I could try out braking him into three, but that was a joke. Jay’s a lot better on the brakes than I am. On the fifth lap we caught a bike from the 500 singles class in turn two, and because a single blew up on Jay the day before when he tried to pass it, he held off from making the pass, assumedly waiting until the exit. This gave me the chance I needed to go around Jay and put myself into 4th place. Jay got me back in turn one at the start of the sixth lap, but I did my best to keep it close.
Exiting turn one of the seventh lap, I ran a bit wide and thought that Jay would gap me here because I had to wait a while to get on the gas. Then I noticed Jay was running wide, too, so wide that he eventually road off the track. He got back onto the track pretty quickly, but I still took the lead from him. I stayed in front of him this time until turn three on the last lap where he got me on the brakes. I thought if I could stay close to him, I could get him in nine. I got too anxious on the back straight, up-shifting into sixth way too soon which slowed my acceleration. Jay was too far ahead to try anything in nine, so I had to settle for 5th place in the race. That wasn’t too bad because that still meant I would be 14 points up on second place overall in the class, Kevin Jump.
550 Superbike wasn’t until the afternoon and some wind had kicked up by that time. Not a lot, but it meant we wouldn’t be running lap times quite as fast. Again I got a good launch from poll, but so did Tim Martinez, Jay, Zoran and Spencer. I was right on Spencer as we went into two, but when we got into the turn, I found that I had a problem. My rear tire wouldn’t stay underneath me. It kept sliding out and I was having to let off the gas. I was afraid my tire was shot and that maybe I should pull off instead of risk getting high-sided. This forced me to let the other four guys go, but the tire acted okay over four B and six, so I decided I’d stay out, but slow down until the next person behind me passed me. Then I’d race them.
Going into turn nine, Ryan Sturz went screaming past me on his FZR 400. I motored him on the front straight to take my position back. I took turn two easy since I didn’t know what the tire would do, and this allowed him to catch back up. To my surprise, he beat me on the brakes going into three. I followed him around to set up a pass exiting nine, again. His bike popped out of gear when we exited nine, so I flew by him and didn’t see him again.
My tire started feeling okay, so I was able to pick up my pace a bit. I could see that I was keeping Tim Martinez in sight and thought maybe with some luck, I could catch him. As with last month, Tim had some trouble getting past people who he caught at the back of the Heavy Weight Twins class that started as the wave before us. They allowed me to catch up, and exiting turn nine, Tim’s bike also popped out of gear. I went by Tim pretty fast and focused on the guys from Heavy Weight Twins in front of me. I pulled up along side of a Buell exiting turn two and out broke him into three. I knew this would help me gap Tim. Going down the hill from four B, I passed a 748 and got in behind a TL 1000 to draft down the back straight. I went around the TL in eight, but when I was going for nine, a bike went flying by me. I thought, who the hell is that? Then I noticed the number 1 plate on the red Ducati 999 and realized who it was. Kopecky ran a couple of laps in the super fast 1:23 range allowing him to lap up to eight place in his own class, and up to fourth (me) in the 550 Superbike class.
So I crossed the finish line as the first non-yellow bike in 550 Superbike. That’s actually okay because that still meant I increased my lead on everyone in that class vying for its championship.
Next month, I’m hoping for no yellow bikes so I can get back to winning.
Thanks to my sponsors and class sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin and LP Team Privateer, and Little Big Racing and VP Fuels.