jadeblue1
Mon 7/10/06, 9:59AM
Saturday morning was already getting hot when the track sessions started at 9 am. i was in race group b, and looking forward to getting on buttonwillow again. i haven’t been on this track since march, and was interested i seeong how much of it i remembered.
the morning sessions went really well, i was just cruisin around, working on shift points and finding braking/turn in reference markers. i was just working on being smooth & consistent, doing the same thing at the same time everytime around the track. By noon, it was geetting really hot, and there was a lot of crashes in the afternoon session because of the heat & people getting “brain fade”. i went through about a gallon of water, and sweat would start running down my face inside my helmet about halfway through a session. but i was glad i rode in the heat, because i knew where the track would get slick & how much i could tolerate before i overheated.
zoran, john, aaron, and his family from twin works came down, along with another afm rider- mark, and april, freddie, randy, and his girlfriend carolyn also came to this round, so by the end of the day we had a nice little pop up canopy community going.
We had 2 practice sessions sunday morning befor the races started. My races were #6 & #13, so i just ran the morning practice to shake hands with the track & tried to stay in the shade as much as possible before my races.
freddie, randy and mark were running the 600 races (c super ss/sbk), john was running the 500 races (d super ss/sbk), and zoran , aaron and i were in the same races (formula 2 & lt wt sbk)
my 1st race was lightweight super bike novice, and i was gridded in the 3 rd race of a 4 race grid that started in 1 wave. the line up was: ltwt sbk expert, then a 2 row gap, then d superstock, then a 2 row gap, then ltwt sbk novice, then a 2 row gap, then a motard class.
my goal was to launch thru d superstock, into the backend of the expert grid & let the other guys in my wave get stuck in traffic. i had a good start, but the 2 guys on the same row as me have more hp, so their drive was a little better & one of them got ahead of me going into t1. that was ok, it was hot & i figured i would follow him around & pick him off in a corner. it was what i practiced the day before & what an sv is really good at, so i stayed on his butt & coming out of t8 into the “s’s”, i set up for a drive & went by him under brakes into the left hander before the front staight. i tried to do my downshifts too fast & got stuck between gears, so i had to coast thru the apex while i sorted it out & got back into gear. i saw him go by on my left after the corner, so i dug in, looked past him & drove for t1 hard, hit the brakes late & went by him before i entered the corner. I have a pretty good line for t2, so i did a defensive line to the corner, hit my line & drove really hard into t3,4,over the wheelie bump & into the bus stop. i wasn’t sure how much space i had created, but i just stayed in my groove &tried to run a little faster in the corner, then a little faster in then next, and just pick up a little time whereever i could-the whole time, staying level & focused & just concentrating down the track. I never saw bikes from my race agin, and caught the checkers.
13 sec ahead of the 2nd place finisher. (kurt told me afterwards that when i passed the guy on the front straight i blew his doors off-that was cool)
my 2nd race was late in the afternoon, and it was so hot, unless you were really moving on the bike, it was just uncomfortable. i ran a fast warm up lap just to get some air moving so i could sit on the grid long enough to start. this race was only 2 races on a 1 wave grid, so there wasn’t sitting on the grid waiting for the flag, and since it was mixed bikes i knew they wouldn’t make the 2 strokes sit too long. on the start, i tried going into the back of the experts, but one of the guys from my row slid up beside me & i let him have the line going into t1, as i had not gotten over far enough to take it from him. i stayed right behind him until the bustop. he took a wide line thru it, and i stayed tight & set up for a drive around him on the outside thru the riverside turn. i actually looked through him (like you’re supposed to)
saw my line, stayed on it, and made the smoothest pass i think i’ve ever done. as i come out of lost hill & head to t8, i see the corner worker quickly grab a red flag. i slowed down, and came into the pits... apparently it was going to be a couple of minutes, so i pulled over to the wall, leaned my bike against it & got under the shade of the grid marshals. the air in the helmet was getting too hot to breathe & i could feel the sweat poppping out on my arms in my suit. i pulled my helmet & gloves off, unzipped my suit and tried to cool down while they cleaned up the incidnet. since the race race had just started, we had to do another warm up lap and redo the start.
This time when the green flag flew, i stayed on it & drifted a little more over to the left, so when the other guy tried to get around me, i got in front of him, hooked up with the tail of the expert race & shut the door as we went into t1. i hooked onto the back end of matt buck who has an orange & black sv & was hanging off his tail. i had 2 really great laps of just concetrating on the track in front of me & trying to run the guy in front of me down & catch him... i couldn’t tell how close the bikes in back of me were, but i was going to stay in front & hold onto to first place...i was getting really hot & just kept focusing ahead of me so i didn’t start getting fatigued. on the start of the 3rd lap, i trailed buck into t1 & saw a red flag come out. at the top of t2, a 2 stroke had pile into the back of an sv... it looked like the little bike was trying to hump the big bike & the sv’s rider was holding both bikes up & the 2 stroke rider was laying on the ground holding his arm.
so we exitted the track again & i was hoping they’d call the race...i was too hot & too tired to try to regrid a third time. Luckily between the 2 starts, there was 4 laps completed, so they could score the race. i led my race for 3 1/2 laps, so i won & was 10 sec ahead of 2nd place.
it was a good weekend, found out how to deal with overheating & brain fade, and got a little better at staying in the game. big thanks to: april & freddie for sharing a hotel room & bringing all the comforts of home to the track, zoran & john once again for the help & advice, kurt for the help with the bike & getting me a beer, and of course my sponsors-graffiti palace, crago racing, twin works factory, socalsvriders.org who help make this whole thing a little more do-able by keeping me & my bike in good shape.
the morning sessions went really well, i was just cruisin around, working on shift points and finding braking/turn in reference markers. i was just working on being smooth & consistent, doing the same thing at the same time everytime around the track. By noon, it was geetting really hot, and there was a lot of crashes in the afternoon session because of the heat & people getting “brain fade”. i went through about a gallon of water, and sweat would start running down my face inside my helmet about halfway through a session. but i was glad i rode in the heat, because i knew where the track would get slick & how much i could tolerate before i overheated.
zoran, john, aaron, and his family from twin works came down, along with another afm rider- mark, and april, freddie, randy, and his girlfriend carolyn also came to this round, so by the end of the day we had a nice little pop up canopy community going.
We had 2 practice sessions sunday morning befor the races started. My races were #6 & #13, so i just ran the morning practice to shake hands with the track & tried to stay in the shade as much as possible before my races.
freddie, randy and mark were running the 600 races (c super ss/sbk), john was running the 500 races (d super ss/sbk), and zoran , aaron and i were in the same races (formula 2 & lt wt sbk)
my 1st race was lightweight super bike novice, and i was gridded in the 3 rd race of a 4 race grid that started in 1 wave. the line up was: ltwt sbk expert, then a 2 row gap, then d superstock, then a 2 row gap, then ltwt sbk novice, then a 2 row gap, then a motard class.
my goal was to launch thru d superstock, into the backend of the expert grid & let the other guys in my wave get stuck in traffic. i had a good start, but the 2 guys on the same row as me have more hp, so their drive was a little better & one of them got ahead of me going into t1. that was ok, it was hot & i figured i would follow him around & pick him off in a corner. it was what i practiced the day before & what an sv is really good at, so i stayed on his butt & coming out of t8 into the “s’s”, i set up for a drive & went by him under brakes into the left hander before the front staight. i tried to do my downshifts too fast & got stuck between gears, so i had to coast thru the apex while i sorted it out & got back into gear. i saw him go by on my left after the corner, so i dug in, looked past him & drove for t1 hard, hit the brakes late & went by him before i entered the corner. I have a pretty good line for t2, so i did a defensive line to the corner, hit my line & drove really hard into t3,4,over the wheelie bump & into the bus stop. i wasn’t sure how much space i had created, but i just stayed in my groove &tried to run a little faster in the corner, then a little faster in then next, and just pick up a little time whereever i could-the whole time, staying level & focused & just concentrating down the track. I never saw bikes from my race agin, and caught the checkers.
13 sec ahead of the 2nd place finisher. (kurt told me afterwards that when i passed the guy on the front straight i blew his doors off-that was cool)
my 2nd race was late in the afternoon, and it was so hot, unless you were really moving on the bike, it was just uncomfortable. i ran a fast warm up lap just to get some air moving so i could sit on the grid long enough to start. this race was only 2 races on a 1 wave grid, so there wasn’t sitting on the grid waiting for the flag, and since it was mixed bikes i knew they wouldn’t make the 2 strokes sit too long. on the start, i tried going into the back of the experts, but one of the guys from my row slid up beside me & i let him have the line going into t1, as i had not gotten over far enough to take it from him. i stayed right behind him until the bustop. he took a wide line thru it, and i stayed tight & set up for a drive around him on the outside thru the riverside turn. i actually looked through him (like you’re supposed to)
saw my line, stayed on it, and made the smoothest pass i think i’ve ever done. as i come out of lost hill & head to t8, i see the corner worker quickly grab a red flag. i slowed down, and came into the pits... apparently it was going to be a couple of minutes, so i pulled over to the wall, leaned my bike against it & got under the shade of the grid marshals. the air in the helmet was getting too hot to breathe & i could feel the sweat poppping out on my arms in my suit. i pulled my helmet & gloves off, unzipped my suit and tried to cool down while they cleaned up the incidnet. since the race race had just started, we had to do another warm up lap and redo the start.
This time when the green flag flew, i stayed on it & drifted a little more over to the left, so when the other guy tried to get around me, i got in front of him, hooked up with the tail of the expert race & shut the door as we went into t1. i hooked onto the back end of matt buck who has an orange & black sv & was hanging off his tail. i had 2 really great laps of just concetrating on the track in front of me & trying to run the guy in front of me down & catch him... i couldn’t tell how close the bikes in back of me were, but i was going to stay in front & hold onto to first place...i was getting really hot & just kept focusing ahead of me so i didn’t start getting fatigued. on the start of the 3rd lap, i trailed buck into t1 & saw a red flag come out. at the top of t2, a 2 stroke had pile into the back of an sv... it looked like the little bike was trying to hump the big bike & the sv’s rider was holding both bikes up & the 2 stroke rider was laying on the ground holding his arm.
so we exitted the track again & i was hoping they’d call the race...i was too hot & too tired to try to regrid a third time. Luckily between the 2 starts, there was 4 laps completed, so they could score the race. i led my race for 3 1/2 laps, so i won & was 10 sec ahead of 2nd place.
it was a good weekend, found out how to deal with overheating & brain fade, and got a little better at staying in the game. big thanks to: april & freddie for sharing a hotel room & bringing all the comforts of home to the track, zoran & john once again for the help & advice, kurt for the help with the bike & getting me a beer, and of course my sponsors-graffiti palace, crago racing, twin works factory, socalsvriders.org who help make this whole thing a little more do-able by keeping me & my bike in good shape.