Kurt'sSV
Mon 7/17/06, 12:37PM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 7, July 2006
Yup, it was nice and warm this weekend at the track. Thankfully my races were numbers 1 and 4, so I would be done racing by noon.
550 Superbike was up first and I got what I felt like was a good launch from pole position. Tim Martinez still got a better one, but I thought I could cut him off into turn one, but then Andy Palmer split us both from the second row and took the hole shot. I was a little slow coming out of turn one, but made up the ground in turn two. I wanted to get a good run on these guys exiting two so that I could try for a pass on the brakes. I ended up getting on the gas a tad early and a bit too hard and the rear slid out a bunch, balking my drive. The rear tire I’m using takes a little bit to heat up, so in turn two on the first lap, the very edge of the tire isn’t as grippy as I need it to be.
So we stay 1, 2, 3 around the track for the first lap (whomever is in 4th could have been right on my tail, too, but I never know what’s going on behind me). I got a good drive out of turn nine, and with Andy providing Tim and I with a giant slip stream to sit in, we both draft by him before turn one. Unfortunately I’m too polite to Andy and gave him way too much room on his inside causing me to apex way, way too early and upon exiting the turn I’m pointed out toward the dirt. I eventually get the bike turned in the direction I need it to go, but I had to wait forever to get back on the gas and Andy went back by me. I catch right back up on the brakes going into three and here’s where I make my second mistake in that lap which costs me. I’m right behind Andy as we tip in and because he’s so big, I can’t really see what’s around him. I end up turning the bike in too hard and then have to check up as I find that I’m going to run into the inside curbing. So I lose ground up the hill and then Andy gets this incredible drive out of 5 that awes me and then I’m out of touch with he and Tim.
I’m not really liking how my tire is feeling but I think that was just more in my head. I’m riding around in third place by myself and I catch two guys at the back of the Heavyweight Twins class that started in front of us. They slow me down a little bit in turn two, but I went by both of them on their outside going into turn three, but going by me as well on my inside is number 31, Jim Dobson. He’s not at all new to racing, but he’s new to the class. He’s picked himself up a superbike spec FZR 400. The thing is built up about as much as you can get that bike’s motor to be - apparently upper 80’s HP output. So it’s wicked fast, light and agile. Maybe we’ll get lucky and his motor will blow up next month.
So now I’m back in 4th, off the podium and out of the cash paying positions. Now, unless I win, I’m not really happy. And finishing off the podium makes me feel like I just spent $70 to make myself disappointed. My only conciliation was that Dobson caught Tim at the finish line, meaning I only lost 2 points to Tim in the overall standings, so I think I have about a dozen point lead still in the class. Another conciliation was that I set a new personal best lap time on the third lap with a 1:31.1, which is nice, but I need to find another .6-.8 if I want to run with these guys. I’ll have to ride harder next month.
A half hour later and I was lining up again for Formula Twins Lightweight. With these new flat-slides, my starts have sucked. I go into turn one in third place behind Tim and Kevin Jump on the Kawi 650R. This race was a lot more fun as I battled with Jump pretty good in the first part of the race. Unfortunately our fighting allowed Martinez to escape and run unopposed for the win.
I could get Jump on the brakes going into turn three, then he’d get me back going into eight or exiting one. Once I got a great drive out of nine and almost out motored him down the front straight. I thought his bike was much faster than mine, so I assumed, correctly, that he was having an overheating issue which was robbing him of power. On the fourth lap I got a great run at him coming out of turn two and we were side by side before we even hit the braking zone for three. I took the position from him on the brakes and that was the last I saw of him. He was forced to fade back to due this bike overheating and this was good for me, because I had quite a moment on the last lap.
I was going into turn three by myself so I was pretty relaxed, but I was also looking at the 500 singles that I about to catch and was hoping they wouldn’t hold me up. Thoughts about what might happen in a few turns suddenly went to thoughts of just surviving the upcoming turn as my bike fell into neutral instead of 4th gear. So now I was just free wheeling into the turn and it’s hard to turn a bike that’s rolling like that. I was able to make the turn and started wanting to find a gear to put the bike in when it died. So I had to fire it back up and jam it into 5th gear, then down to 4th gear as I rolled round the top of turn four. Fortunately Jump was so far back, that he didn’t catch me. I lucked out there.
During our F Twins race there were waving yellows in the turn four area, but I never figured out why because I didn’t see anything. On the cool down lap I saw a crash truck driving outside of turn eight with a red SV with yellow number plates on it. That could only be Shandra’s bike. While Andy was long overdue for a win, Shandra was seriously long overdue for a crash. At least it was no biggie.
I didn’t get the results I was hoping for this weekend, but I’m still leading the overall in both my classes. On to August and the last double points weekend.
Thanks to: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin, LP Team Privateer and to class sponsors Little Big Racing and VP Fuels.
Yup, it was nice and warm this weekend at the track. Thankfully my races were numbers 1 and 4, so I would be done racing by noon.
550 Superbike was up first and I got what I felt like was a good launch from pole position. Tim Martinez still got a better one, but I thought I could cut him off into turn one, but then Andy Palmer split us both from the second row and took the hole shot. I was a little slow coming out of turn one, but made up the ground in turn two. I wanted to get a good run on these guys exiting two so that I could try for a pass on the brakes. I ended up getting on the gas a tad early and a bit too hard and the rear slid out a bunch, balking my drive. The rear tire I’m using takes a little bit to heat up, so in turn two on the first lap, the very edge of the tire isn’t as grippy as I need it to be.
So we stay 1, 2, 3 around the track for the first lap (whomever is in 4th could have been right on my tail, too, but I never know what’s going on behind me). I got a good drive out of turn nine, and with Andy providing Tim and I with a giant slip stream to sit in, we both draft by him before turn one. Unfortunately I’m too polite to Andy and gave him way too much room on his inside causing me to apex way, way too early and upon exiting the turn I’m pointed out toward the dirt. I eventually get the bike turned in the direction I need it to go, but I had to wait forever to get back on the gas and Andy went back by me. I catch right back up on the brakes going into three and here’s where I make my second mistake in that lap which costs me. I’m right behind Andy as we tip in and because he’s so big, I can’t really see what’s around him. I end up turning the bike in too hard and then have to check up as I find that I’m going to run into the inside curbing. So I lose ground up the hill and then Andy gets this incredible drive out of 5 that awes me and then I’m out of touch with he and Tim.
I’m not really liking how my tire is feeling but I think that was just more in my head. I’m riding around in third place by myself and I catch two guys at the back of the Heavyweight Twins class that started in front of us. They slow me down a little bit in turn two, but I went by both of them on their outside going into turn three, but going by me as well on my inside is number 31, Jim Dobson. He’s not at all new to racing, but he’s new to the class. He’s picked himself up a superbike spec FZR 400. The thing is built up about as much as you can get that bike’s motor to be - apparently upper 80’s HP output. So it’s wicked fast, light and agile. Maybe we’ll get lucky and his motor will blow up next month.
So now I’m back in 4th, off the podium and out of the cash paying positions. Now, unless I win, I’m not really happy. And finishing off the podium makes me feel like I just spent $70 to make myself disappointed. My only conciliation was that Dobson caught Tim at the finish line, meaning I only lost 2 points to Tim in the overall standings, so I think I have about a dozen point lead still in the class. Another conciliation was that I set a new personal best lap time on the third lap with a 1:31.1, which is nice, but I need to find another .6-.8 if I want to run with these guys. I’ll have to ride harder next month.
A half hour later and I was lining up again for Formula Twins Lightweight. With these new flat-slides, my starts have sucked. I go into turn one in third place behind Tim and Kevin Jump on the Kawi 650R. This race was a lot more fun as I battled with Jump pretty good in the first part of the race. Unfortunately our fighting allowed Martinez to escape and run unopposed for the win.
I could get Jump on the brakes going into turn three, then he’d get me back going into eight or exiting one. Once I got a great drive out of nine and almost out motored him down the front straight. I thought his bike was much faster than mine, so I assumed, correctly, that he was having an overheating issue which was robbing him of power. On the fourth lap I got a great run at him coming out of turn two and we were side by side before we even hit the braking zone for three. I took the position from him on the brakes and that was the last I saw of him. He was forced to fade back to due this bike overheating and this was good for me, because I had quite a moment on the last lap.
I was going into turn three by myself so I was pretty relaxed, but I was also looking at the 500 singles that I about to catch and was hoping they wouldn’t hold me up. Thoughts about what might happen in a few turns suddenly went to thoughts of just surviving the upcoming turn as my bike fell into neutral instead of 4th gear. So now I was just free wheeling into the turn and it’s hard to turn a bike that’s rolling like that. I was able to make the turn and started wanting to find a gear to put the bike in when it died. So I had to fire it back up and jam it into 5th gear, then down to 4th gear as I rolled round the top of turn four. Fortunately Jump was so far back, that he didn’t catch me. I lucked out there.
During our F Twins race there were waving yellows in the turn four area, but I never figured out why because I didn’t see anything. On the cool down lap I saw a crash truck driving outside of turn eight with a red SV with yellow number plates on it. That could only be Shandra’s bike. While Andy was long overdue for a win, Shandra was seriously long overdue for a crash. At least it was no biggie.
I didn’t get the results I was hoping for this weekend, but I’m still leading the overall in both my classes. On to August and the last double points weekend.
Thanks to: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin, LP Team Privateer and to class sponsors Little Big Racing and VP Fuels.