Kurt'sSV
Tue 8/22/06, 8:44AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 8, August 2006
I felt good and confident going into race day. I practiced well and the extra confidence I had came from finally putting a steering damper on my bike like a race bike should. My expectations for a double win kind of went down the tubes when I saw through the window of the WSMC office a tall, pale, blond guy with a yellow Twin Works Factory t-shirt on. I pushed my way past the line of people, poked my head in the office and barked out “Spencer, what the hell are you doing here?” It was a Suzuki paying weekend, so he drove down from Reno Saturday to make some easy money racing us retarded kids. Okay, so no firsts baring disaster for Spencer, so I was shooting for second place in both the races and lap times in the 1:30 range. Aim low!
Last year off the starting line I would “get my usual good start.” This year it’s gone the other way and now I’m getting “my usual bad start.” Going into turn one for 550 Superbike I was behind the Masked Gunman (Spencer), Tim Martinez and Chris Rogers was pulling up next to me. I beat Rogers into one and got in behind the Masked Gunman and Martinez. Going into three I pulled up along side of Martinez and took position from him since I was on the inside, or so I thought. The little bastard wouldn’t give it up. He swooped down and stole the position back from me. So I just had to drive by him exiting turn nine and put myself into second place to start the second lap.
The Masked Gunman was out front and pulling away from the retarded kids HE WAS STEALING FROM! So could I fend off everyone else for seven more laps? Going over turn six my bike jumped out of gear. It took me a second to get it back in gear and get back on the gas, allowing Rogers to get by me down the back straight. I passed him coming out of turn nine and put myself back into second place. Coming out of turn five my bike popped out of gear again and Rogers went by me. I passed him again on the front straight.
Going into turn three I got passed on the brakes. At first I assumed it was Rogers, but then I noticed it was George Beavers on his newly built SV650 super-duper bike. I didn’t realize it at the time, but his super-duper motor started taking a super-duper dump and I went roaring back by him on the front straight (having a fast bike is awesome). I didn’t see anyone for another lap or so except a few guys I was catching from the Heavy Weight Twins class. I had a big slide in turn 4B as I was going around an Aprilia and almost high sided myself.
My bike popping out of gear earlier in the race was due to my lazy shifting. I shifted lazily again and it popped out of gear going for turn six. Rogers was right on me and went by me pretty fast. He put a good gap on me and it took me more than a lap to run him back down. I did get him finally on the front straight. I made damn sure to shift good and hard into fifth gear while going to turn six on the last lap to avoid anymore problems. I caught a TL1000 in turn nine and went around him, hoping he might hold up Rogers ever so slightly.
I actually finished within sight of Spencer, which made me feel good. He slowed it down quite bit on the last few laps. But winning the battles I had with Rogers, Beavers and Martinez was awesome. I earned that second place and set a new personal best with a lap time of 1:30.7. That’s an average speed for the lap of over 99mph. A 1:30.00 lap time is a bench mark at Willow because that means your average speed for the lap is 100mph. Just a few more tenths and I’ll be there.
Once back in the pits we only had enough time to take our helmets off and get a drink of water because after the race that was out there was finished, we were back up to bat with Formula Twins Light Weight. I got off the line okay, but hit my rev limiter and had trouble up shifting. Martinez and Kevin Jump started on the front row with me and pulled head quite bit. Spencer shot by me from the second row along with Rogers and Chris Spieghts got an awesome start and blew by me going for turn one, too. So I was all the way back in sixth place after starting from pole position.
I made a pass in turn two and got another guy on the brakes going into turn three. Rogers was the next guy but he was a bit ahead. I was a little slow around the omega section and out of five because my shifting was off (I was in a lower gear than I normal because I missed a shift point). Rogers was riding just as well as he did in the first race and it was taking me a while to run him back down, but I was making up ground every lap. Eventually I caught up to him and passed him on the front straight. Going into turn one we caught a rider from one of the other classes and it balked my drive. Rogers got back around me going to turn two. Going for turn three I pulled up next to him on the brakes and had position, but the stubby bastard wouldn’t give it up and swooped down, taking the position back. I need to try a little harder when making a pass on the brakes. I can do it, I was just underestimating my opponents.
Chris Rogers and I are faster than each other at different parts of the track. He’s better out of five, but I make up ground rolling down the hill from turn six. He goes through the middle of turn nine faster because he takes a tighter line. I take a wider line, forcing me to travel a further distance through the turn, but I get a better drive out of the turn. Rogers and I were racing each other really hard and weren’t going to give each other an inch. We were also catching Kevin Jump in second place.
My entry speed into turn two is also faster than Rogers’ so I need to watch him going into the turn so I don’t rear end him. We had caught several riders from the 500 Singles class during our race and were about to catch one entering turn two. Going into the turn Rogers was staying down low and it looked like he might get caught behind the 500, so I stayed a little wide and was going to go around the outside of the 500 right as we were all entering the turn. Rogers made a banzi pass and stuffed the 500. The guy was really surprised to see someone there as he was already committed to his line and check up. I didn’t want to lose absolutely any ground on Rogers due to this 500, so I stayed really close to this bike going into the turn and left no room for error. Unfortunately, there was an error. When the 500 checked up, he checked up right into my front wheel. I had enough time to think FUCK, then I was on the ground.
I landed really hard on my right shoulder, rolled once, then slid off the track on my back. Once in the dirt I tumbled a long ways, knocking my left shoulder out of socket and flinging my glasses off my face. I came to a stop and didn’t want to get up. I wiggled myself some, checking everything out. Besides the left shoulder, everything else was in tact so I got up to keep the corner workers and EMS people from freaking out too much thinking I was dead.
Once back to my pit, Flashy Lloyd McGruder and Tom Shao had already loaded my crashed bike into my truck. So now they got to help put my shoulder back into its socket. My favorite way to have it done is a two person technique. Tom grabbed a tie down that I looped under my armpit and he would pull on to keep me still while Lloyd pulled on my left arm to get the bone to go back into the socket. Some other guys like Ryan Sturz had come over by this time to see how I was doing and got to bear witness to me being put back together. After some pulling, I felt/heard a loud pop and all the guys went “eeeewwwwww.” So I knew it was back in.
I’m kind of beat up, but nothing’s broken and no concussion. The bike isn’t damaged very bad. I just need to repair the bodywork and get some new odds and ends. I’ll be ready to go long before the September race weekend. What hurts the most from the crash was the loss of points. It was a double points weekend. Jump scored 26 points and I scored 2, so now I think I’m about 15 points behind him in the class’s overall. It’ll be tough to make up those points in the next four months unless I get help from other people. On the flip side, Martinez was 10 points behind me in 550 Superbike, but he had motor issues and pulled out of the race. So now I’m about 35 points clear of him in that class.
I’d like to thank Tom and Lloyd for helping me on Sunday, along with all the other people who were there to give me a hand. I’m thankful that Tom is now an expert in repairing crash damage. He is going to be a big help putting my bike back together quickly.
Thanks to my sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin, LP Team Privateer and class sponsors Little Big Racing and VP Fuels.
I felt good and confident going into race day. I practiced well and the extra confidence I had came from finally putting a steering damper on my bike like a race bike should. My expectations for a double win kind of went down the tubes when I saw through the window of the WSMC office a tall, pale, blond guy with a yellow Twin Works Factory t-shirt on. I pushed my way past the line of people, poked my head in the office and barked out “Spencer, what the hell are you doing here?” It was a Suzuki paying weekend, so he drove down from Reno Saturday to make some easy money racing us retarded kids. Okay, so no firsts baring disaster for Spencer, so I was shooting for second place in both the races and lap times in the 1:30 range. Aim low!
Last year off the starting line I would “get my usual good start.” This year it’s gone the other way and now I’m getting “my usual bad start.” Going into turn one for 550 Superbike I was behind the Masked Gunman (Spencer), Tim Martinez and Chris Rogers was pulling up next to me. I beat Rogers into one and got in behind the Masked Gunman and Martinez. Going into three I pulled up along side of Martinez and took position from him since I was on the inside, or so I thought. The little bastard wouldn’t give it up. He swooped down and stole the position back from me. So I just had to drive by him exiting turn nine and put myself into second place to start the second lap.
The Masked Gunman was out front and pulling away from the retarded kids HE WAS STEALING FROM! So could I fend off everyone else for seven more laps? Going over turn six my bike jumped out of gear. It took me a second to get it back in gear and get back on the gas, allowing Rogers to get by me down the back straight. I passed him coming out of turn nine and put myself back into second place. Coming out of turn five my bike popped out of gear again and Rogers went by me. I passed him again on the front straight.
Going into turn three I got passed on the brakes. At first I assumed it was Rogers, but then I noticed it was George Beavers on his newly built SV650 super-duper bike. I didn’t realize it at the time, but his super-duper motor started taking a super-duper dump and I went roaring back by him on the front straight (having a fast bike is awesome). I didn’t see anyone for another lap or so except a few guys I was catching from the Heavy Weight Twins class. I had a big slide in turn 4B as I was going around an Aprilia and almost high sided myself.
My bike popping out of gear earlier in the race was due to my lazy shifting. I shifted lazily again and it popped out of gear going for turn six. Rogers was right on me and went by me pretty fast. He put a good gap on me and it took me more than a lap to run him back down. I did get him finally on the front straight. I made damn sure to shift good and hard into fifth gear while going to turn six on the last lap to avoid anymore problems. I caught a TL1000 in turn nine and went around him, hoping he might hold up Rogers ever so slightly.
I actually finished within sight of Spencer, which made me feel good. He slowed it down quite bit on the last few laps. But winning the battles I had with Rogers, Beavers and Martinez was awesome. I earned that second place and set a new personal best with a lap time of 1:30.7. That’s an average speed for the lap of over 99mph. A 1:30.00 lap time is a bench mark at Willow because that means your average speed for the lap is 100mph. Just a few more tenths and I’ll be there.
Once back in the pits we only had enough time to take our helmets off and get a drink of water because after the race that was out there was finished, we were back up to bat with Formula Twins Light Weight. I got off the line okay, but hit my rev limiter and had trouble up shifting. Martinez and Kevin Jump started on the front row with me and pulled head quite bit. Spencer shot by me from the second row along with Rogers and Chris Spieghts got an awesome start and blew by me going for turn one, too. So I was all the way back in sixth place after starting from pole position.
I made a pass in turn two and got another guy on the brakes going into turn three. Rogers was the next guy but he was a bit ahead. I was a little slow around the omega section and out of five because my shifting was off (I was in a lower gear than I normal because I missed a shift point). Rogers was riding just as well as he did in the first race and it was taking me a while to run him back down, but I was making up ground every lap. Eventually I caught up to him and passed him on the front straight. Going into turn one we caught a rider from one of the other classes and it balked my drive. Rogers got back around me going to turn two. Going for turn three I pulled up next to him on the brakes and had position, but the stubby bastard wouldn’t give it up and swooped down, taking the position back. I need to try a little harder when making a pass on the brakes. I can do it, I was just underestimating my opponents.
Chris Rogers and I are faster than each other at different parts of the track. He’s better out of five, but I make up ground rolling down the hill from turn six. He goes through the middle of turn nine faster because he takes a tighter line. I take a wider line, forcing me to travel a further distance through the turn, but I get a better drive out of the turn. Rogers and I were racing each other really hard and weren’t going to give each other an inch. We were also catching Kevin Jump in second place.
My entry speed into turn two is also faster than Rogers’ so I need to watch him going into the turn so I don’t rear end him. We had caught several riders from the 500 Singles class during our race and were about to catch one entering turn two. Going into the turn Rogers was staying down low and it looked like he might get caught behind the 500, so I stayed a little wide and was going to go around the outside of the 500 right as we were all entering the turn. Rogers made a banzi pass and stuffed the 500. The guy was really surprised to see someone there as he was already committed to his line and check up. I didn’t want to lose absolutely any ground on Rogers due to this 500, so I stayed really close to this bike going into the turn and left no room for error. Unfortunately, there was an error. When the 500 checked up, he checked up right into my front wheel. I had enough time to think FUCK, then I was on the ground.
I landed really hard on my right shoulder, rolled once, then slid off the track on my back. Once in the dirt I tumbled a long ways, knocking my left shoulder out of socket and flinging my glasses off my face. I came to a stop and didn’t want to get up. I wiggled myself some, checking everything out. Besides the left shoulder, everything else was in tact so I got up to keep the corner workers and EMS people from freaking out too much thinking I was dead.
Once back to my pit, Flashy Lloyd McGruder and Tom Shao had already loaded my crashed bike into my truck. So now they got to help put my shoulder back into its socket. My favorite way to have it done is a two person technique. Tom grabbed a tie down that I looped under my armpit and he would pull on to keep me still while Lloyd pulled on my left arm to get the bone to go back into the socket. Some other guys like Ryan Sturz had come over by this time to see how I was doing and got to bear witness to me being put back together. After some pulling, I felt/heard a loud pop and all the guys went “eeeewwwwww.” So I knew it was back in.
I’m kind of beat up, but nothing’s broken and no concussion. The bike isn’t damaged very bad. I just need to repair the bodywork and get some new odds and ends. I’ll be ready to go long before the September race weekend. What hurts the most from the crash was the loss of points. It was a double points weekend. Jump scored 26 points and I scored 2, so now I think I’m about 15 points behind him in the class’s overall. It’ll be tough to make up those points in the next four months unless I get help from other people. On the flip side, Martinez was 10 points behind me in 550 Superbike, but he had motor issues and pulled out of the race. So now I’m about 35 points clear of him in that class.
I’d like to thank Tom and Lloyd for helping me on Sunday, along with all the other people who were there to give me a hand. I’m thankful that Tom is now an expert in repairing crash damage. He is going to be a big help putting my bike back together quickly.
Thanks to my sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin, LP Team Privateer and class sponsors Little Big Racing and VP Fuels.