Kurt'sSV
Tue 10/17/06, 9:44AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 10, October 2006
http://www.hypercycles.org/forums/images/smilies/banana.gif2006 WSMC 550 Superbike Champion!http://www.hypercycles.org/forums/images/smilies/banana.gif
On probably the most perfect day I’ve ever seen at Willow Springs I wrapped up my first ever road racing class championship.
Saturday’s weather forecast called for rain and wind, so I just rolled up Sunday morning ready to race. I lined up in pole position again in 550 Superbike. I launched okay and road a pretty good power wheelie off the line. Tim Martinez got a good launch, which has become the norm for him, but this month he was on a slower bike, not his, and he didn’t pull away from me as we drag raced for turn one. Chris Speights got a really good launch and I could see him pulling up next to us, too.
Once we got close to turn one Chris shut off, then Tim shut off, then a second later I shut off and turned in to take the hole shot. I took turn two hard and went uncontested into turn three. I felt that I was going to be stronger than the rest of the grid that day and as long as nothing too bad happened, I should stay in front.
After the crest of turn six my bike got a bit of a front end wobble. I have a steering damper on the bike, but sometimes you still get a little head shake. The next lap around I got the biggest tank slapper of my life and don’t know how I didn’t go down. I remember the bars banging back and forth from lock to lock and at one point thinking “this is it, I’m going down right now!” But thanks to the laws of gyroscopic force the bike eventually straightened itself out before I fell off.
George Beavers was behind me when this happened and it kind of scared the hell out of him, too. He motored by me and took the lead. While I was tucked in his draft going down the front straight I reached up and dialed up my steering damper a bit to keep that from happening again. His draft allowed me to pull up next to him as we went for turn one, but he beat me through the turn. I haven’t really raced with George before, so I don’t know what his strengths and weaknesses were. I disappointingly saw that he was better on the brakes than I was going into turn three. Going over four and through nine I also saw that he drags some hard parts on his bike. That’s a little distracting.
Compared to my regular competitors at WSMC, my bike is king of the mid-range in terms of power. I came blasting out of turn nine after George and went by him pretty quickly to regain the lead. I was pretty confident that I could stay in front, now, for the rest of the race, but catching other people from the Heavyweight Twins Class can always through a monkey wrench in your plans.
We started catching people and I got balked by one guy entering turn two and then later by another guy entering turn three. I had to go around a guy in five and this allowed George to get a run on me and make a pass down the back straight. He had a bit more of a gap on me as we exited nine, so I couldn’t make a pass with drive alone. There were two Buells in front of us on the front straight and George got in behind one of them for a draft. After start/finish George pulled out of the draft of the Buell to go around him, but a second later with the aid of a double draft I pulled out and passed them both to take the lead again.
It was clear sailing after I got past those last two Buells. Once I got into turn eight on the last lap I knew I had it. I was pretty excited as I drove for the finish line to not only take my third class win of the year, but to clinch my first class championship two months early! The final two rounds of the year are just going to be more victory laps.
Now on to the hard part.
Coming into this round I was nine points behind Kevin Jump in Formula Twins Lightweight. Crashing during a double points weekend really hurt me in terms of this championship race. Last month Jump had a stock motor in his bike and it didn’t go very fast. This month his motor seemed to have a little more pep.
Even though Tim Martinez was on someone else’s slower bike this month, that didn’t stop him from another great launch and hole shot. I got up next to Tim on the brakes entering three, but I was on the outside so I didn’t push a banzai pass. I stayed in behind Tim around turn eight, but entering turn nine Jump tried slipping underneath me. He was on a really tight line, so he did get in front of me, but I knew his drive was going to suck coming out. He did get the help of Tim’s draft, but I got the help of them both and after start/finish I pulled out and swung around both of them into turn one.
I was on a tight line entering the turn and was late on the throttle exiting, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw Tim get by me on my left. He didn’t even get a full bike length in front of me, and since I was on the inside going for turn two, I just waited for him to shut off the throttle and I dove underneath him. I didn’t really go in any hotter than I normally do for that turn, I was just way lower on the track so I kind of blew the entry and found that my bike was pointed in the wrong direction. I stayed off the gas and got the bike turned around, then worked on building my lead.
The toughest part of F-twins is all the people we catch from the other three classes that start behind us. There’s a decent amount of people in the two singles classes now, which is good for those classes, but holy crap are they slow. It’s not necessarily the riders, either, it’s just when you only have one piston and your bike has to run crappy tires, you don’t go very fast. After clobbering one of these poor guys back in August, I’m a little apprehensive about coming up on them.
The first person I caught I went by so fast on the brakes that it scared me. I think it was the start of the fourth lap where I was catching three 500 singles (Buell Blasts I believe) down the front straight. They were all real close and trying to draft each other. Once they got into the turn one braking zone they all fanned out to go three wide into the turn in an exciting battle! But then I came along and shot by all three of them on the inside entering the turn. I got slowed down a little bit buy a guy I caught at the top of the Omega, but I motored by him down the hill. I caught race director Larry Cochran who was in turn catching another guy with a bright orange triangle on his back entering turn one. I thought “what the hell is that?” as I went around the mounted traffic cone and slipped to the left of Larry exiting the turn. Steve Brefka was the last single it looked like I was going to catch, thankfully, and once I got around him in turn five I had a clear run for the rest of the race.
I had been leading since the start of lap two and I was wondering where the hell everybody else was? Coming out of one on the start of the seventh lap I glanced behind me and saw out of the corner of my eye a bright orange bike and what looked like the number 14. Shit, Jump was still back there. I stayed in front for the rest of that lap and still held the lead coming out of turn five on the last lap. I felt like I got a decent drive, but then kind of pussy footed it over turn six due to my fear of another big tank slapper. Just before I got to turn eight Jump went by on my inside. Noooooooooooooooooooo! I thought as I tried to hang with him through the turn. He was pulling on me with his extra speed and the gap looked bad going into nine.
For the first part of the turn I didn’t seem to get any closer, but my strength is the second half of that turn and the exit. Once we started coming around for the apex, I started reeling him back in pretty quick. Here’s the tough part. I didn’t want to run up on him before the exit because then my apex speed would have to equal his if we were nose to tail, so I couldn’t run up on him all the way just yet. I also had to be confident and deliberate with the throttle when the time was right and get on it hard before the exit and be brave that I wouldn’t rear end him.
I jumped on the gas hard and we bounced through the apex together. His drive out was pretty slow and I wasn’t even going to be able to sit in his draft because I blasted out of that turn. As soon as we completed the exit I swung to the right, out from behind him. Because I wasn’t sure if he was going to swing right, too, I swung way right. Too far now that I think of it. I pulled up along side of him pretty good, but once his revs got up there the top end advantage of his parallel twin kicked in. We were staying pretty dead even as we raced down the straight, but I wasn’t getting in front of him. I think he had about a foot on me still. Just before we got to the finish line I shifted into sixth, which was a mistake. The off-throttle-shift-on-throttle action dropped me back half a bike length and I got beat by .040 of a second. Crap.
Now I’m down 11 points in that class and that’s kind of a lot of points to make up in two races when we’re both usually on the podium. Too bad Jump doesn’t have a teammate who could take him out for me. Oh well, at least the pressure to win both championships is off, now. One may be slipping away, but I’ve still got one in my back pocket.
I’d like to thank Tom Shao for helping me install the 2005 shift part thingys that kept my bike in gear all weekend and my sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin and LP Team Privateer.
I’d also like to thank the class sponsors: VP Fuels and Little Big Racing. We all appreciate your support.
http://www.hypercycles.org/forums/images/smilies/banana.gif2006 WSMC 550 Superbike Champion!http://www.hypercycles.org/forums/images/smilies/banana.gif
On probably the most perfect day I’ve ever seen at Willow Springs I wrapped up my first ever road racing class championship.
Saturday’s weather forecast called for rain and wind, so I just rolled up Sunday morning ready to race. I lined up in pole position again in 550 Superbike. I launched okay and road a pretty good power wheelie off the line. Tim Martinez got a good launch, which has become the norm for him, but this month he was on a slower bike, not his, and he didn’t pull away from me as we drag raced for turn one. Chris Speights got a really good launch and I could see him pulling up next to us, too.
Once we got close to turn one Chris shut off, then Tim shut off, then a second later I shut off and turned in to take the hole shot. I took turn two hard and went uncontested into turn three. I felt that I was going to be stronger than the rest of the grid that day and as long as nothing too bad happened, I should stay in front.
After the crest of turn six my bike got a bit of a front end wobble. I have a steering damper on the bike, but sometimes you still get a little head shake. The next lap around I got the biggest tank slapper of my life and don’t know how I didn’t go down. I remember the bars banging back and forth from lock to lock and at one point thinking “this is it, I’m going down right now!” But thanks to the laws of gyroscopic force the bike eventually straightened itself out before I fell off.
George Beavers was behind me when this happened and it kind of scared the hell out of him, too. He motored by me and took the lead. While I was tucked in his draft going down the front straight I reached up and dialed up my steering damper a bit to keep that from happening again. His draft allowed me to pull up next to him as we went for turn one, but he beat me through the turn. I haven’t really raced with George before, so I don’t know what his strengths and weaknesses were. I disappointingly saw that he was better on the brakes than I was going into turn three. Going over four and through nine I also saw that he drags some hard parts on his bike. That’s a little distracting.
Compared to my regular competitors at WSMC, my bike is king of the mid-range in terms of power. I came blasting out of turn nine after George and went by him pretty quickly to regain the lead. I was pretty confident that I could stay in front, now, for the rest of the race, but catching other people from the Heavyweight Twins Class can always through a monkey wrench in your plans.
We started catching people and I got balked by one guy entering turn two and then later by another guy entering turn three. I had to go around a guy in five and this allowed George to get a run on me and make a pass down the back straight. He had a bit more of a gap on me as we exited nine, so I couldn’t make a pass with drive alone. There were two Buells in front of us on the front straight and George got in behind one of them for a draft. After start/finish George pulled out of the draft of the Buell to go around him, but a second later with the aid of a double draft I pulled out and passed them both to take the lead again.
It was clear sailing after I got past those last two Buells. Once I got into turn eight on the last lap I knew I had it. I was pretty excited as I drove for the finish line to not only take my third class win of the year, but to clinch my first class championship two months early! The final two rounds of the year are just going to be more victory laps.
Now on to the hard part.
Coming into this round I was nine points behind Kevin Jump in Formula Twins Lightweight. Crashing during a double points weekend really hurt me in terms of this championship race. Last month Jump had a stock motor in his bike and it didn’t go very fast. This month his motor seemed to have a little more pep.
Even though Tim Martinez was on someone else’s slower bike this month, that didn’t stop him from another great launch and hole shot. I got up next to Tim on the brakes entering three, but I was on the outside so I didn’t push a banzai pass. I stayed in behind Tim around turn eight, but entering turn nine Jump tried slipping underneath me. He was on a really tight line, so he did get in front of me, but I knew his drive was going to suck coming out. He did get the help of Tim’s draft, but I got the help of them both and after start/finish I pulled out and swung around both of them into turn one.
I was on a tight line entering the turn and was late on the throttle exiting, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw Tim get by me on my left. He didn’t even get a full bike length in front of me, and since I was on the inside going for turn two, I just waited for him to shut off the throttle and I dove underneath him. I didn’t really go in any hotter than I normally do for that turn, I was just way lower on the track so I kind of blew the entry and found that my bike was pointed in the wrong direction. I stayed off the gas and got the bike turned around, then worked on building my lead.
The toughest part of F-twins is all the people we catch from the other three classes that start behind us. There’s a decent amount of people in the two singles classes now, which is good for those classes, but holy crap are they slow. It’s not necessarily the riders, either, it’s just when you only have one piston and your bike has to run crappy tires, you don’t go very fast. After clobbering one of these poor guys back in August, I’m a little apprehensive about coming up on them.
The first person I caught I went by so fast on the brakes that it scared me. I think it was the start of the fourth lap where I was catching three 500 singles (Buell Blasts I believe) down the front straight. They were all real close and trying to draft each other. Once they got into the turn one braking zone they all fanned out to go three wide into the turn in an exciting battle! But then I came along and shot by all three of them on the inside entering the turn. I got slowed down a little bit buy a guy I caught at the top of the Omega, but I motored by him down the hill. I caught race director Larry Cochran who was in turn catching another guy with a bright orange triangle on his back entering turn one. I thought “what the hell is that?” as I went around the mounted traffic cone and slipped to the left of Larry exiting the turn. Steve Brefka was the last single it looked like I was going to catch, thankfully, and once I got around him in turn five I had a clear run for the rest of the race.
I had been leading since the start of lap two and I was wondering where the hell everybody else was? Coming out of one on the start of the seventh lap I glanced behind me and saw out of the corner of my eye a bright orange bike and what looked like the number 14. Shit, Jump was still back there. I stayed in front for the rest of that lap and still held the lead coming out of turn five on the last lap. I felt like I got a decent drive, but then kind of pussy footed it over turn six due to my fear of another big tank slapper. Just before I got to turn eight Jump went by on my inside. Noooooooooooooooooooo! I thought as I tried to hang with him through the turn. He was pulling on me with his extra speed and the gap looked bad going into nine.
For the first part of the turn I didn’t seem to get any closer, but my strength is the second half of that turn and the exit. Once we started coming around for the apex, I started reeling him back in pretty quick. Here’s the tough part. I didn’t want to run up on him before the exit because then my apex speed would have to equal his if we were nose to tail, so I couldn’t run up on him all the way just yet. I also had to be confident and deliberate with the throttle when the time was right and get on it hard before the exit and be brave that I wouldn’t rear end him.
I jumped on the gas hard and we bounced through the apex together. His drive out was pretty slow and I wasn’t even going to be able to sit in his draft because I blasted out of that turn. As soon as we completed the exit I swung to the right, out from behind him. Because I wasn’t sure if he was going to swing right, too, I swung way right. Too far now that I think of it. I pulled up along side of him pretty good, but once his revs got up there the top end advantage of his parallel twin kicked in. We were staying pretty dead even as we raced down the straight, but I wasn’t getting in front of him. I think he had about a foot on me still. Just before we got to the finish line I shifted into sixth, which was a mistake. The off-throttle-shift-on-throttle action dropped me back half a bike length and I got beat by .040 of a second. Crap.
Now I’m down 11 points in that class and that’s kind of a lot of points to make up in two races when we’re both usually on the podium. Too bad Jump doesn’t have a teammate who could take him out for me. Oh well, at least the pressure to win both championships is off, now. One may be slipping away, but I’ve still got one in my back pocket.
I’d like to thank Tom Shao for helping me install the 2005 shift part thingys that kept my bike in gear all weekend and my sponsors: SoCalSVRiders.org, Michelin and LP Team Privateer.
I’d also like to thank the class sponsors: VP Fuels and Little Big Racing. We all appreciate your support.