Kurt'sSV
Thu 3/29/07, 9:08AM
AFM @ Buttonwillow, March 25, 2007
650 Twins and Formula IV.
The AFM SV grids are ridiculously large. There are some awesome riders at the front of these grids, guys who are well beyond my skill level of riding. If I can finish inside the top 10 at one of the three Sears Point rounds I’ll do after this round, that’ll be pretty good.
In both races there were 30 to 35 people gridded in front of me. I launch a lot better than the people I was gridded around, so I had to thread my way through the traffic as we’re heading for turn one. I didn’t want to let off the throttle, so I was having to look around for pockets that I could go toward so I could keep my momentum. In the 650 Twins race I had to squeeze between Shandra and some big fat guy. I had to pull myself in pretty tight to fit between them and thankfully Shandra is small, because if it was two fat guys I might not have fit.
Turn one got really crowded really fast and I was surprised at how slow we had to go through there and turn two. It was ridiculous. I had to make extra down-shifts to keep the bike from stalling. In this shot by Caliphotography you can see me (#150) and Shandra (#357) going into turn one at the back of the pack.
http://www.caliphotography.com/photography/03-25-ButtonWillow-AFM/Race%2003%20-%20650%20-%20Formula%20III/CP2_7103.JPG
This pic from Caliphotography is of the FIV grid driving towards turn one. I think that’s Shandra at the very left of the pic on the red bike. I’m buried back off screen.
http://www.caliphotography.com/photography/03-25-ButtonWillow-AFM/Race%2009%20-%20Formula%20IV%20-%20250/CP2_8683.JPG
Twin Works Jay crashed going into turn two at the start of FIV and that slowed all the rest of us down. The track got backed up worse than the 405 just north of LAX and I got F’ed in the A because of this. When I finally came out of the turn I saw people ahead of me I remember passing going into turn one and I thought, how the hell did they get up there?
650 Twins was much less hectic. Going into turn three on the second lap I had a guy set up to pass on the brakes. When I went in there, I ended up passing both 947 and 616. I was pretty surprised I got past two people on the brakes there, but hey, they were yellow plates, so I should be passing both of them in one swoop.
This double pass gave me the confidence in FIV to try getting by two people on the brakes at once, again. Going into Lost Hills on the first lap of that race I was right on the tail of a Ducati 900 Supersport, and right in front of him was another SV. I thought for sure I could get them both. The Ducati hit his brakes and I went by him, but it wasn’t looking like I was going to get the SV. The braking zone for Lost Hills isn’t very deep. The SV was turning in and unfortunately if I stayed right where I was at, he was going to take off my front wheel. I squeezed the Brembo lever even harder and the rear wheel started coming off the ground and skipped around. It swung around and I’m surprised I didn’t hit that Ducati with the back end of my bike. I was way deep into the turn, but I still made it. My drive out sucked, but with the grunt of the flats I caught back up to this SV and passed him going into the AFM sweeper.
Going into the AFM sweeper I could see Twin Works rider Joe Sickle in front of me. Grandpa Joe’s more than likely a better racer than I am, and definitely has way more race experience than I do, but I’ve got 20hp on him, so I should beat him in this race. Wanting to catch up to Joe and his SV500 forced me to take that sweeper turn faster than I had before, which was good, because I had been kind of pussy-footing it through there for no reason. Coming out of the S’es I out motored Joe down to the final turn 11 and put him behind me.
In the 650 Twins race I started running down number 987 Nick Neuhaus on his all orange SV. The Great Pumpkin bike was going okay, but I had no doubt that I would reel him in. Once I got up to him, making the pass took a little longer than I thought. I would lose a lot of time on him exiting turn two. I saw that I could get him on the brakes going into turn three if I was close enough, but I wouldn’t be able to do that if he kept gapping me exiting two. I also saw that I had more top end than him, but my execution of turn 11 wasn’t so hot, negatively effecting my speed down the front straight. My favorite part of the track was the run from the apex of Lost Hills through entering the AFM sweeper. It’s a fast section of the track and I’m good at holding the throttle wide open. So I finally set Neuhaus up for a pass down the straight before the sweeper.
I remember passing Neuhaus in the FIV race, too, but not where. Both times after I passed him he picked up his pace and stuck with me, though never showed me a wheel. He was so close to me at one point that in a picture of me taking 3B, you can’t see Neuhaus because he’s so close to my rear tire. Looks like we were pretty evenly matched at Buttonwillow. We’ll be lined up next to each other at Sears Point, so we’ll see how we stack up there.
The only time I got passed by anyone during either of these races was on the last lap of the 650 Twins race. I went into that right turn after the wheelie bump and number 960, Oliver Rowen, went blazing around me. It was a good pass. Not close, but it’s not a pass I’m brave enough to try. We’ll see how I stack up against him at Sears, too.
These races were really fun. The next round at Sears will be a lot different because I’ll be starting much further up and racing people who run my own pace instead of passing a bunch of newer racers from the back of the pack. I’ve only done one track day at Sears, so I’ll be lacking some track knowledge. I may totally get smoked, but I did like the track while I was there and feel more comfortable riding it than I do Buttonwillow. So we’ll see. It’ll be fun none the less.
Thanks to my sponsors: West Coast GP Cycle, SoCalSVRiders.org, Little Big Racing, Suomy, LP Team Privateer.
Here's a pic of our pit, where Sammy Hagar stopped by for a visit (and is apparently giving me the finger).
650 Twins and Formula IV.
The AFM SV grids are ridiculously large. There are some awesome riders at the front of these grids, guys who are well beyond my skill level of riding. If I can finish inside the top 10 at one of the three Sears Point rounds I’ll do after this round, that’ll be pretty good.
In both races there were 30 to 35 people gridded in front of me. I launch a lot better than the people I was gridded around, so I had to thread my way through the traffic as we’re heading for turn one. I didn’t want to let off the throttle, so I was having to look around for pockets that I could go toward so I could keep my momentum. In the 650 Twins race I had to squeeze between Shandra and some big fat guy. I had to pull myself in pretty tight to fit between them and thankfully Shandra is small, because if it was two fat guys I might not have fit.
Turn one got really crowded really fast and I was surprised at how slow we had to go through there and turn two. It was ridiculous. I had to make extra down-shifts to keep the bike from stalling. In this shot by Caliphotography you can see me (#150) and Shandra (#357) going into turn one at the back of the pack.
http://www.caliphotography.com/photography/03-25-ButtonWillow-AFM/Race%2003%20-%20650%20-%20Formula%20III/CP2_7103.JPG
This pic from Caliphotography is of the FIV grid driving towards turn one. I think that’s Shandra at the very left of the pic on the red bike. I’m buried back off screen.
http://www.caliphotography.com/photography/03-25-ButtonWillow-AFM/Race%2009%20-%20Formula%20IV%20-%20250/CP2_8683.JPG
Twin Works Jay crashed going into turn two at the start of FIV and that slowed all the rest of us down. The track got backed up worse than the 405 just north of LAX and I got F’ed in the A because of this. When I finally came out of the turn I saw people ahead of me I remember passing going into turn one and I thought, how the hell did they get up there?
650 Twins was much less hectic. Going into turn three on the second lap I had a guy set up to pass on the brakes. When I went in there, I ended up passing both 947 and 616. I was pretty surprised I got past two people on the brakes there, but hey, they were yellow plates, so I should be passing both of them in one swoop.
This double pass gave me the confidence in FIV to try getting by two people on the brakes at once, again. Going into Lost Hills on the first lap of that race I was right on the tail of a Ducati 900 Supersport, and right in front of him was another SV. I thought for sure I could get them both. The Ducati hit his brakes and I went by him, but it wasn’t looking like I was going to get the SV. The braking zone for Lost Hills isn’t very deep. The SV was turning in and unfortunately if I stayed right where I was at, he was going to take off my front wheel. I squeezed the Brembo lever even harder and the rear wheel started coming off the ground and skipped around. It swung around and I’m surprised I didn’t hit that Ducati with the back end of my bike. I was way deep into the turn, but I still made it. My drive out sucked, but with the grunt of the flats I caught back up to this SV and passed him going into the AFM sweeper.
Going into the AFM sweeper I could see Twin Works rider Joe Sickle in front of me. Grandpa Joe’s more than likely a better racer than I am, and definitely has way more race experience than I do, but I’ve got 20hp on him, so I should beat him in this race. Wanting to catch up to Joe and his SV500 forced me to take that sweeper turn faster than I had before, which was good, because I had been kind of pussy-footing it through there for no reason. Coming out of the S’es I out motored Joe down to the final turn 11 and put him behind me.
In the 650 Twins race I started running down number 987 Nick Neuhaus on his all orange SV. The Great Pumpkin bike was going okay, but I had no doubt that I would reel him in. Once I got up to him, making the pass took a little longer than I thought. I would lose a lot of time on him exiting turn two. I saw that I could get him on the brakes going into turn three if I was close enough, but I wouldn’t be able to do that if he kept gapping me exiting two. I also saw that I had more top end than him, but my execution of turn 11 wasn’t so hot, negatively effecting my speed down the front straight. My favorite part of the track was the run from the apex of Lost Hills through entering the AFM sweeper. It’s a fast section of the track and I’m good at holding the throttle wide open. So I finally set Neuhaus up for a pass down the straight before the sweeper.
I remember passing Neuhaus in the FIV race, too, but not where. Both times after I passed him he picked up his pace and stuck with me, though never showed me a wheel. He was so close to me at one point that in a picture of me taking 3B, you can’t see Neuhaus because he’s so close to my rear tire. Looks like we were pretty evenly matched at Buttonwillow. We’ll be lined up next to each other at Sears Point, so we’ll see how we stack up there.
The only time I got passed by anyone during either of these races was on the last lap of the 650 Twins race. I went into that right turn after the wheelie bump and number 960, Oliver Rowen, went blazing around me. It was a good pass. Not close, but it’s not a pass I’m brave enough to try. We’ll see how I stack up against him at Sears, too.
These races were really fun. The next round at Sears will be a lot different because I’ll be starting much further up and racing people who run my own pace instead of passing a bunch of newer racers from the back of the pack. I’ve only done one track day at Sears, so I’ll be lacking some track knowledge. I may totally get smoked, but I did like the track while I was there and feel more comfortable riding it than I do Buttonwillow. So we’ll see. It’ll be fun none the less.
Thanks to my sponsors: West Coast GP Cycle, SoCalSVRiders.org, Little Big Racing, Suomy, LP Team Privateer.
Here's a pic of our pit, where Sammy Hagar stopped by for a visit (and is apparently giving me the finger).