Kurt'sSV
Wed 4/18/07, 8:39AM
Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, Round 4, April 2007
It’s almost always windy at WSIR, but when it’s really windy like it was this past weekend, that changes things a lot. It’s like when a MotoGP race is run in the rain – everything goes out the window and all bets are off. For 550 Superbike, Rogers was going to be on a back-up bike and Palmer was out after a massive high side in the F-Twins LW race earlier, so on paper it looked like Jump would run away with an easy win and I should take second without much problem. Now this could very well hold true under normal weather conditions, but as they were, all bets were off.
At the launch I saw Rogers wheelie his bike pretty bad off the line. My front stayed down. I didn’t see Jump out of the corner of my eye coming off pole position, so as I was pulling second gear I was thinking I could very well be looking at a hole shot. Unfortunately my bike popped out of second and that balked my drive for turn one. I saw Jump go by me, then John Dixon on his Kawi 650R go by as well. Then it was Speights beating me into turn one, too. With the wind blowing so hard out of the northeast, and this being my first race lap of the day, I was going to be a little cautious going into turn two for the first time. The wind pushed us out pretty bad and our pace around the turn wasn’t so fast.
I knew Chris Argonaut was going to be fast in turn two and he pulled up to my inside as we drove for turn three. I tried to fend him off on the brakes, but I’ll have to give it to the rookie, he beat me into the turn. So now I’m back in fifth place and pretty unsure what’s going to happen as I’m pretty unsure as to how to ride in this wind. I spent the next two laps feeling things out and seeing where my best opportunities will be to make passes.
With the wind blowing as hard as it was, it kind of made the track one line in a lot of places, so passing on the gas down the straights was my best options. I went by Argonaut on the gas down the front straight to start the third lap. The next lap I did the same to Dixon and slotted myself in behind Speights. Argonaut wasn’t done with me yet and caught me again in two and beat me on the brakes going into three. I got a better drive than him over six and passed him on the back straight before turn eight. I think I saw him one more time trying to get around me in turn two, but when I saw someone trying to come around me, I put a little more effort into that turn and kept that person behind me.
So now I had Speights to contend with and work my way around. I got a drive on him coming out of turn two and go him on the brakes entering three. Going down the back straight we were catching up to some bikes from the heavy weight twins class. I got by one before turn eight, but then stayed behind another one through that turn. I was having to ease off the throttle when staying behind him. With the wind blowing the way it was, it made taking turn eight really easy, but it pushed you super hard into turn nine. So you could go blazing through eight, but had to really be careful not to get pushed off the track in turn nine.
I could have made passes almost every lap in turn eight instead of easing back the throttle like I did. The dilemma was, okay, you go around the outside of a guy in the turn, but now you find yourself set up wide for nine, which is normally okay, but today it was not where you wanted to be. Now someone like Toye or Tigert would have gone for the pass, but I’m just an average amateur racer on a crappy little SV, so taking that risk just to go around another average amateur racer on a (less) crappy SV just wasn’t worth it.
So I let myself sit behind this Buell until turn nine where I went under him for the pass. Speights, however, set me up really well in that turn and got a phenomenal drive, passing me on the exit of that turn. He gapped me down the front straight as we started the final lap. I caught him in turn two, but we also caught an Aprilia from the other class. Speights pulled up along side of the Aprilia, but didn’t complete the pass. There wasn’t enough room to go around them both, so I had to just sit back there and weight.
Driving for turn three Speights stayed low, which I anticipated. The Aprilia went wide and I thought that I could split them and take them both. I got by the Aprilia, but didn’t quite make it up to Speights. I was on him now and got a better drive over six and was looking to make a pass before we got to turn eight. I was almost there just before we got to the turn in point, but it wasn’t quite enough to take the position. I had to concede the position to him and let off the throttle so I didn’t get my front wheel chopped off.
He had a bit of a gap on me now and my last chance was to get him with a good drive out of nine. Speights wisely stayed low in the turn since the wind would be pushing him out and I stayed just a tiny bit wider so I could square the turn off better and get the drive. Unbeknownst to me Speights had figured out if you brake and slow down a bunch in turn nine, you can really square off the turn and get a good drive out in the wind. I reeled him back in really quick, then, but I kept closing on him and he wasn’t turning like he should have been. I was starting to come around him, but I was more concerned about the wind that was pushing us out so bad. I kept having to lean the bike more and more so that I could make the turn as I got wider and wider on the track. Eventually I was at a point where I was surprised that the tires were still holding with my lean angle. In my perifrial vision I could see the ground to my right and it felt like the ground was right there. Like it was really close. Thankfully there’s a lot of grip out in turn nine, and in my Bridgestone slicks.
Because I was running so wide I had to stay off the gas well past where I should have, and Speights ran away from me exiting the turn. So I got third. That was a disappointment, but I’ll have to hand it to Speights, he was riding well all day and I had a bad feeling he was going to stick it to me in the race.
Thanks to my sponsors: West Coast GP Cycles, SoCalSVRiders, Little Big Racing, Suomy, LP, Bridgestone.
It’s almost always windy at WSIR, but when it’s really windy like it was this past weekend, that changes things a lot. It’s like when a MotoGP race is run in the rain – everything goes out the window and all bets are off. For 550 Superbike, Rogers was going to be on a back-up bike and Palmer was out after a massive high side in the F-Twins LW race earlier, so on paper it looked like Jump would run away with an easy win and I should take second without much problem. Now this could very well hold true under normal weather conditions, but as they were, all bets were off.
At the launch I saw Rogers wheelie his bike pretty bad off the line. My front stayed down. I didn’t see Jump out of the corner of my eye coming off pole position, so as I was pulling second gear I was thinking I could very well be looking at a hole shot. Unfortunately my bike popped out of second and that balked my drive for turn one. I saw Jump go by me, then John Dixon on his Kawi 650R go by as well. Then it was Speights beating me into turn one, too. With the wind blowing so hard out of the northeast, and this being my first race lap of the day, I was going to be a little cautious going into turn two for the first time. The wind pushed us out pretty bad and our pace around the turn wasn’t so fast.
I knew Chris Argonaut was going to be fast in turn two and he pulled up to my inside as we drove for turn three. I tried to fend him off on the brakes, but I’ll have to give it to the rookie, he beat me into the turn. So now I’m back in fifth place and pretty unsure what’s going to happen as I’m pretty unsure as to how to ride in this wind. I spent the next two laps feeling things out and seeing where my best opportunities will be to make passes.
With the wind blowing as hard as it was, it kind of made the track one line in a lot of places, so passing on the gas down the straights was my best options. I went by Argonaut on the gas down the front straight to start the third lap. The next lap I did the same to Dixon and slotted myself in behind Speights. Argonaut wasn’t done with me yet and caught me again in two and beat me on the brakes going into three. I got a better drive than him over six and passed him on the back straight before turn eight. I think I saw him one more time trying to get around me in turn two, but when I saw someone trying to come around me, I put a little more effort into that turn and kept that person behind me.
So now I had Speights to contend with and work my way around. I got a drive on him coming out of turn two and go him on the brakes entering three. Going down the back straight we were catching up to some bikes from the heavy weight twins class. I got by one before turn eight, but then stayed behind another one through that turn. I was having to ease off the throttle when staying behind him. With the wind blowing the way it was, it made taking turn eight really easy, but it pushed you super hard into turn nine. So you could go blazing through eight, but had to really be careful not to get pushed off the track in turn nine.
I could have made passes almost every lap in turn eight instead of easing back the throttle like I did. The dilemma was, okay, you go around the outside of a guy in the turn, but now you find yourself set up wide for nine, which is normally okay, but today it was not where you wanted to be. Now someone like Toye or Tigert would have gone for the pass, but I’m just an average amateur racer on a crappy little SV, so taking that risk just to go around another average amateur racer on a (less) crappy SV just wasn’t worth it.
So I let myself sit behind this Buell until turn nine where I went under him for the pass. Speights, however, set me up really well in that turn and got a phenomenal drive, passing me on the exit of that turn. He gapped me down the front straight as we started the final lap. I caught him in turn two, but we also caught an Aprilia from the other class. Speights pulled up along side of the Aprilia, but didn’t complete the pass. There wasn’t enough room to go around them both, so I had to just sit back there and weight.
Driving for turn three Speights stayed low, which I anticipated. The Aprilia went wide and I thought that I could split them and take them both. I got by the Aprilia, but didn’t quite make it up to Speights. I was on him now and got a better drive over six and was looking to make a pass before we got to turn eight. I was almost there just before we got to the turn in point, but it wasn’t quite enough to take the position. I had to concede the position to him and let off the throttle so I didn’t get my front wheel chopped off.
He had a bit of a gap on me now and my last chance was to get him with a good drive out of nine. Speights wisely stayed low in the turn since the wind would be pushing him out and I stayed just a tiny bit wider so I could square the turn off better and get the drive. Unbeknownst to me Speights had figured out if you brake and slow down a bunch in turn nine, you can really square off the turn and get a good drive out in the wind. I reeled him back in really quick, then, but I kept closing on him and he wasn’t turning like he should have been. I was starting to come around him, but I was more concerned about the wind that was pushing us out so bad. I kept having to lean the bike more and more so that I could make the turn as I got wider and wider on the track. Eventually I was at a point where I was surprised that the tires were still holding with my lean angle. In my perifrial vision I could see the ground to my right and it felt like the ground was right there. Like it was really close. Thankfully there’s a lot of grip out in turn nine, and in my Bridgestone slicks.
Because I was running so wide I had to stay off the gas well past where I should have, and Speights ran away from me exiting the turn. So I got third. That was a disappointment, but I’ll have to hand it to Speights, he was riding well all day and I had a bad feeling he was going to stick it to me in the race.
Thanks to my sponsors: West Coast GP Cycles, SoCalSVRiders, Little Big Racing, Suomy, LP, Bridgestone.