Kurt'sSV
Tue 5/8/07, 6:43PM
AFM at Sears, April 28-29, 2007
The AFM rounds at Sears Point are pretty neat. The facilities are really nice, the surrounding area is pretty, no wind, the track is pretty fun, and the turn-out is huge. The one thing the track lacks is grip. The surface isn’t real abrasive and none of the turns have any camber (some are even off camber), so when there’s the slightest amount of moisture in the air (read: humidity) the track can become like glass. Sunday morning it was overcast and cooler for the warm-up sessions and seven racers went down in the first two practice sessions. When I went out in group three I made sure to just putt around and didn’t turn a lap under 2:00.
I lined up for 650 Twins pretty unsure that I could run with the guys I was gridded next to. My bike jumped out of second gear on the launch and I was swallowed up by riders behind me. The race was red flagged after a lap and we were regridded. Again my bike jumped out of second gear on the launch and I was swallowed up by riders behind me. I started going around a guy outside of turn one going up the hill, but the track drops away on the outside and I started running wide really quick. I had to give up that attempt and fall in line for turn two, which is very one line. It became apparent right away that I was outclassed by the guys immediately in front of me. With my lack of track knowledge for Sears it was like I was bringing a knife to a gun fight. Then I noticed that I had bad front tire chatter all the way down the Carousel turn. The Carousel is the single most important turn on the track. I wasn’t very fast at this turn in the first place and now I was being handicapped.
The guys in front of me pulled away after a few laps and I found myself circulating the track alone. I looked back a couple of times exiting turns seven and eleven to see if people were behind me, but there was no one in sight. After the race I found out that there was a big crash in turn two behind me, taking out several riders and slowing everyone else down a lot. Glad I wasn’t caught up in that, but I still finished a disappointing 18th.
I made the fastest front wheel change of my life when I came back into the pits because I only had one race between 650 Twins and Formula IV. I may have just put on my “practice tire,” but it stuck fine all day during practice and didn’t chatter on me, so I figured it’d be a better choice.
I was hoping FIV was going to be more fun for me, but for the third time my bike popped out of second gear on the launch and that balked my drive into turn one. Around my outside during the dash for turn one I saw the crossed-up AK’s on the back of John-Thomas Wood’s leathers. At least one of us WSMC guys was getting a good start. I was more aggressive going up the hill through turn one and stuffed my way inside some people for turn two.
When I got to the Carousel the front end stayed planted and I could steer the bike a lot better, so that felt good. Going into turn nine the first time Twin Works rider Aaron went down and took his teammate, Kevin, with him. At one point during the first or second lap Twin Works rider DJ Ducky Fresh made a pass on me. He had to start toward the back of this race because he didn’t score any points in the first round. When he got by me he either slowed back down a bit or I sped up because I stayed right with him. We were both chasing down John-Thomas. I think Ducky got by him on the drive out of the final turn, so if I were to try to stay with Ducky, I had to get past John right away, too.
Coming out of the new “AMA” point-and-shoot turn one I ran up on John as we jumped the curbing on the exit and drove around him going up the hill. Ducky was still close and I caught back up to him in the Carousel. As I noticed in the first couple of laps I could make up lots of ground on the brakes and got myself right back on Ducky’s wheel into seven. Ducky could pull on me through the esses and turn eight, but I could make it back up in other sections pretty quick. So I sat behind him for a few laps and I knew I could make a pass on him eventually.
I almost lost it going into turn eleven in one of the early laps. Mackey Stingray lost it on the brakes and unfortunately took Twin Works rider Mike Metcalf with him. Seeing two bikes sliding off in front of me made me kind of panic grab my brakes. The rear tire came way off the ground and swung around on me, making the front end all goofy, too. I gathered myself back up and made the turn.
The next lap Ducky blew his entrance to the Carousel and ran a wide line through the whole thing. If I could get my bike to steer a little better in that turn, I could have gone underneath him. Instead, on the next lap, I got a better drive coming out of the Carousel and motored by him on the drag strip for turn seven. I felt pretty confident leading him into turn seven, but knew I wouldn’t be able to pull away from him. With me as a carrot he’d figure out how to run better laps and damned if he wasn’t going to let some WSMC guy beat him.
I got too close to the curbing one lap in 3A and my front tire hit the paint at the edge of the track. Of course the paint is as slick as shit so my tire slid a lot and I thought I was going down. Both my feet came off my pegs and the front went into a pretty bad head shake. Right as this was happening I got passed around my outside by #126. Ducky later said that I almost kicked him in the head when he went around me with my feet flailing.
I got the bike back under control and jumped on the gas. The next lap around I was thinking about how I really need to make sure I keep running it in deep on the brakes into all these turns as that would be my best bet to keep Ducky behind me. Ironically as I was thinking about this going into turn nine, I found myself braking too deep. I hit my turn-in point and started turning in. Lately I had found myself becoming almost addicted to trail braking. I’d stay on the brakes almost to the apex everywhere at Buttonwillow, Streets of Willow, Cali Speedway and Sears. I really liked how it made the bike steer. One time I road the brakes almost the entire way down the Carousel during this race while following Ducky. The thing about trail braking is that there definitely is a limit. While being on the brakes during my turn-in was no big deal, the fact that I was still full on the brakes and not even beginning to trail them off got me thinking hmmm, this isn’t going to work. A second later I heard a screech from my front tire and I was on the ground. I easily slid off the track uninjured. When I got up I walked over and joined Aaron on the slope next to the track, below the bleachers, and watched the last two laps of the race from there with him.
So the crash sucked. At least nothing broke on the bike and I didn’t get hurt. Kurt Spencer road a scooter over and picked up Aaron to take him to get checked out. He broke his collar bone in his crash. He came back and picked up Kevin and I. As we started to pull away, I noticed a lot of people looking at the three of us on the scooter, so I just started to wave. Kevin picked up on this and waved to. We got a good applause from the people in the bleachers on that part of the track as we scootered off.
I need to thank Zoran and Ducky as they went out after the races were over and picked up my bike for me in Ducky’s truck. I do blame Ducky for my crash. If he would have been riding up to his potential, he would have passed me and set sail on the second lap. Instead he had an “off-day” and my allusions of grandeur was what caused me to spit the dummy in turn nine. Damn it.
The following week at Streets of Willow my motor broke, so I’m done for a while. That’s okay because I need a break.
Thanks to my sponsors: West Coast GP Cycles, SoCalSVRiders.org, Little Big Racing, Suomy, LP.
The AFM rounds at Sears Point are pretty neat. The facilities are really nice, the surrounding area is pretty, no wind, the track is pretty fun, and the turn-out is huge. The one thing the track lacks is grip. The surface isn’t real abrasive and none of the turns have any camber (some are even off camber), so when there’s the slightest amount of moisture in the air (read: humidity) the track can become like glass. Sunday morning it was overcast and cooler for the warm-up sessions and seven racers went down in the first two practice sessions. When I went out in group three I made sure to just putt around and didn’t turn a lap under 2:00.
I lined up for 650 Twins pretty unsure that I could run with the guys I was gridded next to. My bike jumped out of second gear on the launch and I was swallowed up by riders behind me. The race was red flagged after a lap and we were regridded. Again my bike jumped out of second gear on the launch and I was swallowed up by riders behind me. I started going around a guy outside of turn one going up the hill, but the track drops away on the outside and I started running wide really quick. I had to give up that attempt and fall in line for turn two, which is very one line. It became apparent right away that I was outclassed by the guys immediately in front of me. With my lack of track knowledge for Sears it was like I was bringing a knife to a gun fight. Then I noticed that I had bad front tire chatter all the way down the Carousel turn. The Carousel is the single most important turn on the track. I wasn’t very fast at this turn in the first place and now I was being handicapped.
The guys in front of me pulled away after a few laps and I found myself circulating the track alone. I looked back a couple of times exiting turns seven and eleven to see if people were behind me, but there was no one in sight. After the race I found out that there was a big crash in turn two behind me, taking out several riders and slowing everyone else down a lot. Glad I wasn’t caught up in that, but I still finished a disappointing 18th.
I made the fastest front wheel change of my life when I came back into the pits because I only had one race between 650 Twins and Formula IV. I may have just put on my “practice tire,” but it stuck fine all day during practice and didn’t chatter on me, so I figured it’d be a better choice.
I was hoping FIV was going to be more fun for me, but for the third time my bike popped out of second gear on the launch and that balked my drive into turn one. Around my outside during the dash for turn one I saw the crossed-up AK’s on the back of John-Thomas Wood’s leathers. At least one of us WSMC guys was getting a good start. I was more aggressive going up the hill through turn one and stuffed my way inside some people for turn two.
When I got to the Carousel the front end stayed planted and I could steer the bike a lot better, so that felt good. Going into turn nine the first time Twin Works rider Aaron went down and took his teammate, Kevin, with him. At one point during the first or second lap Twin Works rider DJ Ducky Fresh made a pass on me. He had to start toward the back of this race because he didn’t score any points in the first round. When he got by me he either slowed back down a bit or I sped up because I stayed right with him. We were both chasing down John-Thomas. I think Ducky got by him on the drive out of the final turn, so if I were to try to stay with Ducky, I had to get past John right away, too.
Coming out of the new “AMA” point-and-shoot turn one I ran up on John as we jumped the curbing on the exit and drove around him going up the hill. Ducky was still close and I caught back up to him in the Carousel. As I noticed in the first couple of laps I could make up lots of ground on the brakes and got myself right back on Ducky’s wheel into seven. Ducky could pull on me through the esses and turn eight, but I could make it back up in other sections pretty quick. So I sat behind him for a few laps and I knew I could make a pass on him eventually.
I almost lost it going into turn eleven in one of the early laps. Mackey Stingray lost it on the brakes and unfortunately took Twin Works rider Mike Metcalf with him. Seeing two bikes sliding off in front of me made me kind of panic grab my brakes. The rear tire came way off the ground and swung around on me, making the front end all goofy, too. I gathered myself back up and made the turn.
The next lap Ducky blew his entrance to the Carousel and ran a wide line through the whole thing. If I could get my bike to steer a little better in that turn, I could have gone underneath him. Instead, on the next lap, I got a better drive coming out of the Carousel and motored by him on the drag strip for turn seven. I felt pretty confident leading him into turn seven, but knew I wouldn’t be able to pull away from him. With me as a carrot he’d figure out how to run better laps and damned if he wasn’t going to let some WSMC guy beat him.
I got too close to the curbing one lap in 3A and my front tire hit the paint at the edge of the track. Of course the paint is as slick as shit so my tire slid a lot and I thought I was going down. Both my feet came off my pegs and the front went into a pretty bad head shake. Right as this was happening I got passed around my outside by #126. Ducky later said that I almost kicked him in the head when he went around me with my feet flailing.
I got the bike back under control and jumped on the gas. The next lap around I was thinking about how I really need to make sure I keep running it in deep on the brakes into all these turns as that would be my best bet to keep Ducky behind me. Ironically as I was thinking about this going into turn nine, I found myself braking too deep. I hit my turn-in point and started turning in. Lately I had found myself becoming almost addicted to trail braking. I’d stay on the brakes almost to the apex everywhere at Buttonwillow, Streets of Willow, Cali Speedway and Sears. I really liked how it made the bike steer. One time I road the brakes almost the entire way down the Carousel during this race while following Ducky. The thing about trail braking is that there definitely is a limit. While being on the brakes during my turn-in was no big deal, the fact that I was still full on the brakes and not even beginning to trail them off got me thinking hmmm, this isn’t going to work. A second later I heard a screech from my front tire and I was on the ground. I easily slid off the track uninjured. When I got up I walked over and joined Aaron on the slope next to the track, below the bleachers, and watched the last two laps of the race from there with him.
So the crash sucked. At least nothing broke on the bike and I didn’t get hurt. Kurt Spencer road a scooter over and picked up Aaron to take him to get checked out. He broke his collar bone in his crash. He came back and picked up Kevin and I. As we started to pull away, I noticed a lot of people looking at the three of us on the scooter, so I just started to wave. Kevin picked up on this and waved to. We got a good applause from the people in the bleachers on that part of the track as we scootered off.
I need to thank Zoran and Ducky as they went out after the races were over and picked up my bike for me in Ducky’s truck. I do blame Ducky for my crash. If he would have been riding up to his potential, he would have passed me and set sail on the second lap. Instead he had an “off-day” and my allusions of grandeur was what caused me to spit the dummy in turn nine. Damn it.
The following week at Streets of Willow my motor broke, so I’m done for a while. That’s okay because I need a break.
Thanks to my sponsors: West Coast GP Cycles, SoCalSVRiders.org, Little Big Racing, Suomy, LP.