Monsterdood
Mon 5/28/07, 6:00PM
So I made it out to the WERA races at California Speedway and had a pretty forgettable day.
I've never ridden the AMA track before and 8 laps of practice was just not enough to find reference points, brake markers, figure out the lines, sort out what gear to use where (kept changing the faster I got of course) and dial in my cornering speed in the different corners. I am not good enough yet for this stuff to just sort itself out so I have to build up to my comfort speed. I'd like to think that I am saving some crashes with this technique of easing up to speed, but I'm sure with a little more experience, I will get up to speed quicker in the future.
So enough of the excuses, I ran a best lap of 1:44, got my ass kicked by a 13 year old girl (Elena Myers for those who don't know) and a couple of kids racing in the Red Bull Moto GP rookies Cup (Jd Beach, and Cameron Beaubier).
I got one of my patented awesome starts in the first race and slotted into 2nd from the back row. I got passed by one dude and then Elena and then held onto to 4th for a while. I ended up blowing a corner, ran over / jumped one of the plastic curbs and got passed by the 2 people chasing me. I wasn't able to catch back up and I finished in 6th out 7. All in al, I just felt pretty uncomfortable out there and wasn't even getting my knee down in most corners.
In my 2nd and last race (F-2), I was racing against the Moto GP Rookie Cup kids on their 125 2-strokes and Elena again on her EX650, but to claim I was racing with them, I really should have kept them in sight longer. This time I get a decent start, but had to back off a moment to have enough room when passing the 125's ahead of me, but Elena got a rocking start and I slotted in right behhind her. I matched her speed and her line into turn 3 (off the banking), but my lesser amount of lean angle had me running wide and I got passed by the 125's, quite impressively I might add. Even my extra grunt couldn't keep up with them based on the higher speed they came out of turn 3/4 with.
So I'm running around in 4th or maybe 5th to start the second lap and a certain WERA novice was passing me just after I blew turn 3 again. Well it is always the job of the person doing the passing to make room for a clean pass and I was certainly not making any abrubt moves as I was just steadily drifting out from the apex of a left turn to setup for another left turn. I was a gear high and blew the corner so he had a bit more speed than I did as he came by on my right and bam, my front end jumps and the bike wiggles and then he checks up, turns around and waves sorry. I'm still up and even though one other guy (red Ducati maybe?)got by me after the contact, I figure no big deal, just work on finding my speed.
Well I stay on the gas to slot in behind those two guys and then as we approach the left turn, I reach for the brake lever and it is way out there... not normal. :eek: I extend my fingers to reach the lever and squeeze and it won't move. I immediately start squeezing the rear brake and trying again with the front brake lever and most importantly, start looking for a way to avoid the braking and turning bikes just in front of me. The red bike moves to my right and is slowing down taking away an escape route, and the Novice is just starting to make the left turn.
In a moment of clarity, I decide to try to shoot between them and I gas it towards the apex in the earliest of apexs that will send you straight off the track. So the "novice" passes the curbing, I gun it to go straight through the corner, but hugging the curbing as close as possible to make room, aaaaand just sqeak through in front of the red bike as he is arcing to the left by the curbing. I was holding my left hand in the air as I did it to let everyone know I had a mechanical. Luckily, the track had a lot of asphalt runoff room on the infield where I was pointed and I was able to slow to a stop with the rear brake only.
I got stopped, saw that the plunger in the master cylinder came out and was jammed and I plopped it back in to make it work again. It would only stay if I held slight pressure on the lever, so I just rode the bike back to the pits and retired from the race not wanting to risk a brake problem while cruising around in last place (especially since it was only a 4 lap race).
So like I said it was pretty forgettable. I was pretty darn proud of the accident avoidance maneuver, but not so much with my riding or my lap times and it sucks I was in that position to have to avoid a crash with another rider.
I've never ridden the AMA track before and 8 laps of practice was just not enough to find reference points, brake markers, figure out the lines, sort out what gear to use where (kept changing the faster I got of course) and dial in my cornering speed in the different corners. I am not good enough yet for this stuff to just sort itself out so I have to build up to my comfort speed. I'd like to think that I am saving some crashes with this technique of easing up to speed, but I'm sure with a little more experience, I will get up to speed quicker in the future.
So enough of the excuses, I ran a best lap of 1:44, got my ass kicked by a 13 year old girl (Elena Myers for those who don't know) and a couple of kids racing in the Red Bull Moto GP rookies Cup (Jd Beach, and Cameron Beaubier).
I got one of my patented awesome starts in the first race and slotted into 2nd from the back row. I got passed by one dude and then Elena and then held onto to 4th for a while. I ended up blowing a corner, ran over / jumped one of the plastic curbs and got passed by the 2 people chasing me. I wasn't able to catch back up and I finished in 6th out 7. All in al, I just felt pretty uncomfortable out there and wasn't even getting my knee down in most corners.
In my 2nd and last race (F-2), I was racing against the Moto GP Rookie Cup kids on their 125 2-strokes and Elena again on her EX650, but to claim I was racing with them, I really should have kept them in sight longer. This time I get a decent start, but had to back off a moment to have enough room when passing the 125's ahead of me, but Elena got a rocking start and I slotted in right behhind her. I matched her speed and her line into turn 3 (off the banking), but my lesser amount of lean angle had me running wide and I got passed by the 125's, quite impressively I might add. Even my extra grunt couldn't keep up with them based on the higher speed they came out of turn 3/4 with.
So I'm running around in 4th or maybe 5th to start the second lap and a certain WERA novice was passing me just after I blew turn 3 again. Well it is always the job of the person doing the passing to make room for a clean pass and I was certainly not making any abrubt moves as I was just steadily drifting out from the apex of a left turn to setup for another left turn. I was a gear high and blew the corner so he had a bit more speed than I did as he came by on my right and bam, my front end jumps and the bike wiggles and then he checks up, turns around and waves sorry. I'm still up and even though one other guy (red Ducati maybe?)got by me after the contact, I figure no big deal, just work on finding my speed.
Well I stay on the gas to slot in behind those two guys and then as we approach the left turn, I reach for the brake lever and it is way out there... not normal. :eek: I extend my fingers to reach the lever and squeeze and it won't move. I immediately start squeezing the rear brake and trying again with the front brake lever and most importantly, start looking for a way to avoid the braking and turning bikes just in front of me. The red bike moves to my right and is slowing down taking away an escape route, and the Novice is just starting to make the left turn.
In a moment of clarity, I decide to try to shoot between them and I gas it towards the apex in the earliest of apexs that will send you straight off the track. So the "novice" passes the curbing, I gun it to go straight through the corner, but hugging the curbing as close as possible to make room, aaaaand just sqeak through in front of the red bike as he is arcing to the left by the curbing. I was holding my left hand in the air as I did it to let everyone know I had a mechanical. Luckily, the track had a lot of asphalt runoff room on the infield where I was pointed and I was able to slow to a stop with the rear brake only.
I got stopped, saw that the plunger in the master cylinder came out and was jammed and I plopped it back in to make it work again. It would only stay if I held slight pressure on the lever, so I just rode the bike back to the pits and retired from the race not wanting to risk a brake problem while cruising around in last place (especially since it was only a 4 lap race).
So like I said it was pretty forgettable. I was pretty darn proud of the accident avoidance maneuver, but not so much with my riding or my lap times and it sucks I was in that position to have to avoid a crash with another rider.