jadeblue1
Mon 5/28/07, 9:32PM
so after being broke & not making it to infineon last month, i decided to skip the wera round @ fontana & do the afm round instead. i really like infineon, and have discovered if you have weak technical skills anywhere, this track will point them out to you.
so i bailed on thurs, got in an 1/2 of a track day on friday to run the "new" t1 configuration, as saturday practice might only be 4 sessions. with the old t1, i was doing 1:55. with the new t1, i had no idea what i would be turning. i was happy that i had finally graduated to group 2 practice, but it was really crowded, and i was having some difficulty in figuring out where i could pass people. my gearing felt very off, and i couldn't seem to get in a groove. i talked to uncle joe & jay a little bit, and joe told me i was short shifting on the front straight when i should just stretch the gears a litle more. jay advised that if i was in 6th gear going into t7, i needed to triple downshift to 3rd.the last time i was up there, i wasn't runnning that fast in that part of the track, so i was thrilled that i can now fly into 7 like that. however, on the last 2 sessions, i felt like i wasnt slowing down enough into the corners, and my rear tire was bouncing all over the place when i down shifted.
sunday-the sv races were 9 & 11, so i planned to do morning practice, & a warm up lap on race 6 to get ready. i learned my lesson from sitting all day & waiting @ willow last weekend that i needed to do something before my actual race to get my game face back on.
so the day goes on, everything's good, i do a warm up lap on race 6 w//william toft #869-one of the guys i normally battle with & we had fun. so i feel pretty good about the whole thing and am just a having a ball watching the other races & waiting for mine.
RACE 9-FORMULA VI-i'm bike #55 on a 70 bike grid & need binoculars to see the start tower. so the flag drops, we're off, and as we sort ourselves out, it starts turning into bowling for bikes. somebody goes off in 4 & takes another person with them. somebody else goes off entering the carosel, somebody else goe sflying off t8...so i'm settling into my groove and have about 5 bikes i'm in a group with.
lap 2 somebody goes off in 2, and somebody else at the front of the 5 bike pack i'm in goes off going up hill into t3b & comes back onto the track-splitting me & # 952. so i check up pretty good & end up driving on the tight inside line to 4. not a good position to be in as i & 869 go 2 wide thru the turn. i've lost a bit of speed & am scrambling to make it up...but as i go down into 7, the bike doesn't feel like it's slowing down. i wrestle it into the turn & am still in the same pack of bike heading into 9. we round 11 & go charging onto the front straight, and i want to dive under ozzie in the worst way in t1, but my bike is jumping around again on the downshift & i'm carrying too much speed to make the corner.
so we charge up the hill and see another yellow flag t4 has waving one in it, as somebody has just gone down in that turn again. so as i set up for it, #131 passes me on the inside -illegal as heck- and guns it. & now i'm thinking "cool-my first afm protest" followed by "I'M GONNA GET U SUCKA" so i go into the carosel a whole lot faster and am driving like a mad woman, because i've gotten this guy on 7 before-he starts braking way earlier than i do & with my new found confidence about the speed i'm carrying, woo-hoo! so i'm pinned before i even hit the bottom & i'm driving up the mid line- he brakes -i blow by him and am at my first downsift marker when i grab my brakes and pull them all the way back to the handle, mash my fingers up against the throtlle & nothing...so i pump it real quick 2x, get a little grip, grab my first downshift...now the rear end is jacking around and i'm running straight out onto the runoff. i use my rear brake, weight my inside peg hard, learn my head, chest, leg off the bike to try to get it to turn as i let up on the rear brake...it shimmys but turns, and i grab 2 more downshifts and drive off the corner on the edge of the tigers teeth & almost in the grass on t8a. I could see the corner worker get ready to run out of the corner of my eye & i realize i still have a bunch of bike behind me, so i signal at the top of 8b that i'm exiting, rear brake & downshift to slow myself into t9, skidder thru that corner & rush off the track.
i get back to the pit & most of the twf crew is sitting up @ t9 watching the race. however, tom dorsey is in the garage. so i grab him & ask for some help. i tell him what happened, he checks my brakes over & says my pads are completely gone. so i ask him if he can change them out for me because my next race is 11. i hand him my tool kit & go running to the vendors to get some pads. "we all ride" was already packed up, so they sent me to ebc. they were packed up and sent me to michelin for vesrah pads. alex was not in his trailer, so i go back to ebc, the guy can't dig them out & says "if you would've got them earlier, i could've had them for you" so I said "well, had i known at lunch time my brakes were going to completely fail in race 9, i would've gotten them earlier" so "we all ride" felt bad for me & dug out their gsxr brake pads (finally) i grab them go running back to the garage, hand them to ducati mike, who saw tom working on bike & jumped in to help. i grabbed $, ran back to the vendor, thanked & paid him & ran back to the garage. my bike was all done & ready. tom told me to go to the hit pit lane & heat cycle them. race 10 was now running & i had just enough time to get them scrubbed in. tom came down & checked them after i ran about 10 laps, proclaimed them "good" & told me to just sit facing the wind for a little bit to cool them down.
i got lucky, because race 10 got a red flag, so we sat waiting to go out on the warm up lap for 10 min.
RACE 11-650 TWINS- this time, i'm bike #41 on a 50 bike grid. but i got a good start, and 3 bike went off on the first lap, so they red flagged it, and we had about 15 min before we were going back out. i had to run to registration to make sure they had scored me as a start and that i pulled off because of a mechanical & protest #131 (you have to filee a protest within 30 min of the end of a race) but there had already been 6 other protests on #131, so they had already dq'd him. (yay!)
so as i'm going back to the pit, i hearfirst & final call for the regrid of race 11. crap-i need to get my helmet, earplugs & gloves on. everybody else is already leaving the garage. i'm rushing trying to get it all done. once again, tom dorsey saves my butt. he came over, got my bike off the stand, pushed it to the doorway, turned it on & held it for me while i tried to get my gear on. i made the warmup lap & got an even better start this time.
i was adjusting to having brakes again, and by lap 3, was working on gaining the ground i lost during the first 2 laps ( i went back to last place) so i started stalking the people in front of me, got one in the carosel, got the next one in t7, got another one in the carosel the next time around, and got 2 more in t7. as i was going into t9, i saw another bike I knew i could catch, but i would have to get him on the next lap- iwasn't close enough. so i kept eating the ground up between me & him, and was going to take him in the carosel. we entered t6, and i started setting up on the passing line, when another bike appeared in front of us. #707-who beat me at the line at buttonwillow. so now i want to get both of them... i drive hard off the hill in t8b and downhil into t9 and caught the first guy-i went under him at the apex of the first chicane-and drove hard to t11, where i went under #707 and took away his apex. it felt good, and coning down the front straight, i see the white flag and #869 going into t1. i'm going to try to pick off one more bike before this is over...:D i did the new t1 the best i've ever done it, and rode my butt off that whole lap. but #869 was just far enough ahead that i couldn't catch him. however, the bikes i passed stayed behind me, so i took the checkers without getting passed back. it was awesome.
race 9 i went from 55 to 41. race 11 i went from 41 to last back up to 38 and ran a personal best of 2:02.
thanks so very much to zoran, tom, uncle joe, jay, ducky, dr john, mr spencer, jeff frost-& the rest of the twf crew for letting me hang out in their garage (even tho my bike is the wrong color) and for all the help of getting me fixed & back out to race. also for the advice & pointers-i dropped 8 secs with just what joe & jay told me.
also thank you to my other sponsors: crago racing, graffiti palace, michelin, and socalsvriders.org for the love & support & keeping me racing.
so i bailed on thurs, got in an 1/2 of a track day on friday to run the "new" t1 configuration, as saturday practice might only be 4 sessions. with the old t1, i was doing 1:55. with the new t1, i had no idea what i would be turning. i was happy that i had finally graduated to group 2 practice, but it was really crowded, and i was having some difficulty in figuring out where i could pass people. my gearing felt very off, and i couldn't seem to get in a groove. i talked to uncle joe & jay a little bit, and joe told me i was short shifting on the front straight when i should just stretch the gears a litle more. jay advised that if i was in 6th gear going into t7, i needed to triple downshift to 3rd.the last time i was up there, i wasn't runnning that fast in that part of the track, so i was thrilled that i can now fly into 7 like that. however, on the last 2 sessions, i felt like i wasnt slowing down enough into the corners, and my rear tire was bouncing all over the place when i down shifted.
sunday-the sv races were 9 & 11, so i planned to do morning practice, & a warm up lap on race 6 to get ready. i learned my lesson from sitting all day & waiting @ willow last weekend that i needed to do something before my actual race to get my game face back on.
so the day goes on, everything's good, i do a warm up lap on race 6 w//william toft #869-one of the guys i normally battle with & we had fun. so i feel pretty good about the whole thing and am just a having a ball watching the other races & waiting for mine.
RACE 9-FORMULA VI-i'm bike #55 on a 70 bike grid & need binoculars to see the start tower. so the flag drops, we're off, and as we sort ourselves out, it starts turning into bowling for bikes. somebody goes off in 4 & takes another person with them. somebody else goes off entering the carosel, somebody else goe sflying off t8...so i'm settling into my groove and have about 5 bikes i'm in a group with.
lap 2 somebody goes off in 2, and somebody else at the front of the 5 bike pack i'm in goes off going up hill into t3b & comes back onto the track-splitting me & # 952. so i check up pretty good & end up driving on the tight inside line to 4. not a good position to be in as i & 869 go 2 wide thru the turn. i've lost a bit of speed & am scrambling to make it up...but as i go down into 7, the bike doesn't feel like it's slowing down. i wrestle it into the turn & am still in the same pack of bike heading into 9. we round 11 & go charging onto the front straight, and i want to dive under ozzie in the worst way in t1, but my bike is jumping around again on the downshift & i'm carrying too much speed to make the corner.
so we charge up the hill and see another yellow flag t4 has waving one in it, as somebody has just gone down in that turn again. so as i set up for it, #131 passes me on the inside -illegal as heck- and guns it. & now i'm thinking "cool-my first afm protest" followed by "I'M GONNA GET U SUCKA" so i go into the carosel a whole lot faster and am driving like a mad woman, because i've gotten this guy on 7 before-he starts braking way earlier than i do & with my new found confidence about the speed i'm carrying, woo-hoo! so i'm pinned before i even hit the bottom & i'm driving up the mid line- he brakes -i blow by him and am at my first downsift marker when i grab my brakes and pull them all the way back to the handle, mash my fingers up against the throtlle & nothing...so i pump it real quick 2x, get a little grip, grab my first downshift...now the rear end is jacking around and i'm running straight out onto the runoff. i use my rear brake, weight my inside peg hard, learn my head, chest, leg off the bike to try to get it to turn as i let up on the rear brake...it shimmys but turns, and i grab 2 more downshifts and drive off the corner on the edge of the tigers teeth & almost in the grass on t8a. I could see the corner worker get ready to run out of the corner of my eye & i realize i still have a bunch of bike behind me, so i signal at the top of 8b that i'm exiting, rear brake & downshift to slow myself into t9, skidder thru that corner & rush off the track.
i get back to the pit & most of the twf crew is sitting up @ t9 watching the race. however, tom dorsey is in the garage. so i grab him & ask for some help. i tell him what happened, he checks my brakes over & says my pads are completely gone. so i ask him if he can change them out for me because my next race is 11. i hand him my tool kit & go running to the vendors to get some pads. "we all ride" was already packed up, so they sent me to ebc. they were packed up and sent me to michelin for vesrah pads. alex was not in his trailer, so i go back to ebc, the guy can't dig them out & says "if you would've got them earlier, i could've had them for you" so I said "well, had i known at lunch time my brakes were going to completely fail in race 9, i would've gotten them earlier" so "we all ride" felt bad for me & dug out their gsxr brake pads (finally) i grab them go running back to the garage, hand them to ducati mike, who saw tom working on bike & jumped in to help. i grabbed $, ran back to the vendor, thanked & paid him & ran back to the garage. my bike was all done & ready. tom told me to go to the hit pit lane & heat cycle them. race 10 was now running & i had just enough time to get them scrubbed in. tom came down & checked them after i ran about 10 laps, proclaimed them "good" & told me to just sit facing the wind for a little bit to cool them down.
i got lucky, because race 10 got a red flag, so we sat waiting to go out on the warm up lap for 10 min.
RACE 11-650 TWINS- this time, i'm bike #41 on a 50 bike grid. but i got a good start, and 3 bike went off on the first lap, so they red flagged it, and we had about 15 min before we were going back out. i had to run to registration to make sure they had scored me as a start and that i pulled off because of a mechanical & protest #131 (you have to filee a protest within 30 min of the end of a race) but there had already been 6 other protests on #131, so they had already dq'd him. (yay!)
so as i'm going back to the pit, i hearfirst & final call for the regrid of race 11. crap-i need to get my helmet, earplugs & gloves on. everybody else is already leaving the garage. i'm rushing trying to get it all done. once again, tom dorsey saves my butt. he came over, got my bike off the stand, pushed it to the doorway, turned it on & held it for me while i tried to get my gear on. i made the warmup lap & got an even better start this time.
i was adjusting to having brakes again, and by lap 3, was working on gaining the ground i lost during the first 2 laps ( i went back to last place) so i started stalking the people in front of me, got one in the carosel, got the next one in t7, got another one in the carosel the next time around, and got 2 more in t7. as i was going into t9, i saw another bike I knew i could catch, but i would have to get him on the next lap- iwasn't close enough. so i kept eating the ground up between me & him, and was going to take him in the carosel. we entered t6, and i started setting up on the passing line, when another bike appeared in front of us. #707-who beat me at the line at buttonwillow. so now i want to get both of them... i drive hard off the hill in t8b and downhil into t9 and caught the first guy-i went under him at the apex of the first chicane-and drove hard to t11, where i went under #707 and took away his apex. it felt good, and coning down the front straight, i see the white flag and #869 going into t1. i'm going to try to pick off one more bike before this is over...:D i did the new t1 the best i've ever done it, and rode my butt off that whole lap. but #869 was just far enough ahead that i couldn't catch him. however, the bikes i passed stayed behind me, so i took the checkers without getting passed back. it was awesome.
race 9 i went from 55 to 41. race 11 i went from 41 to last back up to 38 and ran a personal best of 2:02.
thanks so very much to zoran, tom, uncle joe, jay, ducky, dr john, mr spencer, jeff frost-& the rest of the twf crew for letting me hang out in their garage (even tho my bike is the wrong color) and for all the help of getting me fixed & back out to race. also for the advice & pointers-i dropped 8 secs with just what joe & jay told me.
also thank you to my other sponsors: crago racing, graffiti palace, michelin, and socalsvriders.org for the love & support & keeping me racing.