Well the season has ended, and I have made my goal of top 3 in the North Central Region. In fact I won the championship in heavyweight twins super-bike. This goal was much harder than my championship last year but I feel that I have grown in maturity and skill level. I do have a long ways to go, but this journey is very rewarding.
Because of my Championship, WERA has bumped me from novice status to expert. This came as a great surprise. Even though I met the criteria, I do not think my skills are worthy, but after a discussion with my sponsor in Texas, Road & Track cycles, I was encouraged to step up with the experts.
The bike is now winterized and in the garage. I will do a few upgrades, and maybe refresh the suspension over the winter. Fitness will be the winters goal so that I am physical in shape for next year.
The Grattan race went well. I drove up on a Saturday and raced on a Sunday. The bike got new tires front and back Saturday night and the weather was perfect all weekend. This weekend I had the slipper clutch in and did improve my lap times by 2 seconds.
The heavy weight twins superbike class race got red flagged after the first lap so we had to restart. This was a good thing because my start was less than stellar. The second start went well and I got the holeshot for the novices. I kept the lead for the first lap and in the second lap, apexed way to early and ran off the track in corner 3. Did not go down but lost a place and ended up in second.
One more race in Nelson Ledges and the Season is finished.
Had a good race weekend at Grattan in Michigan. I entered in the Heavy Weight Suber bike (HWT SB) Novice race and the B Super bike race. As par for the B Superbike class, I was in a class with lighter and faster bikes. Still there were a couple bikes that were at my level, which I beat both of them. I think this was the first B Superbike race I did not get lapped. The HWT SB race I was in had 5 bike on the grid. Looking at practice lap times, 3 bikes were at least 3-5 seconds faster per lap. The 125 Aprilla was around my pace so I set out to beat that bike. The first lap I was in front of the 125 and the other 3 bikes checked out. One of the Ducs had crashed in turn four with ment that there were four bikes left. The Aprillia and I were racing for the 3rd place trophy. Around the 4th lap, the Aprila got around me in the "bowl" corner and I was dead last in the race. I stuck on his tail and figured out where 125 was slowest, which was from the bus stop till the first corner. The start finish line was before the 1st corner but if I stayed on the tail of 125 I could draft pass and make it past him on the front strait. Accomplished this with a difference of 0.1 Seconds.
WERA ran the AMA vintage racing at Mid-Ohio 25-26 July. There was a Friday Practice which I got to run in the afternoon. The weather was rainy and Mid-Ohio is a bit too slick for me to race. Sunday I got to race in the nice sunny weather. My slowness was not washed away with the Saturday rain.
It has been three races since I last blogged. A Nelson Ledges round, Beaver Run in Pennsylvania and another round at Grattan.
Nelson Ledges I had my first racetrack off. It happened in the first practice, first lap, third turn. I do not know if the case was a cold tire, wet patch... the rear end slipped out but re-caught. I did not go down on the track but the slippage pushed me off the track where I was doing 60 in wet grass, I got it slowed down using the rear brake to about 15 mph but the rear end swung around 180 degrees and the bike fell. Fortunately, the only damage was the right clip-on was push up a little. The corner worker came running, a high school kid, and said "Dude, you almost saved it". I picked the bike up and it restarted. I rode it back to the pits, fixed the clip on and re-teched. Practices and races went on without any problems the rest of the day.
The race at Beaver run was another sterling example of me needing to be more aggressive. Nothing major stood out except my slow laps and my lack of aggression.
The next Grattan round was different because the course went clockwise instead of counter clockwise…. so essentially a new track. I had a slipper clutch this time and seamed more eager to go fast than usually. The slipper clutch is worth the money. Hands down. Going into hard breaking situations with a two down gear changes was so much smother. The bike was stable and supper easy to turn in. Without the slipper clutch, the rear tire would bounce and skip, unsettling the bike. Now I am much less scared of the bike when downshifting. One of the 2008 Red bull rookies cup riders was racing at beaver that weekend and pitted next to me. He gave me a bunch of pointers, no kidding, that lead to at least 5 second drop in my lap times. Cool kid.
Next race is at Mid-Ohio on the 25 ant 26 of July. This just popped up because originally, AMA Vintage racing was an event on its own. But WERA will be working the races now and offering up points in the classes I am racing with. This thrills me to no end because I have done numerous track days there and I can go to a track and not have to learn it.
Drove up to Grand Rapids Michigan to the popular Grattan race track for the WERA North Central second race. Instead of the drive up on Saturday and race on Sunday pattern I do, I drove up Friday so I could do a Saturday 20 lap mini endurance race to get some more track time in before sundays races. Saturdays weather started of wet and crappy, but soon the wind picked up and blew all the junk away for some clear weather. Sundays wether was better and the track became nice and grippy in the afternoon for the races. My time at the drag strip paid off and I got some reall good starts, I still need to pick up the pace and be more aggresive.
The starts to my races have been less than awesome. In fact they down right sucked. To fix this situation, I took my bike to Kil Kare raceway http://www.kilkare.com/ for their two wheel Tuesdays. Craig at EPC http://www.epcracing.com/ gave me a crash course in launching the bike from a dead stop. After 20 runs, I got a system down and somewhat comfortable launcing the bike. My best time was a 11.27 in the 1/4 mile.
My first race weekend with WERA went well. The weather was a little cold, but the sun came out after noon to warm things up. I did not ride as fast as I needed to to win the Heavy Weight Twins Super Bike, got a 2nd place. The B Super Bike race was more humbling then I thought it would be. The slowest bike was at least 5 seconds faster than me. I will keep racing B super bike to gauge how well I progress throughout the year. Next race is Grattan In Michigan 16-17 May.
Did a track day at Mid Ohio on the 25th of April for testing purposes. The weather was perfect and the track was good and sticky due to some shifter carts doing laps in the morning. Suspension worked very well. Had Jason Etter from Department of Suspension who was at the track doing suspensions set ups. Had the sag, compression, dampening, and rebound set on front and back. He did the push test on the front forks and said " That is exactly what you want". My best time last year was a 1:52 with an average of 1:55. This year I got a 1:48 flat as my best and averaged around the mid 1:149's. The Dyno tune was very apperent compared to last year. The motor ran like a rapped ape.
The past few months have been spent setting up the bike, getting new parts and gear for the racing season.
New to the bike: Rear Sets Clip-ons Leavers Break Pads Suspension Re-build Another set of wheels with rain tires Body-work repainted to meet WERA rules
Set-up: Base line suspension (sag, swing arm angle, and a push test for the compression and dampening) Dyno Tuned including an air box modification
First riding order of business is to get a decent set up or baseline at Mid-Ohio on the 25 of April.
The suspension refresh is finished and the bike is back home resting in the garage. Have an extra set of rims with rain tires on them. Bodywork is not WERA legal so I have to get my painter to fix it. My new number is going to be 713, 13 was already taken. Next thing is to take advantage of my sponsors and start ordering products, as soon as that tax return hits!
