Race Report: August 18 - 19, 2001
Find all of the weekends race results at the LRRS website here.
Who are we kidding? At this point, we just need to accept the fact that there is no report coming.
Ditto! :)
Friday 8/17
After last (race) weekend's re-introduction to racing, I knew it
was time to advance myself mentally with an advanced riding class. So it
was that Dane and I scheduled ourselves for the Friday one-day class.
I arrived at the track Thursday evening, meeting Kit and Dane who had spent the afternoon on the open track and were thoroughly worn out. They had great weather and ran for almost an hour w/o stopping.
Friday dawned with clouds, impending rain approaching. The class started with a 1.5 hour track walk. We were in and out of misty rain most of the time. Eric Wood and Carl McCallister taught in tandem as Eric explained speeds, entry points, braking points, exit points, throttle control, all stuff that I/we had heard before but broken down by corner. Many light bulbs were coming on in my head as they talked and discussed various points of each corner.
So I went out to practice after lunch. Started getting up to speed and ... coughsputter die - motor stops. Gas is on, what's up? I push the bike back to the truck and roller start it again, no prob. Get out to the pits, it stalls again. Push it back, start it again, get to turn 2 stalls AGAIN!! It's never done this before, so I'm wondering what's up? Get back to the garage and collapse. I don't like pushing a bike in hot weather in leathers and I'm completely overheated. Kit hands me water and water to down as I regain strength and cool down. Now why is the bike sputtering and dying? Two things possible: 1) It's been rainy all morning, the track is wet, I could've picked up water into the carbs; 2) Hmmm, why is the crankcase breather being pinched between the frame rail and the seat fairing ? I pull off the fairing, re-route the breather hose and put the fairing back on. After cooling down some more, I go back out to a mostly dry track and hook up with my class, no more problems. I started working on the entrances and exits of turns 1,1A,2,6,9, and 11. These are all critical turns where exits are as important as entrances. Lots o laps later, I come in and rest and then go back out with Paul, who's instructing for the beginner class. He leads me for 2-3 laps, then follows me for 2-3 laps, and we come back in for a brief discussion of where I need to change what. Go back out - practice - rest - go back out - practice - rest. By the end of the day I saw where I had been making mistakes and slowing myself up. What I came away with most of, was that I was not finishing my turns, therefore I was not as well set up for the next turn(s). Turns 1,1A and 2 are a great example of setting up for a series of turns. Now to use this knowledge in a race!
Saturday 8/18
The day is bright and sunny as predicted, and I get out for both
practices, the second being faster with warmer tires and track, I'm staying
consistently in the 1:29-1:30 range - slow for the classes I run, but I'm
working on specifics and building speed into it. Going fast smoothly and
conmfortably is key.
LW
Sportsman Race 9
I get a good start but I don't hold onto it into T1 letting most
of the field get ahead of me, I'll use them for motivation. I push harder
each lap and finish NOT last but 16 of 19 with a fast lap of 1:28. What
feels great is I felt I knew what I was trying to improve on each lap.
Sunday 8/19
Again the day is bright and sunny, and hoping the rain stays away
until after my race! Practice again goes well, I keep it short, only about
5 laps each to keep myself fresh and review what I'd learned.
SuperSingles
Race 9
I get a strong start and vow to keep in the pack. We're densed
together thru T1, Paul Conley is right beside me! And we stay parallel
thru 1A and thru T2 where I whack open the throttle and bolt past him down
to T3. Brake where I usually do and whoooosh! he blurs by me. OK, Ha. I
follow him thru T3 and we're 3 bikes lengths apart, up over 5 and down
into T6. Again I start to brake but he keeps pulling away - lesson learned.
I need to carry my speed farther into the turns, brake harder later - my
next thing to practice. The rest of the pack had pulled away so I worked
on the my turns again and kept pushing my comfort zone out farther. I finished
last but my best lap was lap 2 at 1:29. Next weekend I hope to be completely
consistently below 1:30's. Lot's o practice, practice, practice.
Thursday 8/16
This week I really wanted to get some more track time to get my
head back into racing and get back up to speed. I as quite disappointed
with my lap times last race weekend and want to get back to my fast times
from last year ASAP (without crashing of course ;). Towards this end, Kit
and I took off Thurs-Sun and headed up Thurs for practice.
The CB-1 was running great and practice started ~1pm - we were out for almost an entire hour before the sessions were split into Jr/Expert and Amateur. I ran from 1pm until 5 pm. I really got to work on my lines and I felt substantially faster than last race weekend. Much smoother as well. SLOWLY getting over slowing down too much for Turn 2 (can't understand why ;).
GREAT day. Best $100 I have spent in a long time!
Friday 8/17
For my birthday, Kit paid for advanced school which I took with
Scott. Scott gave a great description of the school. The race
walk with Eric Wood and Carl was fantastic. I have almost 4 pages
of notes on the track walk. After spoending a morning on the race
track on foot and in the classroom getting tips from Eric on better riding,
we headed out for a follow the leader ride. I start my CB-1 to head
over to tech and it starts making some nice clanging noises in the top
end - WTF!?!?!?!? Kit graciously gives me her bike and I head out
for follow the leader. It is great following Carl around as I can
really focus on the lines. Three times round and a re-iteration of
the track walk and I have a good set of reference points in my head.
I spend the rest of the afternoon in alternating sessions out on the track
going a little slower because I am consciously trying to hit all the reference
points we have been shown. Fantastic!!!
Saturday 8/18
A sunny and gorgeous day as predicted. Kit lends me her motorcycle
and I go out in LW
SS. I get a good start, but am still running ~6 seconds off my
pace from last year. Slow for the class, not to mention slow PERIOD!!
But I run ~6 seconds a lap faster than my races last race weekend, so I
think it is coming. Slowly but surely. I try not to beat myself
up, but I want to be back to where I was before my crash ASAP. I
finish mid pack out of the points, but I am feeling better. Next
week hopefully more speed!!!
Sunday 8/19
A nice sunny birthday and two more practice sessions on Kit's CB-1.
I may be holding back a little bit as I do not want to crash her motorcycle,
but I run the same lap times as the day before. I would liked to
have improved on my lap times, but I am running better than last weekend
and that is all that matters. I want more time next race weekend!!!
The CB-1 sounds pretty bad and I really need to drop the engine out of the frame to evaluate what it up. I believe for Labor Day weekend I am going to be showing the long awaited entry of the 1990 TZ250. It will take less work to get ready and I am feeling comfortable enough with the track to try it out. A few nights of work and it should be ready to go (besides re-jetting). I (as well as certain other members of the team - you know who you are ;) am looking forward to trying out the TZ>
Lower Lap Times!!! My new moto!!!
Did not race this weekend.