So, apparently I like the rain
Also, I found another “way you know you’re a racer”… when your engine blows up on the white-flag lap, and you’re more frustrated that you won’t complete the race than by the fact that you just grenaded your motor.
Thursday and Friday I rode at the Cascade Track Time days to get myself and my bikes sorted out.. I didn’t really “feel it” and post up the results I wanted last weekend at WMRRA so I wanted to be sure to set everything up and get comfortable again. Thursday I worked on remembering which way the track turned, sorting out the suspension on my CBR (apparently it was *way* out of whack), and braking later so Nico wouldn’t make so much fun of me On Friday, my goal was to tame the 750.. and I did A day’s worth of seat time later, along with some suspension work to firm it up on the brakes, and I was a comfortable on the 750 as I had been on the 600. I hopped back on the 600 at the end of the day to compare and double-check settings, and thought to myself, Holy hell… what the f*ck was I afraid of? After getting accustomed to the speeds attainable on the 750, the 600 felt like a cakewalk. I dove deeper and faster into corners than I’d ever thought possible, and got on the gas WAY earlier, having found the limits of the tires with the bigger bike.
On Saturday, OMRRA ran two practices and then a 4-hour endurance race. I used the practices to just double-check again all the suspension settings on the bikes, and to try to solidify the comfort zone I found on the 750. During the endurance race, I lent my pit spot to Team Civil Rock Racing, because I was on the wall. They ended up taking first! The team was made up of Stuart Johnson, Chris Ray and Nathan Hester, all extremely fast and extremely nice guys. I feel like I’ve got some friends down south (and east, in Hester’s case) now The whole experience was very cool, and definitely made me want to get into endurance racing.
Finally, Sunday rolled around, and it was time for the sprints! I can still smell the ProV.1 from all the fast guys who pitted next to me. I signed up for five races – Senior 750 Superbike, Sr. 600SB, Sr. 750 Supersport, Sr. Open SB, and Sr. 600SS. (Since my bikes are both five or more years old, they compete in a technically-separate “Senior” class, so I run with but don’t actually race against the brand-new bikes.) I skipped the first practice, went out in the second to shake cobwebs loose, and then quickly came the first race, 750 Supersport/Senior 750 Superbike.
I got a great start and collected about half the field before T1, then began picking my way through the crowds, happily using the front and back straights to make passing easy. Mike Castro of Fuzimoto really did a number on this bike – it is stupid fast. I didn’t have to worry about passing in any of the corners at all – I’d just wait until one of the straights, then blow by people using its power. This continued for about half the race until I found someone with a bike as fast as mine, at which point things got fun I passed him on the brakes a couple times in 1 and 4, and then he would draft me down the straight and pass coming into 1 a lap or so later. I finally caught a break when we encountered some lap traffic and one of them lowsided directly in front of him, requiring him to brake and avoid the incident. I felt bad.. but still took the pass, heh. The track in front of us was pretty clear, so I put my head down and tried to catch up to whoever was next. Then, a lap or two later… I RAN OUT OF FUEL The bike damn near bucked me off as it died mid-corner in T3. I pulled off in T4 and waited out the rest of the race, and then barely managed to limp back to the pits on fumes. For the rest of the weekend, it was almost comical as I compulsively checked fuel levels on the bikes anytime I had a spare few minutes.
The next race up was 600 Supersport/Sr. 600 Superbike, but I actually ended up not starting. Looking back on it now I think I should have, but at the time it was raining and I didn’t have rains mounted, and I figured I didn’t need any help crashing.
After lunch was 750 Superbike/Sr. 750 Supersport. I had been hoping the rain would pan out like the forecast said and be simply “spotty”, and that the track would dry up.. it did not. So, it was again raining, and I again didn’t have rains mounted. This time, however, I thought, screw it, I’m racing! I went out, DOTs and all, and gridded up. When the green flag waved, I literally spun the tire for a second before it hooked up! I tried to remember and put to use the advice Mark Degross gave me about racing in the rain: You can do amazing amounts of acceleration and braking, even on DOTs, as long as you’re straight up and down. It worked out for me, as I eventually caught up to Alan Schmidt, OMRRA’s #1 plate holder, and battled the entire race with him! (… Obviously, he was on DOTs as well.) We went back and forth the whole time, and then he got ahead of me on the last lap and I wasn’t able to pass him before the checkered flag. Back in the pits when I congratulated him on the win, he actually apologized for taking defensive lines on the last lap! I am constantly amazed by how friendly and sporting the top-level guys are, and I can’t speak highly enough of Alan’s sportsmanship. Not only was he not irritated that I’d stuff, and potentially punt him off, every time I could in 4, but he actually apologized for preventing me from doing it one last time. I ended up taking 11th overall, and 1st in my class, Sr. 750 SS. First expert win ever
Twently minutes after that race, I hear the first call for Senior Open Superbike. Puzzled, because I’d gone out for what I’d *thought* was Sr. Open SB in the morning and found out I wasn’t entered, I checked the schedule – and sure enough, what I’d gone out for was Sr. Open Supersport. However, big problem: Not only did I not have rains installed on the 750 (the bike I’d planned to use in Open SB), I didn’t even have rains mounted on rims for it! So, scared that I’d be nothing more than a rolling roadblock for the Open guys but wanting more rain experience.. I took out the 600. Turns out to be a good thing I did, because I took eighth! (Not in the Senior class either – apparently I was the only one registered for Sr, so they bumped me up to the “real” grid.)
I’ll go ahead and repeat that, just because, well, I want to: Eighth place, on a stock, five-year-old 600 (104 rwhp), in a race filled with modern Open Superbikes (180+ rwhp, plus traction control).
AWESOME Now, granted, it was pouring rain for this race and rain is an incredible equalizer where bike class is concerned. I spent the entire race battling with Mike Sullivan and Mike McConaghey, trying to make up for my eighty-horsepower deficit by carrying higher corner speed and being harder on the brakes. For the most part, it worked! Both Mikes would yard me down the front straight, but I’d catch up by Turn 3. Through the back straight and Turn 6 they would again gap me a bit but several times I managed to actually pass Sullivan (and McConaghey too, once!) through Turn 7 and hold him back for a lap or two.. until he blew my socks off again going down the front straight. On the white-flag lap, I had one last opportunity to pass Sullivan coming into T9, the last corner of the track. I peeked up the inside but ultimately decided against taking the pass, as I didn’t want to be the jackass that crashes and punts Sully into the tire wall. He’d have taken the position again on the straight before the start-finish line anyway, so it wasn’t work the risk. Besides.. eighth place, Open Superbike! I’ll take that
Finally, the last race of the day: 600 Superbike/Senior 600 Supersport. This turned out to be an eerie parallel of my first race of the day – great start, work through the field picking people off every lap.. and then DNF due to a mechanical problem at the end. Only this time, it wasn’t a couple laps from the end, it was the white-flag lap.. and the mechanical problem wasn’t lack of fuel, it was an engine that sputtered for a second and then crunched very loudly on the front straight. What’s funny, though, is that I was more disappointed and frustrated at not finishing the race than at the fact that my motor had just mangled its insides. Had I finished that race in the position I had, I’d have taken my second win of the day, and something like 7th or 8th overall.
A million and a half thanks as always go out to all my sponsors and everyone else who helps me do this: Adrenaline Freaks Trackdays, MorePower Racing, Studio819 Photography, Bridgestone for making an amazing tire and Highway 66 Motorsports for selling and supporting it, Powerstands Racing, Race Tech Suspension, Vortex, Motorex, Junior Monkey Design, Pipercross Air Filters and PNWRiders.com, the best damn motorcycle community there is in the Northwest, and I think the nation. None of this would be at all possible without the support all these guys give me, so show your appreciation and give your support to them.
