WMRRA Round 2 – Pacific Raceways
Moderate temp, dry, and sunny
650 SS Twins – 4th, 1:39.071, 16:42.253
600 TFS – 6th, Best Lap 1:39.067 / 16:57.581
Middleweight GP Twins – 7th, 1:39.497 / 16:51.722
750 Supersport – DNS
750 Superbike – DNS
Adrenaline Freaks track day two for 2009 was an awesome event. The weather was great, the track was dry, and the superstar duo of Mario and Melissa provided a great lunch for the entire turnout of riders. What a deal…. Track time, instruction, all the safety amenities, and lunch for one reasonable price.
As you may have surmised from the results above, I ran only the SV this weekend as my Senior and Late Model GSXR 750’s are both awaiting repairs. I keep saying it…. Crashing is really expensive. Now if I could just kick my habit of throwing my bikes down I’d have more time and money to work on riding skills instead of mechanic skills.
Saturday practice provided a great opportunity to work with Dave Alexander of Fluid Suspension Science (FS2) to adjust the suspension on the SV and try to tease out more corner speed from my Bridgestone tires. The first couple of sessions were frustrating as my lap times were off the mark from round 1 and I knew the track was ready to give so much more. Before the first race, Dave was able to swap out my left fork spring with a shorter .95, and reduce the oil level a few cc’s. These changes provided accurate sag for the front end and increased my feel substantially. Combining changes to the fork and a 2-3ml increase in rear ride heath, I was ready to see what was possible in the first race of
Race 1 – 650 SS. The grid was similar to round 1 and starting from P3, I was really looking forward to a good race. I had a reasonable start but was soon pinched off in T1 by riders on both sides with better reaction time and/or more HP than myself. I settled into 4th place by T2 and tried to stay on the heels of the leaders. As I pushed into T9 on the first lap I had P3 just to my outside and was thinking how to pass before the bus stop when my rear started to come around. The slide was controlled and I stayed in it, but a) lost time that prevented any chance of a pass and b) lost confidence in my grip. Determined to reach the podium, I put my head down and tried to stay with the leaders without success. My teammate Eric Featherstone (650) found some extra speed and engaged Brian Jeffrey’s (281) in a great battle for 2nd and 3rd while I just couldn’t match their pace. After getting passed for my P4, I again put my head down and regained the position in T2 and then held on for the remainder of the race.
For Sunday practice I softened the rear in the hopes of getting some more grip and minimize the chatter. The changes seemed to help as the chassis was more stable. Lap times were still a second too slow, but I was hoping for some red mist to pull me along at a faster clip in race 2.
Race 2 – MW GP Twins. I gridded towards the back in this race as I usually do not run this class. At the light I got a good jump off the line that had me, very briefly, on the heels of Jervis. However, by T1, I was pinched off again and had to find a hole to navigate through. Unfortunately, that hole was well in the back of the field and the congestion through T2 made passing a risky proposition at best. I ended up behind my teammate Chris Fratini (65) and we began looking for some daylight to try and go forward. After a few sketchy moments, a lowside in T3 took a couple positions, including Chris, out from in front of me and I had clear track ahead of me with just Todd Sparrow (209) in sight. I put my head down and started pushing to see if I could reel him in. When I arrived on his heels I was pleasantly surprised to find that I had a bit more speed by the chute and could pass Todd before the finish line. I was able to hold him off until the braking zone in T3 at which time he passed me back. I would then reel him back in and finally re-pass by the finish line. After 4 laps of this I realized that unless I pushed my limits in T3, I wasn’t going to secure the position. Instead of risking a potential low side in T3, I decided to stay on his heels out of the bus stop on the final lap and make it a drag race to the finish line. My strategy worked and I was able to get the position before the checkered flag.
Race 3 – 600TFS. This race is always interesting as there are SV SBK’s, older inline 4’s, and SV stockers all to contend with. As we got off the line my start was again suspect and I slotted in near the back of the class. I could see my teammate Eric ahead, and was soon passed by my other teammate Chris. At that point, the race was on. I had felt slow all weekend and this being the final race, I decided I needed to try and pass these guys. We had some really good dicing as Chris and Eric pushed each other hard and I stayed on their heels to see how the race would unfold in the later laps. First Chris took T3 a bit deep and had to check up on the access road. One down, only Eric to go. We passed the white flag and we both stepped up our speed. I was close on his heels, but not close enough. Going into T5 I knew I would have to get pretty aggressive if I was going to be able to a) pass Eric who was on fire this weekend, and b) hold him off to the finish line where his bike in a drag race will put mine to shame. That is where Eric made his first real mistake of the weekend. Coming out of T5 his line was wide making T6 a dicey proposition. A miss shift and he was not only off the line, but off the track in a mild crash. After collecting myself from focusing too much on Eric, I brought it home to a lonely 6th place finish. In this instance, slow and steady won the positions but wasn’t nearly as satisfying as just being mo’ faster. So that is the take away from round 2…..gotta get mo’ faster.
Next up for me… Round 3 OMRRA May 30-31.
The SV is in the capable hands of Dave Alexander of Fluid Suspension Science for some fine tuning.
Both GSXR 750’s are in the capable hands of Richard Wascher of WASCO frames for some repairs and straightening and will be back on track by next round.
I want to thank all my sponsors, team mates, friends, and family that make this addiction of mine a reality.
WMRRA club, staff, riders, volunteers
Bridgestone Tires, and Troy McCrae of Pennell Powersports
Motorex USA
Vortex
Adrenaline Freaks Track Days
Dave Alexander – Fluid Suspension Science
Studio819.com – Brandon Bones, a magician with the lens.
PNWRiders.com, and Katie Perry – the best manager in the paddock.
Teammates – Kevin Klemmer, Eric Featherstone, Chris Sarbora, Chris Fratini
Good luck to the team at SRP for WMRRA Round 3. A date I will regretfully miss due to prior engagements.
