Eric Featherstone #650 – WMRRA Round 6 – Pacific Raceway and Adrenaline Freaks Track Day – August 9-10
I skipped a Round 5 race blog because I ended up missing the round all together. My entire team bailed out on the trip to Spokane. I couldn’t wait to get back on the track and Round 6 was worth the wait for me. I achieved some milestones including a pair of second place finishes and a personal lap record of over 2.2 seconds faster!
Race results:
650SS – 2nd. I have no doubt that I will get on the top step of the podium before year’s end.
600TFS – 2nd. Wow, it was a little boring without all the usual suspects there but I will take the 2nd place.
MWGPTwins – 7th. While I didn’t place well, I sure had fun racing for fourth.
As briefly mentioned in my opening, I was very excited to get back on the track. After a month of no racing, I was pretty much going through withdrawals. I was a little bummed going into the race weekend when I found out two of my teammates were not going to be racing due to the economy. I think everyone really missed not having Chris Fratini and Randy Bailey out there. It was nice to have Chris Sarbora and Kevin Klemmer there…thanks for the support. Bummer about Chris’ crash.
Before I get going on the exciting overview of the races I wanted to give a shout out to some of my sponsors. Without their help, I don’t believe I could have the results I did during Round 6. Thank you to Dave Lanigan of SpeedDealer Motors. The bike feels so strong, yet dependable too. Many thanks to Troy McCrae of Pennell Powersports and Bridgestone. We have the DOTs dialed in pretty well…but the slicks are absolutely AWESOME! Thank you for all your support.
Adrenaline Freaks Track Day – Friday
I had been monitoring the weather the week prior and was a little worried that the rain would come out at some time during the race weekend. The rain never showed! In fact the weather was perfect for racing and the motors. My bike felt so strong.
I control ride for Adrenaline Freaks which means I go out on certain sessions and monitor riders to ensure they don’t ride over their heads. I really enjoy watching others and feel so relaxed while doing so. I get the opportunity to watch my lines and even test out some breaking areas during this time. I really only had one free session to test out the bike and get back into race pace. Brian Jeffery (281) and I decided to follow each other. With Brian behind me I decided to put my head down and turn some decent lap-times…well I ended up turning a 1:37.1 which is over a second better than my personal record. This was also achieved on some worn out DOT tires. I felt great going into the race weekend.
WMRRA Saturday
I concentrate heavily on Saturday’s 650 SuperSport race because this is truly the only class that my bike (and I) are competitive in. So I was a little nervous leading up to the race…which I don’t usually have those nerves.
650SS – Well my grid position sucked again. It doesn’t help when I had a DNF (Did Not Finish) in Spokane and haven’t placed well till just recently. All grid positions are based off points. So my position was 1st row, 5th position which puts me up against the wall into turn 1 (T1). This means that I need to get a smoking start. Before my rebuilt motor, I would get some great starts, but since then I would end up wheeling off the line. I didn’t do that this race! I got a decent start and into T1 saw Brad DeLong come up from the second row to the left of me…well I wasn’t giving up into the corner so I stayed hard on the throttle. There was some great racing with Jeffery and Nick Finken. I was passed a few times on the back section but always came across the line in 1st. Jeffery crashed out on T3 in about lap 5…thankfully he is ok. I led till about lap 7 when Finken got me coming up to T5. This is about the time when my rear tire started to spin up on me. This was not the tire’s fault at all…I had the pressure a little high in the rear due to the weather and I just heated it up too much. I ended up notching it back a little and settled for second place and a little over 2 seconds behind. Our race was red-flagged on the last lap due to Shellie Matthews going down in T7. Shellie…I am so glad you came out ok. Hope your hand heals up quickly.
WMRRA Sunday
The Sunday races are just fun races for me. Of course I am always trying to get on the podium but know that I am going to have to really work for it. I want to thank Jeff Wieand for a few things…one, thank you for moving the 600TFS up to the first race of Sunday and two, thank you for keeping on schedule and letting me get through tech at the end of my race. I had to get back to Marysville in the afternoon for an event and had a very small window of time. I made it on time!
600TFS – I had a great grid position (1st row, 3rd position) but that is only because some of the usual suspects were not on the grid…Shawn Becker, Phil Cook, Randy Bailey and of course, Chris Fratini. I got a great start and led through to T3. That is when Josh Ellingson decided I was holding him up and he proceeded to take off. Anyways, I just put my head down and tried to tick off consistent laps. I kept it in the 1:37s – :38s the entire race and was really expecting to have someone come up on me but no one did! So I crossed the line in 2nd place!
MWGPTwins – In all honesty, this was my favorite race of the weekend. Even though I didn’t finish well, I know I can beat all the guys I was racing against. I had the same grid position as I did in 650SS. I knew that I had to get a good start so I wasn’t pinched in. Well I did! I went into T1 three abreast with me in the middle. Thanks to Darren Beatty for capturing some of the excitement.
Ellingson and Oliver Jervis decided to have a battle for first while Jeffery, Finken, Brandon Knowles and I fought for fourth place. Our battle for fourth was so exciting…not one of us too dominant. Knowles came out fighting and around lap five I found myself passing Finken then Jeffery on the straight with my sights on taking Knowles into T2…this is when my pucker factor hit 100! I was going to brake very late while downshifting and ended up hitting a false neutral. Last time I hit a false neutral I ended up dropping too many gears and got thrown off the bike. Well I didn’t panic, I pulled in the clutch and broke very hard…going extremely wide while everyone passed me. I tried to up-shift and let out the clutch but it wouldn’t go into gear. My first thought was, “Oh well, I am done for the race” but finally got it back into gear loosing at least 4-5 seconds on the third place pack. I neglected to mention that I was running slicks for the first time ever. Well they truly rock! So I put my head down and tried to catch up to the pack. After the mistake, I immediately dropped into the low :37s and was catching back up to the group. On the last few laps I was pushing hard, leaning the bike more than I ever had and I still have a chicken strip on the rear (that gives me more confidence). I dropped into the low :36s on the last few laps and almost caught Jeffery, only missing him by @ two-tenths of a second at the finish line. I was so happy with all my results even though I didn’t finish well.
All-in-all I had an incredible weekend. Again, my two second place finishes and my personal lap-record of 1:36.1 really helped my confidence. I will be seeking the top step of the podium next race weekend.
As always a big thanks to my sponsors:
Bridgestone Tires – Troy McCrae of Pennell Powersports
SpeedDealer Motors – Dave Lanigan
Motorex USA
Vortex
Adrenaline Freaks Track Days
PNWRiders.com
MorePower Racing
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