WMRRA – Round 3 – 14/15 June 08

 

The weekend started off kind of hectic. The pits were already set up from the AF Day prior to the race weekend, so set up was a breeze. I went to tech to pick up my paperwork since I had pre-registered and pre-paid, but they had no record of my registration. I needed to re-register and re-pay, kind of frustrating since the line was fairly long and after paying the printer went down so there was no paperwork to give tech. Frustrating process but luckily I had plenty of time.

 

Tech went very smooth. I got my gear tech and then went on to get the bike tech. Everything went off with out a hitch. Now it was time to throw the tire warmers on and relax for a bit before the riders meeting. My first practice session wasn’t until 1015, which gave me plenty of time and hopefully some time to warm up. It was very overcast and in the mid to high 50’s at this point…no rain though!!!

 

First session came and went very routinely. Bike felt good from the final setting from the day before. I was very disappointed about lap times, but it was only the first practice session and things would get better.

 

Second session came right before lunch, and felt much better. I went out with a few of the faster guys and was able to pace them for a few laps. Still need to work on a bit of rider technique, but overall was feeling very confident for the races for today.

 

I was gridded in row 3 for 600 Super Sport due to the previous race weekend results in the rain. Hell yeah, first wave! Race time came, bit nervous being in wave one, but that all went away after the citing lap. On the drop of the green flag I launched the bike and immediately the bike stood up (first time doing a race launch with the new Barnett clutch). I had a terrible start but got a good drive on the outside of turn 2 and passed a few more bikes on the brakes into turn 3. By turn 5, 6 and 7 I had settled into about 16^th place. I was feeling very good on the bike and was making up some time on the guys in front of me. There was a crash in turn 4, seemed someone low sided in the back of the back. Coming into the “Bus Stop” I was hard on the brakes and bottoming out the front forks, note to self…setup changes needed. On the very next lap going down the hill into turn 3 there was 2 bikes off in the dirt. As I worked my way around the rest of the track I noticed there must have been about 4 or 5 bikes down. By the time I got to turn one I noticed the red flag stopping the race. Comes to find out one of the riders from the turn 3 crash needed to be transported to the hospital. The red flag come on lap 5 which made it an official race. I had finished in 20^th place.

 

750 Supersport was my next race, again gridded in row 3, sweet! I got a lot better start to this race then the previous race and found myself in the top 15 on lap one. The race was going very good, with passes back and forth from a few different riders. I was having a blast, the setup changes to the front forks were working as I was not bottoming out anymore in the bustop. Seemed to be a few more crashes in this race as well, as it seemed every turn had someone down. I was battling with a pack of about 4 or 5 riders for 15^th-20^th place as I ran over the curve exiting the bus stop. It killed my drive up the straight away and I immediately lost 3 positions. I was able to regain one of the positions with an aggressive pass on the inside going into the bus stop. The other rider and I were able to maintain our lines and I made the pass stick going onto the straight away for lap 9. Coming into turn 2 the red flap was displayed again. We came to rest in turn 3, to find out there had been a 2 bike crash in turn 9, with one of the riders needing to be transported to the hospital. The race was called final and I finished in 18^th place.

 

My races were done for the day, as well as my Pirelli tires. I decided to make a tire change to the new Dunlop D211 TECH. I had been hearing great reviews of the new Dunlop tires so I decided to try them out for Sunday’s races. I got with Dave Alexander to have him check my suspension setups for the new tires and we made a few tweaks to ride height and compression and we were going to see how they worked in the morning for practice.

 

Sunday morning (Fathers Day) came around with sunshine and calling for 75 degrees. Should be a great day for racing. I went out in the morning warm-up session to get used to the new tires. It took a few laps to get comfortable with the Dunlop’s but by lap 5 or 6 I was able to push it a little bit. The tires feel great, with the front end giving excellent feedback.

 

600 Super Bike was my first race of the day. I was gridded in row 8, second wave start. I got a good start from the second wave and seemed to catch the back of the front wave by turn 2. I got held up on the inside of turn 2, and tucked behind a few other riders. I was able to get past a few on the brakes into turn 3 and by one more rider on the entrance into turn 6. I had settled into a comfortable pace by lap 3 and was comfortably in 20^th spot. These guys in Super Bike have a leg up on me in the motor department and it was very evident on the straight away. The bike seemed to be a bit harder to transition from side to side in the back sections of the track and I felt like I was muscling the bike around. The race actually went full distance this time and I finished in 22^nd place.

 

750 Super Bike was my last and final race of the weekend. Thank god. I was pretty tired from 3 days of riding. I was again gridded in row 8 of a second wave start. I was terrible off of the start, which put me even deeper in the field of 52+ bikes. I was able to out break a few guys into turn 3 and was starting to pick guys off one at time. Around lap 4 or 5 I got a false neutral going into turn 4, which sent me a bit wide and allowed 2 guys to get past. Damn it, time to put me head down and go to work. I was able to get one position back on the entrance into 6 and one more back going into the bus stop on the next lap. The next group ahead of me was probably 1 second ahead and we were on lap

7 or 8 of a 10 lap race. I settled down a bit and ran at a comfortable pace. I finished in 26^th place.

 

Overall I had a great weekend and would like to say that I hope all of the riders who went down over the weekend, which seemed high, a speedy recover. I would also like to thank the WMRRA Race staff for putting on a great time.

 

I would like to thank my family Jennifer and Brenden, with out your support I wouldn’t be able to participate in this great sport. I would also like to thank all of my sponsors (Adrenaline Freaks Track Day, Dependable Wheel Repair, Sharkskinz, AZ-Synthetic Lubes – AMSOIL, Vortex, Elka, Suomy, Utopia Optics, Powerstands, Braking USA, Leo Vince, Terra Powersports, and Pit Posse) as well as my Zero Profile Teammates (Troy, Josh, Jamie and Andrew).

Adrenaline Freaks Track Day – 13 June 08   

 

Friday finally came with a weather forecast calling for the Pacific North West normal of partly cloudy with some sun breaks and a high of 66. Not bad, right??? The day started off normal with a early show of 630 in the morning to set up the Zero Profile Team pits with Troy, Andrew, Josh, Jamie and Myself. The team got everything set up pretty early and all of us went over to attend the normal Adrenaline Freak Staff meeting. With the Staff Meeting done it was time to open registration and tech. a few other staff members and myself begin teching bikes, seems like we were going to have a good turn out with the weather cooperating nicely.

 

First session call came at 9am and luckily I was working pit gate as it was still a bit chilly. I went out on the track as an instructor at 940 so I suited up and got with a few of the folks in the beginner group to see if there was anything in particular they had questions about. Tons of questions came from everyone, so I answered what I could and we went out on the track to show some of the guys some of the lines. I really enjoy working with other riders to show them what has taken me years to learn, mainly the hard way.

 

I got a bit of free time and decided it was time to test the bike for this upcoming weekends race. I slowly started picking up the pace, feeling more and more comfortable. Dave Alexander of Fluid Suspension had made a bit of geometry changes to the front end of the motorcycle which was giving me more and more confidence on front end feel. The bike was feeling great and hopefully I would do pretty good for the 3^rd round of WMRRA.

 

About 11am rolled around and so did the mist and sprinkles. Normal PACNW day! It was pretty cloudy so you didn’t know if the weather was going to stay or not. The pits were a bit slippery so the AF Staff warned everyone going out to be careful. The mist and sprinkles lasted for about an hour and we only had 2 crashes, which isn’t bad. The wet weather stopped around lunchtime, so after firing up the grill and having lunch it was time to go back on the track.

 

The day was staying on schedule very nicely thanks to Mario, Melissa, Litlle Mario and all of the AF Staff, you guys rock! It was time to work on a bit of fine tuning for this weekend. Click here, click there and I was feeling very comfortable for the upcoming weekend. My Pirelli tires were holding up great, but they had a few laps on them from Miller Motorsports Park so I decided it was time to go out and do a few more session control riding. We at AF have some of the BEST customers you could ask for. Everyone was very polite and so enthusiastic and open to constructive criticism. I saw a vast improvement on all of the riders out there! Keep up the GREAT work!

 

I would like to thank my family Jennifer and Brenden, with out your support I wouldn’t be able to participate in this great sport. I would also like to thank all of my sponsors (Adrenaline Freaks Track Day, Dependable Wheel Repair, Sharkskinz, AZ-Synthetic Lubes – AMSOIL, Vortex, Elka, Suomy, Utopia Optics, Powerstands, Braking USA, Leo Vince, Terra Powersports, and Pit Posse) as well as my Zero Profile Teamates (Troy, Josh, Jamie and Andrew).