This is a different kind of race report. It is more about learning how it all works than racing, but that's what being a novice is all about. It is also long, so don't read it unless you have time.



Before anything else, thanks to my sponsors. More Power Racing is a huge reason I am even on the track. Without their help, it would have been tough to get started in the first place. Aurora Suzuki has been a great help and a source for the parts I have been braking on a regular basis. Vortex, Lockhart Phillips, Panolin Oil, and Powerstands are all reasons I can race and keep racing this season. The learning curve has been huge this year, and I really appreciate their willingness to support a novice racer.



The leadup to Round 3 included both 2-Fast days and Adrenaline Freaks on Friday. I have been fighting the bike and was determined to figure out why. Dan Chancy has been a constant source of great information and excellent advice, and made a couple of key suggestions on Wednesday and Thursday. I asked Barry to help set up the suspension on Wednesday, and he called it "flighty." No kidding! At least I know how long fork oil lasts, or doesn't, now. He made some adjustments and the bike felt like it was riding on greased ball bearings instead of slimy mush. It doesn't sound like an improvement, but it sure was. At least I had an idea of where the bike was going to go and what the front end might do. At Dan's suggestion, I dropped the front of the bike quite a bit. Using his 2004 750 as a benchmark to measure helped. I hope he sells it, but I am sure glad it was still around to measure last week. Both adjustments helped with feel and got the bike to turn much better than before.



On Thursday, I changed the rear sprocket to shorten the wheelbase and get a little more drive out of the bus stop. I am not fast enough onto the straight to hit the rev limiter in turn one yet, so shorter gearing helps all around. It made a bit of difference, and now the bike feels like it wants to turn. Getting through turn one was much more difficult before the suspension and geometry changes, especially turn one. I also made several adjustments to peg locations and bar angles to see how it all fits together.



Friday was a day to practice and see how it all works. My lap times were not a whole lot better, but the confidence factor was coming back after way too many crashes in the last rounds. Repairing the software in my head is probably as important as adjusting the bike. I was pretty tired on Friday, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be. I was fighting a cold and didn't sleep too well because of it, but even so, I wasn't nearly as tired as I had expected.



Saturday morning was when I felt most ragged. The practice sessions were uneventful I was gridded on the front row, and that made me nervous because I am not the best starter on the planet yet. But, I was pretty excited and used the front row for motivation and trash talk purposes. When the day was ended early, I was both relieved and disappointed. It meant I would get a good night sleep before racing, but it also meant butterflies for longer.



Sunday morning was clear and warm in a way Saturday wasn't. It made the wait worth it, and we would still get two races in. I felt much better during practice but started having brake problems. The brakes on this bike probably needed a rebuild for a while, but I was keeping them bled and tied the lever back. They didn't fade badly during practice, so I bled them and tied the lever back after practice and figured it would be just fine. When the race started, I got my usual mediocre start and got beat into turn one by all the guys I was up there with. I hung with some of the faster guys for a while, but my brakes started to fade, and by the third lap, they were fading badly. It is a novice race, so I decided to stay out of the way and bring it home for a 19th place finish.



During the hours heats, I bled the brakes and ran a decent amount of fluid through them, starting with both calipers and also the master cylinder. After a thorough bleeding, I tied the lever back again and thought it would be much better with fresh fluid in most of the system. I was gridded on the front row again for the second heat, so the same bets about the first turn came up again. First guy to turn one wins the race- the rest doesn't count. Once again, I got a mediocre start and had to pass a couple people into turn two. Most of them passed me back, but I was again able to hang for a while, and the 5/6/7 combination felt a lot better. Turn 4 was still like riding on a bucket of grease, and the bumps in turns 2 an 9 were upsetting the bike more as the day went on. I got a couple really good slips in 2. Between tired tires and a tired suspension, it wasn't the time to push too hard. And the brakes faded out again a few laps in, so I was in stay out of the way mode again. It must have been working, since all the people who passed me did it very cleanly. JD went around me on the outside of two with a couple laps to go, and that was a spur to try to get him back, brakes, suspension, or nothing! I couldn't quite do it, though, since he would easily gap me into 2 and 3, where brakes are pretty important. The gap would grow in 4, since I am still paranoid there, but I could catch him between 5 and 6, and could almost get a run at him in 7. He was rolling off a bit in 8, so I kept it pinned hoping to get around him before having to coast into 9, but it wasn't to be. Paul Capps came underneath me in 8 and lapped me before I could get the white flag, so I didn't get one more lap to try to chase JD. We were the last people he lapped, so there's something, I guess. I was actually very disappointed to see the checker, in spite of all the brake and other weirdness. I was having so much fun I didn't want to stop.



All in all, it was my idea of a successful five days at the track. I didn't break anything for the first time in a while, and I learned a huge amount about the bike, how to set it up, and what I need to do to make it work for me. I also learned about the limits and maintenance necessary to keep a race bike working properly. It is more than for a casual track bike, and I didn't know that before. One big improvement over the days at the track was how much I could see. Widening vision slows down apparent speed, and I was seeing everyting really well by the end of the day Sunday. I even knew where the elusive Bonesquatch was hiding all day, because I could see him, all the corner workers, all the spectators, all the bumps in the track, and all kinds of other stuff. My lap times are still slower on this bike than they were on my street bike last year, but the time is beginning to pay off in understanding how to ride this bike and make it work.



There is a reason we are called novices, and half the fun is how much there is to learn about everything. My forks and shock are going to visit Barry on Saturday, and I have rebuild kits for the calipers and just ordered one for the master cylinder. The motor seems fine, considering this is its third racing season. I don't plan to do much with it except change the oil until after the last round, but the rest of the bike is getting a lot of attention before August.



Placing 19th after a front row start doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment. Doing the same thing twice sounds like even less of an accomplishment, but considering how much I am learning about riding this bike and riding around different limitations, I am very satisfied. And, on top of it all, it is more fun than I had imagined before the season, and it keeps getting more fun all the time.