jkaiser
05-06-2008, 12:11 AM
Sunday arrived with a distinct lack of early morning rain, there was hope after all. It was strange not rushing to the track at 6:30a.m. When I got to the track at 7:30 there was no line to get in, my pit was already setup, and my bike was already cleared by tech. What was I going to do with all the time?
I got to work trading out my rain tires from the day before for slicks and soon it was time for the riders meeting. The relaxed state of things didn’t last beyond the riders meeting, however. The meeting ran a bit long and I made the familiar Novice dash for the pits to get the bike going for the first and only practice session of the day.
This practice session went very well. I made one note in my notebook the day before. SLOW DOWN! I put this into practice and was able to relax and relearn the lines that had eluded me the day before. By the end of the session I was putting in easy 1:35s and feeling good about my line.
When I came back in I noticed that the rear tire was showing some mild cold tearing. I took the bike over to Barry with KFG Dunlop and asked him to take a look at it. He recommended we flip the tire around so I would be running on the other side for the race (a nice feature of slicks). He also spent some time looking at my suspension and checking the settings. One of the nicest parts of getting a GP suspension build is in knowing you have on going support from Barry at the track.
I’m used to time flying during the races but man it seemed like forever before we got to the Novice Heat. I was constantly checking the time, paranoid that I was going to be late. Finally the horn blew and I started to get the bike ready. Just then my wife and kids arrived to watch the race, they had been stuck in traffic and I was afraid they were going to miss it. As my fan club cheered me on I suited up and headed out to the grid. You couldn’t have asked for better conditions. The track was hot, the tires were fresh and hot, the bike was hot, it was go time!
I was gridded on the outside of the seventh row and unlike the previous day, now I had a plan. I was hoping to get a good launch and run down the outside of T1 and take as many places as I could, going shallow into T2. When the flag fell I got a decent launch and stuck to my plan fairly well. Going shallow into T2 caused me to run a little wide mid turn which also played out as I took a few more places going around the outside into the exit. I continued to pick off positions until I caught up with Duane Warren, also running a GSXR-1000. I think I passed him coming out of the bus stop and held him off down the straight but he went passed me on the brakes coming into T2. I got around him through T8 but again he caught me on the brakes coming into T9. I got the drive on him coming back out of the bus stop and continued to hold him off going into T2. As we exited T2 we encountered some lapped traffic but he had the better line through and passed me heading down into T3. Unfortunately the good line through the traffic left Duane way on the inside going into T3 and he had to scrub lots of speed to make the corner which allowed me to close right on his rear wheel. As we exited the corner Duane was still going too fast to hold the line and went wide which killed his line going into T4. Having seen this situation before during track days, I knew immediately how to capitalize on it. Instead of trying to make the pass going into T4, I just stuck to my line and ran it a little deep, then I turned it in fast and shot for a late apex. Because Duane had run in on the inside he had to keep his speed down and run it wide on the exit. As he went wide, he opened the door for me and I went through on the inside carrying a lot of speed. That move created a gap he couldn’t close and with the help of more traffic, finished the race without seeing him again. It was a great battle though, the kind that makes racing fun!
As I finished my cool down lap I looked down at my lap timer, fastest lap 1:31.8. I was blown away, I had no idea where I had finished but I didn’t care. I don’t know what my lap times were last year but I felt like I had just smashed them to pieces. As I pulled into the pits some of the Team XLSR folks came over to help me and congratulate me on a second place finish. I couldn’t believe it, in one day I had exceeded my greatest expectations.
One look to the Team XLSR pits told me who must have won. The one person out there I never saw, Brain MacConaghy. I’ve known Brian since my first track day with NESBA and even bought my bike for him and his brother Mike. While I was parking my bike I noticed he already had his helmet off and his bike was on the stands. I went over to congratulate Brian and found out he had finished a full 30 seconds in front of me with a best lap of 1:30.7, wow! I also went and found Duane Warren and thanked him for an excellent race and told him I’ll look forward to dicing it up with him again in expert as this was his final race to graduate.
Thanks again to EDR Performance and Eric Dorn. He builds engines that are more than fast. They’re just as strong, and strong is smooth, and smooth is fast! Putting it all to the ground is Barry Wressell and KFG Dunlop, (see –Smooth is Fast) thanks for everything Barry. Without the support of my fan club, my wife and four kids, I would be at home mowing the 12 inch high lawn :sorrytext:.
I’d like to thank all the WMRRA staff for putting on an excellent race this weekend. A big THANK YOU to all the corner workers and track safety, our lives are in their hands. And how about the turn out from the general public, the place was packed on Sunday. :signs001:
See you next weekend in Portland!
I got to work trading out my rain tires from the day before for slicks and soon it was time for the riders meeting. The relaxed state of things didn’t last beyond the riders meeting, however. The meeting ran a bit long and I made the familiar Novice dash for the pits to get the bike going for the first and only practice session of the day.
This practice session went very well. I made one note in my notebook the day before. SLOW DOWN! I put this into practice and was able to relax and relearn the lines that had eluded me the day before. By the end of the session I was putting in easy 1:35s and feeling good about my line.
When I came back in I noticed that the rear tire was showing some mild cold tearing. I took the bike over to Barry with KFG Dunlop and asked him to take a look at it. He recommended we flip the tire around so I would be running on the other side for the race (a nice feature of slicks). He also spent some time looking at my suspension and checking the settings. One of the nicest parts of getting a GP suspension build is in knowing you have on going support from Barry at the track.
I’m used to time flying during the races but man it seemed like forever before we got to the Novice Heat. I was constantly checking the time, paranoid that I was going to be late. Finally the horn blew and I started to get the bike ready. Just then my wife and kids arrived to watch the race, they had been stuck in traffic and I was afraid they were going to miss it. As my fan club cheered me on I suited up and headed out to the grid. You couldn’t have asked for better conditions. The track was hot, the tires were fresh and hot, the bike was hot, it was go time!
I was gridded on the outside of the seventh row and unlike the previous day, now I had a plan. I was hoping to get a good launch and run down the outside of T1 and take as many places as I could, going shallow into T2. When the flag fell I got a decent launch and stuck to my plan fairly well. Going shallow into T2 caused me to run a little wide mid turn which also played out as I took a few more places going around the outside into the exit. I continued to pick off positions until I caught up with Duane Warren, also running a GSXR-1000. I think I passed him coming out of the bus stop and held him off down the straight but he went passed me on the brakes coming into T2. I got around him through T8 but again he caught me on the brakes coming into T9. I got the drive on him coming back out of the bus stop and continued to hold him off going into T2. As we exited T2 we encountered some lapped traffic but he had the better line through and passed me heading down into T3. Unfortunately the good line through the traffic left Duane way on the inside going into T3 and he had to scrub lots of speed to make the corner which allowed me to close right on his rear wheel. As we exited the corner Duane was still going too fast to hold the line and went wide which killed his line going into T4. Having seen this situation before during track days, I knew immediately how to capitalize on it. Instead of trying to make the pass going into T4, I just stuck to my line and ran it a little deep, then I turned it in fast and shot for a late apex. Because Duane had run in on the inside he had to keep his speed down and run it wide on the exit. As he went wide, he opened the door for me and I went through on the inside carrying a lot of speed. That move created a gap he couldn’t close and with the help of more traffic, finished the race without seeing him again. It was a great battle though, the kind that makes racing fun!
As I finished my cool down lap I looked down at my lap timer, fastest lap 1:31.8. I was blown away, I had no idea where I had finished but I didn’t care. I don’t know what my lap times were last year but I felt like I had just smashed them to pieces. As I pulled into the pits some of the Team XLSR folks came over to help me and congratulate me on a second place finish. I couldn’t believe it, in one day I had exceeded my greatest expectations.
One look to the Team XLSR pits told me who must have won. The one person out there I never saw, Brain MacConaghy. I’ve known Brian since my first track day with NESBA and even bought my bike for him and his brother Mike. While I was parking my bike I noticed he already had his helmet off and his bike was on the stands. I went over to congratulate Brian and found out he had finished a full 30 seconds in front of me with a best lap of 1:30.7, wow! I also went and found Duane Warren and thanked him for an excellent race and told him I’ll look forward to dicing it up with him again in expert as this was his final race to graduate.
Thanks again to EDR Performance and Eric Dorn. He builds engines that are more than fast. They’re just as strong, and strong is smooth, and smooth is fast! Putting it all to the ground is Barry Wressell and KFG Dunlop, (see –Smooth is Fast) thanks for everything Barry. Without the support of my fan club, my wife and four kids, I would be at home mowing the 12 inch high lawn :sorrytext:.
I’d like to thank all the WMRRA staff for putting on an excellent race this weekend. A big THANK YOU to all the corner workers and track safety, our lives are in their hands. And how about the turn out from the general public, the place was packed on Sunday. :signs001:
See you next weekend in Portland!