2008 OMRRA Round 2 Race Report

So, apparently I like the rain

Also, I found another “way you know you’re a racer”… when your engine blows up on the white-flag lap, and you’re more frustrated that you won’t complete the race than by the fact that you just grenaded your motor.

Thursday and Friday I rode at the Cascade Track Time days to get myself and my bikes sorted out.. I didn’t really “feel it” and post up the results I wanted last weekend at WMRRA so I wanted to be sure to set everything up and get comfortable again. Thursday I worked on remembering which way the track turned, sorting out the suspension on my CBR (apparently it was *way* out of whack), and braking later so Nico wouldn’t make so much fun of me On Friday, my goal was to tame the 750.. and I did A day’s worth of seat time later, along with some suspension work to firm it up on the brakes, and I was a comfortable on the 750 as I had been on the 600. I hopped back on the 600 at the end of the day to compare and double-check settings, and thought to myself, Holy hell… what the f*ck was I afraid of? After getting accustomed to the speeds attainable on the 750, the 600 felt like a cakewalk. I dove deeper and faster into corners than I’d ever thought possible, and got on the gas WAY earlier, having found the limits of the tires with the bigger bike.

On Saturday, OMRRA ran two practices and then a 4-hour endurance race. I used the practices to just double-check again all the suspension settings on the bikes, and to try to solidify the comfort zone I found on the 750. During the endurance race, I lent my pit spot to Team Civil Rock Racing, because I was on the wall. They ended up taking first! The team was made up of Stuart Johnson, Chris Ray and Nathan Hester, all extremely fast and extremely nice guys. I feel like I’ve got some friends down south (and east, in Hester’s case) now The whole experience was very cool, and definitely made me want to get into endurance racing.

Finally, Sunday rolled around, and it was time for the sprints! I can still smell the ProV.1 from all the fast guys who pitted next to me. I signed up for five races - Senior 750 Superbike, Sr. 600SB, Sr. 750 Supersport, Sr. Open SB, and Sr. 600SS. (Since my bikes are both five or more years old, they compete in a technically-separate “Senior” class, so I run with but don’t actually race against the brand-new bikes.) I skipped the first practice, went out in the second to shake cobwebs loose, and then quickly came the first race, 750 Supersport/Senior 750 Superbike.

I got a great start and collected about half the field before T1, then began picking my way through the crowds, happily using the front and back straights to make passing easy. Mike Castro of Fuzimoto really did a number on this bike - it is stupid fast. I didn’t have to worry about passing in any of the corners at all - I’d just wait until one of the straights, then blow by people using its power. This continued for about half the race until I found someone with a bike as fast as mine, at which point things got fun I passed him on the brakes a couple times in 1 and 4, and then he would draft me down the straight and pass coming into 1 a lap or so later. I finally caught a break when we encountered some lap traffic and one of them lowsided directly in front of him, requiring him to brake and avoid the incident. I felt bad.. but still took the pass, heh. The track in front of us was pretty clear, so I put my head down and tried to catch up to whoever was next. Then, a lap or two later… I RAN OUT OF FUEL The bike damn near bucked me off as it died mid-corner in T3. I pulled off in T4 and waited out the rest of the race, and then barely managed to limp back to the pits on fumes. For the rest of the weekend, it was almost comical as I compulsively checked fuel levels on the bikes anytime I had a spare few minutes.

The next race up was 600 Supersport/Sr. 600 Superbike, but I actually ended up not starting. Looking back on it now I think I should have, but at the time it was raining and I didn’t have rains mounted, and I figured I didn’t need any help crashing.

After lunch was 750 Superbike/Sr. 750 Supersport. I had been hoping the rain would pan out like the forecast said and be simply “spotty”, and that the track would dry up.. it did not. So, it was again raining, and I again didn’t have rains mounted. This time, however, I thought, screw it, I’m racing! I went out, DOTs and all, and gridded up. When the green flag waved, I literally spun the tire for a second before it hooked up! I tried to remember and put to use the advice Mark Degross gave me about racing in the rain: You can do amazing amounts of acceleration and braking, even on DOTs, as long as you’re straight up and down. It worked out for me, as I eventually caught up to Alan Schmidt, OMRRA’s #1 plate holder, and battled the entire race with him! (… Obviously, he was on DOTs as well.) We went back and forth the whole time, and then he got ahead of me on the last lap and I wasn’t able to pass him before the checkered flag. Back in the pits when I congratulated him on the win, he actually apologized for taking defensive lines on the last lap! I am constantly amazed by how friendly and sporting the top-level guys are, and I can’t speak highly enough of Alan’s sportsmanship. Not only was he not irritated that I’d stuff, and potentially punt him off, every time I could in 4, but he actually apologized for preventing me from doing it one last time. I ended up taking 11th overall, and 1st in my class, Sr. 750 SS. First expert win ever

Twently minutes after that race, I hear the first call for Senior Open Superbike. Puzzled, because I’d gone out for what I’d *thought* was Sr. Open SB in the morning and found out I wasn’t entered, I checked the schedule - and sure enough, what I’d gone out for was Sr. Open Supersport. However, big problem: Not only did I not have rains installed on the 750 (the bike I’d planned to use in Open SB), I didn’t even have rains mounted on rims for it! So, scared that I’d be nothing more than a rolling roadblock for the Open guys but wanting more rain experience.. I took out the 600. Turns out to be a good thing I did, because I took eighth! (Not in the Senior class either - apparently I was the only one registered for Sr, so they bumped me up to the “real” grid.)

I’ll go ahead and repeat that, just because, well, I want to: Eighth place, on a stock, five-year-old 600 (104 rwhp), in a race filled with modern Open Superbikes (180+ rwhp, plus traction control).

AWESOME Now, granted, it was pouring rain for this race and rain is an incredible equalizer where bike class is concerned. I spent the entire race battling with Mike Sullivan and Mike McConaghey, trying to make up for my eighty-horsepower deficit by carrying higher corner speed and being harder on the brakes. For the most part, it worked! Both Mikes would yard me down the front straight, but I’d catch up by Turn 3. Through the back straight and Turn 6 they would again gap me a bit but several times I managed to actually pass Sullivan (and McConaghey too, once!) through Turn 7 and hold him back for a lap or two.. until he blew my socks off again going down the front straight. On the white-flag lap, I had one last opportunity to pass Sullivan coming into T9, the last corner of the track. I peeked up the inside but ultimately decided against taking the pass, as I didn’t want to be the jackass that crashes and punts Sully into the tire wall. He’d have taken the position again on the straight before the start-finish line anyway, so it wasn’t work the risk. Besides.. eighth place, Open Superbike! I’ll take that

Finally, the last race of the day: 600 Superbike/Senior 600 Supersport. This turned out to be an eerie parallel of my first race of the day - great start, work through the field picking people off every lap.. and then DNF due to a mechanical problem at the end. Only this time, it wasn’t a couple laps from the end, it was the white-flag lap.. and the mechanical problem wasn’t lack of fuel, it was an engine that sputtered for a second and then crunched very loudly on the front straight. What’s funny, though, is that I was more disappointed and frustrated at not finishing the race than at the fact that my motor had just mangled its insides. Had I finished that race in the position I had, I’d have taken my second win of the day, and something like 7th or 8th overall.

A million and a half thanks as always go out to all my sponsors and everyone else who helps me do this: Adrenaline Freaks Trackdays, MorePower Racing, Studio819 Photography, Bridgestone for making an amazing tire and Highway 66 Motorsports for selling and supporting it, Powerstands Racing, Race Tech Suspension, Vortex, Motorex, Junior Monkey Design, Pipercross Air Filters and PNWRiders.com, the best damn motorcycle community there is in the Northwest, and I think the nation. None of this would be at all possible without the support all these guys give me, so show your appreciation and give your support to them.

2008 WMRRA 600SS Round 2 - Rain Race Start

The 600 Super Sport race star and first lap at Pacific Raceways for WMRRA. Rain Race!

2008 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report

Hmm.. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

I learned and experienced a lot this weekend. Saturday it rained, Sunday I raced the most powerful machine I’ve ever sat on top of. The results I ended up posting didn’t quite meet my expectations, but I’m not down about it, nor am I chalking it up to a “bad” weekend. The results just tell me I need to grow a pair and work harder

Saturday - Rain, rain, go away

Saturday morning was dry and cool, with only a spotty shower in the forecast. The clouds above looked threatening, but the most they let loose for most of the morning was a short misting.

I used the first practice session to bed in my new Performance Friction brakes and try to get a feel for how they responded to brake pressure. Mike McConaghey mentioned that they ramp up their torque as they heat up, and he was exactly right: Holding the same lever pressure coming into a corner, the brakes would go from not-much to on-your-nose stopping power as they heated up. I’m not entirely sure I like it, but I’ll see if I can get more used to it next week in Portland.

The second practice was just after lunch. The “spotty shower” had started up just before lunch, and about halfway through, we realized it wasn’t going to stop. I didn’t have time to change to rains before lunch was over, because I’ve only got one rear wheel at the moment. I went out anyway, hoping for the track to be dry enough to ride decently on DOTs, but came in after just a few laps. It was definitely wet out, and I am neither brave nor skilled enough to ride DOTs in the wet!

Quickly, I changed out my wheels and sent the rims over to Troy of Hwy 66 Motorsports, the new Bridgestone vendor (coming all the way up from Medford!). We got the rains mounted up, put the rims back in, and turned the warmers down to a relatively-cool 40*C. Rain tires are designed to operate and grip at a much lower temperature than normal dry tires, so baking them at normal temperatures would cause the tires to literally begin melting!

My first race of the day was 600 Supersport. It was raining pretty steadily at this point, but I had chickened out due to weather in the first WMRRA round and I knew I had to learn to ride in the rain sometime. I entered the warmup lap with the simple goal of preventing anything but the wheels and possibly my kneepucks from touching the ground. This would be the first time I’d ever tried to go fast in the rain, and I figured that I, of all people, needed no help crashing.. so making the checkered flag was my only goal of this race. When we gridded up, my visor began to fog, and by the time we started I could barely see! I ended up actually coming off at T9, wiping the fog away and having pit gate open all my helmet vents, then re-entering the track a lap behind. I took the rest of the race pretty easy, but I made it to the end and got my first rain race out of the way.

My second and last race on Saturday was 750 Supersport. I mentioned my visor problems to Troy of Bridgestone and he immediately offered me his personal Shoei, which is vented much better than my Scorpion. I wore that during the race, and along with some Rain-X on the visor and a makeship duct-tape Fog Shield, I could see perfectly! I was much more comfortable during the second race, not only because I could see but also because I was beginning to trust the rain tires. Kevin and I had a good battle for a few laps - a couple times he showed me a wheel coming into a corner, but I’d say “no, sir” and dive in anyway. Eventually he got me on the brakes coming into T2, and then immediately put on a pretty good gap. That kind of kicked me in the butt and got me to step up the pace a bit, and I started working on reeling him in, but didn’t make it before the race was red-flagged. Several riders had gone down, but one bike had fallen in T8 and gone into the airfence, which is never a good place to be. Luckily though no one was hurt, and back in the pits Kevin and I congratulated each other on a great race.

Sunday - The Beast

Dry pavement! Sun! Hoowah!

Practice on the CBR wasn’t very comfortable, until I realized I was still running rain settings on my suspension. In the rain, braking and throttle inputs are much gentler, so the dampening forces in play don’t need to be as hard. With a softer suspension comes better tracking of the racing surface, so racers back off their dampeners quite a bit. In the dry, however, the control inputs will easily overpower the softer rain suspension, making the bike feel loose and hard to control. As soon as I figured that out and fixed it, I was much happier.

600 Superbike was first up. I was gridded in the second row of the second wave, and at the start I shot forward to catch the holeshot of the wave. By the entrance to T2, I’d almost caught the back of the first wave. On the straight a lap later I figured out why I had such an easy time shooting forward on the start, though: I was still running LVMS gearing! I was about five teeth shorter than I should’ve been for Pacific, causing me to bounce off the rev limiter from the exit of the chute all the way to the entrance of T2. Still, I did the best I could and ended up only losing one position due to the top-speed limitation. I may have actually profited in the end from the gearing, as my bike was a monster coming out of corners and I did a fair amount of passing that way. A couple laps later I had a close call with Darrel Nice - coming out of T4 I drifted wide to set up for the back straight and slammed into Darrel, trying to set up an outside pass! I was afraid I was going to put him into the dirt for a minute, but he kept it upright and on the pavement. Then finally, around lap 7 or 8, I got black flagged! Damn! I immediately looked around to see what could be wrong with me, and got off the line just in case I was leaking something. I came into the hot pits and one of the workers runs up and tells me I’m missing my bellypan. Apparently I’d been dragging it for several laps, and then it finally fell off between 2 and 3.. and I’d had no clue. I got back to the pits and checked it out, and sure enough the entire piece had ripped right off, taking a chunk of my main fairing with it. Luckily, 600SB was the last race I’d be doing on the CBR.

Up next was 750 Superbike… on The Beast A bit about this bike: It’s eight years old, and will pace a modern literbike down the straight. It’s got enough power to lift the front on command in third gear and enough brakes to lift the rear with two fingers. On top of all that, its suspension was not set up for me - it was set up for a rider with 30 or 40lb on me. Needless to say, this machine definitely frightens me, and unfortunately during this race it showed. As many people observed, I am much more comfortable on the CBR than the GSXR. Still, I managed to have fun as Kevin flew by me early in the race and I worked on catching up. I finally got him back on the last or second-to-last lap by simply motoring on past Scary or not, there is something to be said for having the bigger gun.

Back in the pits, I got the suspension tweaked a bit, and then Formula Ultra was on me before I knew it. The day was running late so the race was only 8 laps, which I was actually thankful for - when you’re uncomfortable you tire much more quickly on the bike. At the track entrance, I was sitting next to Eli Edwards, Mark DeGross, Pat Bertram, Mike Sullivan, and Mike McConaghey, among others… It was a pretty intimidating moment! However they’re all extremely nice guys. I wished Mark good luck, and he wished me the same. We went out for the warmup lap, and coming up to grid, I realized I’d forgotten to check my grid position. I figured I’d be gridded at the back anyway, so I just waited until everyone else was in position and then scooted up to the back row.

Board’s up.. board’s sideways.. light’s out, go! We all took off and settled in. I had grown a tiny bit more confident on the bike during the 750SB race and so was willing to actually get in there and fight for position, which is good, because I needed to! Several times I saw #14, Warren Brones, poke his wheel into my field of view, but each time I did my best to shut the door on him. Then, in Turn 9, he beat me into the bus stop and took off down the straight. He led me for a couple laps and then I managed to get on his rear wheel coming into the chute. I moved up next to him coming down the main straight, and then squeezed past through T1, with Warren, me, then the wall! A lap later the race was red-flagged - and there was no 14 behind me I was worried for a moment that I’d put him down as a result of the T1 pass, but thankfully I saw him up and walking in 4.

All in all, I didn’t do quite as well as I’d hoped, but I raced in a couple very new situations for me and got some valuable experience, in rain and on a very mean bike. Between now and June I’ve got several trackdays lined up, so hopefully I’ll have all my suspension and brake issues, rain fears, power fears and whatever else sorted out by then. For now.. gotta go fix the CBR’s fairing for Portland next weekend! As always, I’d like to thank my sponsors from the bottom of my heart for all that they help me with - Adrenaline Freaks Track Days, MorePower Racing, Highway 66 Bridgestone, Studio819 Photography, Race Tech Suspension, Vortex, Motorex, Pipercross, Junior Monkey Design and last but never least PNWRIDERS DOT COM All of you guys rock, and without you I could not do what I do. These guys support me, so everyone please show your appreciation and support them.

2008 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report - Slow Eric

Phew, first race finally in the books! Saturday’s practices started out ok. Novices practice first and it was pretty chilly when we headed out there. My plan for the first practice was my plan for the whole weekend, don’t die. I went out and did a few laps and made sure everything felt good and came in. I had a couple hours before my next practice so I got my dbcom set up (after making sure it worked) and made sure everything was tight and ready to go. 11am came around so I threw on the lap timer and headed out for practice #2. After a couple laps I was feeling good but noticed my lap timer wasn’t picking up a beacon, not a big deal since the lap times for practice would be posted shortly after out session. I was feeling pretty good and was pretty sure it was the quickest I had gone on that bike.

An hour after practice I stopped by registration to check my times….. Annnnddd nothing. My transponder didn’t get picked up. I took it and tested it again, worked great. I didn’t really know what to do so I just figured I’d hope it worked. First races started around 1 and by then, rain was falling. I wasn’t worried at that point, figured the track might be damp but the rain would surely stop in a few minutes… it didn’t. So I didn’t race. Oh well. No rain tires means no riding through puddles. Watched a couple more races and saw some pretty creative new ways to crash in 5 and 6. Tons of crashes but everyone seemed ok.

It was tough waking up Sunday morning (I’m not a morning person) but as soon as I realized my alarm was going off for a good reason, I popped out of bed. Forecast for Sunday was good. Arrived to a damp track but the weather looked like it was going to clear off and stay dry, and it did. Practice went well and the track was almost totally dry. I had my lap timer on and was really anxious to see how I was doing but of course there was no beacon out. After practice was over I checked the times and they weren’t able to record the novice race so I had no idea still if my transponder worked or not. I had also left my battery in it all night and heard that they don’t last two whole days. Oh well. I was sick of unhooking it (I didn’t have a proper bag for it so it was a pain.)

I had over 4 hours before my race so I had plenty of time to develop my strategy. I checked my grid position and I was starting dead last, row 10, since the strategy for my weekend was to survive, I figured I would take it easy in 1 and 2 and hang back and let the carnage play out before trying to make my way throught the pack. My goal was to finish in the middle (around 20th out of 40 or so riders.) I expected to get nervous as the race got closer but then I walked around and saw Tokin and remember that was my competition, I relaxed. All of a sudden it was about 2pm and off come the warmers and away I go…

We line up to get ready and roll out for the warm up lap. I take it easy and look at how everyone else looks and try to find the people I know are gridding in front of me. Lap comes to an end and we grid up. Board goes up, I rev the enging, first wave takes off, flag goes, and I’m off. After about 0.2 seconds of seeing how everyone started, I threw my gameplan out the window and hit it the throttle. Dodged a guy who stalled or something in front of me (nice job getting your hand up fast by the way) and dove to the inside of 1. Kept on the gas late into 2 and took it really wide as the inside was a pretty much a clusterfuck. A couple guys on the outside came together and although they didn’t go down it pushed another rider off the track who was trying to pass them (amazing how much you notice around you while you are trying to push it at the same time.) I got past the first little bunch of riders and came down the hill where another bunch of riders were clustering together. Moved up a couple more spots by the end of the lap.

After two laps the clusters were gone and I just tried to chase down anyone in front of me. Looked down at my timer after lap 4 (shhh, bad I know) and saw a 37.xx, a personal best, just made me push harder. I was feeling great until lap 6 (I think) when I came around a slower rider on the outside of the apex of 6 (not where I want to pass.) I had to turn hard into 7 and jammed my peg into the track. Bike didn’t like that much and I was pretty sure it was going to spit me off (”pull a Jared”) but all it did was kick me up a bit. I barely stayed on the track, realized I wasn’t actually going to crash and decided it was kind of fun. By the last lap I was finally catching the group I saw in the distance, I passed the back rider and saw that next was Jim on his 1098. I caught up to him really fast in 5-7 (turned out he hit a false nuetral in 5) and kept the throttle pinned up into 8 trying to catch him before the busstop. I couldn’t quite pass in 9 so I backed off a hair hoping I could get a better drive than him out of the busstop. As I came out I pulled in front of him but then his extraa 500ccs kicked in and he beat me to the chute.

I checked the board a bit later and I finished 12th* which I was very happy about (next time I really need to start somewhere besides last) and saw my final lap was another personal best of 1:36.4xx! Thanks to Jim I think for the extra motivation to push it at the end.

All in a all I had an amazingly fun weekend and racing is even more fun than I hoped. Big thanks to my race team for helping me out so much to this point and to Taylor for keeping me company the whole weekend. Also an extra huge thanks to all the WMRRA volunteers. The more time I spend out there, the more I realize just how much they really do. Good seeing all of you out there!

*Nico note: I realize I didn’t “place” 12th, I merely finished my first heat.

P.S. I think I need to get my suspension looked at, still haven’t touched it since buying the bike….