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July
WERA West, Buttonwillow I feel better, I guess, because I improved my setup and felt comfortable pushing the bike this weekend. Considering I came away with no points, a couple thousand in damage to the bike, and some painful body parts, I should feel positively awful, but I don't. If you were wondering about us racers and our tenuous link with sanity, well, now you know. Britt came with me to BW even though she wasn't racing. We brought the trailer and the dogs and had a great old family vacation. When I say family vacation, I mean dog hair everywhere and arguing about body odor. It was awesome. Because we did the "FV" approach, we got to BW at about four in the morning, instead of 11pm. This can be contributed to the ridiculous LA traffic, road construction crews that move slower than the concrete they pour and some good sushi that we should have stepped away from a few hours earlier. Be that as it may, we were freaking late getting in. I woke up with not enough sleep, and worried about the changes I made to the bikes geometry, and having to learn the track. Buttonwillow is a track that has a million different configurations; we were running configuration 13, which is what the AFM uses. Because there are some 22 corners, many of them not even counted, it really separates the faster guys from the slower guys. The speed disparity was enormous. The heat (over one hundred all weekend, and a fair amount of humidity) meant that there were lot's of people that didn't show up. With few riders attending, and some street riders thrown in due to the track day nature of practice, getting clean laps to learn the track, even in race group, was arduous. I got to witness some very close calls throughout Saturday. I was doing low 57's on shagged tires and wasn't pushing it hard, so I felt pretty good. Plus, I was comfortable on the bike, something I hadn't been in a long time. Sunday I got some new Pirelli's, but due to my tire vendor issues, I was reduced to begging again. I had to run a dot front and a slick rear, both new constructions and compounds that I hadn't run before. In the two practices I took it easy, ran 56's, and came in early. This is significant. The first race was F1. The grid was small enough I knew I could get on the podium if I upped my game a little, and felt I had tons in reserve. I got another patented start (crappy, with a hint of wheelie), but no one got a great one, and I was third into turn one. We were bunched up for a couple of laps and I was concerned because whereas in practice the rear tire felt great, now that I went onto the track with the tire heat cycled and on the warmers for the correct amount of time, it had NO grip! I was spinning everywhere. Every lap was one big lesson in throttle control, as I couldn't get the damn thing to stick anywhere. The AFM racer who was in the lead by this time checked out, leaving Premek Glintz and I to battle it out. He was holding me up, but the tire was holding me up a lot more, so I passed him for second place twice, but couldn't make it stick. It was awful. We rode around glued together for four laps, and I knew I could get him on the last lap, as I had more pace. I just had to make the move at the right point. What I call turn 5 is a tight, blind, off-camber, right hander that I was consistently losing the tire in throughout the whole race. Even in practice I had a few moments there--just not much grip on a liter bike. So, you'd think I'd be extra cautious there, wouldn't you? Alas, not so much. I decided to get a drive on him and run inside a couple of corners down, to give me an extra chance to pass if I needed it. I lost the rear huge, it stepped out 90 degrees, I caught it, and for one millisecond thought I'd be okay. Then it snapped 180 degrees around and unceremoniously high-sided me off the opposite side. I was over mid throttle in third gear, and flew and flew. I landed on my left hand, bounced beautifully, then cart-wheeled about ten times. God I wish there were style points. To add insult to injury, every time I rolled I looked at the bike to see if it was going to follow me and smash me flat as an encore. My wide open eyes got a nice jet of dirt straight into them as I tumbled. So I laying there with the wind knocked out of me, thinking that all kinds of things could be broken, and my eyes were burning and tearing from the dirt. Ah the racing gods must have laughed. The ambulance came after I crawled out of the way more and lay back down, and thought there was oil everywhere due to the dust sticking to all the sweat. It was pretty. It's times like that when I think about my failed modeling career. If only I was actually good looking, I could have made it. Oh, and the part about being hairy and bald. And I heard those guys work out every day... |
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| Racers, take the time to
write this down. <Take off your rings
before you race>. I forgot, and I'm lucky my hand isn't worse. As it
is I
beat the crap out of it for no good reason, and almost tore my finger
off. The ring cut though the glove and has grind marks from the
pavement! It took five minutes with the thing in ice water, which was
not fun minutes after crashing, then wrapping the holy hell out of it
with
dental tape to get the offending wedding band off. The paramedics were
worried about me losing the finger from swelling because titanium bands
are so hard to get off. From now on, I have a good excuse for flirting
with single girls. "Hey, can't wear my ring, my dangerous hi-speed
lifestyle prevents me. Sorry baby!" Being held up, with a rear tire that was not right, I ran 1:54.6. I feel good about that, as I'm sure with the tire hooking up and some room, I could run 52s. That's pretty fast, and would put me in good company whenever I race there next. About the tire, I'm sure there was nothing wrong with it other than incorrect pressure. As with my rear springs, my height and weight make setup difficult, and I run stuff no one else does. I will be buying a pyrometer to check tire temps and adjusting pressure accordingly from now on, regardless of what cold pressure is recommended. With the track temperatures over 130 degrees Fahrenheit, all bets are off. Just have to learn to do my own thing. At this level and pace, I have to learn what works for me and not rely on others until I've tested their suggestions. I'll be missing the next Las Vegas round healing from the broken ankle and getting the bike together, but I will be back, and I will be fast. Get used to it. Special thanks to Peanut for all her help. She was awesome. Having the whole fandamily around, even with the dog hair, was great. Josh from Tiger Shark Racing and Pirelli. It's nice to be back on Pirelli. The new tires are awesome; when I get my settings to match them--Look out! |
 ...or like this.  Here's mud in your eye. |
