151 Racing 2015 Round 7 and LRRS Wrap up

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Racing isn't not over yet! Daytona Race of Champions is right around the corner. That weighed heavily into this weekend. Initially the weather looked horrible, so the choice was made to only race the CRF450 Motard. My SV650, the bike that I will be racing at Daytona, is running perfectly, looking as pretty as it ever has (not saying much) and Peter Kates at Computrack Boston has the bike set up perfectly. With the cold potentially rainy weekend I didn't want to risk something happening to the bike so close to the championship in Daytona. It was probably for the best because I crashed the motard twice this weekend, and I'm blaming it on the cold.

I got to the track much earlier than normal on Friday. I grabbed my rehabbed motard from Pete Kates to do an oil change, wheel change (still had rains on) and general preperations for the weekend. He also rebuilt the forks for me after our discovery during round 6. With the chilly weather, and me only riding one bike this round, I skipped first Saturday early practice and went out for second practice to shake the cobwebs off. Everything felt great!

Super Singles was the first race of the weekend for me. It was race 4 on Saturday, and we later heard that someone oiled the track race 3. We sat on the grid for a while and it was cold out so the tires were already loosing heat. Add that to a bit of oil spray on the cold track and there were a bunch of crashes, including myself. turn 3 got me, I don't really know what happened. My clutch started slipping after i picked the bike up. It ended up being just the adjustment of the lever, but between that and the crash it through off the rest of the race for me.

ULSB. It was still chilly. I got stuck behind 919 for the beginning of the race, but I broke free of him a few laps in and tried to chase down the leaders. I was a little hesitant in my riding due to the cold and my previous crash, but i still managed to have the fastest lap time of the AM's by a second with a few clean laps. Not my best, but I will take it. 4th place finish.

Sunday!! The air felt much warmer and the sun was out in the morning. I decide to got on the board for practice, and I was until I crashed in turn ten. I'll chock it up to cold right handers. The mighty 64 Shane Narbone crashed there on his motard a few sessions later and I felt a little better about myself. The bike and me were fine though.

Motard.
The weather is pretty nice and I would like to go out and get a win for the end of the season. This was a fun race check the video! Lee 906 and Kevin 989 got some killer starts. I sealed them in by the second lap. I made a move to second on Lee in 11 and tried the same on Kevin a few time and he did a good job blocking it. I'm faster through 7-12 than them, both of those two are significantly faster through 3+4 than me. I'll call it crash scared. Anyway, Lee snuck back by after getting a bad drive out of 12 from a failed pass attempt. 3rd place

LW Sportsman. I don't usually run this race and it was the last one of the season at LRRS. I had some self preservation in mind. I fall into a grove and don't make much of it.


At the end of the weekend we started packing for the next big adventure. Along with some others from LRRS, Sergio (TEAM AMSIOL!!!) Isaac, Cole, Stephanie and I are all going with the guidance of Savas to Daytona. The race of champions is one of those once in a lifetime type racing events that I have the opportunity to participate in this year. Expect a full report from that.

Overall 2015 LRRS didn't go as planned. After breaking my shoulder and tearing my rotator during round 1 and missing round 2 I knew that I would be out of the points against the increasingly tough competition. I decided to try and concentrate on having fun race weekends instead of winning specific race weekends. Between running two dissimilar bikes and lack of goals, I didn't do very well points wise. But, I learned a lot about myself and racing in general. I did not run any class for more than 5 events and juggling 2 bikes is some work. At the same time I got to participate in AMA supermoto and still run my favorite race, GTL. At the beginning of the season I expected to be fighting for top spots in class championships and making a bump to expert at the end of the season. I realize that I'm not ready for that. I know I can ride smooth and fast, relatively, but there are other parts of my race craft I am still working on. Next year I will try to make improvements where needed and make a run towards the expert class again.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me in 2015. I don't list these people and companies as a technicality. Each and every one of my sponsors has made my race season much easier for me and gone above and beyond to help me more than my expectations. I really do appreciate the help I get.

IBEW Local 104
Computrack Boston
Team AMSOIL
Adrenaline Cycle
Woodcraft CFM
Armour Bodies

It's been awesome! See you next year!

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Great job JC! I'll be waiting to hear about Daytona. If you do anything bad, just tell them you're from Canada, OK?

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Thanks! I'll be sure too keep the shame to the Canadian side of me.

Also, I have no affiliation with these guys other than liking what they do. But, check out Chainwheel for cheap great pictures from the weekend.

Best laps were 1:21.4 SV and 1:23.0 CRF if anyone was interested.