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Well I decided to race at NJMP this weekend with a RSP team member Keith Draghi. We got there after tech closed Friday night, so we got unpacked and got ready for the day to come. I had never raced at the track and a had done a track day on my POS TL1000S street bike there 2 years ago. I didn't remember the track at all so I had to make sure that I got both rounds of practice in. I talked to Tyler Sweeney that night about gearing and how mine would be topped out before the end of the straight, so I put on my 16 front and got a 45 tooth from Miles at Street and Comp...love that guy.
Saturday morning when we woke up, rain was on the menu. It was supposed to be clear all day Saturday and rain Sunday, but it looks like mother nature threw us for a loop. Practice started out just a little wet, but eventually by the time my practice (5th and last) practice got around it was too wet for DOT's but not wet enough to keep rains cool. I opted for the DOT's but it was very slick and I couldn't get on the gas anywhere. I used the session to just figure out where it turned right or left. After getting in from that session it was an open practice, so I went out again for a couple more laps to get acquainted.
My first race of the day was GTU, which was race 2. I looked at my grids and I was gridded 2E! Headed out for the warm up lap (which was very weird since they don't do pre-grid), and then gridded up. I sat on grid looking back at everyone saying...hey guys look at the new fast guy in town...that's right...I'm way up here...and I have no idea why! The start was a pass fest going into T1 haha. I had forgot to try a practice start with the new gearing and it was wayyyy different. I had to slip the clutch a ton more to get it going and I delayed a little on the start because I wasn't mentally prepared because I was too concentrated on thinking about my plan for T1. This race was pretty uneventful. I dropped my lap times progressively throughout the race and managed to get a 1:40. Towards the end of the race my front started pushing pretty bad. I talked to Markbilt (the pirelli vendor and local race shop owner), and was reminded that the front was supposed to be at 31psi and the edge of the tire was folding over because of the lower pressure that I was running (29psi). 14th out of 20.
It's painful to watch, but here is the vid. Justin Landry makes a guest appearance for a very short amount of time right as it gets dusty on the first lap coming out of T6.
My second race of the day was MWSS. With the new tire pressure I had much more confidence in the bike, sure that I had cured the problem. Again I had a 2nd row grid position in 2G. This time I got a great start and was 3rd into T1. I held positions much better ut was still getting passed pretty often. On the 3rd or 4th lap I got passed by #315 and managed to keep with him. I picked up a few of his lines in some corners, and found myself using other lines in other corners to try to get around him. He managed to have just enough go juice for me to not be able to get around him, and I wasn't totally confident in my passing abilities at the track, so that came into play also. I saw the white flag and decided that I was going to try to make my move in T1 on the brakes. Instead of braking at the 5 I decided to go for it and use the 4. While I was shitting myself I panicked a little and stood it up instead of throwing it into the corner. I ran over the outside curb and just watched him start to gap me. I downshifted to 2nd and took off trying to chase him down to gain the position. I managed to make up most of the ground I had lost, but it wasn't enough. I crossed the finish line behind him and congratulated him on his race. I was stoked to learn later that I had run a 1:34.7 chasing him down! Ended up 14th out of 18.
My camera didn't turn on because I left it on after my first race, so unfortunately I didn't get any video.
On Sunday all I had was the team Endurance with Wes Perry. He is going to be running the AMA race there, so he wanted to try to run an AMA length session and then I could do however long I wanted on his bike after that. I rode his bike in practice a bit to get the hang of it and it seemed pretty much like mine, but a little more stable. Wes forgot to fill the bike with gas so he came in after 14 laps or so and filled up since the light came on. Then he went out and finished the rest of his laps and then it was my turn. When I got out on the bike I started to push it a little to see what it had, only to find out that the bike was extremely hard to turn in and flop, which is extremely weird to me for an R6. At one point someone passed me on the inside of the first chicane and pushed me just a little wide, but because of how hard the bike was to flop I was not able to get it turned the other way and ran off into the dirt. I managed to get right back on track and kept it up, but I realized that I did not like the bike from there on out. Not only that but in order to flip it the bike required a massive input which tired me out really fast. After about 14 laps I pulled in and gave it back haha. It was good track time, but I feel like I gained nothing from it because of different bike settings. But I still had fun and thank him for letting me romp on his bike.
EDIT: And apparently I just heard from Wes and I managed to get a 1:34.609 on his bike. Not bad for a bike I wasn't comfortable with.
Overall I had an absolute BLAST with MWSS being the highlight of the weekend. I want to thank Keith Draghi for going down with me, Justin Landry for some pointers, Wes Perry for lapping me in GTU and showing me whats up (asshole), Arcy Kusari from On Track Media for the laughs and company as well as the EZ-UP for the team endurance (and for some awesome pics soon!), Markbilt for the Pirellis, Miles frlom Street and Comp again for the parts, and all my other sponsors who have supported me all year: Pine Motor Parts for the paint, All Balls for the bearings, Tony's Track Days for the great track time and instruction, Woodcraft for the great quality bling, and Ryan at Aesthetic Rain as our resident geek.
And a special thanks to Keith for bringing me to Sonic. Shittiest food ever. I won't be back.
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Originally Posted by nt650hawk
"why tip-toe through life to arrive safely at death?" Tony Campol
