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Race Report - LRRS Novice #434 8/7/2010
As always this is to serve as a reminder for myself so you may find it a bit long-winded. Look for bold text if you are only interested in results.
Pre-Race
I arrived late Friday night and got everything unloaded. Erin was able to come up with me this weekend (instead of taking a separate car) which made the drive a lot easier to deal with. Not much to note as I pretty much just dropped off my crap, set up my EZUP and went to the hotel.
Saturday AM practices
I got to the track with plenty of time and got through registration and tech without incident. My first practice session was fluid as I tried to shake off the apathy that comes with not being on a racetrack for a month. I had to leave to pick up Erin in between practices and only managed to make about 4 laps of the 2nd practice but I felt the same. Smooth but slow. Times were consistent in the 25-24s which is typical for me as I normally cant get up to race pace in practice.
Novice Lightweight Superbike
I was gridded in 1C and got a pretty good start into 2nd just behind Riley Rodgers (#324) who seems to be able to consistently make amazing starts. In last months races I was able to pace Riley fairly easily and had my hope of a victory snatched away in the last lap due to traffic however this time around he started to walk away from me by T9 and I quickly lost sight of him as I made error after error. Another wave started in front of us (F40 lights I think) and I was somewhat surprised to find that I was hitting traffic at T1 of the 2nd lap. It was a fairly full bracket so I knew that I had my passing work cut out for me if I had any hope of seeing Riley again. My poor drives out of 12 are really becoming a serious problem for me as Riley was entering T1 as I was crossing the starting line which allowed him to get in front of a pack of 4 of the F40 guys and that was the last I saw of him as I had to pick them apart through various turns. My timidity in passing is even more of an issue than my T12 drives and something that I am going to rip apart for the next race weekend.
I was picking through the traffic at a decent clip but there was a LOT of them. I worked through 5 bikes between T1 and T10 which, while not a lot is pretty aggressive for me as I was managing passes in the bowl and in T8 which wasn’t something I was comfortable doing before. Still, I missed lots more opportunities which cost me even more time.
I got passed by Scott Magnuson (#975) on the inside of T3 of the 3rd lap and was able to hang with him for another 2 laps before he slowly crept away from me as I continued to make mistakes. At one point David Dayon (#611) tried for an outside pass in T11 and after very nearly trading paint he went wide and across the grass. This really spooked me and my times increased considerably as I tried to reconcile the fact that I very nearly crashed. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get my head back into the game and was passed by David near the tail end of the race. 4th place finish with a best lap of 1:23.912 which was .1 second off of my personal best so I was happy overall with the time if not the results.
Novice Lightweight GP
Once again I was 2nd into T1 right behind Riley Rodgers who once again walked away from me very early on into the race as once again he was able to more adeptly weave through traffic than I could. I wasn’t feeling it for this race and so was trying to force things into line which makes for a not so good racing experience. I got passed by Jason Bellavance (#107) at some point and he and I diced it up for the remainder of the race as Riley was gone into the sunset and the next closest people in our wave were fairly far behind us. At one point I nearly highsided going up T4 and on the same lap had my rear end stepping out in T6 which suddenly reminded me that 4 race weekends, 8 track days and 1k street miles may be a lot for a soft Pirelli dragon supercorsa.
I tried to ignore it but coupled with the fact that I was already trying to force things to happen I had it step out again on me in T6 on the next lap despite the fact that I knew I wasn’t going that fast it shattered my confidence. I limped across the finish line in 3rd place with a best lap of 1:24.145 which while disappointing, wasn’t horrendous since that was .3 off of my PB. I discovered after I came into the pits that I forgot to turn on my video camera so no footage from this race :-(
Sunday AM practices
With what is quickly becoming my M.O. I woke up pissed off at yesterday’s performance and was determined to go out and do something less shitty than the day before. The more I thought about it and looked at it I felt that it was my body position and being too stiff on the bike yesterday which caused my traction issues or at least that is what I convinced myself of so that I was able to hit the track with some confidence. Still, I took it fairly easy for the first practice session to shake off the cobwebs and feel the track out.
My second practice I was determined to go out and work on being more aggressive with both my riding and my passing and it seemed to be working. I was passing consistently with very little alteration to my speeds while somehow managing to hold my lines more consistently than the day before. I felt very relaxed and stumbled upon something critical which I have now dubbed the “jellyfish” riding style.
I am sure that this is nothing new to the seasoned racers but I discovered in this practice that I was carrying a lot of tension in my core and shoulders which put a ton of stress on my knees and legs. I was still light on the bars but everywhere else felt tense. While reminding myself to drop my inner shoulder (something I still struggled with) I stumbled upon total relaxation where I literally just flop down on the bike (still in form of course). Instantly all tension left my whole body and everything felt so smooth and easy! I was ripping through corners with far less effort than I was able to before which meant that the 20 minute GTL would go a lot smoother!
Still, muscle memory being what it is, I wasn’t able to do it consistently but the times when I did it felt fantastic.. I made a mental note to do this as much as I could during the race and practice it during my next two days at the track.
I came in and was pleasantly surprised that I hit a new personal best of 1:22.699 which was a full 1.2 seconds faster than my prior! I was doubly happy that I was signed up for Kitts “Personal Best Challenge” which means that I just scored some cash for Chris Dinoia and his family (Chris is a rider who was critically injured last round and there are numerous efforts to raise funds for him).
Novice GTL
I was psyched for this race after my new jellyfish maneuver and PB. I was gridded in 2C and got a decent start which put me in 3rd about halfway down the straight, directly behind Scott Magnuson and Riley Rodgers (who once again shot from the back row like he was out of a cannon). I tried to tuck under Scott and the concrete wall for T1 but he tipped in early and I had to check up, allowing David Dayon and Bill Morey (#868) to pass on the outside. Mental note: take the outside line into T1 on starts. After yesterdays disappointing run vs Scott Magnuson there was no way I was going to have a repeat and passed him on the hill in T4 with my rear starting to spin up again. I promptly ignored it and put my head down. Once I got past Scott I focused on Bill who was a short distance ahead. I quickly closed the gap but he was wide and difficult to pass so I stuck with him and took him on the straight with motor (poor Honda hawk). I silently thanked SVRider.com for the 1st gen cam swap and rejetting info and tucked in for what I knew would be a long fight with David Dayon. I spent the next 15 minutes dicing with David which was fun. At one point I passed him going into T1 but he wasn’t having it and passed me on the inside of 3 and up the hill. Again I started to get wheel spin in 6 which unnerved me and kept me from making more aggressive passes. In the effort to keep things (relatively) short, we diced for the remainder of the race and I ended up with a 3rd place finish with a best lap of 1:23.716. I was disappointed in my finish as I pass up many opportunities to make a pass on David but at least my lap times are becoming more consistent and a little faster.
In Closing
I would like to thank my wife for her continued support as I spend our kids college money, my friends Mike and Michelle who came 4 hours to watch me race on Saturday (sorry it was a disappointing day), the RSP crew and Tony for all their help and advice, Christian and the rest of the crew from that funky tent-town they had going on down in T1A, and Gino for all his help getting the bike on/off stands and warmers.
I would also like to take a moment to comment on the community that is the LRRS racing crew, officials, cornerworkers, and other staff.
As I mentioned earlier we had a bad crash last round which resulted in some very scary and difficult times for Chris Dinoia of Slowpoke Racing. The community pulled together and between an auction, a benefit BBQ, Kitts PB challenge, and various private donations I have been informed that the total came to just under $20k that was raised in a single weekend to help Chris and his family. You don’t find much of that kind of sentiment in todays world and I must say that I am both proud and awestruck to be a part of it. It is this as much as the thrill of racing that will make me come back round after round so my hat is off to you, LRRS crew!
Video and pics to follow as I finish processing them
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