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For 2014, I'm riding a completely different bike, in a completely new class, and focusing on only one race for the season. As such, my race program has undergone some fundamental changes, and with that will come some ups and down.
I arrived at the track Wednesday night, around 11. RSP teammate Brian Kelly (90) was already there, and helped me unload and get the trailer emptied into the garage so I could set up my living quarters for the better part of the next week. We BS for awhile, checked out each others new bikes some, and I turned in for bed.
Thursday was tire day; MTAG had almost 200 tires delivered directly to NHMS earlier in the week, and Brian helped me get them unpacked and sorted. I set up shop, and hung out for the remainder of the day as my teammates continued to arrive.
Friday was the first chance to test the new bike, a 2008 Yamaha WR250x for use in the new Formula 300 race class. I made some gearing changes before even riding it, after realizing some calculations I made had been in error when setting it up. Part of the adventure this season is that no one is racing this model, so I'm figuring it out as I go along. Tony and Graham helped me make some tweaks to the suspension settings after each session on Friday, having had the forks and shock revalved and resprung for racing by Peter Kates at GMD Computrack before the race season began. I think I'll end up dialing that even stiffer as I pick up some speed on the bike, but for now it works. I did have a chance to turn some laps with Bruce Marshall (398) on his EX250R, which was good because it's difficult to get a sense of pace when the next lowest HP bikes out there are 125GP bikes with twice the power and half the weight. Bruce and I are roughly the same speed on SVs, and we were running roughly equal on the smaller bikes. The Ninja definitely didn't run out of speed on the straight, where my WR was into 6th gear by the start/finish line and running flat before the 4 board even with the additional bit of power provided by the custom map from Dyno Solutions. I'll need to continue playing with the gearing, and increase my exit speed out of 12, to not get outdragged by the sportbikes in the class going forward. I got four sessions in, and managed to gradually get the times down, but there's still a lot to be done. I was clearly not going to be "up to speed" on the new bike in time for my first race, and with my intent to only run one class, each round's finish position takes on a new importance.
Saturday I woke up to conditions that looked an awful lot like rain was on the horizon. I do have spare wheels and rains for the WR, but the front rotor is incorrect for the bike, so I need to actually swap the tire from wheel to wheel. Since I had just ridden the bike yesterday, and wasn't going to make any gains in two short, wet, cold practice sessions, I opted to sit out both sessions.
Formula 300, Round 1: 2nd place
With only 4 bikes on the grid, and 2 of us on full rains, I knew my odds of getting a decent finish here were pretty solid. This may be the first time I've ever considered rain a lucky break for me, as it would hopefully equal things out. Right out of the gate, Roger Ealy Jr (823) was off like a shot on his Ninja 300. He was out of site by the end of the first lap, and will clearly be the guy to beat in this class. Jon Vaughan (33), who did the full 2013 season on his Ninja 250, got by me up the hill on lap 1, after I missed a downshift into T3, and I chased him through the back section. I came close to trying to make a pass in T9, but chose to hold off because it was early in the race and Ealy was clearly out of either of our range. As it turns out, that was the right call, because Jon lowsided inches off my front wheel making the flip for T10, putting me into a (distant) second place by the time I first crossed the S/F line. A look back plus the signals from my teammates on pit wall told me I had a decent gap on Bruce (who had also tipped over in T10 earlier before the race, and was likely to be very conservative because of it), so I just trackday'ed the shit out of the remaining laps, and essentially coasted into my first Expert podium finish. I could not have asked for a luckier break, really, because I wasn't ready to be competitive yet in a straight up dry race.
I'd like to thank my teammates, my MTAG partners, and all the friends and racing family for all the fun this weekend. The weather wasn't great, but we made the most of it. Hopefully May holds some warmth and sunshine for us. I've got some work to do on the WR still with gearing, and I need to learn how to ride the damn thing, but yesterday's laps and the laps I'll get on Monday before Round 2 with Tony's Track Days will go a long way. I'm hoping that in a dry Round 2, I can run a competitive race.
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Originally Posted by rolker
