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Got up to the track on friday about 8pm, after getting held up at work in Concord for a few hours. Oh well, that means they get to pay for my gas to and from the trackDaviid arrived shortly after so we claimed a section of turn 1a infield in the name of CBR, unloaded the bikes, and went to sleep. Clayton was MIA with trailer issues and he had all the beer so there wasn't much point in staying up.
Saturday morning practice went well, felt good and was passing people out there, didn't look at my times though, for whatever reason. First practice at 8am was damncold, got a nice rear tire slide coming up over the hill out of the bowl, hmm probably time for new tires as they've had god knows how many trackdays and races on them, at least 4 races and 7 trackdays for me and they were used when I got them.
Spent the rest of the morning trying to get Daviid's bike running, but no dice, he was out of LWSM. Deja Vu, seems like there's always at least one cheap bastid wrenching on his bike all day.
Race 9 comes up, I get the mother of all shitty starts as I'm distracted by Pete clipping another rider off the line and forget to shiftSpend the rest of the race trying to get by this one motard who according to everyone should be much slower than an EX500 in the straights but keeps pulling on me. I need a better drive out of twelve, and maybe a bit more tuck down the straight as well. Or to stop being a pussy and make some hairy passes, it's hard to pass those damn motards though as others have mentioned. Regardless, I end up with 37s and 39s, on pace with what I did last weekend but disappointing as I was feeling much better in practice and hoping to improve quite a bit.
Hopped off the bike after race nine and pulled the wheels off to get new skins, thanks to McBigglesworth for the use of his front tire tools and the rest of the CBR team for helping me get my wheels off. Took them to the dunlop guy who mounted and balanced new 208GPs while I waited in 10 minutes
First saturday morning practice meant scrubbing in new tires, in the cold, on a cold track. I for sure didn't set any lap records there, though by the last lap I had the times back on pace. Bike felt good, not sure how much of it was psychological but I felt much more comfortable leaning the bike over further in second practice with fresh tires on there. Was a bit disappointed to find that my laptimes after second practice weren't significantly lower, as I really felt like I had gotten over a bump out there and started taking sections faster. Still, I felt I was on the right track and resolved to stay the course and trust that my laptimes would drop in time.
Watching a few of the faster riders in the sunday races I began to notice how wide they entered turn 1A, running a tight line out of turn one and accelerating beween 1 and 1A before throwing the bike into 1A. This seemed to contribute to a lot more speed through 1A and 2, and a better drive out of 2. Having recently stopped downshifting between 1A and 2, this seemed like a good way to pick up a few more revs coming out of 2 and maybe get a decent drive down the straight. I decided this would be my goal for PTWN, granted it's never a good idea to alter your riding in a race but what the hell, it's not like I was pulling fast times out there anyway.
Race 14, get a halfway decent start and a little power wheelie shifting from 1 to 2, but get nervous as I'm charging down the group of riders entering turn 1 ahead of me and roll off. Need to start getting aggressive on the starts. Oh well. Keep up with the pack down the 2-3 straight and begin my braking and downshfiting for three.
Oh what's that greasy slidy feeling? Oh right, that's my rear tire locked up and wagging as I approach and pass my turn in marker for three. Seems my right foot had slipped down and stomped on the rear brake pedal, not good Darrell, keep your focus. Well turn three is shot, I straightline it and park the bike in the 3-10 section, look back and see daviid passing me with noone else back there so I turn around and gun the bike back up the hill while chanting zen meditations trying to get my focus back. Charge down around turn 6 and catch daviid around the back straight, I try to pass him on the outside of nine but he misshifted and went WAAAY outside forcing me to hop onto route 106 for a few seconds before bending the bike back to the left in order to set up for 10. Get caught back up to daviid and pass him coming out of 12, I can just make out another EX500 going into 1 as I hop on the front straight.
Well, now I have a goal, time to salvage whatever I can of the shitty first lap and get back in the race. Put my head down for two laps to catch up to the guy and by turn 6 of lap three I'm down the guys back tire. Try to pass him on the inside out of 9, but I'm a big pussy and back off. Get a good drive out of ten as he stays to the inside, I'm almost parallel to him and gaining speed, he's coming back into the "S" before 11...does he see me? Can I make it?...and I chicken out, grab brakes, and park behind his rear tire. Bleah. Spend the next three laps on the guys rear tire, never finding the balls to pass.
Driving out of turn 12, all of the sudden my rear tire locks for a split second and the bike gets a nasty headshake, wtf is this? As I'm trying to figure out what happens the EX I'd been chasing checks out down the front straight. Oh well, that's the end of that, I decide to play it safe and take it easy for the last lap, get passed by a bunch of ULSB riders, and take the checkered. Rear tire locks up a few more times on the cooldown lap so I think this was a good choice. Get back to the pits and my chain is *severely* loose, so it was probably jumping teeth out there causing the rear wheel seizures.
All in all I'm happy with the progress I made, turned a 1:33.384 chasing down that EX which is 4.5 seconds faster than my previous best race time. Hoping I can continue this trend in the last remaining two weekends (I'll miss the second sept weekend) and end up in the 29s before the end of the season, which was my first year goal.
Things to work on for next weeekdn: Carrying more speed through the chicane to get a better drive out of 12, shifting smoothly into fifth and continuing to stay on the gas through 7-8-9 section, and not passing like a scared child
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