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So, last round was all about the rain, or lack of rain but still being on rain tires, no chance of that happening two rounds in a row, right?
Right?
Crap, by Wed the forecast was not wavering on Friday being a rainout, and at least the morning Saturday being full wet as well. Didn't bother spending the $45/night camping fee to be there for Thurs evening, instead wandered up Friday noon-ish to setup. Decided to just waive goodbye at the cost of that Penguin Practice and skip going out in the cold wet. Still had rains mounted from last round, left'em on for Saturday.
Saturday was also cold and wet, but there were races to attend so no wimping out now. I skipped first practice, went out for second and holy shit was that a lot of standing water EVERYWHERE on track. The normal easy to deal with river across 10 was now a series of great lakes, standing water in 11, it was everywhere AND it was cold so way less grip than the round before. First race was GTO, another boggy start in Rain mode, doesn't seem possible to get off the line with any authority when in it? I circulated, 1:34 best lap, 5th out of the 5 bikes entered. Michael Lee set the fast lap of a 1:23.997 so... no one was fast. Second race, F40 Unl was a 3rd... out of 3 riders. Just me, (another bad start), Roger Ealy and Eric Wood. Eric turned a 1:22.2 to my 1:31.465. GTO got me warmed up, in F40 Unl I started actually trusting the bike some and trying to push things, track was also starting to dry out so my rear rain wasn't the happiest in the world but I completed all 8 laps, didn't get lapped. Last place finishes, but good points in the books for overall standings.
Sunday, aptly named arrived sunny, still kinda cool, and WIMDY. At this point I had done all my serious riding in Rain mode, finally I'd get to try it in Sport under race conditions with slicks. Excited for this I rolled out for practice, first one out and did my normal 'calibration' going down hot pit of full throttle up through 3rd... at least, that was the plan, I grabbed a handful in 1st and promptly rode a nice unintended wheelie down hot pit. It was smooth, predictable even, came down gently... I think I've gotten most of the seat cushion back out of my posterior. I had completely forgotten how much of an animal this bike is at all RPMs when uncorked, so this session I was nervous, but also happy to not be passed much while out there. I also started to notice I could feel rear movement when rolling on the throttle out of a corner...
HW SB was my one race of the day, after lunch. Temps were up, wind was still WIMDY and I was anxious to get out there. Gridded 2B I had Eric Wood and Shane Narbonne in front of me, Jacob Crossman to my left, Teagg and Mike Weyant behind me. So of course, I bobbled the start with a little pop up wheelie and throttle chop, that combined with checking up too much for 1 meant the entire wave was in front of me by 1A. That lit a small fire, I tried hard to keep them in sight for as long as possible but I'm still way off Ex or even Am HW pace... spent about 4 laps riding solo when one Am from the wave behind passed me, then a second who I tried to tag onto. This pulled my corner entry and roll speeds up, and proved that I'm nowhere near the bike's limits for braking on entry. Teagg did manage to lap me on lap 7, and TECHNICALLY because of a mechanical for Eric and Shane not finishing any races today (I think he just wanted test time without impacting anyone's championships?) I 'beat' them in HW SB? I got down to a 1:25.833, a time that wouldn't get me bumped from Novice to Am in HW but I'm actually happy about.
At that pace I was starting to get feedback from the front again, mostly in T9 as I upped my roll speeds based on trying to chase people who passed me. I was also thinking fast enough that I could count the seconds where people were making time on me in real time, so despite being a bit afraid of the MT-09s power still, I'm not in a headspace where things are 'happening too fast' apparently. This also matches the best pace I ever got out of the Buell, and unlike when I was on that, I know this bike is capable of WAY faster, I just have to do it. The other reference point I have is that's the times I got back down to after my last break from racing when I came back for a few rounds on the KTM 500, so i'm not that far from where I used to be. At my pace, it's also pretty likely the 'movement' I'm feeling from the rear isn't tire slip like my brain currently assumes, it may just be the carcass finally getting pushed enough to properly 'set' into the corner so it can really take some drive? Had a good chat with Mike W on the topic, and I agree that I need to push things a bit and test that theory to progress. Fortunately I've got all the time in the world to do so before the Classic that is next round DAMNIT!
If the fast guys drop 1:14s, I need to improve from a 1:25.8 to a 1:21.4 to have a chance of qualifying, pretty damn big leap, but back in (checks notes) 2018 I did manage to squeeze a 1:19 out of my FZR so, the muscle memory has got to be in there somewhere?
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Originally Posted by Kurlon
