5
One sentence short story: 1:25.833 last round, 1:22.222 this round.
Slightly longer version of the story: Did the two day special Penguin Advanced School prior to the Classic, where it was very quickly pointed out that my form on the bike has gone to absolute shit. I'm blaming taking time off from racing and then coming back on an absolute barco-lounger for only a couple events a year. Every time I went back into the classroom and Eric was ready to start discussing more advanced topics, I swear he gave me the "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" dad look. I made notes on what he was handing out for info, but kept most of my focus on track on getting the basics right again, ass out of the seat, point that inside leg, stop claw gripping the bars, and hey, trail braking means you brake until the throttle on point, not panic brake way before then coast.
The change in bike feel and confidence between what I was doing vs when I got things close to right resulted in natural increases in entry, roll and drive out speeds. I also learned I was trying to small bike line a big bike and have attempted to incorporate that knowledge into what I'm doing but, well, having to think about my body position and what I'm doing on the bike as I go into each corner is eating up a TON of my available thinking time, and as I found out today is exhausting all by itself. In any case, completed the school, have a BUNCH of stuff to work on, tried applying as much as I could while racing.
If you've ever done the two day school in the past and felt it was all info dump, little ability to apply it, the new program is SO MUCH BETTER. First off, Eric has a mean sense of humor he lets out in class now, and the sessions and drills work to reinforce the fundamentals so that those who are ready can then start tackling trickier things, and get direct guidance on doing so. I got solid pointers from every instructor I interacted with that all combined for a pretty solid lap time improvement by the end of the race weekend. Without the help I got, I'd have been struggling this weekend.
Three days of racing, one area I know I'm hurting is my drive out of corners, I roll on WAY too slow. Well, I've been running the rear tire from the Buell, an R7 rear I put on at Mid-Ohio last year. Time to change, it was wearing fine but I needed more confidence so I put on a new R5 at Seacoast's suggestion after Friday practice. That day in HW SB I dropped a 1:23.482 with a poor start. NEMRR's software was pitching fits all weekend, I have the results sheet but it's all scrambled and hand updated but I can't actually decipher what my final result was other than dead last out of ??? entries? I'm still the slowest two digit expert ever after all. The nice change though, at least this time I could tag onto people long enough to see what they were doing, and they wouldn't run away, just eek away slowly enough that in the back of my head I'm thinking I just need to twist that throttle a little bit more and I'd match pace. If only...
This was followed up by some Streetfighter practice and two qualifying sessions where I ultimately got down to a 1:23.041, not good enough to meet the 1:21.1 threshold established by the front runner's pace. The forecast for Saturday was a wet start, dry afternoon, and we'd get two practices and one more qualifier session, so I decided if I'm in, I'm all in and bought a new R3 rear in hopes of one more dry qual session to pull a hero attempt. No such luck, woke to rain, it stayed wet for all of practice and qualifying, I didn't get to race the Streetfighter event, but do get credited with a 15th place position based on my qual time after the 14 race participants so, cool? Spent the day trying to be helpful to the RSP / ECK / Cyclesmith / Hey you look like you race and need help where I could. Got to watch some GOOD racing and solid performances by friends. This extra down time gave me an opportunity to chew on things and I realized that a lot of what I was thinking was rear wheel spin when trying to drive out of corners was me just feeling the rear react to seams in the pavement, sealant patches, etc. A bit of movement but not actually spinning up. The grip is there, I just have to trust it more...
Sunday was the day we wished Saturday would have been, dry, warm but not too hot, pleasant breeze. I dropped a 1:23.8 in practice, felt great and that R3 was sticking. In GTO I got down to a 1:22.916 and noticed a change, now when I got passed people were actively shutting the door on me as they did so. No more just sailing by, they were actively making sure I couldn't respond... which means they thought I could? I thought I had been keeping some people behind me for a bit on Friday before they worked their way past, this time I noticed I did so with a few people, progress! I also tired the hell out of myself, and was getting kinda sloppy during the second half of the race. Constantly. Reminding. Myself. About. Body. Position. Every. Corner. Takes. Energy. I need to get that to be muscle memory so I can worry about other details. 7th out of 9 on this one.
F40 Unlimited was my last race for the day, I went into this one wound up, and had a riot out there. I am still launching slow but managed to stay mid pack into 1 and hung onto the pack for a bit. A few bikes from the waves behind me did make their way by, though I did hold up some of them and again could tag on and at least think about what I'd need to do to get them back, but am still not there on the execution part... I did get into a three wide dragrace from 3 to 6, Clarence on his RC8 on my left, dunno who the expert was on my right, the MT has got solid pull but I blinked first and let them have 6. A couple others I got to play with a bit, had a brake battle into 3 but they had the inside, they over cooked a bit but I wasn't quite brave enough rolling on to make the cross over retake work up 4. Finally feels like I'm participating out there. 8th out of 8, new PB on the heavyweight of 1:22.222, and I can see the path to improving that.
I'm also not looking forward to my future tire bills and having to manage race vs practice tires, etc... oofh, these big bikes are nuts!
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Originally Posted by butcher bergs
