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Well, I must say I am absolutely thrilled to be making this race report.
Scroll to bottom for the cliff notes, I honestly can't believe how much I just wrote. A lot happened this weekend for me.
In my rookie weekend, I came in not knowing much, in freezing temperatures on a bike I had never ridden and managed to set my PB of 1:29, take second in the rookie race, win both ultra lightweight races I entered, and pulled out of a third due to a mechanical.
This weekend, my one and only goal was to bump to AM, which required a sub 1:27. Because I pretty much took the lead into one, and then ran alone for the rest of the time my first weekend, I decided to run up a class and do all the lightweight races I could, so I registered novice 3, rookie 3, starter 3, and was able to squeeze in a novice 4 to get a fourth race under my belt.
This weekend I came into it with a better idea of the logistics of everything, an AWESOME group of guys to garage with (Adam, Lou, and Dave) and 80 degree bright sunny weather. I also had an unreasonable cold/sinus thing I've been battling and 2 hours of sleep the night before due to it, but I digress.
Showed up 7am Saturday morning not feeling too hot, went through tech, and got in both practices. Took it easy first practice, no idea what I was doing for times, but slow, and second practice I turned it up a notch, looked at the board and realized I posted the second fastest lap times with a 1:26.406 behind my garage mate Lou, and needless to say, I was pumped.
First race was Novice formula 3. I was gridded dead last (as in all of my races) and the guy in front of me had an unreasonably slow start. I tried to go around him next to the wall, but he shifted over, and I really did not want to crash, so I backed off as everyone else zipped by him to the left. After the first lap or 2, I made it through almost everyone until I finally caught up to 2 guys going at a reasonable pace. I knew Lou was off somewhere in front, and there seemed to be another guy up there a bit behind, but they were long gone from me. After watching a lot of awesome back and forth between the 2 guys in front of me battling for 4th place, I finally sized up my opportunities and took one guy in on the inside of 8, and immediately after took up the next on the outside of 9. I was very happy with that. I never did catch up to Lou and the other guy, and took 3rd not beating my PB but with a best lap of 1:26.462.
Next race was Novice formula 4. I took the lead into one and saw a huge cushion behind me after like 2 laps, setting my PB in lap 2 of a 1:26.226 I backed it off, just a tad, and ended up paying the price. After a couple laps of a waving yellow, I eventually got passed by someone on a Ducati on the last lap. Not big deal I said to myself, he's on a big ducati, he's gotta be running with middleweight formula 2 guys that was the wave before me, so I never even thought of challenging him, especially since there was less than a lap to go. Come to realize he was not in the formula 2, but that a Ducati 800ss can run ultra lightweight. So I took a second place, and learned an extremely valuable lesson: race until the end of the damn race.
Grabbed some pizza with the ECK guys, got a lot of valuable tips, and then went to spend the night at my friends place in Laconia, because I was absolutely exhausted, my sinus stuff had gotten even worse, and I needed a bed. Got probably like 12 hours of sleep, and showed up the next day at 8am feeling a lot better.
I was a couple minutes late to the first practice, so I went out, had a good time and made sure everything Worked. I tried a few pointers from the guys, one of the most important was not using the clutch, at all. Slamming down 2 gears into one without the clutch, goes against pretty much everything I knew about motorcycles, but thankfully with the STM slipper it was extremely smooth and really let me get off the bike before I got on the brakes and get on the them hard.
After that we realized I made a huge mistake and never checked the size of the front sprocket when I bought the bike. I was told it was a 15, it wasn't, Christian took a look and found out it was a 13....So we swapped that out real fast since I had a 15 in the box of spares and I was off for second practice. Because the bigger sprocket needed a bigger chain I had to trade out my block sliders for the my stock blocks, and this will come up later. After that nifty little swap and losing all of my reference points I went out and did second practice and set a PB of 1:25.758.
I had a spare longer chain that Christian gave me so after that race I decided to put that on to be able to run my block sliders. Thought I had plenty of time had to remove a link from the chain and then realized I needed to remove another which didn't go as well. My harbor freight tool didn't work well, I used Pete's RK tool and broke the damn bit, but it at the same time popped the rivet loose so I was able to go back at it with my harbor freight one and get it done. I also swapped to a set of pirelli slicks I bought from CEO and through those on there. Because of all of this, I ended up barely making it out to race three due in part to HUGE help from my garage mates and Christian. Huge thanks for that, I would have been so bummed to miss that race.
Gridded for race three, Novice Starter 3 dead last again. Lou was off the front, 2 guys behind him, then me into turn 1. Lou broke away and by the time I made it past the 2 guys inbetween us, he was gone. I saw him entering 3 as I exited 2, and I didn't see him much after that. Good 1-2 finish for the garage, I ran another PB of 1:25.672. The pirellis were sliding in the rear on me a lot, which we found was due to the rear being 5 pounds over pressure and the front being 2 pounds over.
Fixed the pressures and went out for race 10, Novice Rookie 3, again gridded dead last. I ended up taking the holeshot barely squeezing by Lou into 1. Kept the lead all through the first lap, then Lou got me on the front straight. I saw his tire into 1, but couldn't make the pass. He pulled for a bit that lap then I had enough and was determined to not let him get out of sight. I slowly but surely reeled him in, with the lappers helping me out. I eventually got close but it was too late at the point. Another 1-2 for garage number 2, and I broke into the 24s in a big way with 1:24.293!
Super awesome weekend, huge thanks to Lou, Adam and family, Dave, Christian, Pete, Chuck, and everyone else who helped me out. I had an absolute blast and cannot wait until the Classic!
Cliff notes:
Novice Formula 3: 3rd place, best lap: 1:26.462
Novice Formula 4: 2nd place, best lap: 1:26.226
Novice Starter 3: 2rd place, best lap: 1:25.672
Novice Rookie 3: 2nd place, best lap: 1:24.293
If you read this novel, I applaud you.
A man of many names...Jay, Gennaro, Gerry, etc.
Nice dude. Congrats on the bump.
Cliff's Cycles KTM
NETRA enduro B-vet
Close your eyes, look deep in your soul, step outside yourself and let your mind go.
I read the whole thing, novice reports are better than AM/EX reports. always a lot of PB from race to race. and you can tell that new guys still have that excitement and it comes through in their writing.
good job. 24s is moving on a motard.
LRRS Am #331
Graphic Tailor / Woodcraft / Armour Bodies / Suomy / Cycle Performance Autobody / Shorai / ChickenHawk Racing
Still trying to kick the grunts disease.
Down shifting w/no clutch? Sounds abusive, but I guess if you blip the throttle... I do it when I drive a truck at work but haven't ever tried it on a bike. Congrats on the killer weekend!
LRRS am #121
"So this is what your race program has become... the back of a pickup truck huh?" -PK
I just stomp too. No clutch, no slipper, straight gnar.
Cliff's Cycles KTM
NETRA enduro B-vet
Close your eyes, look deep in your soul, step outside yourself and let your mind go.
Jim, I think we've met like 5-10 times and every time it seems you never remember who I am...so I think I gave up, haha. Next time, garage 10, I'm stopping in and forcefully introducing myself to you guys and not just buy stuff from Chris.
Man, well makes me feel better about doing it with a slipper.
A man of many names...Jay, Gennaro, Gerry, etc.
The lower the revs, the easier it is to pull off and easier on the transmission as well. In practice, go into one, start braking but don't clutch a shift, wait for your revs to dip decently and as you're slowing down click it down a gear. It should just drop if you've let the revs drop enough. You may need to keep the throttle cracked just a touch. I used to do it all the time into 1, 3, 11, etc on my GS and Kaboom.
Last edited by csmutty; 05-20-12 at 11:05 PM.
-Christian LRRS/CCS HasBeen ECK Racing
2011 Pit Bike Race CHAMPION!
Very good!
Nice dude!
I knew those tires would help ya... as long as you put the right amount of air in em
24.2... that's a good time on a tard for sure!
Zip-Tie Alley Racing
LRRS/CCS #103
PPS | Dunlop | Boston Moto | Woodcraft & Armour Bodies | 35 Motorsports | Pit Bull | K&N
Don't get any tighter than that in there, you're inches away from chucking that thing.
Foot, curb, unload, tumble.
Cliff's Cycles KTM
NETRA enduro B-vet
Close your eyes, look deep in your soul, step outside yourself and let your mind go.
With the change in gearing right here has become a very tricky spot for me lately. After the apex in 6, I try to use just the throttle to determine my line through 7. I'm struggling with figuring out if its better to drop down from gears 5-4 into the bowl or from gears 5-3.
When I drop 5-3, the bike has gobs of power to drive out of 6, but that means grabbing 4th fully leaned after 6 and then grabbing 5th after the flip for 8. Grabbing a gear fully leaned is something I'm struggling a bit with since its very new to me. The little bit of body shifting I do can throw my line off a bit. Also, that small let off while shifting can lean the bike down more and throw off the line just a hair. On a couple occasions I did find myself nervous of grabbing a peg on the curbing of 7 while doing this. Since it never happened I got use to it, sort of, and just went with it.
If I only drop to fourth into the bowl, the bike struggles a bit out of 6, but its a super smooth transition into 7 since I'm not grabbing a gear here and am going a bit slower. I do not think this is the fastest way around this section of the track, though.
I think the answer is to just drop to fourth and carry more corner speed. My foot peg is already on the ground through 6 which caused me to crash last race weekend, so its a mental hurdle I need to get over.
Last edited by JettaJayGLS; 05-21-12 at 09:28 AM.
A man of many names...Jay, Gennaro, Gerry, etc.
Nice job, and nice line in the bowl. Not enough people get to the apex!
BTW, you guys using the clutch are all panty waists! It's smoother and faster to not use the clutch after leaving pit lane. Any bike, no matter. The thing that freaks people out is that it's rough and clunky if you "test" this out while not riding at pace. The rythym of the track and shift points will pretty much ensure that the gearbox is unloaded when you go to downshift.
btw, take the extra downshift for now. There is usually an upshift between 6/7 and 7/8 on a lightweight. There may come a day you can reach the next gear, but til then it will be slower.
Push the bike up a bit as you run out toward the outer curbing in 6 and get the shift. You can lay it back down a bit to apex 7.
Thanks, a big focus of mine was getting lines down and hitting the apexes. I saw lots of pictures from the previous weekend with my knee down miles away from the apex. and knew that was time lost.
Good points all around. I really need a track day to help sort a lot of this out...
A man of many names...Jay, Gennaro, Gerry, etc.
We are actually in North 9
That is absolutely the answer. Once you do that you'll carry more speed out of the bowl on the gas, grab 5th between 6/7, and top out 5th over the hill, grab the brakes lightly and a downshift into 9...
That photo is from 7... just sayin'
Great shot! Any of me?!PS seems you're always up there snapping photos, have we met? If not, find me in N9 and I've got a beer with your name on it for taking all these sweet photos of everyone
Last edited by CEO; 05-21-12 at 03:33 PM.
Zip-Tie Alley Racing
LRRS/CCS #103
PPS | Dunlop | Boston Moto | Woodcraft & Armour Bodies | 35 Motorsports | Pit Bull | K&N
10N is still the better garage![]()
LRRS Am #331
Graphic Tailor / Woodcraft / Armour Bodies / Suomy / Cycle Performance Autobody / Shorai / ChickenHawk Racing
Zip-Tie Alley Racing
LRRS/CCS #103
PPS | Dunlop | Boston Moto | Woodcraft & Armour Bodies | 35 Motorsports | Pit Bull | K&N