Short Ver:
replaced the broken exhaust just to have it work for 1.5 days when the new 1 blows out again. finished 9th in 650TW but DNFed FIV when i did a pedrosa.
Long Ver.
Saturday practice:
Head up to Sears and pit w/ Pete, Ramon (#610), Ernie (#199) and and Matt (#126). Ozzy didn't ride but shot photos instead w/ Dito @ gotbluemilk.com. Go to reg and I'm signed in for group 4 as is Pete, Ramon and Matt. First practice wasn't too bad. Felt like I got to pace somewhat quickly though not full tilt. 2nd practice we all head out to grid up first for our practice group and I follow Matt around. Matt was a former top 5 guy a couple yrs back and w/ his new dunlop inspired confidence, he was cookin'. Our practice session went well and I think i was able to find some new speed in a couple key points. After lunch, Ernie's first practice resulted in a blown motor so he called it quits which sucked since he was about our pace and would have made a good showing this round. I go w/ Matt 1 more time and my rear tire that I just replaced @ BW was already onto the wear markers and moving around on me. Afterwards I throw on a brand new med/soft per Alex @ Michelin's suggestion and talk to Zoran @ Twinworks to figure out why my rear end's coming around. couple clicks of rebound and a trip to Gerry Piazza @ GP Frame & Wheels resulted in finding that all that was in my head and that I'd have to ride a little better to keep all 7Xrwhp to the ground which is easy if you have even a drop of talent. Tech, chilled, had some good eats @ Father J and Ricky's pit and went home.
you can see the progression in the pipe (more about it later)
Sunday morning:
Clowdy and overcast i get a speeding ticket getting over to the track. great. and i miss practice cause of it. whoopee. Our races aren't until after lunch so that was a big waste of time and money. I'll have to spring for a radar detector to minimize these things from happening in the future.
650TW:
I'm gridded on the outside of the 2nd row cause of the 10th place I picked up @ the season opener. Awesome. After my wheelie incident last yr., it was my goal to not repeat that and possibly roach my motor again. SIIIIDDDEEEWAAAAAAYYYYSSS, and it's a pretty long pause as the 1 board is in the horizontal position, GREEN FLAG! and creep forward and start moving like i'm coming from a stop light. Run out of revs and shift to 2nd. By this time, the back to rows have passed me and I'm cursing myself. Get going and start to make a few spots going up the hill and go through some traffic. I'm probably midpack after lap 1 w/ more people in front when an incident draws the black flag to stop the race. We all get back into the pits and I wait w/ some of the fast guys in the hot pits. After what seemed like 10min., just said "fuck it" and went back into the pits. Pull my helmet off getting ready to grab a drink when Suzanne (Pete's S.O.) tells me it's 2nd call to restart the race. Throw my gear back on and head back to the hot pits. I do a couple practice starts and 1 of them was decent so i head back to the front of the grid. Barb let's us go and we're off to do our in-lap and scrub tires. As about 7-9 of us grid up, we see the entire rest of the grid file into the hot pits so we take a 2nd warm up lap. SIDEWAYS.....GREEN FLAG! and my start is once again a pile of steaming dog turd. people pass me left and right and i'm not quite as aggressive as the first start so more people are getting by. Finally make some time up and start moving back to wear I started. Ducky (#175) is in front of me and I follow for a couple laps.
White flag flies so I finally passing him in T7 on the brakes and chassing after kevin (#835). I don't gain much on him but i know Ducky is breathing down my neck so I take defensive lines in the back section and end up finishing 9th during the race.
Oliver (#960) was behind me most of the way. here are the last 2 laps (FYI, i'm the first guy into T11):
He also has the entire race on youtube if you care to watch. You can watch just how shitting my start was.
Coming back into the pits, I noticed my bike was a bit louder than normal so I check my pipe and sure enough, there's a big gaping hole in the CF can that I just picked up. Hopefully this gets resolved somehow cause this is the 2nd can that's blown out in the span of 2mo.
first start of the 650TW race (i'm gridded outside of the 2nd row)
check the stuffing (0_0''')
FIV:
Grid up on the 3rd row on the outside. This shoulda been on 2nd row but I lost aggression @ BW and moved backwards. SIDEWAAAYSS, GREEN FLAG! and the start is not bad but i pause for a split second as the bike revs out in 1st so people pass me as i move my boot onto the peg to shift to 2nd. I'm gaining ground but feel the bike doesn't have a lot of juice to go so I shift up and end up in 5th gear going into T2. start to gas it coming out and it's bogging as people who I just passed going into T2 get right back in front.
Eventually I'm in a pack w/ Jimbo (#300), Will (#522), Mike (#176). Will overcooks T9 and runs off in the dirt while the 3 of us go through. Will starts to head back onto the track as we're coming out of T9A so Mike checks up for a split sec. while i'm still on the gas. on his inside (left). I have a decent pull on Mike coming out of T10 and tried an inside (right) move into T11. Hard on the brakes, my front wheel is right next to his leg as he turns into T11. HOLY SHIT! I grab a handful more brake and the rear end lifts up what feels like 3ft as I hit his rear wheel and get tossed onto his left side, landing on the back of my head and back as my bike is pushing me straight. Finally stop and get up w/ a twinge of pain in my ankle as I go to pickup the bike. I see Mike and apologize profusely. I'm sure he was completely bummed being taken out like that as I would be if I were in his shoes. Props to the cornerworkers. As soon as I get up, they're practically on top of us making sure we're okay as they pull the bikes off the track. The worst thing is T11 is in direct view of the Twinworks garage so the entire crew was there to see my bonehead move. All I could do was shrug my shoulders, explained what happened on my end and apologize to Mike again. The race ends as we sit on the hot pit armco. I get back to the pits and throw my helmet down in disgust as I head to the ambulance to get checked out. Other than a wounded pride and some soreness, I'll live.
Thanks to Pete, Ozzy and all the BARFers who came to watch and support us. Big thanks to the cornerworkers. They're the best in the business of all the ones I've seen from the pro-circuit. Thanks the the sponsors for their support. See you next round. Hopefully w/ a new attitude, clean bike and more speed.
replaced the broken exhaust just to have it work for 1.5 days when the new 1 blows out again. finished 9th in 650TW but DNFed FIV when i did a pedrosa.
Long Ver.
Saturday practice:
Head up to Sears and pit w/ Pete, Ramon (#610), Ernie (#199) and and Matt (#126). Ozzy didn't ride but shot photos instead w/ Dito @ gotbluemilk.com. Go to reg and I'm signed in for group 4 as is Pete, Ramon and Matt. First practice wasn't too bad. Felt like I got to pace somewhat quickly though not full tilt. 2nd practice we all head out to grid up first for our practice group and I follow Matt around. Matt was a former top 5 guy a couple yrs back and w/ his new dunlop inspired confidence, he was cookin'. Our practice session went well and I think i was able to find some new speed in a couple key points. After lunch, Ernie's first practice resulted in a blown motor so he called it quits which sucked since he was about our pace and would have made a good showing this round. I go w/ Matt 1 more time and my rear tire that I just replaced @ BW was already onto the wear markers and moving around on me. Afterwards I throw on a brand new med/soft per Alex @ Michelin's suggestion and talk to Zoran @ Twinworks to figure out why my rear end's coming around. couple clicks of rebound and a trip to Gerry Piazza @ GP Frame & Wheels resulted in finding that all that was in my head and that I'd have to ride a little better to keep all 7Xrwhp to the ground which is easy if you have even a drop of talent. Tech, chilled, had some good eats @ Father J and Ricky's pit and went home.
you can see the progression in the pipe (more about it later)
Sunday morning:
Clowdy and overcast i get a speeding ticket getting over to the track. great. and i miss practice cause of it. whoopee. Our races aren't until after lunch so that was a big waste of time and money. I'll have to spring for a radar detector to minimize these things from happening in the future.
650TW:
I'm gridded on the outside of the 2nd row cause of the 10th place I picked up @ the season opener. Awesome. After my wheelie incident last yr., it was my goal to not repeat that and possibly roach my motor again. SIIIIDDDEEEWAAAAAAYYYYSSS, and it's a pretty long pause as the 1 board is in the horizontal position, GREEN FLAG! and creep forward and start moving like i'm coming from a stop light. Run out of revs and shift to 2nd. By this time, the back to rows have passed me and I'm cursing myself. Get going and start to make a few spots going up the hill and go through some traffic. I'm probably midpack after lap 1 w/ more people in front when an incident draws the black flag to stop the race. We all get back into the pits and I wait w/ some of the fast guys in the hot pits. After what seemed like 10min., just said "fuck it" and went back into the pits. Pull my helmet off getting ready to grab a drink when Suzanne (Pete's S.O.) tells me it's 2nd call to restart the race. Throw my gear back on and head back to the hot pits. I do a couple practice starts and 1 of them was decent so i head back to the front of the grid. Barb let's us go and we're off to do our in-lap and scrub tires. As about 7-9 of us grid up, we see the entire rest of the grid file into the hot pits so we take a 2nd warm up lap. SIDEWAYS.....GREEN FLAG! and my start is once again a pile of steaming dog turd. people pass me left and right and i'm not quite as aggressive as the first start so more people are getting by. Finally make some time up and start moving back to wear I started. Ducky (#175) is in front of me and I follow for a couple laps.
White flag flies so I finally passing him in T7 on the brakes and chassing after kevin (#835). I don't gain much on him but i know Ducky is breathing down my neck so I take defensive lines in the back section and end up finishing 9th during the race.
Oliver (#960) was behind me most of the way. here are the last 2 laps (FYI, i'm the first guy into T11):
He also has the entire race on youtube if you care to watch. You can watch just how shitting my start was.
Coming back into the pits, I noticed my bike was a bit louder than normal so I check my pipe and sure enough, there's a big gaping hole in the CF can that I just picked up. Hopefully this gets resolved somehow cause this is the 2nd can that's blown out in the span of 2mo.
first start of the 650TW race (i'm gridded outside of the 2nd row)
check the stuffing (0_0''')
FIV:
Grid up on the 3rd row on the outside. This shoulda been on 2nd row but I lost aggression @ BW and moved backwards. SIDEWAAAYSS, GREEN FLAG! and the start is not bad but i pause for a split second as the bike revs out in 1st so people pass me as i move my boot onto the peg to shift to 2nd. I'm gaining ground but feel the bike doesn't have a lot of juice to go so I shift up and end up in 5th gear going into T2. start to gas it coming out and it's bogging as people who I just passed going into T2 get right back in front.
Eventually I'm in a pack w/ Jimbo (#300), Will (#522), Mike (#176). Will overcooks T9 and runs off in the dirt while the 3 of us go through. Will starts to head back onto the track as we're coming out of T9A so Mike checks up for a split sec. while i'm still on the gas. on his inside (left). I have a decent pull on Mike coming out of T10 and tried an inside (right) move into T11. Hard on the brakes, my front wheel is right next to his leg as he turns into T11. HOLY SHIT! I grab a handful more brake and the rear end lifts up what feels like 3ft as I hit his rear wheel and get tossed onto his left side, landing on the back of my head and back as my bike is pushing me straight. Finally stop and get up w/ a twinge of pain in my ankle as I go to pickup the bike. I see Mike and apologize profusely. I'm sure he was completely bummed being taken out like that as I would be if I were in his shoes. Props to the cornerworkers. As soon as I get up, they're practically on top of us making sure we're okay as they pull the bikes off the track. The worst thing is T11 is in direct view of the Twinworks garage so the entire crew was there to see my bonehead move. All I could do was shrug my shoulders, explained what happened on my end and apologize to Mike again. The race ends as we sit on the hot pit armco. I get back to the pits and throw my helmet down in disgust as I head to the ambulance to get checked out. Other than a wounded pride and some soreness, I'll live.
Thanks to Pete, Ozzy and all the BARFers who came to watch and support us. Big thanks to the cornerworkers. They're the best in the business of all the ones I've seen from the pro-circuit. Thanks the the sponsors for their support. See you next round. Hopefully w/ a new attitude, clean bike and more speed.
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