Anyway, lots has happened since my last post. Let's rewind to Round 1. After the terrible time I had with the Pirellis in the cold during Round 1, I was set on giving the new Michelins a try at the next trackday. So I did. And they were awesome. Again, Jason from Corporate suspension was on hand and helping a tremendous amount. We worked really methodically, running 2-3 lap stints, checking things and making adjustments in hot-pit, then going back out for another 2 laps, then back in, etc. In the garage, we'd make the major changes to ride height, etc. By the end of the day, my CBR was working as good as I've ever felt a bike work. I was able to do things I've never felt comfortable doing on my R6, like using tire spin to turn the bike; I even pushed the front and felt no drama at all. It was awesome. Unbelievable, actually.
So going into Round 2, I was really looking forward to seeing how much pace I'd gained during the testing with Jason. Plus, our club (the UtahSBA Masters of the Mountains, in case you forgot) was sharing the event with WERA (a national Pro/Am kind of organization), so there was going to be a huge pool of talent.
WERA's premier 600cc class is Middleweight SuperStock, so I had to do a qualifying session on Saturday to determine my starting position. I went out for the morning practice before the qualifying session and promptly got a rock through my radiator. I pulled into the garage and had this little jet of steam shooting out, just like in the cartoons... Not what I want to see on a 2012 CBR. Luckily, Brian Harris had his CBR in his trailer and let me pull his radiator off and use it for the weekend. I swapped in in about 20 minutes, just in time to get out for the start of the qualifying session.
I tried to relax and do my thing and set an OK time to qualify on the 3rd row. However, I went to double check the time sheets and saw my name in a group of riders listed with a "DQ". WTF? I asked someone and they said my time was thrown out because I was on slicks. I'll spare you the details, but basically, slick tires are illegal in WERA's SuperStock classes, but legal in UtahSBA's classes. Since the two clubs were being scored differently, we were supposed to be racing to our respective club's rules. But the hard-asses at WERA said we could "race" to our club's rules, but didn't say anything about qualifying. They gave me and the other DQ'd riders the option to start at the back of the grid for the race, or race on DOT (DOTs are race tires with tread grooves so they look like a street tire). I chose to keep my grid position and race on the Pirelli DOT tires that I was at least somewhat familiar with, hoping it would be warm on race day so I wouldn't tear them up. After that, I was done for the day, so I headed home to hang out with Carrie and her parents.
I tried to relax and do my thing and set an OK time to qualify on the 3rd row. However, I went to double check the time sheets and saw my name in a group of riders listed with a "DQ". WTF? I asked someone and they said my time was thrown out because I was on slicks. I'll spare you the details, but basically, slick tires are illegal in WERA's SuperStock classes, but legal in UtahSBA's classes. Since the two clubs were being scored differently, we were supposed to be racing to our respective club's rules. But the hard-asses at WERA said we could "race" to our club's rules, but didn't say anything about qualifying. They gave me and the other DQ'd riders the option to start at the back of the grid for the race, or race on DOT (DOTs are race tires with tread grooves so they look like a street tire). I chose to keep my grid position and race on the Pirelli DOT tires that I was at least somewhat familiar with, hoping it would be warm on race day so I wouldn't tear them up. After that, I was done for the day, so I headed home to hang out with Carrie and her parents.
On race day, things got a bit more stressful when WERA shifted the schedule around and but my two races back to back. Meaning, I'd have the 8-lap premier race and a 4-lap regular, back to back. Oh, and they said if I finished near the back of the pack, I might not make it through post-race tech and down hot-pit in time to make the warmup lap for the 4-lap right after... Sweet.
Whatever. I put a ton of gas in the bike in case I didn't get the chance to refuel and hoped for the best. Carrie and Tarik brought water and fuel out to hot-pit, so if I did have time between races, I and my bike could get a drink.
We took to the track for our warm-up lap and came around to the starting line. The grid was huge, like 30+ people. I got a pretty OK start and settled in to a good rhythm. I kept the leaders in sight a lot longer than I thought (especially, since there was an AMA champion amongst them). I broke away from the riders behind me and started to reel in some of the riders in front of me. One of which was really special. He is our local "fast guy" on 600s, named Scott Decker. He's a Canadian guy that pretty much comes down and whoops up on us each race weekend. My friend Austin has been closing in on him and has been within striking distance during a few races, but Scott has always won. So, I'm closing in on this guy in the race and, at first I didn't know it was Scott, but after another half lap, I see his number on the back of his helmet. At that point it was on. I pushed hard to close the gap to him and did so rather quickly. Once behind him, I followed for another lap and planned my move. I made the pass and dropped him a bit to have a comfortable distance between us for the remainder of the race. I couldn't believe it. I just beat the fastest guy in our class. I thought that he was having troubles and slowing down, but Carrie told me I actually set my fastest lap on my last lap. So, actually, I was just getting faster as the race went on. I finished that one 8th over all (including the WERA guys) and finished first out of the UtahSBA guys. So it was kind of like my first race win as an Expert, albeit, I didn't take the checkers.
The next race was another shared grid, that contained some WERA class and our King of the Mountain GTU class--this is our club's premier 600cc race and allow Superbike rules (meaning way more performance modifications are legal). I had enough time to pull into hot pit and get some water and rest for a minute before going back out for the next warm-up lap. Scott Decker would also be racing this, but while I got a drink of water, his team handed him his other bike: a superbike with fresh tires and a lot more power than the superstock bike he just raced.
I got a good start in this race, too. I passed a few people going into Turn 1 and exited in 3rd place; Austin was in the lead, followed by Scott, then me. It went on that way for two laps. I was feeling like Scott was holding me up (yeah, I couldn't believe it), but he was really hard to pass on his superbike. I passed him on the last turn before the straight, but he passed me back about halfway down, so I made sure to get in his slipstream (draft) and be as close as possible to pass him on the brakes into Turn 1. When I made the move, I wanted to give him plenty of room on the outside as not to fully barge my way past, but I ended up taking a too tight line into the turn and had to really turn hard to get it around. I tucked the front, and crashed--race over for me. I was fine and the bike only had minor damage, so it wasn't a big deal in that regard. But, I was doing the AMA Pro race the weekend after, so now I had to repair my bodywork and paint it in less than a week! This is only my second crash in the 2.5 years I've been racing for real and, of course, it has to happen during the only time I have back to back race weekends!
Needless to say, I was busy the next few days, getting everything repaired and doing a rush paint job. I did finish, but just barely. I literally put the bodywork on Friday while the paint was still a little tacky, then we loaded the bike into Oleg's van to take it to the track for the AMA event that weekend. I'll cover that in another post.
I have to say, I'm really digging this CBR. Thanks again to Honda Suzuki of Salt Lake and Jason at Corporate Suspension. And Carrie for being supportive.
-jerry
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