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Thursday, May 31, 2007

The Racing Experience Part 4: Our Second Race

And we're still improving by leaps and bounds! That's the nice thing about starting from the bottom; you have no place to go but up and improvement comes quickly. I will enjoy it while I can, I have a feeling things will get harder from here on out.

Second Race Goals and Expectations

For our second race I set only two formal goals: 1) finish at least fifth from last and 2) look much cooler than I did last time. Lugnut had mentioned during the first race that if someone of my skill level focused a little bit on looking good, it might actually help me go faster. Lugnut did have a historic basis for suggesting this: at a tack day last summer I was "caught" by a track photographer mugging for his camera. I saw he was at the corner and I did my best to lean that bike over more and get on the gas. Vain? Yes. When I was mugging was I going faster? Yes. The photographer came in after the session and mentioned just how transparent my efforts were, but he also remarked that I did indeed take the corner better because of it. So, as a beginner, just pretend there's a photographer in every corner and your bound to shave some seconds off your lap times.

Early in practice I was hard at work trying to look better for the photographer.

I did indeed need to shave seconds off my lap time. If I made the assumption that roughly the same people would be entering the race again this time and that they wouldn't be getting any faster (I know, that is faulty, but bear with me), I needed to shave at least three seconds off best lap time from the previous race. But, if you also assume that everyone else is trying to shave 3 seconds off their lap times, it would make sense that I would need to do better than that.

I Need All The Practice I Can Get

Four sessions, which amounts to roughly 16-20 laps, is all you get on Saturday before the Clubsman races. It's also a pseudo qualifying as your practice times are factored into your starting position. I need much more practice, but my most basic goal for practice was to start off doing times close to where I left off during the last race. The morning was cool and foggy and, being in practice group 1 with the rest of the Clubsman, we went first—with no time to let the fog lift or the track to dry. I was only moderately worried about the slightly damp track and decided to use the session to try some new lines I picked up while watching the AMA races one week before. No such luck. My visor fogged up within seconds of hitting the track and opening the visor only made it worse. We were riding in a cloud and I had not put any sort of treatment on my visor. I pulled into pit lane, coated my visor with saliva (an old SCUBA diving trick) and went back out. Again, it fogged up almost instantly. I didn't get in a single real lap that session, lost out on a full 25% of my practice and pulled into the paddock really pissed off. I wasn't mad at anyone or anything, but I really needed the laps and my first session was a complete loss.

Lugnut had a solution (he always does). His spray bottle with a highly diluted Dawn dish-soap solution did the trick. Spray it on, wipe away the excess and bam, no fog! It seems this Dawn solution does just about anything you need it to (cut grease, stop fog, quench thirst, etc.), but at the moment I was just happy that I would never fall victim to the foggy visor again. It was all a moot point for the rest of the sessions as the sun did eventually break through the fog, but at least we're ready for next time.

The sun came out and all was well.

By the end of the second practice, my lap times were down in the range of the last race, so I felt I was doing okay. I kept working on my lines and my braking for the next two sessions and ended up taking another second or two off my race times from our last race and was gridded on row 5 (versus row 10 like last time).

On a side note, I had the benefit of learning what it feels like to run out of gas on the track. Lugnut is the master of giving me just enough gas for the laps I need to run plus some contingency fuel to account for the warm-up lap, delays, etc. However, if you don't remind him to put gas in the tank, you tend to run out pretty quickly on the following session. I was leaned over in turn 2 when the bike first shut down—it is startling and does disrupt the chassis a touch, but it's really no big deal. Once the bike was straight up and down again, it fired back up. Through the carousel (a long downhill 180° left-hand corner), the bike really tried to die, but keeping it upright seemed to help nurse it along. I nursed it around the track and back into the pits—stuttering evermore as I neared our pop-up. It died just as I put it up on the stand. At least then we knew how many more laps the "contingency fuel" gave us.

The Start

I don't have the oldest bike our there, but I'm definitely in close contention for that title. I'm down about 20 horsepower compared to newer 600s, am heavier (both the bike and rider), I have stock gearing, and, at the time of this race, only had one start under my belt. Yet, there I sat with half the field behind me waiting for the green flag. As the green flag dropped and the field headed up the sweeping left-hander into turn 2, I ended up roughly 10 spots from last. Below is a video of the start which I am ashamed to post, but it must be shown because the shame it invokes will only make me go faster next time. That, and we're going to change the gear ratios a bit. Infineon is a technical track with few straight-aways and, with the F4i's stock gearing, no use for 6th gear. We are going to switch to a 520 chain, drop a tooth up front and add a tooth in the rear. For a track where acceleration off the line and out of corners can make a huge difference, this should help quite a bit.

The Race

I was feeling really good once we all got slotted into place. I had been passing some people during practice, but the race pace is always a bit faster and I had to wait and see if my pace was going to be up to par. I set my sights on a bike in front of me, reeled it in, and passed it. Wow! That feeling is very addictive. I wanted to do it again! So I set my sights on the next bike and started reeling it in, albeit more slowly. As I was reeling in my next target, I was also passed. "Oh well," I thought to myself, "maybe I can use this guy to help tow me up to the next bike." It did help for a lap or two, but then I lost touch with him and was back on my own.

This bike did pass me, but helped tow me along for a lap or two.

I was determined to make that one more pass before the end of the race. The bike or the rider's leathers were red so it was easy to keep targeted and I was making up time, just not fast enough. Also, unbeknownst to me at the time, there were a string of two or three bikes that had been behind me for most of the race. They hadn't been fast enough to get by me, but they were close enough that any mistake would give them the chance they needed.

I certainly wasn't holding them up, but they were ready to pass if the chance arose.

After seven laps, we were given the white flag at the start/finish. I had one more lap to catch "red bike." Unfortunately, I was dealt a new problem as a white bike came flying past me to beat me into turn 1. What? Oh no he didn't! I needed to take that spot back and I was pretty sure that I could get it back coming out of 2 and going into 3a if I just got on the gas early enough. I leaned the bike through the corner, tried to point it to the inside of the white bike and got on the gas hard. This is when the race got extra fun.

But first, a bit of historical perspective. At my third track day I was on a set of Dunlop street 208s that had seen a moderate amount of riding (and obviously a previous weekend of track time). The tires felt fine for most of the day and then, very suddenly from one lap to the next, became greasy. I opened the throttle out of a right hander and the rear slid out, I shut the throttle off, it caught and spit me out of the seat. There was no crash mind you, just some pain between my legs. I thought it might be an anomaly so I collected myself and got ready for the next corner. It happened a second time, although less intensely, so I decided those tires were done and I should call it a day. Now, I really hadn't been paying attention to how much time/how many heat cycles my current track 208s had endured. Now that I think back, it was about three track days and one practice/race day. Before last race though, we hadn't been using tire warmers on those tires. Needless to say, the tires could have been in better shape. Now, back to the race!

As I got on the gas hard (well, as hard as a stock F4i can) in turn 2, I felt a familiar sliding feeling. Not the "oh, the tire will eventually catch" feeling, but the other one, the "oh, my tire feels much different that it did last lap" feeling. So I shut off the throttle. And the tire caught. And the bike shook. And my foot came off my right peg. And the bike cavitated side to side a bit before heading straight again. I was not going to pass the white bike back, but at least my bobble hadn't caused me to loose a spot and I was on the last lap. I was sure however that the lost time probably allowed whoever was behind me to close any gap there might have been. Plus, now there was blood in the water, they had seen and could smell my weakness. The tire slid a bit through the remainder of the right-handers and I kept my fingers crossed through the long high-speed left-hand carousel that the left side of my tire was doing a bit better. It held and, as I was coming to the last corner before the checkered flag—a tight low-speed right-hander—I was passed coming into the corner. Knowing my tire had seen better days, I turned my bike in, tried to get it mostly upright again and pinned the throttle towards the finish line. It was no use, the SV650 had more grunt and I lost yet another spot mere yards before the end of the race. Had I fulfilled my goals? I wouldn't know until the results were posted days later.

Had he done it? Tune in next time...

Yes, yes I had. Exactly fifth from last and more than 4 seconds faster than last time. And I think the pictures are looking a little better too. For next time, we have fresh rubber and new gearing so look out! If I can keep the bike up, I'm gunning for mid-pack! Ride safely and see you at the track!

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