tjones23
04-12-2009, 10:29 PM
Saturday -- Practice
Arrived at the track at 7AM, had some work to do (pertaining to last weekend's get off). Thankfully by the first practice it had dried out well enough to take a couple easy siting laps. I've only ridden PIR once before for an Endurance race, however that was before the new pavement and the new T-4. On the way down Cuthbert and Rower talked about the changes, however its one of those things you've got to experience in order to truly comprehend.
Overall I felt OK, I was fairly wobbly getting a good rhythm through the first couple corners. It took most of the rest of the day to smooth out my riding and get a feel for the track. I am pretty sure I developed some bad habits from before, and I believe that made it more difficult than learning a whole new track. I started with gearing from Seattle and after consulting with Jake I tried a combination he found that didn't seem to compromise anything.
When the last practice session came up, I felt I had a good handle on things and really wanted to put my head down and start to ride more purposeful. I parked myself right behind a a fast group and decided to hang on as well as I could. Turns out I could not do that for very long, so as other guys went by I tried to cling to their coat-tails a bit too, however as I got to T2 for my 4th or 5th lap I came up on a rider just getting on. Unfortunate timing, so I had to squeeze inside to keep my rhythm going, however I messed up, took waayy too much throttle and compensated immediately by grabbing waaaaay too much front brake and lost it. Frack, amateur mistake. Spent the rest of the night assessing the damage, remounting bodywork and cleaning and all the clay out of me and my bike. Thanks to Justin Watkins for your help getting that done -- man that clay is almost impossible get rid of.
Sunday -- practice
Had a little bit of work to do on the bike to get it ready for re-teching. That went well enough. I mounted a sweet new 211 DOT rear and went out for a bad excuse for practice. I disconnected the quick-shifter for some time to re-learn how to shift without, but found my clutch-lever was too low to be useful. Came in and fixed that, but still felt like a total retard shifting without. I had no choice but to suck it up and re-learn during the race.
600SS
Gridded DFL. Had to get through 4 or 5 rows of bikes to get to the riders doing my slow ass lap times. T1 was totally hair-brained off the start, but somehow it works out. I tried to find a rhythm and work on being smooth and fast without trying too hard. Red flags galore; Lowitz was taken out and was laying on the side of T4. Oh man that was not good. I talked with Jason after the race and periodically throughout the day to check on his condition -- heal up Justin! As for me and the restart, I ended up 16th. Sucks, but that'll mean less work next time. Times were around the 1:12 range when I had little to no traffic in front. Not too bad overall.
750SS
Not gridded exactly DFL, however it was a pretty small grid, so that worked in my favor. Got a good launch and had good time settling in and really learning how to get the track's flow. Clutch was slipping, dammit! I reached around on the back straight and tried to loosen it up, however I went the wrong way and made it worse. Pulled in and got it fixed before I totally chowdered it.
600SBK
Gridded again DFL. Got a good (enough) start. Found a much better rhythm. Clutch was working properly, about mid-way I had a nice 3-4 bike drafting battle into T1, which was cool. I was still pretty wussy on the brakes into T1 -- I found if I overcooked T1 my progression through T2 was not a smooth and much slower, that and I wasn't about to make a mistake in traffic and take someone out. The race was another crash fest with Sully, Ancien, Rower, DeGross and other fast guys going down or being taken out. I got behind Suitor and Harper for the last few laps, felt like I could have got past both of them in a couple areas, however I'd end up losing a bit of drive trying not to run into them, and so I wasn't able to attack that well. On the last lap I came inside Harper and got on the gas, bike ran wide -- which I let it do until I realized it was forcing him into the wall so I checked up a little bit so as to not ruin his day, but still get an OK drive. I apologized to him after the race for unintentional, but rather dangerous move. Overall not too shabby of a race. Got down into the mid-11's which was OK.
My bike, despite my abuse of it the last few weeks performed quite nicely. For a stock bike, my EDR tuned R6 feels like a missile. My KFG/GP Suspension tuned forks and shock work awesome. Barry and I have developed a great baseline for me, so I now get the awesome Dunlop tire performance with even better longevity.
A big thanks to the usual suspects. The EDR crew for their excellent trackside support and for last minute parts to get me back Friday afternoon, thanks to KFG Racing for more of the same, and more apologies to Jason Valley (Valldog Design) for desecrating his great paint job by crashing again. I also want to thank Zach Gordon pitching in to take care of a few things on my bike after I crashed. Thanks too to Dave Nichols for the loan of the trailer and to Jim for making his one-man show a bit more complicated with the trailer and 2 other guys' crap at the last minute.
Catch you all next time.
Arrived at the track at 7AM, had some work to do (pertaining to last weekend's get off). Thankfully by the first practice it had dried out well enough to take a couple easy siting laps. I've only ridden PIR once before for an Endurance race, however that was before the new pavement and the new T-4. On the way down Cuthbert and Rower talked about the changes, however its one of those things you've got to experience in order to truly comprehend.
Overall I felt OK, I was fairly wobbly getting a good rhythm through the first couple corners. It took most of the rest of the day to smooth out my riding and get a feel for the track. I am pretty sure I developed some bad habits from before, and I believe that made it more difficult than learning a whole new track. I started with gearing from Seattle and after consulting with Jake I tried a combination he found that didn't seem to compromise anything.
When the last practice session came up, I felt I had a good handle on things and really wanted to put my head down and start to ride more purposeful. I parked myself right behind a a fast group and decided to hang on as well as I could. Turns out I could not do that for very long, so as other guys went by I tried to cling to their coat-tails a bit too, however as I got to T2 for my 4th or 5th lap I came up on a rider just getting on. Unfortunate timing, so I had to squeeze inside to keep my rhythm going, however I messed up, took waayy too much throttle and compensated immediately by grabbing waaaaay too much front brake and lost it. Frack, amateur mistake. Spent the rest of the night assessing the damage, remounting bodywork and cleaning and all the clay out of me and my bike. Thanks to Justin Watkins for your help getting that done -- man that clay is almost impossible get rid of.
Sunday -- practice
Had a little bit of work to do on the bike to get it ready for re-teching. That went well enough. I mounted a sweet new 211 DOT rear and went out for a bad excuse for practice. I disconnected the quick-shifter for some time to re-learn how to shift without, but found my clutch-lever was too low to be useful. Came in and fixed that, but still felt like a total retard shifting without. I had no choice but to suck it up and re-learn during the race.
600SS
Gridded DFL. Had to get through 4 or 5 rows of bikes to get to the riders doing my slow ass lap times. T1 was totally hair-brained off the start, but somehow it works out. I tried to find a rhythm and work on being smooth and fast without trying too hard. Red flags galore; Lowitz was taken out and was laying on the side of T4. Oh man that was not good. I talked with Jason after the race and periodically throughout the day to check on his condition -- heal up Justin! As for me and the restart, I ended up 16th. Sucks, but that'll mean less work next time. Times were around the 1:12 range when I had little to no traffic in front. Not too bad overall.
750SS
Not gridded exactly DFL, however it was a pretty small grid, so that worked in my favor. Got a good launch and had good time settling in and really learning how to get the track's flow. Clutch was slipping, dammit! I reached around on the back straight and tried to loosen it up, however I went the wrong way and made it worse. Pulled in and got it fixed before I totally chowdered it.
600SBK
Gridded again DFL. Got a good (enough) start. Found a much better rhythm. Clutch was working properly, about mid-way I had a nice 3-4 bike drafting battle into T1, which was cool. I was still pretty wussy on the brakes into T1 -- I found if I overcooked T1 my progression through T2 was not a smooth and much slower, that and I wasn't about to make a mistake in traffic and take someone out. The race was another crash fest with Sully, Ancien, Rower, DeGross and other fast guys going down or being taken out. I got behind Suitor and Harper for the last few laps, felt like I could have got past both of them in a couple areas, however I'd end up losing a bit of drive trying not to run into them, and so I wasn't able to attack that well. On the last lap I came inside Harper and got on the gas, bike ran wide -- which I let it do until I realized it was forcing him into the wall so I checked up a little bit so as to not ruin his day, but still get an OK drive. I apologized to him after the race for unintentional, but rather dangerous move. Overall not too shabby of a race. Got down into the mid-11's which was OK.
My bike, despite my abuse of it the last few weeks performed quite nicely. For a stock bike, my EDR tuned R6 feels like a missile. My KFG/GP Suspension tuned forks and shock work awesome. Barry and I have developed a great baseline for me, so I now get the awesome Dunlop tire performance with even better longevity.
A big thanks to the usual suspects. The EDR crew for their excellent trackside support and for last minute parts to get me back Friday afternoon, thanks to KFG Racing for more of the same, and more apologies to Jason Valley (Valldog Design) for desecrating his great paint job by crashing again. I also want to thank Zach Gordon pitching in to take care of a few things on my bike after I crashed. Thanks too to Dave Nichols for the loan of the trailer and to Jim for making his one-man show a bit more complicated with the trailer and 2 other guys' crap at the last minute.
Catch you all next time.