jkaiser
04-14-2009, 11:25 AM
I had a lot of time to get the bike ready this winter and ran a track day back in March so I arrived at the track with most of the gremlins already worked out. That said I was a total stress case about the suspension. Functionally, the bike is completely different from last season and I still had some serious suspension issues when I went out for morning practice. The last time I raced Pacific was Aug 2008 and I felt like I was tripping over my mangina at every turn. After some Barry love on the Penske things began to improve and by the end of practice I felt it was good enough.
Open Super Sport – Conditions were nearly perfect when it came time to grid for Open SS, 70 degrees and sunny. Gridded 19th (last place) and got a pretty good start, going into T2 I had made up five or six places but was still stuck in a lot of traffic. Coming out of T3 Tim Jones high sided, sending his bike down the middle of the track into T4. The sea of riders in front of me parted to avoid Tim and his bike and I found myself stuck right behind his bike as it came to a stop at the outside of T4. I came to a dead stop and had to pedal my way around the bike Fred Flintstone style. At that point I thought for sure they would red flag the race. After a few seconds I realized the rest of the field was still racing and the red flag was NOT coming out. DAMN!!! I exited T4 in last place again, but this time by a county mile. I spent the rest of the race trying to make up those positions and ended up 11th before I ran out of laps. The good news was the bike was performing really well and my confidence was up. I turned a 1:29.826 which was about a second off my fast lap from 2008 but about 3 seconds faster than my practice times so I was happy.
Heavy Weight Early GP – In morning practice a made a few more changes to the front suspension that seemed to help out and was ready to pick up the pace a bit. I know “What the heck is Early HW GP”, a 2009 rule change now allows bikes 8 years and older (previously 1995 and older) so my 2001 GSXR 1000 is eligible. Participation in this class is admittedly limited and I am hoping that we’ll get more bikes on the grid taking advantage of the rule change. Early HW GP grids with Open GP Twins in a wave start. But with only 8 bikes in Open GP Twins and 5 bikes in Early HW GP, the wave start never registered in my brain so I dropped the hammer when the lights went out, woops. I was assessed a 30 second penalty plus the 18 second advantage between the two starts, but still won by 27 seconds. Like I said, not much competition right now, but hey they award a trophy at the end of the season and if nobody else wants it, I’ll take it! It was also fun to mix it up a bit with the back of the Open GP Twin class but kept it nice since it wasn’t my race.
Formula Ultra – FU immediately followed Early HW GP and I was feeling warmed up and ready to go. I was gridded 14th and got a pretty good start again coming out of T2 in 8th and ran much of the race in that position. About half way through the race, a winter spent behind a desk started to catch up with me. The fatigue in my hands and arms was making me sloppy and I realized that I had better slow down or risk putting it in the gravel. Immediately, Dan Chancy came by and I was amazed to think that I had held him off that long. I did my best to stay in the race but on the last lap Andrew Bracket came by on the brakes going into T3. Tired or not I was going to try and fight back. I stayed with Andrew down the back straight and sucked up on his rear tire through T6 and T7. As we came into T9 Andrew had the inside protected so I went to the outside and came by him as I picked the bike up. Coming through T9 my view on the Bus Stop was obscured by Andrew, but when I straightened up I could see Crystal Platt just entering the Bus Stop and I was closing on her fast. I grabbed the brakes and almost brought the bike to a full stop before I was able to turn in, all the while I could see Andrew going around the outside. DAMN!!! I got on it hard to try to catch him but he was gone and the wall was looming large in my visor. By then braking was not an option so I did my best to squeeze between Crystal and the wall and was fortunate to make it through with only a little tire rub on Crystal’s faring (sorry Crystal). In the end Brian MacConaghy went out with a mechanical so I finished 9th. Again the bike felt rock solid and I turned a fastest lap of 1:28.796, about 2 tenths faster than my best time of 2008!
A big THANK YOU to Eric and crew for your help this weekend. Getting the bike refueled and tire warmed between back to back races would have been especially tough if not for the help of Eric and Gary. I pulled in from Early HW GP and there’s Eric and Gary with stands and tire warmers, telling me to relax and get water. I may be a rookie but again EDR makes me feel like a pro.
Thank you Barry Wressel, KFG Dunlop, & GP Suspension for helping me get to know the new goods as fast as possible. I can’t wait to see what the old girl will do once I have some time to really explore the capabilities of the GP cartridges and the 211s.
Thanks to Mark DeGross and 2Fast Track Days. I am really proud to be a part of the 2Fast crew. If I can absorb 1% of the talent contained in this group of riders I’ll become a front runner for sure. I really appreciate this unique opportunity to learn from some of the best.
Thanks to Mike Sullivan and Don Beck for the great advice. You don’t know what you don’t know and I really appreciate all the tips and suggestions to keep me from learning too many things the hard way. That’s the EDR Family for you.
Thanks to Zach Gordon for painting a bike that looks KILLER. My bike may be old but the paint makes it look like a winner.
Open Super Sport – Conditions were nearly perfect when it came time to grid for Open SS, 70 degrees and sunny. Gridded 19th (last place) and got a pretty good start, going into T2 I had made up five or six places but was still stuck in a lot of traffic. Coming out of T3 Tim Jones high sided, sending his bike down the middle of the track into T4. The sea of riders in front of me parted to avoid Tim and his bike and I found myself stuck right behind his bike as it came to a stop at the outside of T4. I came to a dead stop and had to pedal my way around the bike Fred Flintstone style. At that point I thought for sure they would red flag the race. After a few seconds I realized the rest of the field was still racing and the red flag was NOT coming out. DAMN!!! I exited T4 in last place again, but this time by a county mile. I spent the rest of the race trying to make up those positions and ended up 11th before I ran out of laps. The good news was the bike was performing really well and my confidence was up. I turned a 1:29.826 which was about a second off my fast lap from 2008 but about 3 seconds faster than my practice times so I was happy.
Heavy Weight Early GP – In morning practice a made a few more changes to the front suspension that seemed to help out and was ready to pick up the pace a bit. I know “What the heck is Early HW GP”, a 2009 rule change now allows bikes 8 years and older (previously 1995 and older) so my 2001 GSXR 1000 is eligible. Participation in this class is admittedly limited and I am hoping that we’ll get more bikes on the grid taking advantage of the rule change. Early HW GP grids with Open GP Twins in a wave start. But with only 8 bikes in Open GP Twins and 5 bikes in Early HW GP, the wave start never registered in my brain so I dropped the hammer when the lights went out, woops. I was assessed a 30 second penalty plus the 18 second advantage between the two starts, but still won by 27 seconds. Like I said, not much competition right now, but hey they award a trophy at the end of the season and if nobody else wants it, I’ll take it! It was also fun to mix it up a bit with the back of the Open GP Twin class but kept it nice since it wasn’t my race.
Formula Ultra – FU immediately followed Early HW GP and I was feeling warmed up and ready to go. I was gridded 14th and got a pretty good start again coming out of T2 in 8th and ran much of the race in that position. About half way through the race, a winter spent behind a desk started to catch up with me. The fatigue in my hands and arms was making me sloppy and I realized that I had better slow down or risk putting it in the gravel. Immediately, Dan Chancy came by and I was amazed to think that I had held him off that long. I did my best to stay in the race but on the last lap Andrew Bracket came by on the brakes going into T3. Tired or not I was going to try and fight back. I stayed with Andrew down the back straight and sucked up on his rear tire through T6 and T7. As we came into T9 Andrew had the inside protected so I went to the outside and came by him as I picked the bike up. Coming through T9 my view on the Bus Stop was obscured by Andrew, but when I straightened up I could see Crystal Platt just entering the Bus Stop and I was closing on her fast. I grabbed the brakes and almost brought the bike to a full stop before I was able to turn in, all the while I could see Andrew going around the outside. DAMN!!! I got on it hard to try to catch him but he was gone and the wall was looming large in my visor. By then braking was not an option so I did my best to squeeze between Crystal and the wall and was fortunate to make it through with only a little tire rub on Crystal’s faring (sorry Crystal). In the end Brian MacConaghy went out with a mechanical so I finished 9th. Again the bike felt rock solid and I turned a fastest lap of 1:28.796, about 2 tenths faster than my best time of 2008!
A big THANK YOU to Eric and crew for your help this weekend. Getting the bike refueled and tire warmed between back to back races would have been especially tough if not for the help of Eric and Gary. I pulled in from Early HW GP and there’s Eric and Gary with stands and tire warmers, telling me to relax and get water. I may be a rookie but again EDR makes me feel like a pro.
Thank you Barry Wressel, KFG Dunlop, & GP Suspension for helping me get to know the new goods as fast as possible. I can’t wait to see what the old girl will do once I have some time to really explore the capabilities of the GP cartridges and the 211s.
Thanks to Mark DeGross and 2Fast Track Days. I am really proud to be a part of the 2Fast crew. If I can absorb 1% of the talent contained in this group of riders I’ll become a front runner for sure. I really appreciate this unique opportunity to learn from some of the best.
Thanks to Mike Sullivan and Don Beck for the great advice. You don’t know what you don’t know and I really appreciate all the tips and suggestions to keep me from learning too many things the hard way. That’s the EDR Family for you.
Thanks to Zach Gordon for painting a bike that looks KILLER. My bike may be old but the paint makes it look like a winner.