Race Report Rd 2 Infineon Part 1

[cbrrider2]

Arrived at the track around 6pm to see an already busy paddock, trailers and easy ups everywhere. A few people were leaving from the Kegwins track day so we scored a pit spot right across from CT Racing/Pirelli. Chris is  a great guy always doing his best to help the racers out. We got all setup and rolled out our new pit scooter which Kassy did a great job painting. One of the SV's tipped over in the trailer on the way down and managed to scrape the new paint on the scoot, first time that has ever happened, Damm potholes on I 80 *LOL*

Friday evening is usually a casual time of getting setup making sure all the last minute safety wiring is done. Having someone else take a quick look at the bike for you. I still missed a couple of things on the new motor I put in the "superbike". I wanted to wall the track so Beth and I set off for some exercise and to take pictures of every turn and the approaches to the turns. Got to love digital cameras. My plan is to have them all on my tablet PC and use them as a training  tool as you can "draw" your lines directly on to the Tablet.(another project) Beth was all excited when she spotted a black lamb amongst all the sheep around the track. If you don't know Infineon has a rather large flock of sheep that they use to "cut the grass" I am sure the Mutton, lamb and wool sales help towards the up keep of the track!!

Saturday morning came around way to fast up at 6am, kettle on, head for the showers to wake up. I don't like getting annoyed first thing in the morning but there are 4 showers in the mens shower area at Infineon. Some dude went in and locked the door so he was the only guy using the 4 showers!!!! Damm if you are that concerned about not being in the shower with other guys go use the single shower over at the Drivers Lounge area!!!!!!! Anyway after waiting 20 minutes for him to get finished the hot Sonoma water felt great.
Registration opened a little late due to scanner issues but the staff were all working hard to get us all ready to go to Tech with our slips. 2 trips to tech for me, would have been three if my lovely wife Beth had not taken belly pans and gear for me. Line up for Tech is where racers start "smack talking" and greeting those we have not seen for a while. I missed Round 1 so had not seen some of the guys and girls for a long time.

No matter how many times you think your bike is right there is always something. I had missed RTV on a couple of places on the engine, got that done fast and cruised thru. Big thanks to Tommy and his great crew for making the process as painless as possible. Got my helmet and belly pan stickers and my lowly Practice group 2 stickers.
I had 2 bikes with me my "superbike" SV and the production SV. When I registered for the race AFM wanted a full $135 for the second bike to practice, come on, if it had been $70 or $80 then I might have done it but not the full amount for a second bike.(Revenue generator might work better if you discounted a second bike?) So I knew we were going to get 4 sessions, barring any incidents, so I decided to go Prac 1 Superbike, Prac 2 Prod bike, Prac 3 Superbike and Prac 4 Prod bike.

Last season I was working with Dimitie at Vision Wells with the RaceChrono software on Windows mobile and the Starlane GPS units. I finally figured out the Bluetooth connection and planned on running the GPS on the bikes for practice and racing. It turned out to be really accurate and the splitting the track into 3 sections allowed me to see what my times were like for each section. You can map it and also see acceleration and deceleration. I have not dissected it all yet but I am still slow *LOL*

The first session I took it easy so I could see how warm the track was. The sun was out and things were warming up pretty well. Times started at 2:04:880 on the super bike. I had the prod bike Dynoed at JT&S so was looking forward to seeing how it was running. Second session I dipped below the 2 min mark and hit a 1:59:293, thanks Terry the power delivery was really smooth and I was actually passing riders driving up towards 7 for the first time. Third session was back on the Superbike, track was getting warmer and some faster riders had decided to wake up and actually get out on the track. Dropped to a 1:57:764 still off my last season best lap but not bad considering the lap traffic and my reticense. Session 4 again I hit a lot of lap traffic and only got as low as a 1:58:856. Pretty pleased with Practice things are starting to come together.

Some of you may know that I "masquerade" as a part time announcer at the AFM races so I had to get some paperwork ready for that and get up to the announcers booth. If you every want to climb all the way to the top of the stands it is a great view of most of the track. Brian and Cassie were already up there we had to announce the Clubman Middleweight, AFemme, Clubman Lightweight Vintage. I then headed down to the pits to get dressed and ready for the last race Formula 40 Heavy, Middle and Light.

If memory serves me right there were 72 bikes on the grid!! I remember being WAY at the back of the grid something like Row 13. There were 28 bikes racing in the Lightweight class along with me, this was going to be fun. The first two waves took off and we waited for the 2, 1 then the green flag. I had been atchign the starter for the previous race starts and he was about a 2 second interval between when the 1 board went sideways until the flag came up. He held it a little longer this time, oh shit!!!! My revs were up and the clutch was slipping, moving me forward before the green came up. Pull the clutch in a little brace my feet on the floor. There the flag, ease out the clutch and WFO on the throttle. Change into second and keep it WFO. I was on the inside of Turn 1 and knew I would get pinched as riders came around the outside. I clicked it up into third just as we crossed the start finish line, yes I started that far back from the start finish line!!!! Immediately the gearbox dropped back into second killing my drive SHIT. Clicked it back up into third and continued, even with that my start was better than a few folks and I was 14th at the end of the first lap. Got passed into 7 on the brakes on the second lap, I thought I had that moved covered but if you leave any gap at all someone is going to use it. We started to run into the slower riders from F40 Middleweight and I got blocked on the exit of 7 into 8 and got passed by 3 riders, good move by them crappy by me. The rest of the laps were pretty uneventful got passed once more I think it was Ernie, dam fast for a "old" guy and I crossed the line in 19th out of 28 with a best lap of 1:55:821. Best of all I had completed my first race of the year and had a LOT of FUN doing it.

Time for the Saturday evening festivities. Had to have dinner before the drinking began so Beth cooked us up some burgers and potatoes, all good to soak up the alcohol that was about to be consumed. Soldier Racing were having the pit bike races so we headed over there on our new scoot to take part. Had to pass Dave Sapsis pit area and what do you know he had beer, yum yum yum. After a quick refill and some chat we headed over to the Soldier racing pits at the far end of the Grandstand. I entered for the races and started chatting to Brian from SPL and a few other people I knew. It was great to see the turn workers getting in on the action and interacting with the racers and pit crews. I asked Beth to jump on the scoot and get us some refills, THANKS DAVE. As soon as she left my number got called for the races!!!!! Murphys law was in effect. I spoke to the Soldier guys and they re-gridded me for a later qualifier. Beth got back with the beer, THANKS DAVE, and then my qualifier was called. I was in lane 2 with Mck-E in lane 1, as the green flag went up Mick-E wheelied, to many Margaritas, and came over the line and hit our scoot causing me to put a foot down which disqualified me. My "lane watcher" went to bat for me and I got a special dispensation to go again in another qualifying round. The scoot was just to fast and I got well beat out in the next round. We stayed around and watched the "finals" lots of great balance and "cheater" bikes *LOL* Congrats to the winner and all the proceeds went to the air fence fund which is a great cause.

After that we headed down to the FeelLikeaPro pit area where OnTheThrottle TV were going to be doing some interview. Again we had to pass Dave Spasis pit area for a refill, THANKS DAVE!!. Great job by VisionWells and OTT for some great laughs, the videos are posted elsewhere so I won't go into details all I can say is it is great to see the sense of humor all the riders have. Jake Holden proved that even if you are a AMA rider you can have a laugh with us mere mortals. Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.

Bed time around 10ish, it is amazing how quickly the pits go quiet as racers minds turn to the next day. I am sure there are some "party pockets" around but most folks who are staying at the track turn in early and get ready for the new day. More to follow

[zipbyu]

The weekend was fun.  The scoter/pit bike races were too funny to watch, You would belive it if I told you.  It was cool Elana Myers was there on the friday trackday/pratice.  Jake Holden was fun to watch, I missed his crash though.  I was too busy working in gregs bike.  Thanks for the people who attended the races and the local support who came to watch.