Race report Round 1 AFM Buttonwillow (Long)

[Oneup]

It's been a week since my first race weekend and I still can't stop thinking about it.

Friday:
After rolling into Buttonwillow at 3:45 a.m. the "night" before everyone in the trailer(me, Lisa, and Myron) is up by 6:30.  They don't seem to ever need any sleep and I was too excited for such useless activities.  There was a lot to do to my bike before I could ride it.  I had to change the oil, figure out where my forks were leaking from and get them fixed, find some new brake lines and install them (the ones I ordered didn't come in on time, damn UPS), change brake pads, change the gearing, and finish race prepping the bike.  With Myron's help we got the bike torn down pretty quickly.  Catalyst Reaction took care of the forks in no time and Myron got the sprocket changed without any problems.  Pads went in easily and the oil change was business as usual.  The only problem was the brake lines.  I was hoping the vendors for the races would be there a day early and I could pick up some lines.  After searching the pits with no luck I run into another racer that mentions that David Benjamin with Zoom Zoom trackdays builds custom lines for cheap.  I head over to his pit and he says that he can but he doesn't want to miss a session of practice so we have to do it at the end of the day.  This is great but I still have no lines and I want to ride a half day of practice.  As I'm leaving another racer; Jason Lauritzen, mentions that he has a spare set I can borrow.   By 2pm we have my bike running and ready to ride.

Buttonwillow puts on a trackday the Friday before the race.  It's like any other trackday except it is only racers and A group is the epitome of fast (like PTT A group on steroids).  I paid for a half day in the "faster"(B) group and suited up.  I new I was only going to get three sessions but by the time I got to the grid the checkered was out on my first session.   The next session I rode and realized that the gearing change I did was not helping me at all.  The handling was all off and I couldn't figure out my shift points.  I come back in and Myron changed my rear sprocket back to where it was.  Last session of the day felt great but I couldn't get anywhere near my previous pace.  Finished up riding then it was time for new brake lines and tires.  Exhausted I got to sleep by 9:30.


Saturday:
Registration opened at 6:30 so we were up and moving by 6.  When I woke up I realized that Myron (Zipbyu) never made it back to the trailer.  He was out the night before walking the pits and talking to everyone.  We got ready and headed down to registration to register and look for our lost pit crew. 

Registration was much easier than I expected.  Just swipe your card and they hand you a piece of paper.  Way too easy.  We wandered over to Twin Works pit to see if maybe Myron had camped out in one of their trailers.  We didn't find him.  Off to the riders meeting.  The riders meeting was nothing like a trackday.  They went over the flags, talked about race starts, and made a couple of announcements.  Nothing about passing rules, checkered did mean you might have won something.  On our way to tech we found Myron, he slept in the trailer next to ours.  We get the bikes teched and I realized that my practice group sticker said three!  First time racers are supposed to start in group one so I was extremely excited.

Practice went well.  The sessions were about fifteen minutes and I was able to get plenty of ride time in.  The first session there was almost no one in it.  I was confused because I have been told by other racers that practice is crowded and it's hard to get a good lap in.  The second session I all my confusion went away when the number of racers on track tripled.  I was able to get my previous best lap time of 2.04.5 down to 2.03.7. 

Races:

Clubman Middleweight:

Clubman middleweight was the first race up.  During the warm up lap I was so nervous I could barely remember which way the track went.  I came up to my grid spot and saw a sea of bikes in front of me.  I was gridded 34th in my race.  Green flag drops and off we go.  I didn't get a very good start and was lost going into turn 1.  I was not used to seeing 38 bikes trying to find their way through a single corner at one time.  I tiptoe through turn 1 and pick up a couple of spots on my way into turn 2.  After turn 2 things started to settle down (less than 5 bikes wide at any given time)  and I started picking my way through the crowd.  Going into riverside I look way ahead and see the leaders going into lost hills.  Something clicked and I started picking up the pace.  By the end of the first lap I had worked my way up to 13th place.  I passed three more the next lap, and one more on the third.  Going into the front straight at the end of the third lap I see a racer I know (Kyle Shirrmacher) in the dirt.  He comes back on track and I passed him on the straight.  Coming into the end of lap 4 the race gets red flagged.  They only counted the first three laps so my pass on Kyle didn't count (he crossed the finish line .1 seconds before me).  I ended up 9th.  My best time was a 2.02.2

Clubman Heavyweight:

Clubman HW was race three.  I was gridded 13th.  I got a terrible start and was second to last by the end of turn 1.  Going into turn 4 I see a huge dustcloud from someone going down.  Coming out of the bus stop the rider in front of me doesn't quite make the turn and goes off track.  Coming back on track he hits another rider and that guy went off the other side of the track.  I got past them and was back in 13th by the end of the 1st lap.  The rest of the race I spent working my way up the field until the last lap.  I came up on a group of five riders and figured that I would pass at least one of them in the last corner.  The turn before that two of the riders came together and I went from planning a pass to dodging bikes and people.  I ended up going off track but didn't hit anyone and finished the race in 6th.

Sunday:

Practice:

Racers get one practice session on Sunday.  Even being group three I was on track by 8:40.  I realized that I should never be on track that early.  I wasn't fully awake and couldn't put a fast lap together for anything.

600 Superbike:

I was gridded 38th.  I got a horrible start and spent the race working my way through the pack.  The only really exciting part was that I rode better than I ever had.  All of my laps after the first one was better than any other time I had ever put down and I ended up with a 1.59.275.  I ended up 29th.

Formula 1:

This turned out to be the sketchiest race of the weekend.  I got a better start than I had previously but it still wasn't great.  Coming out of turn 1 I saw a huge dustcloud and people going everywhere.  One of the first riders had crashed and both he and his bike were laying in the middle of the track.  I can't imagine laying on the track in a race with 40+ riders coming towards me.  We all managed to get around the incident without running him over and everyone continued on the track like it was black flagged.  I was confused because I didn't see any flags but everyone was riding in single file line at a slow pace.  After passing the next turn worker station and not seeing any flags I started working my way around people.  Twice I was nearly taken out by a rider that didn't hold his line.  Coming back onto the front straight I passed another rider.  After coming out of turn two I see people moving the crashed bike off of the track and I realized that there was a yellow flag on the front straight.  I figured it was too late to do anything about and started heading for the next rider.  Up ahead I saw Zoom Zoom's David Benjamin and the rider from Kyle (the rider from Saturday).  I started working on catching them.  I caught up with them and found it difficult to pass.  Kyle had more power but David was a better rider and managed to stay right on him on the brakes and in the corner.  On the last lap I managed to pass David on the brakes into turn 3.  I tried to pass Kyle on Riverside (ultra fast sweeper) but couldn't make it stick.  I then decided to try to pass him on the outside of the next corner but was pushed wide and David took his spot back from me.  I got frustrated and tried to pass both of them on the brakes going into the next turn.  I got a little overexcited and grabbed the brakes too hard and the rear wheel started hopping really badly.  I decided not to push it and possibly hit one of them and went off track.  I came back on 8 spots back. 
When I got off the bike I heard the announce call my name.  Turns out I did pass on a standing yellow and I was disqualified.   I was reminded that in the future if I did such a thing all I had to do was let the person behind me back in front of me.

600 Production
I started on the back row (45th).  It was my best start all weekend.  I worked my way through the crowd and was down to 34th by the end of the first lap.  I was riding fairly well and putting down good laptimes considering the traffic that I kept running into.  On the fifth lap I caught up to Kyle and couldn't get around him.  I tried everything I could but he was blocking all of the lines that I use to pass.  On the last lap I tried going around him in riverside and couldn't make it stick.  I tried the same thing as the previous race and went around him in lost hill.  Coming out of the corner I was too wide and had to readjust my line and he ended up getting back around me.   I finished right behind him in 25th.

I finally learned what all of the excitement was about over racing.  It's like a trackday times 10!

[Mike]

Nice write up Greg!
Congrats on your first successful weekend.

[zipbyu]

I agree that was well written.

You left out, when we put new grips on your bike we glued you throttle tube closed.  Which was a big mastake on my behalf.  I was totaly at fault, I meant to glue it wide open.

Oh, and I didn't fall asleep next door in the trailer.  I passed out at like 5:00 am and was up at 7:00am again to make sure you would be on the right track.

It was a load of fun, the ssa should go and support the local riders, there are a lot of them.

[com3]

great writeup, greg!  sounds like a lot of fun. 

[reno240sx]

Nice write up Greg. Good job!

[Oneup]

Thanks.  Joe, you need to get unbanned from Buttonwillow.  It sucked not having any good pictures of my first race weekend.

[Justin]

Greg.  This is an awesome race report.  Thanks for the details.  You are the guy I want to ride like. . . I've been saying it for years.
  I made my wife read it to me while i was fabricating some motorcycle parts (aka as delicious brownies)

[Justin]

oops