Post by Oneup on Aug 11, 2010 22:45:32 GMT -8
Things are starting to come together
The last couple of months of riding have been awkward for me. I have been working with a few fast guys lately and they have been helping me change certain aspects of my riding to help me get faster. While the end result will be good, I have had to slow down where I am most comfortable in order to pick up pace where I have been losing it. These changes have caused my lap times at trackdays to become inconsistent and slow. It’s taken a lot for me to tell myself that slowing down will make me go faster. I’ve been kind of working on this all year but when I get behind someone or at races I tend to forget everything and go back to my comfort zone. It wasn’t until after round 5 that I have actually forced myself to slow down to go faster.
Round 6 didn’t start off or go as planned. I was originally supposed to work on Saturday and was up in the air about whether or not I was going to race Sunday. I really enjoy racing in the novice races on Saturday and all that the Sunday races were doing is getting me closer to getting kicked out of the clubman races. The plan the whole week before was to just show up and help Lisa out on Sunday. Friday afternoon I got into an argument with my bosses at work. I came to the conclusion that missing a race weekend to put up with them wasn’t worth it. Ten minutes before the end of the day I told them I had better things to do and wouldn’t be in on Saturday. Best decision of the year so far.
Saturday:
Practice:
My first practice session didn’t go so well. My wonderful girlfriend decided the week before that my leathers and my bike needed to be cleaned. She did a great job and the bike and leathers looked awesome on Saturday morning. Only problem was the product she cleaned my leathers with. Not only did it make them shiny, it also made them slick. Every time I tried to go into a corner I nearly fell off the bike. I only made three laps before I decided that it wasn’t safe and I had to fix it immediately. I spent the next thirty minutes running around the pits looking for something to take the cleaner off or sandpaper to ruff up the leather. After no luck I pulled the leathers off and used the ground to rough them up. Problem solved.
I spent the rest of the practice sessions getting myself up to speed. I’ve noticed that my lap times in a race are about two seconds faster than my practice times. With that in mind I decided that if I could get up to my previous race pace I would set new personal bests in the race. It seems like a logical enough theory to me. I was very pleased with every session after the first one. My times were where I wanted them to be.
Clubman Middleweight:
I was gridded fifth which put me on the inside. I like being on the inside at Infineon because it puts me on the outside of turn two and I can usually pick up a couple spots between turns two and three. The green flag drops and I dump the clutch and pull a wheelie. All I can think about as I’m getting passed into turn one is that I need to learn to start better. I get through one and head for the outside of two. Just like I had hoped everyone took an inside line through two and I was able to pass several people. I was in fifth when I entered turn three. I passed fourth in turn five. Coming out of sixth I set myself up for the inside line into seven so I could pass third place. Heading up the hill second place miss shifts or hit a false neutral and I had to swerve to keep from hitting him. I got a good enough drive that I was still able to pass the guy that was in third place (now second) into seven. This left me chasing Alex. Alex is the current points leader of the class and goes very well. I knew that I was going to have to watch myself and not ride over my head if I had any chance of taking first. Last time I was in this position I highsided myself trying to pass first place. I decided to try and stay on him and see if I could pick up any time by following him.
On the second lap he blew turn four and I managed to get ahead of him. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep the lead as he passed my back in turn 9. I fell in place behind him and watched as he turned up the pace. He was running a full second a lap faster than me and I couldn’t do anything about it. I watched him get a little further away every lap until the 7th. He caught up to a lapper under a yellow flag. He wasn’t allowed to pass and the timing worked out that I was able to make up almost all of the time he had on my going into the last lap. I tried pushing it the last lap but wasn’t quite able to make the pass on him. I finished in second less than a second behind him.
Clubman Heavyweight:
This turned out to be one of the scariest races I have done and unfortunately I was part of the problem. I was gridded sixth. I dumped the clutch again and got a worse start than the previous race. I went up the hill and into turn two further behind than I thought I should be. I started to get “red mist” and started pushing myself. I managed to pick up one spot going into 4. I ended up behind the new fast kid Blaine going into 5 and passed him on the inside going into six. This ended up being a bad move as it hurt my drive coming out of six and he’s on a 190hp bike. He easily passed me back on the straight between turns six and seven and picked up another spot. If I would have stayed behind him into six I would have gotten a good enough drive to pass the other guy in the straight and catch back up to him on the brakes into seven. Instead I was stuck behind a slower rider through seven and eight. This didn’t help my “red mist”. Coming out of eight I got a great drive and passed the guy in front of me. I also decided I was going to pass the next guy on the brakes into turn 9. What I didn’t pay attention to was that he was also trying to pass the guy in front of him on the brakes and there was one more person ahead of them. I grabbed the brakes and realized I was on a course to t-bone the guy in front. I would have been able to pass the first two on the brakes but there was no way of avoiding the lead guy. I squeezed as tight as I could until I felt the rear tire come up a couple of feet. I let go of the brakes and and pushed the bike left a little and somehow managed to not hit the lead guy. My next concern was the two guys I just passed not being able to turn in because some idiot (me) just blew through the inside of a turn. I went all the way to the outside of nine and looked over my shoulder. The good new was no one crashed or was shoved off track. The bad new is that instead of passing two people I gave up two more spots. I realized that I had been riding like an idiot and needed to calm down before I crashed myself or someone else out of the race. I fell back in line going into ten. Going into turn one someone passed me on the inside. This caught my attention enough to get me to go back to my pace. I passed him back on the inside of two and started making my way through everyone in front of me. I managed to catch and pass fourth place on the seventh lap and started making ground on second and third. I wasn’t able to pass either of them by the end of the race and ended up taking fourth. If I would have rode smarter at the beginning of the race I probably could have gotten another podium.
To be continued. . . . .
(It's late and I'll type up the rest tomorrow)
The last couple of months of riding have been awkward for me. I have been working with a few fast guys lately and they have been helping me change certain aspects of my riding to help me get faster. While the end result will be good, I have had to slow down where I am most comfortable in order to pick up pace where I have been losing it. These changes have caused my lap times at trackdays to become inconsistent and slow. It’s taken a lot for me to tell myself that slowing down will make me go faster. I’ve been kind of working on this all year but when I get behind someone or at races I tend to forget everything and go back to my comfort zone. It wasn’t until after round 5 that I have actually forced myself to slow down to go faster.
Round 6 didn’t start off or go as planned. I was originally supposed to work on Saturday and was up in the air about whether or not I was going to race Sunday. I really enjoy racing in the novice races on Saturday and all that the Sunday races were doing is getting me closer to getting kicked out of the clubman races. The plan the whole week before was to just show up and help Lisa out on Sunday. Friday afternoon I got into an argument with my bosses at work. I came to the conclusion that missing a race weekend to put up with them wasn’t worth it. Ten minutes before the end of the day I told them I had better things to do and wouldn’t be in on Saturday. Best decision of the year so far.
Saturday:
Practice:
My first practice session didn’t go so well. My wonderful girlfriend decided the week before that my leathers and my bike needed to be cleaned. She did a great job and the bike and leathers looked awesome on Saturday morning. Only problem was the product she cleaned my leathers with. Not only did it make them shiny, it also made them slick. Every time I tried to go into a corner I nearly fell off the bike. I only made three laps before I decided that it wasn’t safe and I had to fix it immediately. I spent the next thirty minutes running around the pits looking for something to take the cleaner off or sandpaper to ruff up the leather. After no luck I pulled the leathers off and used the ground to rough them up. Problem solved.
I spent the rest of the practice sessions getting myself up to speed. I’ve noticed that my lap times in a race are about two seconds faster than my practice times. With that in mind I decided that if I could get up to my previous race pace I would set new personal bests in the race. It seems like a logical enough theory to me. I was very pleased with every session after the first one. My times were where I wanted them to be.
Clubman Middleweight:
I was gridded fifth which put me on the inside. I like being on the inside at Infineon because it puts me on the outside of turn two and I can usually pick up a couple spots between turns two and three. The green flag drops and I dump the clutch and pull a wheelie. All I can think about as I’m getting passed into turn one is that I need to learn to start better. I get through one and head for the outside of two. Just like I had hoped everyone took an inside line through two and I was able to pass several people. I was in fifth when I entered turn three. I passed fourth in turn five. Coming out of sixth I set myself up for the inside line into seven so I could pass third place. Heading up the hill second place miss shifts or hit a false neutral and I had to swerve to keep from hitting him. I got a good enough drive that I was still able to pass the guy that was in third place (now second) into seven. This left me chasing Alex. Alex is the current points leader of the class and goes very well. I knew that I was going to have to watch myself and not ride over my head if I had any chance of taking first. Last time I was in this position I highsided myself trying to pass first place. I decided to try and stay on him and see if I could pick up any time by following him.
On the second lap he blew turn four and I managed to get ahead of him. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to keep the lead as he passed my back in turn 9. I fell in place behind him and watched as he turned up the pace. He was running a full second a lap faster than me and I couldn’t do anything about it. I watched him get a little further away every lap until the 7th. He caught up to a lapper under a yellow flag. He wasn’t allowed to pass and the timing worked out that I was able to make up almost all of the time he had on my going into the last lap. I tried pushing it the last lap but wasn’t quite able to make the pass on him. I finished in second less than a second behind him.
Clubman Heavyweight:
This turned out to be one of the scariest races I have done and unfortunately I was part of the problem. I was gridded sixth. I dumped the clutch again and got a worse start than the previous race. I went up the hill and into turn two further behind than I thought I should be. I started to get “red mist” and started pushing myself. I managed to pick up one spot going into 4. I ended up behind the new fast kid Blaine going into 5 and passed him on the inside going into six. This ended up being a bad move as it hurt my drive coming out of six and he’s on a 190hp bike. He easily passed me back on the straight between turns six and seven and picked up another spot. If I would have stayed behind him into six I would have gotten a good enough drive to pass the other guy in the straight and catch back up to him on the brakes into seven. Instead I was stuck behind a slower rider through seven and eight. This didn’t help my “red mist”. Coming out of eight I got a great drive and passed the guy in front of me. I also decided I was going to pass the next guy on the brakes into turn 9. What I didn’t pay attention to was that he was also trying to pass the guy in front of him on the brakes and there was one more person ahead of them. I grabbed the brakes and realized I was on a course to t-bone the guy in front. I would have been able to pass the first two on the brakes but there was no way of avoiding the lead guy. I squeezed as tight as I could until I felt the rear tire come up a couple of feet. I let go of the brakes and and pushed the bike left a little and somehow managed to not hit the lead guy. My next concern was the two guys I just passed not being able to turn in because some idiot (me) just blew through the inside of a turn. I went all the way to the outside of nine and looked over my shoulder. The good new was no one crashed or was shoved off track. The bad new is that instead of passing two people I gave up two more spots. I realized that I had been riding like an idiot and needed to calm down before I crashed myself or someone else out of the race. I fell back in line going into ten. Going into turn one someone passed me on the inside. This caught my attention enough to get me to go back to my pace. I passed him back on the inside of two and started making my way through everyone in front of me. I managed to catch and pass fourth place on the seventh lap and started making ground on second and third. I wasn’t able to pass either of them by the end of the race and ended up taking fourth. If I would have rode smarter at the beginning of the race I probably could have gotten another podium.
To be continued. . . . .
(It's late and I'll type up the rest tomorrow)
