bwhip's Second Race Season- Race 2

bwhip's Second Race Season - Round Two

Race Report – Masters of the Mountain, Round Two (5/3-5/4)
I didn’t think racing could get any more fun and exciting than it already has been for me over the past year. In every race I’ve experienced more intensity and pure rush of adrenaline than most people experience in a lifetime. How could it possibly get any better? I found out this past weekend.

This weekend we switched to the West track at Miller Motorsports Park, after racing on the East configuration in round one. The West is the more flowing, high-speed layout of the two, compared to the more technical East track. Going into the weekend, I figured this would reward a bike with a horsepower advantage.

During the off-season, as I reviewed results from last year’s races on mylaps.com, I figured that I needed to improve on my lap times to run with the fast guys on this track. In the final race weekend of last season, I dropped from 1:40’s all the way down to 1:37’s, which was pretty respectable. It was a dramatic improvement that led to some very good results, and a lot of surprised competitors. However, reviewing the results told me that to actually win races, I’d have to do even better. My goal going into this season was to run consistent 1:35’s on the West.

Saturday

Practice day, but with a twist this time. This weekend, the club added a new class called “King of Clubs.” This would be a fun race, with four-person teams. The idea was to have Team Idaho vs. Team Colorado vs. Team Canada vs. Team Apex Trackdays, etc. It could be other clubs, four buddies, whatever. Everyone would race at the same time, and then at the end of the race the total points from each of the four teammates would be added up to determine how the team fared. Hmmm. Sounded like fun, but I wasn’t aware of any specific effort to set up a team from Idaho, so I just figured I’d watch. Nope. As soon as I arrived at the track on Friday night, a couple of my Idaho buddies said they’d already created a team and signed me up. Unfortunately, they’d already picked the name of the team. They obviously didn’t give me a vote. I was to be a part of Team [ahem] “Fiddledicks of Idaho.” Alrighty, then.

The weather was beautiful all weekend, starting out cool, but warming to the mid-to-high 60’s. A few threatening clouds from time to time, but we never got a drop of precip, fortunately.

The practice sessions on Saturday morning went well on both bikes, although I wasn’t really happy with my gearing in a couple of spots where I kept bouncing off the rev limiter while still at a pretty good lean, driving out of turns. As a tall guy (6’ 2”), on left-handers, I find that it’s tough to make that upshift without getting back to the center of the seat first. This was costing me some time. Still, I was able to comfortably get to 1:38’s, and even clicked off a few 37’s.

Both bikes were running awesome. I did take away a couple of clicks of compression in the 1098 forks, as it wasn’t using the full stroke despite some very aggressive trailbraking into turn five – the famous Black Rock hairpin, where you go from 140 to about 30 in as short a distance as possible. One of my favorites!

King of Clubs. They gave each team a colored vest to wear, so you could easily identify your teammates out on the track. I think there were five teams in all that signed up for this first run, and some of the guys were VERY fast – #1 plate holder Aaron Clark, former #1 and local legend Shane Turpin on his 1098R, and a bunch more. The grid was staggered to keep things fair, with a different team representative in each spot in each row. I was assigned position 4A. Fourth row, inside. On the West track, there is a pretty good distance between the start and the high-speed, flowing turn one, meaning you’re flying by the time you get there.

It’s an open class, so I rode the 1098 to take advantage of the horsepower. I got a great start, sneaking up the inside, passing a bunch of guys along the way. Being on the inside, however, I got pinched by a bunch of guys sweeping across my line into turn one. I found myself in seventh place or so, following a pack of vest-wearing racers. As we approached turn five, I see the leader (Shane Turpin on his 1098R), tuck the front and lowside right off the track in front of us. After that, more of the same. I’ve never seen so many crashes in a sprint race! Five guys out of the 20 or so went down in one corner or another. Ugly. I found myself thinking “Geez, guys! This is just a fun race for bragging rights. Take it easy!” But, of course, that’s not the racer mentality.

I wound up taking ninth place overall, and actually beat several guys that are really, really fast. Heck, I was just three spots behind Aaron Clark in 6th. His best lap time was 1:36.9, and mine was 1:37.3. I’m sure he was just playing, but still, it felt pretty good to be in such respectable company (and especially to have kept it upright in the midst of all that mayhem!).

Team Fiddledick Idaho didn’t fare so well. One of our guys crashed, our best guy blew the motor on his R1, so only two of us finished. We came in fifth out of five. I could have told them that would happen with a name like that. Oh well, it was still fun. Congrats to Team Canada for winning.

I slept pretty well Saturday night, then woke at 5 AM and started thinking about starts and first turns and rivals and such, so, of course there would be no more sleep after that. Too excited.

RACE DAY

There are two practice sessions in the morning, before the sprint races begin. In my case, with two bikes, I run one session with each, with the second one using the bike I’ll be racing with first, so I’m feeling comfortable with it. In the second session, I went out on the 1098, and felt great. I did a double-take when I looked at my lap timer after the session. 1:36.3? A full second better than the previous day? Where did that come from? Cool!

Race One – SuperTwins. Last time I had a pretty lonely ride to a second place finish. Shane Turpin gapped us all on his 1098R, and I beat my buddy Mike Bunds on his new 848 by 12 seconds or so. I had a feeling this race would be different. Paul (P.K.) Avery, the guy who beat me in the Twins GTO race last time, decided to run this class, which he hadn’t in round one. I knew he’d be tough.

Turpin was to my left at the start, in 1A, and I was 1B due to my second place standing in the points. The green flag flew, and we both shot toward turn one, with simultaneous second-gear wheelies along the way. He dropped into turn one ahead of me, and I tried to just hang with him as long as I could (until about turn five of the first lap!). By turn six, a shadow was coming up the inside to my right. I knew it was PK. Okay, buddy, let’s party. I used the 1098’s power to gap him wherever I could, and then he’d have to try to make it up on the brakes. Two or three times in the hairpin, he’d make an aggressive late-braking maneuver up the inside, passing me, only to run wide, and I’d re-pass him on the preferred line at the exit. It was fun, and very intense!

I started pushing a little more, and over the last couple of laps didn’t see him passing me anymore. I held on for second, beating PK by just a half-second. He was pushing me to get better, that’s for sure. My best lap time? 1:35.48. Wow! Already pretty close to my goal for the season. Time for a new goal!

I knew it wouldn’t be so “easy” to beat PK in the Twins GTO, however. I wouldn’t have the 1098’s horsepower advantage (although my 849 is no slouch). I was correct.

Race Two – Twins GTO. No Turpin in this one. The main combatants leading the pack would be me, PK, Mike Bunds, and very fast Shannon Moham on his ultra-hopped-up SV650. PK in pole position, me again in 1B. I told my buddies that would be trying to signal me along the pit wall that my strategy was simple. If PK got a great start, I’d just try to hang with him the whole race, and then go for the late-lap pass. On the East track in round one, he had me by a second a lap (which is a ton!), so I knew it was going to be tough. If I got the holeshot, I’d just go like hell and try to hold him off.

Green flag flies, and I grab the holeshot. In a way I was happy – I’m always happy to grab the holeshot – but part of me wished I could just follow him instead of wondering what the heck was going on behind me. Not this time. By turn five, there he was, cutting up the inside on the brakes, but again running wide, only to have me drive past him on the exit. Here we go again. This went on for lap after lap. In the fourth lap, he did it again, but this time kept a tight line and made it stick. Alright, time to just hang with him and see what I could do. He was moving! I was working really hard to stick close to his rear tire. He’d gap me a bit, then I’d close up. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get by him again unless he made a mistake. He did, but it wasn’t quite the mistake I thought it might be.

As we entered the very high speed right-hand turn eight, all I could think about was “Faster, Brian! Faster! You’ve got to stay right on him!” All of a sudden – WHOOSH! Down he went in a high speed lowside, right in front of me! Because the turn opens up right there, he and the bike swept right across my line. I had nowhere to go! Trying hard not to target-fixate, I just tried to avoid running over his head, which seemed to be right in front of my tire. All I could do was veer to the left, right off the track into the dirt. Crap! Now all I could think about (other than hoping PK wasn’t hurt) was how to slow down the bike. There’s a ton of runoff there, but it’s really soft dirt, so braking is almost impossible. I ran a long way, but couldn’t run forever, as there was ultimately a wall or guardrail up ahead that didn’t look very soft or inviting. Using the tiniest bit of front and rear brake as I could, I managed to finally get slowed down, keep the bike upright, and turn around to head back to the track. As I looked toward the track, I saw two bikes speed past – Bunds and Moham. It just became an entirely different race.

Can you tell which lap was the one in which I went off the track?

Wondering how my dirty tires would stick in the corners, I set out to chase down the new race leaders. I knew I had a gap before going off track, the question was whether I had enough laps left to catch them. It was tough to be patient, but I knew that I couldn’t catch them in one lap, so I just put my head down and twisted the throttle, trying to take good lines and hit my apexes. After about a lap and a half I finally reeled in Moham, and set out after Bunds, who was still a second or two ahead of me. White flag lap. Last chance to get a first place finish. At turn five, the Black Rock hairpin, I braked really late, took a great line, and shot past him at the exit. He later told me he didn’t think there was any way I’d catch him after seeing me off the track.

I tried not to get too excited, just ride fast and smart and look for that finish line. Five more turns! Finally, there it was. I tucked in, got on the gas, and crossed the checkered flag in first place! Woo-Hoo! My first race win – ever! Oh man, was I pumped (still am, I guess!). It sunk in about halfway through the cool-down lap, when I found myself shouting “YEAAAHHHHHHH!!” inside my helmet.
Lots of friends were waiting for me in the paddock, with fist bumps, high-fives, and joking about wanting my autograph. It felt incredible. I checked the lap times, and I was down to 1:36.8 on the 849. Getting there!

I went over to check on PK, and found that he was fine (but bummed), and the bike had suffered only minimal damage. I know he’ll be back next round to push me to get even better, and I’m glad.

Around lunchtime, a good friend from Utah that does great graphics work stopped by to say hello. It was great to see him, and he brought me a present he had made! He had read my previous report, where I mentioned getting confused a bit by signals being given to me along the pit wall from a friend during my race. Check out the cool pit board he made me!

It’s really trick, and easy to change on the fly. He even matched the “bwhip” font and number plate font. Very cool, and I really appreciate his kindness. We used it with great success in my third and fourth races.

Race Three – Amateur GTU. I’d REALLY been looking forward to this one. In round one, I had led the entire race from the holeshot, until the second-to-last turn, when Spencer Steed slid by underneath me on his CBR600RR. I tried desperately to catch him by the finish line, but he got me by nine-one-hundredths of a second. A guy took a picture of the pass, and since that day I’ve had it stuck to my refrigerator, to remind me how I should never again let that happen!

Spencer’s a great guy, and very fast. We had a lot of fun joking about how he knew I was coming for him this time, and so on. I told him it was great that we were making each other better. I also knew I needed to be concerned about Brad Moore, on his new GSXR-600. He was really competitive with me last year, and he seemed to be dropping lap times in practice in a big hurry.

The front row of the grid was Spencer in 1A, me in 1B, and Brad in 1C. I knew that the race would probably come down to the three of us in one way or another. It sure did!

Spencer usually has trouble with his starts, so I figured I’d grab the holeshot and just try to hold him and Brad off. Brad had other ideas. He got a great start, just slightly better than mine, and I ducked into turn one right on his tail. I was riding right up his tailpipe, keeping the pressure on, but was impressed that he was really moving! I didn’t know he was that good on the West track yet, but he was learning fast.

Turn ten is the last turn before the straight, and it’s very tricky. It’s really slow, and kind of an odd shape. It’s also very flat and can feel pretty slick under trailbraking. I chased him on a tight line into ten, when all of a sudden, WHOOOOOSH! He lowsided right in front of me! Holy crap! Not again! This time, however, I held my line as I saw Brad and his Suzuki sliding and spinning away to my right. I got on the gas, knowing Spencer had to still be close behind.

It’s kind of weird when a racer, particularly a buddy, crashes during your race. You want to go on and win, but you find yourself thinking “Gee, I hope he’s okay,” while you’re trying to still focus and win. At least I do. Turns out Brad was just fine. I talked to him after the race and he said he knew Spencer and I would be right on his tail, and he was pushing as hard as he could. He got on the gas too early at full lean angle, and down he went.

For the next two laps I just tucked and pinned it, not seeing or hearing much of anyone. My fancy new pit board indicated I was up on the second place rider by 0.5 second, and then 0.8 second , so I figured I was doing okay. Suddenly in turn five, I see a wheel coming up alongside. There he was! I knew it wouldn’t be so easy. We diced it up for several laps, and I managed to hold him off, until finally he got by me. Again I tried to just hang close, hoping for a chance to get back around him. But for heaven’s sake, no more crashing in front of me!

Spencer was flying, especially through turn two, where he carried a lot more corner speed than me. I’d reel him back in on the brakes into five and six, but I was starting to wonder if I’d be able to pass him. As we neared the end of lap five, he was pulling away a bit, but I was still giving it everything I had. Out ahead I saw an odd sight for a sprint race. A lapper! Uh-oh. I’d seen how backmarkers can affect pro races, and I wondered whether this one might have any impact on ours. As we passed the white flag for the final lap, we were getting really close and I was pushing hard. At the end of the straight, we got to turn one at the same time as the lapper. What was Spencer going to do? What would the backmarker do? What should I do?

Spencer took the high line, just above the other guy, thinking the guy would cut him off if he went underneath. However, the other guy stayed out there a while. Sensing an opportunity, albeit with some risk, I shot underneath both of them and took the lead! I pushed like crazy the rest of the lap, knowing Spencer would give it everything he had to pass me. I managed to hold him off to win by 0.3 second. The second win of the day (and of my career)!

My fastest lap was the final lap (not surprisingly, under the circumstances!). I managed a 1:35.9 on the 849. I’m pleased, but I know that I’ll need to do better to keep Spencer and Brad (and others) behind me.

This was starting to feel pretty cool! Winning really is different. Just racing with anyone is a blast, finishing well in a race is great, podiums are awesome. But first place just ROCKS. I guess the only downside is that it makes any lesser result much less desirable. But it feels so good, that it will definitely spur me on to keep trying to win.

Fourth Race – Formula 40. I’d entered this class before, but never actually run it. It’s always at the end of the day, when I’m worn out and ready to pack up, shower, and make the six hour drive home. But after hearing how fun and competitive the race in round one was, I decided I had to be a part of it. Besides, several of my Idaho buddies were mixing it up in this class, and after seeing me win, they were (jokingly) telling me they didn’t want me in that class – making me want to run it all the more.

Because I had no previous results, I had to start from the very back row. Instead of position A, I chose to move all the way to the other side, putting me a little further back, but in a better spot to zoom around the outside through turn one. I got a great start, flying past a bunch of guys, all the way up into fifth place after turn one. Then I experienced the most frustrating several laps of my racing career!

I got stuck behind a guy on a white GSXR-1000, that was just killing me. He had a little more power on the straights, took fairly decent lines, but parked it in the corners. He was just impossible to get around, and I saw the leaders getting away! I knew I could hang with them, but the only way to get past this guy would have been to really put us both at big risk, and I just wasn’t prepared to do it. I showed him a wheel, very aggressively, a bunch of times, and he seemed fully prepared to smash into me, where other riders have flinched before, allowing me to safely pass. Not this guy. I’ve never had so many close calls, ever. A couple of times I take a tighter line into the final straight and get ahead of him by a bit, only to have him get back by me.

Suddenly, in about the fourth lap, both of us get passed by a guy willing to make an even bolder move than me. Turns out it was Tom Bowers, one of the few guys to attend Freddie Spencer’s school even more times than me, riding one of Freddie’s former bikes – a sweet CBR1000RR with carbon fiber wheels. I watched those two guys go at it, very aggressively for two laps, wondering when they’d actually bump, but somehow they didn’t. Tom started to pull away, and I was still stuck behind Gixxer dude.

Finally, the Gixxer goes wide in one turn, I rail past him, and set out to catch Bowers. With a lap to go, I’m getting closer and closer with each turn, wondering when I’ll have a chance to pass him. No good opportunities come along, so it’s down to turn ten. Will he go inside or outside – because I’m going to do the opposite and outdrive him to the finish for the final podium spot! He starts to go just a little wide, I stick my front wheel underneath him, and then he swoops right across my line. My tire is headed right for his leg, but I manage to safely brake to avoid t-boning him. I hold on for fourth, and finish a wild, safe, fun, and fulfilling day.

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited. If you couldn’t tell, I’m kind of enjoying this racing stuff. To be competitive with some really great riders that I respect and like, is a great thrill, and I can hardly believe I’m doing it. I got a great compliment from Paul (P.K.) Avery after our races. He mentioned that he actually quit racing Formula 40 because there were so many crazy knuckleheads that would plow you if they had to, but that racing me was fun, because I was “polite” while still being aggressive and competitive. I’d say the same for him, and I really appreciated the compliment. That sums up how I want to do it. Fun, competitive, fast, but keeping things in perspective.

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