Here's my long-winded version of the weekend.
I came into the weekend feeling confident. Sat/Sun before the intermediate school were great for me. In the intense heat on the Sunday before the school, I was lapping consistently in the 54s/55s on pump gas and in trackday traffic while working with Ken. I knew race gas would make a huge difference at THill, so I figured that was closer to 53s/54s with race gas.
Saturday morning at the AFM weekend, I found out I was stuck in group 4 out of 5. Why they decided to make the beast with two backs me like that, I'll never know. I had run over a second faster than Nick Hayman had ever gone, but yet he was assigned to group 5? I was 3 seconds faster than everyone in my group in the first warmup but they refused to move me unless I was at the cutoff of 1:53. I offered the explanation that it would be very difficult to do 53s safely when there was a sea of SVs and kids on 125s in the group. No sympathy from the officials. Oooooh that burned me.
Next practice I went out at the start of my group, and even though I only got one clean lap, I got into the 53s. Now I was 4 seconds faster than everyone else in the group, and they finally conceded and moved me into group 5. Unfortunately, I only had one more good session left in my tire, but managed to set a new PR of 1:53.4. In the last session, I lost grip and started sliding around. I came in and Dave Moss had a tire probe which read 230 degrees -- in the center of the tire. Poor tire. Sides were totally shredded.
I'd like to note that GoGo was stuck in practice group 3. He wasn't showing up on the time sheets. I assumed this was because he had turned off his transponder in order to conceal his laptimes, not wanting to tip his hand. He does shit like that.
Saturday night I was feeling confident and a little cocky, so I left a bag of kitty litter next to GoGo's bike, so he'd know I was thinking of him. A buddy of his saw me at Casa Ramos and told me it really got inside his head.
Sunday morning. Ugh. A bit hungover from Casa Ramos margaritas. First practice, I just went out and tooled around a little on an old tire just so I could remember where the track went. I decided to go back to my suspension settings coming into the weekend -- I had been chasing tire wear and decided against that route. In the riders meeting, I noticed GoGo was returning some of the love. He was wearing a shift with a picture of a tiger in a set of crosshairs. Made me chuckle pretty good.
Open Twins.
I rolled out at the start of the group so that I'd have a gap and GoGo wouldn't follow me like he had the last time. Rolled up for the start, and shook hands with GoGo. At the green flag, GoGo (again, on a KTM superduke), Pat Blackburn, and Chase McFarland (on a make the beast with two backsing Buell) got ahead of me. (Scoreboard at this point read "shitty toy bikes 2, tigerbikes 0"). GoGo ran away with the leaders, on Siglin and Randolph's collective tail at turn 6, until they finally started to pull away from him. Chase held up me and Blackburn for the entire first lap, but I got past Chase on the front straight and set off after Blackburn. GoGo had about 3 seconds on me at the end of the first lap (in my mind I counted out 5 seconds... funny how the perception of time changes while you're in a race). I followed Pat on his rear wheel for 2 laps and could not find a way around him. He got distracted by Ken Casey's crash at the exit of turn 3 and ran wide in 4. I squared it off and committed to an aggressive move into 5. Even with Pat trying to take a tight line in, I stuffed it up the inside and then set off after GoGo. [Note -- the other Keigwins instructors kicking ass in Open Production literally helped me out in my race -- thanks, guys!] I followed him through the back section and realized I was making up a LOT of time on him. Heading into turn 15 he still had ~6-7 bike lengths on me, but I still was able to easily blast by him to take over 3rd with two laps to go. My pit crew gave me the signal that they were right on me at the end of the next lap, and I was able to make a clean pass on my buddy on the outside of 6 who was the Open Production backmarker. Sadly, he didn't follow "team orders" and start weaving around after I came through. He later told me I had less than a bike length on GoGo at that point in the race. But I started to open a gap on the back section of the track and brought it home in 3rd. All my flying laps were inside my old PR of 1:53.4, and a new best of 1:52.8 (3 laps within a tenth). I had thought we were off the pace after the first couple laps because we weren't pulling GoGo in quickly enough, but it turned out that dude turned in a 1:53.3 on his Superduke (he also lapped all his laps except one under his old personal best as well... I think that's why he opted to not run his transponder on Saturday...). Since Blackburn was also able to get around GoGo, I now move into 3rd for the Open Twins championship, with a slim 3 point lead over GoGo heading back to Sears Point.
Open GP
I was gridded on the 5th row -- I had a bad first round and blew my motor in Round 2, so I've been digging myself out of a points hole there. I got an "okay" start. I was surprised to see Scott Wilson in the first couple turns, but took a cue from his playbook and started chasing after him as he sliced through traffic. He lost me through turn 9, but I made a huge move going into turn 14 to get back with him -- I was trying to draft past two guys on the back straight, and when I pulled out of the draft, I had a bit more steam than I was expecting and ended up muscling past a total of 4 guys (a little hairy, but it ended up being clean). I followed Scott for a bit before he had trouble in turn 1. I ran with open track in front of me, but couldn't close on Jesse and Matt Orange, and ended up 9th. Lap times were a little slower than Open Twins, but I wasn't pushing too hard in order to save my tire for Open Superbike where I was starting in 6th.
Aftermath of the race, I noticed my prototype exhaust had and issue with an edge touching my rear tire. Fortunately, my exhaust sponsor is also my pitmate. He adjusted the exhaust and bought me a new tire, so I got to head out into Open Superbike with fresh rubber. Yay!
Open Superbike
I got an okay start, and was in ~10th or so heading through turn 2. I passed one dude on the outside in 3 and muscled past another heading into 5, putting me up to 8th. The next in front of me was Matt Orange, who I talk to in the pits and is a nice guy. He was jokingly upset that I had passed him into 14 on the last lap at the previous round. At lunchtime, when we realized we were gridded up next to each other, I told him to watch out for the move into 14 again. Sure enough, I closed up on his rear wheel heading into turn 11 on lap 2, and lined him up for the brakes going into 14. Again, good for a chuckle in my helmet, and put me into 7th. I was able to close down on 6th place, Peter O'Sullivan, and got on his rear wheel heading out of 15 at the end of the next lap. Just about at the point when he looked back over his left shoulder, I pulled out of the draft and gave him a good blast of my DoubleDog exhaust. Now I was in 6th, and with some open track. I could see Gabe and Scott up ahead duking it out for 4th. I put my head down and closed up on them. I noticed with about 2 laps to go that Gabe seemed to be having mechanical problems and he was down on power on the straights. I took over 5th heading up the front straight on the 2nd to last lap. I tried, but couldn't make up the remaining ground on Scott. New personal best of 1:52.7 to end the day and the weekend. That's 2 seconds faster than I went last year on the 749R/848GRRR.
Congrats to the other Keigwins instructors -- the crew was ON FIRE. Gabe took the win in Open Production and Neil and Jesse finished the podium sweep (on 750's). WOW!!! Jesse broke his shifter with a couple laps to go and still mustered a 1:57 -- in 3rd gear ONLY. DAMN!
Best raceday EVER.
Big thanks go out to DoubleDog moto for the continued support and for a KICK ASS product.
Special thanks to Drew D. from Desmoto who wrenched for me all weekend in the blistering heat. He was a good sport about putting up with my shitty attitude when AFM make the beast with two backsed me on the practice group assignments.
And, finally, thanks to you guys for the support and caring enough to pay attention to these long-winded threads. You guys definitely make the experience more enjoyable for me.
Tigre / Steve
AFM #99
1198s GRRR
