And that's a wrap...

Summary

Round 5 was the final points-paying round in the 2015 SOAR series.  Everything went according to plan and I managed to win the BOTT LW race and secure the title.  That's three wins, one second and a third on the season.  The Prairie Dogs had another good endurance race, finishing fourth in the GTU class, and rising to fourth overall after five rounds.  Final standings for the endurance classes will be determined after the October round.

Round 5

Round 5 of the 2015 SOAR series was held September 12 and 13 on the Screaming Alien layout at Grand Bend.  Steve and Allen made it to the Friday practice day again, but that wasn't possible for me since I am back teaching at the University this time of year.

I was entering Round 5 with a good lead in the Battle of the Twins Lightweight standings and really just needed to show up, circulate the track and not have a DNS or DNF to win the class title.  But of course that doesn't equate to zero pressure, because a mechanical DNS or DNF is always a possibility, maybe more so when you are on a Ducati.  Plus, I had had practically zero time to spend working on the bike since the previous round.  I fixed the clutch, but other than that the bike just sat in the garage being ignored for six weeks.  I showed up at the track Friday night with a machine that had not even been washed.  I checked the tire pressures and that was it - ready for practice.

Almost immediately after I got there, Bob showed up and started telling lies about how awesome he was on his new 749.  Even though I knew his reported lap times were impossible, I was still pretty curious to see how he would go on the new bike.  On paper, the 749 is the optimal machine for the BOTT LW class, just sneaking in under the displacement limit for liquid-cooled 4-valvers, and having better suspension and brakes than most other class-legal machines.  Still, as we all know, a race bike isn't something you can just buy.  You have to develop it over time, and Bob had only had the thing for a few weeks.

His old SS1000ie was at the track with a "For Sale" sign on it.  It has seen better days.

 Saturday Practice

The weather report had been pretty pessimistic early in the week, but had improved steadily as we approached the weekend.  What we ended up with was cool (even cold) conditions with a lot of wind and sometimes some spooky clouds to the south, but never any actual precipitation.

At the Saturday morning riders' meeting we were reminded about that the dangers of a cold track, and that tires coming off warmers would likely actually be losing heat over the course of a session.   Indeed I heard some riders reporting that the were having slides if they stayed out too long, but I didn't experience that myself.  I ran all three practice sessions beginning to end and the tires worked fine.  I think my tires might be magical.  I bought these Pirelli SC1s on the Friday of Round 1, and am still on the same set...and they look like they will last right through Round 6.  I have been riding fast enough to actually win races so I am not sure what gives.  At any rate, it is very economical.  I think the pro superbike guys typically go through a front and two rears every weekend.

This was my first time running this track configuration, so I tried to concentrate on figuring out the lines during practice, especially for the section that is unique to this layout.  I didn't get any timed laps but by the end of practice I felt reasonably well prepared for qualifying.  I also worked a bit on my body position, trying to get my bum back on the seat a bit more to get my back more inline with the bike.  This photo from Sheri Manuel shows the result of that adjustment.  I am still a tiny bit crossed up on the bike but overall I am pretty happy with my body position.  Anyway, not bad for an old fat guy I figure.

Sheri is a great photographer, and always seems to be in the right place at the right time.  Or, the wrong time, depending on your perspective.  For example, she happened to be standing by our pits when Allen and I were in the awkward position shown below.  When Allen pulls on his leathers, he needs someone to hold his back protector down and, about half the time, to then also "reach around" inside his suit to flip the little plastic tail bone protector down before he zips the suit up.  When Sheri  took this photo I had my hand inside his leathers directly on his butt, wrestling with the tailbone protector.  I was killing myself laughing with Sheri there doing the paparazzi thing.  From the look on Allen's face he was enjoying it just a bit too much.

Qualifying

Because of my points lead, I was starting on pole for the 6-lap qualifying race.  I had a typically crappy start, bogging the motor badly when the lights went out.  Steve Mitchell, Bob, Dean Hammond and Yarek Rutkowski were all past me before T1, but then Steve tucked the front end in T3 (1:14 in the video); he was still tumbling when I went by him.  I got past both Yarek and Dean on the first lap, and then set about chasing down Bob on his new bike.  I wasn't really making any time on him though - if anything he was pulling away a bit - and then on lap 3 I clipped the final apex of Big Daddy and it unsettled the bike enough to send me off onto the grass at the corner exit (4:57).  At that point I gave up on Bob and just put in a couple easy laps to come home safe in second.

I also want to mention that Round 5 saw the return of Kyle Newman to competition - the fellow who busted his femur in the pit bike race in Round 3.  I was astonished to see him standing there at the riders' meeting, so soon after such an injury.  He's got so much hardware in his leg I've started calling him Robo-Cop.  Anyway, he had some mechanical issues (with his bike, not the leg) and is not yet completely back to his regular form, but still managed a fourth in Lost Era lightweight.  Very courageous!  

Prairie Dogs Endurance

With the high winds, we didn't bother trying to set up the canopy in the endurance pits.  At times the wind was pretty strong and even though the air temperature wasn't that low it felt pretty cold sitting there beside the track for three hours.  On the bike it was fine though - the exercise kept us warm.

We got the bike set up early and so had a good position for the LeMans start.  This made Steve nervous, afraid he would hold up the faster riders on the first lap.  He actually asked me if I thought we should move the bike to another position, towards the back of the line!  I pretended to be really angry about this and yelled at him, giving him the gears about his crappy starts and told him that, this time, we expected him to at least be leading all of the GTL bikes when he came past the pits on lap one.  I guess this worked because he was indeed in a pretty good position on the first lap.

Because of the huge number of endurance entries, we had to set up the pits in a new location, on the little section of the back straight that isn't part of the Screaming Alien layout.  Ken McAdam set out some plastic cones to create a "blend line" for reentering the track, so that riders exiting the pits wouldn't get run over by bikes turning onto the back straight.  This pit location provided enough room for everyone, but made it awkward to communicate with the riders.  We had to walk part way up the infield straight and stand beside the track holding the pit boards.  Because the bikes were coming directly at us, and moving fast, it was hard to identify them in time to display the board.  

Steve got caught out by all of this in his first stint.  Allen showed him the pit board, probably a bit late, and while Steve was processing this information (was that Allen or not?) the rest of his brain forgot about the corner and he straight-lined it, putting him right in the pit exit area.  He couldn't go backwards through the pits, so he re-entered the track...but forgot about the blend line.  One-lap penalty for us.

The rest of the race was uneventful.  There were a couple of red flags, but nothing serious.  In the end we completed 117 laps, putting us fourth out of seven entries in the GTU class.  We also beat all ten of the GTL teams that turned in time sheets, and two of the four GTO teams.  Not bad!  By my math, we also rose to fourth in the GTU standings.  The endurance series continues into Round 6, so a third place final standing is not out of the question for the Prairie Dogs.  

Here is the mandatory post-race team photo.

By the end of Saturday I was totally bagged.  It had been a long week and I was sleep deprived.  The excitement of qualifying and endurance had kept me alert, but now I was dog tired, with an aching in my bones that felt almost like the flu.  I chased all of the drunk people out of the trailer and was in bed by 9:30.  Bob and Allen figured they would punish me for being such a party-pooper - they stole my phone and filled it with stupid photographs, including this selfie:

Aren't they a cute couple?

 Sunday

I was pretty antsy Sunday, being on the cusp of winning the BOTT LW title if I could just avoid any disasters.  Also, I was thinking hard about how I could find something for Bob in the race.  I felt confident that I could find the time I would need to stay ahead of him, if I could only get ahead of him off the start.

Practice went okay.  Steve clocked me on low 1:11s and maybe a few high 1:10s, a little better than what I had managed in qualifying.  After the last practice session, I noticed that one of the bolts that secures my instrument cluster had fallen out, and the resulting vibration had broken the other mount completely.  No problem - I had lots of time before the race so Steve and Allen and I came up with a solution that didn't involve too many zip ties.

Meanwhile, Bob was having problems of his own.  His new bike had a slight oil leak and had been smoking a little all weekend.  At some point (I think at the end of the qualifying race) he had received the black flag and was told not to bring the bike back on track until it was fixed.

Steve, traitor that he is, gave Bob as much help as he could, but in the end there was nothing to be done.

Bob would have to run the race on his old bike...

So for the race, it was Bob on pole, then me and Rich Wilson completing the front row.  I hadn't seen Rich before, but he was on a Ducati Supersport, presumably a DS1000 like Bob's.  So, three bikes on the front row all with the same motor.  Cool.  

Honestly the race itself was a bit anti-climactic.  I got one of my best starts of the season and left Bob behind, but Rich was ahead of me.  I followed him for a few laps and found he had similar straightline speed as I did and was very good on the brakes, but was a bit slower in some of the corners.  I eventually engineered a pass at the end of lap three, by getting a better drive out of the dogleg onto the start-finish straight and then braking late on an inside line into Turn 1 (4:22 in the video).  Checking the lap times later that next lap was my best by a full 0.5 s, so I think in the future I need to consider making that my normal line through the first turn.    

Anyway, after the pass for the lead I just settled down into some tidy laps, eventually doing 1:11.2 - 1:11.4 consistently over the final five laps.   I had no idea where Bob was and was afraid he might catch up and pass, but as it turns out he had packed it in after only a few laps because the big sweater he had on under his leathers was pushing his helmet forward so that he couldn't see properly.

So, checkered flag, third win of the season, and my first championship.  Nice.

So what's next?

The original plan for the 2015 season was to have a Quebec / Ontario championship round in October, with the top riders in each class from both SOAR and RACE competing head to head.  Unfortunately, as it turns out, there wasn't enough participation from the RACE guys to make it happen, so instead SOAR will just hold a fun round in October.  There is still the final round of the endurance series to contest, so I will be there for that, and will likely run the BOTT LW sprint race as well.

But what about next season?  This year I easily achieved my goal of winning the BOTT LW class.  That might not seem like a big deal and, objectively, it kind of isn't.  In the less competitive classes like Twins only a few guys even contest the entire series, so the way the points work if you show up and race every round you are going to place pretty high in the end.  Still, putting together a race bike that is fast enough and reliable enough, and then avoiding crashes and other DNFs for a whole season, and riding well enough to always be up in the points every round - that's no small feat.  I'm proud of myself.  Add to that the fact that I had a serious injury last season and almost gave up racing altogether, and this small victory means more to me than you might expect.

But now that's done and I am trying to decide what new challenge to take on.  I think I would get bored of just running BOTT LW again next year and trying to defend my title.  I am toying with the idea of trying to race my weird bike against the 600s again.  My lap times are already good enough to ensure I wouldn't be dead last,  but finding the additional 3 seconds or so to compete with the front runners would require more training, and also quite a bit of money dumped into the bike.  Plus, that class is kind of nuts, sometimes with upwards of 30 bikes on the grid, often with plenty of crashes - maybe not the best scenario for a guy who's closer to 50 than 40.

I really am a bit conflicted about this...but hey, the winter is long.

      

Round 4 - "Your Jedi mind tricks don't work on me."

Summary

Round 4 was a complete and total success, yielding another victory for a total of two wins, a second and a third so far this year.  With only one round left the BOTT LW championship is almost in the bag.  The Prairie Dog Racing endurance team survived another wet race on street tires, and my PDR teammate Allen is getting up to speed in his sprint racing endeavors.


Round 4

Round 4 of the SOAR series was held on the "Technical Track" layout at Grand Bend.  This configuration incorporates the entire length of the back straight, which works to my advantage in the Battle of the Twins Lightweight class since I have a bit more horsepower than some of my main competitors.

I like this layout a lot but had not ridden it since an instruction / track day back in August of 2013.  At that time, my best laps were in the 1:20.0 range.  I wasn't sure what lap times to expect with a season or so of racing under my belt.


Friday Practice

All three members of the PDR team were able to get time off work and attend the Friday practice day.  After the cluster f**k Friday two weeks prior, the organizers instituted a rule that if you miss the 8:30 riders' meeting, you don't ride until the afternoon.  I had a brutal week at work trying to get everything done so that I could play hooky on Friday.  I might have had four hours' sleep Thursday night and so was late hitting the road the next morning.  I arrived at the track at 8:35 but was able to sprint to the meeting in time not to be benched.

Practice went fine, and I was seeing times in the 1:15.0 range almost immediately (5 seconds faster than two years ago!).  Traffic was pretty heavy, and so it was hard to really set any times on clear laps.  Part of the problem was the perennial "slower guys on faster bikes" issue.  Really, it's pretty simple: if another rider shows you their wheel in the corner multiple times, they are, by definition, faster than you over a full lap distance.  If they weren't, they would not be in a position to come alongside you in the corner in the first place.  The fact that you can twist the throttle on corner exit and walk away from them doesn't mean you should.  Let them past - after half a lap they will not be affecting you at all.  Why is this so hard for some people to understand?  It really should just be stated outright at every riders' meeting.

The PDR pits are getting even more awesome, mostly due to the tireless efforts of Allen.  Check out the big canopy attached to the rebuilt trailer (now with air conditioning).  We even sometimes manage to cook breakfast and lunch for ourselves, instead of running into town all the time.

We have also accumulated some great friends this season (Glen McTavish and Yarek Rutkowski) who always pit nearby and hang out with us.


The BOTT LW Field

Disappointingly, Alex Radecki did not show up for this round.  Also, Dylan Bauer seems to have graduated from twins racing and moved up to Amateur Superbike and Amateur 600.  He had an incredibly successful weekend in those classes.  Here is a photo of him looking amazing.

Here I want to mention that all of these wonderful on-track photos are provided by Sheri Manuel.  She is a track rider, member of the SOAR community and incredibly talented "amateur" photographer.  She provides these photos for free every round.  We really need to find some appropriate way to thank her. 

With Alex and Dylan out, I really only had Bob Tziougras and Steve Mitchell to worry about in terms of competing for the win.  There were 9 riders registered in total but based on past races the other six guys didn't have the pace (either due to machinery or experience) to have a reasonable chance at winning.   Steve is the fellow who showed up out of nowhere with an SV650 last round to take the victory and give us all a big surprise.  And then there is Bob.

Have you ever had a friend that, on one level, you really like but on another level he is kind of an a**hole?  But you also realize that the a**hole-ness is, in a way, what you like about him?  That's Bob.

If Bob beats you, he gloats mercilessly and only half jokingly.  If you beat him, he implies that you really just got lucky because he had traffic or a mechanical issue.  He tells tall tales about the lap times he is doing in order to freak you out.  He rubs his chin, looks thoughtfully at your bike in the pits, and casually says "That doesn't look right.  Are you sure that's right?"

I love Bob.  And I kind of hate him.  Bob's bike has the same motor as mine, but is tired and ratty, mostly stock, and poorly maintained.  Mine is well maintained, pretty, and has had just enough work done to it (intakes and fuel mapping; slipper clutch) to give me a performance advantage.  But Bob rides very well when he is really on it and sometimes can negate the difference between our respective machines.

And, this weekend, for his most successful Jedi mind trick ever, Bob out-qualified Jason Andreassen in the BOTT Heavyweight class.  Jason is an experienced and talented rider, and his modified Ducati Streetfighter has at least 30 hp on Bob's 1000SSie.  And yet Bob beat him on Saturday.  I have to admit, that kind of got into my head a little.  Talk is one thing; performance is another.

Here is a photo of Bob chasing down Jason.

 BOTT LW Qualifying

In Saturday morning practice I had got my lap times down to the mid 14's, and was hopeful that would be enough to stay ahead of everyone in the 6-lap qualifying race.  I was starting on pole but had another mediocre start, as you can see in the video.  Bob ended up in the lead and I eventually caught up to him and made a pass going into the carousel, but he got by me again almost immediately, through the dogleg.  

The last lap was pretty interesting.  We came up on slower traffic (one of the LE Heavy riders), and Bob was desperate to by get by him in order to keep a gap on me before we got back onto the straight where I had a good chance of passing him.  Keep in mind that, at this point in the series, I pretty much just need to keep it upright to win the title, while Bob has nothing to lose.  That attitude showed in the dive-bomb pass he made on the other rider entering the "bus stop" - they actually came together when the other fellow turned in for the corner.  I briefly considered blasting past both of them while they wobbled about, but decided that discretion was the better part of valour.  

If you watch right until the end of the video, you will see that there were no hard feelings.

  

After the race I walked to Bob's pit area to congratulate him.  I could see him coiled there, waiting for me, just poised and eager to begin our usual back-and-forth BS session.  And so instead I just totally disarmed him:

"Hey, I got nothing.  You were just farkin' fast.  There is nothing else for me to say about it.  You were just awesome - congratulations."

He looked crest-fallen.

Saturday Endurance Race

Although it was dry and sunny at the start of the endurance race, the forecast was for heavy rain.  PDR owns a set of rain tires for the Gixxer, but no rims to mount them on, so if it rained part way through we were pretty much screwed.

Here are a couple shots (again, from Sheri) of how we were doing during the first part of the race.  First Steve, then me; didn't get one of Allen.

At around the half-way point, the skies opened up and they called a delay due to lightning.  It absolutely poured.  We were relatively lucky in our pit area but some other teams were standing in several inches of water.

I really thought it would end that way, but with just about 30 minutes to go they sent us back out.  Teams with rain tires had already mounted them, but we were stuck with the Q3s that were on the bike, and there were HUGE deep puddles in places.  We debated not going out again at all, but eventually decided to try tip-toeing around the track to log at least a few more laps.  Allen went out first, and then me, trying to weave between the areas where the water was deepest.  The left-hand section in the esses was occupied by a small lake, with only a tiny path off-line that permitted passage.  The bikes on proper tires would come storming past us through there, blasting a huge wall of water in both directions, like the wake of a seadoo.  It wasn't fun.

However, we survived and ended up placing 5 / 11 in the GTU class, and besting all 15 (!) of the GTL teams. 

Grand Bend

The Grand Bend Motorplex is located just a few minutes drive from the town of Grand Bend and one of the most amazing beaches in Canada, on the east shore of Lake Huron.  After the endurance race the skies cleared again and it was a beautiful (if hot) summer evening.  So, the PDR team and its extended entourage went into town for dinner and then walked down to the beach.  We waded into the water, enjoyed the party atmosphere, bought ice cream - it was wonderful.  I really don't know why we don't do that more often.

Sunday Morning

We awoke to a heavy fog Sunday morning and everything was covered with dew.

It burned off quickly though and the weather report indicated that we would have dry, sunny and hot conditions for the sprint races.  Morning practice went well and I was doing low 14s when I had clear laps.  According to Steve, who was watching the practice sessions, when Bob and I were out on track together I was leaving him behind.

I had been thinking about a strategy for the race, and realized that I always had the option of passing Bob on the straight if I was close to him coming off the previous corner.  The tricky part would be after that, carrying enough corner speed through the carousel and dogleg to stay ahead of him following the pass.  So, I worked hard on those two sections during practice, and eventually felt like I was taking them about as quickly as I possibly could.

Things started to look more promising when Bob had his BOTT HW race.  This time, Jason left him for dead, and Steve put a stopwatch on Bob and had him on 1:16s (!).

This is where it gets fun.  Allen (of his own volition - I didn't know about it), takes this information to Bob.  I understand the conversation went something like this:

Allen: Hey Bob, nice race.  Too bad you didn't have anything for Jason today.  Steve was watching the race and clocked you doing 1:16s.

Bob:  Oh yeah?  That's interesting.  What kind of times has Hugh been doing?

Allen: Oh, this morning super-consistent low 13s.

Bob:  (silence)

BOTT LW Final

Allen's little white lie actually turned out to be more of a prediction, since I did indeed dip down into the low 1:13s during the 12-lap final.  The video below shows the whole thing.

Starting from the middle of the first row, I had by far the best start of my life, leading into the first corner and then over almost two complete laps.  Unfortunately at that point the race was red-flagged for a rider who had gone down in the carousel and injured himself (not too severely - he was on his feet when I went by, but holding his arm up with his other hand as if maybe he had broken his collar bone).

The restart didn't go as well.  When I let the clutch out a bit in anticipation of the start I could feel it slipping and acting odd - I couldn't get the engine revs "poised" against the clutch, if you know what I mean.  When the starter sent us off, Jordan Renshaw, Bob, Steve Mitchell, and Yarek Rutkowski all darted out ahead of me.  

No problem.  Steve and Yarek were sparring a bit on the first lap, so I let that settle down for a while, then passed Yarek at the beginning of lap 2, on the short start-finish straight.  I tried Steve into the bus stop in a crazy move similar to the one Bob had pulled off in qualifying, but pulled out of it just in time.  Later that lap I got by Steve and Jordan on the back straight, putting me second behind Bob.  I passed Bob in the same place on the next lap, putting me in front, but then I fell off the pace a bit, turning a 1:15.0 and then a 1:15.5 despite having a clear track in front.  My next lap was better at 1:14.5, but then traffic came into play.  I tried to pass a lapped rider on the outside in the middle of the bus stop, but he left me no room and of course then Bob passed us both on the inside and pulled out a lead.  I finally got by the lapped rider on the straight, and put my head down to chase Bob.  I managed  a 1:13.3, then passed him in the usual spot on the following lap, which was a 1:13.7.  I had to pass another lapped rider on the next lap but he didn't really hold me up much so that was a 1:14.3.  Then, a 1:13.6, and finally another 1:13.3 to the checkered flag.  

    

Here is another video of the race (beginning from the restart), from Steve Mitchell's camera.  I love the bit at 4:10 when Yarek comes flying by Steve, but then Steve outbrakes him.  My pass on Steve is at 5:23.

Allen also had a good race.  He is not in the lead pack yet, but is having fun dicing with Dean Hammond on his 748.   Here is Allen on the fattest bike in the race, chasing Dean on the skinniest.

A few more great shots from Sheri.  Bob sizing up Jordan and Yarek:

And me behind Steve and Yarek:

As we were packing up after the races, Jordan Renshaw came up to me to let me know that Steve Kinghorn had picked up a Ducati clutch spring off of the asphalt at the start / finish line.  I made a snide comment about how Bob's ratty bike was more likely than mine to be shedding parts, but then looked at my clutch and saw this:

One clutch spring screw, spring and keeper missing, another nearly out.  Oopsie.  

I went and sheepishly collected my clutch spring from Mr. Kinghorn.

We stuck around for the awards ceremony this time, so I could pick up my plaque.  Yarek also received his first plaque ever, for finishing second in the Lightweight Superbike class:

I wish Bob had stuck around.  I am sure he would have had something to say about my T-shirt.

  

Round 3 - The Universe Tells Me Not to Race. I Tell the Universe to Stick it...

Summary

Round three of the 2015 SOAR series July 10-12 was a brutal, incredibly crashy weekend where it seemed like nothing could go right.  I avoided the carnage and, despite a big mistake fighting for the lead, still managed a third place in the BOTT LW race.  The Prairie Dogs continue to improve and are moving up the ranks of the GTU Endurance class.

(photo: Sheri Manuel)

Round 3

Round 3 was held on the "Reverse Screaming Alien" layout at the Grand Bend Motorplex.  This was the annual Steve Shreeve / Jeff Waller Memorial Weekend, which includes a BBQ, band and fireworks show Saturday evening, then the traditional silly pit-bike race event Sunday at lunch.

It was a great pleasure to have my daughter Caterina, 10, and my nephew Nicolo, 17, who was visiting from Italy, along for the weekend.  Nico is pretty enthusiastic about the recent success of his Ducati-racing Zio and was really into the whole thing.

I wasn't able to attend the Friday practice day this round, but had a good bit of experience on this layout from a track day back in 2013.  Looking back at my records, my previous best lap time was a 1:12.5.

I was entering this round with a healthy lead in the BOTT LW class, and was determined not to make any mistakes that would jeopardize my chances of winning the championship.  All I needed to do to keep myself in a good position was to not have a mechanical DNS, or a crash leading to a DNF.


Friday Evening

We met the rest of the Prairie Dog Racing team, Allen and Steve, at the track Friday evening and started hearing stories that would unfortunately set the tone for the rest of the weekend.

Apparently the Friday practice day, especially the "slow" group, had been a complete Gong Show.  People showing up late and missing the rider's meeting, then doing idiotic stuff like exiting the track improperly, stopping on the main straight, re-entering the track against marshals' orders and even  (get this!) riding at full speed past four red flags and a crash site while the track crew was trying to mobilize the ambulance to attend to the fallen rider.

SOAR principal Ken McAdam was having kittens.  Ken is always serious when it comes to safety, but if you make a mistake, when he speaks to you about it (which is always immediately), the conversation is 100% constructive.  Not about bawling you out, it is about getting you to understand what you did wrong, why it is dangerous, and making sure you completely understand the correct procedure.  Then, on with your day and it's water under the bridge.

To make him actually furious, you have to be a special kind of stupid.


Saturday Practice

I had arrived too late Friday to register or tech the bike, so there was quite a lot to do Saturday morning if I was going to get two practice sessions in before qualifying.  Unfortunately we all had such a good sleep in Allen's trailer (which he had completely gutted and put back together since the last round, in order to rebuild the floor structure!), that I didn't wake up until a quarter to eight!  Eek!  Big panic.  Got registered and teched quick but then the bike was doing the same old thing where it would throw the engine light on and stall.  At least this time I knew if I warmed it up long enough it would eventually work properly.

The rider's meeting was kind of long since Ken had some "comments" to share regarding the previous day's shenanigans, and there was also a long discussion about the endurance racing procedures.  My group was supposed to go out for practice first and there we were, burning up all that time, and my tire warmers weren't on yet...  

This stuff gets stressful when you aren't properly prepared.  I had just returned from a 5000-km road trip with Caterina and Nico two days prior, and hadn't had the time to really get all my ducks in a row for this round.  My lack of preparation was starting to show and we hadn't even hit the track yet.

Anyway I did make it out for first practice with maybe less heat on the tires that I would have liked.  Nico was recording my lap times and I was slow.  1:14.2.  Jordan Renshaw was doing 1:13.8 on his KTM 390.

Second practice I started to feel it, and managed a few low 1:11s.  Better.


Qualifying

The qualifying races were a bit nuts.  Lots of crashes, one quite serious resulting in a leg injury and a long delay.

The BOTT LW field was a decent size again this round - 11 entries.  Considering that three of the regulars didn't show up (Alex Radecki and the Bauer boys), this was very encouraging.  Also, Allen was finally on the grid with his BMW 1100 Boxer Cup Replica.

After some complaints from Bob Tziougras and others, the organizers agreed to give us a two-wave start.  The lost era heavyweight bikes would start in front of us while we stood still on the grid, and then after a 20-s delay we would be released.  The idea is that we then don't get tangled up with the other class right away, and can race amongst ourselves for at least some of the laps.

Since I had the points lead I was starting on pole for the 6-lap qualifier, and it went according to plan.  As you can see from the video, Jordan, Bob and Don all passed me on the start, but I was able to work my way past each of them again, eventually passing Bob on the last lap to claim pole position for Sunday's final, plus five points in the championship.

Allen finished eighth.  He was riding the bike well but its lack of top-end power made it hard for him to pass other bikes and then stay ahead of them.  Hopefully a little motor work will eventually help with that.




Prairie Dogs Endurance

We had a successful and mostly uneventful endurance race, finishing fifth out of eleven teams in the GTU class.  It was another big turnout, with 26 teams total.

I don't know if it was the heat or what, but the race was crashy - four red flags, which I think is more than we had all last year in endurance.  Between those crashes and the ones earlier in qualifying, we sent the emergency department in Exeter five broken collar bones in one day!  They must have been losing their minds.

Thankfully the PDR team managed to avoid all of that.  We found it curious that Allen was on the track every time they threw they red flag, but he claims he was never anywhere near the incidents.

As you can see from the photos,  Glen McTavish is just a bottle of Nair away from making a pretty attractive umbrella girl.  Cat and Nico handled lap recording and pit boards.

Saturday night was great fun, with a free BBQ, awesome band, and the fireworks show.  The SOAR organizers really do make the memorial weekend into something special.

Sunday Morning

I managed to get myself out of bed at a decent time on Sunday.  When I took the cover off the bike I noticed that the left heel guard was broken.  The thing is butter soft and had been bent back into shape so many times that it had finally snapped at one of the mounting points.  Steve got on it for me and figured out a way to trim it, drill a new hole, flip it and remount it.  Perfect.

  
Morning practice went fine and Nico timed me on a bunch of low 11s and maybe some high 10s.  As usual, the laps spent on the endurance bike the day before had been useful.


Pit Bike Race

Over the lunch break they held the pit bike race.  The costumes were as crazy as ever, and it looked like it was shaping up to be a lot of fun.

This is where shit really started to get weird.

And I don't mean the costumes.

About 10 seconds after starting the event, they suddenly stop it because someone has fallen.  No biggie - somebody fell off a minibike at low speed, probably scraped their elbow, right?

Wrong.  The person was in fact badly injured, and they have to end the event and bring in the ambulance.  Word soon spreads that it is Kyle Newman who has fallen.  Kyle...one of the best young riders in the series, holder of the novice #1 plate by virtue of having won the rookie 600 series last season.  Kyle, the regular podium contender in the Novice 600 series, who rides with skill and courage on a lost era machine, every round beating dozens of guys on modern machinery.  Kyle....Kyle is lying on the asphalt with his femur broken in two places.

In a dress.

You can't make this stuff up.

So, another very long delay while they wait for the road ambulance to show up.  Everyone is sitting around in the pits with nothing to do but think about what the hell is going on this weekend, and getting more and more depressed.  Then, David Renshaw, Jordan's dad, comes by on a dirtbike on the gravel road beside our pit area.  He stops, looks at us, and says

"Look, I''m going to be the next one!"

then rides 5 m, pops a wheelie, turns hard left towards Allen's truck, and crashes.

Only scrapes and cuts for David, but at this point the whole Universe is screaming at me DON'T GET ON THE BIKE!!!!   PACK UP AND GO HOME!!!!   My daughter is looking at me all freaked out and saying "promise me you won't get hurt Daddy".

But if I pack up and go home, I will get no points, and I will hand Bob Tsiougraz the BOTT LW championship.

And that simply can not happen.  Obviously.


Sunday BOTT LW Final

In spite of the protestations of the Universe, nothing really bad happened during the BOTT LW final, except for the fact that my camera stopped working, leaving me with no video.  The race itself was pretty interesting, and the video below was taken by Steve Mitchell.

Let's start with Steve.  None of us had ever heard of him.  After the race he told me that he had just built the bike (an SV650).  It had bodywork off of something else, making it look like a four cylinder.  In fact, at 8:30 in the video you can see the starter trying to wave him up into the front group, thinking he was one of the Lost Era Heavyweight competitors.

The start was goofy.  The first pack got off fine, but when the starter put his hand behind his back to extinguish the red light for our group, instead of waiting a few seconds he dropped the control box on the ground, causing the light to go out immediately (you can see him off to the right in the video at 9:12).

Bob caught on quicker than the rest of us what had happened and got the hole shot, followed by me and then Don on the R1200S.

I had gone into the race telling myself not to take any chances - a win wasn't necessary to keep a good lead in the points, I just needed to not finish too far behind Bob.  Which doesn't explain why, on only the second lap, I got greedy and tried to outbrake him at the end of the straight.  Instead, I ended up missing the corner completely and straight-lining it (10:52).  What was I thinking?

So that's all of me that you will see on the video, but let me explain what happened after that.  By the time I rode down the access road to the designated reentry point between turns 4 and 5, I had lost a good 20 s, and pretty much the whole field had passed me.  With tons of clear track in front, I put my head down and started turning better and better lap times.  Nico clocked me on high 10s, then low tens, and finally one or two laps in the 9s.  From memory, I caught up to Allen and Dean Hammond first and got by quickly, then a lap or two later passed Yarek Rutkowski on the back straight.  A little later yet I came upon Don Morris and made a slightly sketchy pass on him on the brakes in the same place I had run off on lap two.  Next I caught up to Jordan Renshaw and passed him just with motor on the front straight before the dogleg.

Meanwhile, Steve had passed Bob for the lead (nice pass at 17:15 in the video), but Bob had no idea!  He didn't recognize the bike, and figured it was one of the LE guys.

After getting by Jordan I had tons of open track again, and just kept laying down the best times I could.  Then, just after turning off the back straight, who do I see in the distance, but Bob!  I couldn't believe it.  I thought he was in the lead and so chased him down as quickly as possible.  I don't remember exactly where I passed him, but it was on the last lap or the second last.  At that point I thought I was leading.

The last half of the last lap is where it really got interesting.  At 22:43 in the video, just after the white flag, a rider crashes in front of Steve entering the carousel.  It doesn't affect him though and he carries on, catching up to Allen and Dean on the back straight, who are a lap down.  With five corners to go, I come up quick behind Steve who is being slowed up by Allen and Dean.  With everything getting backed up I was worried that Bob would find a way by me and retake the "lead".  On the short straight just before the triple-apex left they call Big Daddy, I actually pulled right up alongside Steve thinking about making the pass, then decided not to risk it and backed out of it (you can't see me in the video but it was at about 23:27).  I had no idea that that pass would have been for first place!  Anyway, by the time we came around to the start-finish straight, I decided to go to the right around the traffic, but there was no room.  Bob chose the left and just got me at the line - maybe by a wheel.

After the cool-down lap, Bob goes to collect his checkered flag, but is told to carry on, he didn't win.  That too is on the video (25:45).




So, in retrospect, I am pretty ashamed of myself for a) making a stupid move that likely cost me a win, and b) not being smart enough to even know who my competitors were on the track.  On the plus side, I did turn some pretty great laps when I needed to make up time, and in terms of my points position I managed to do what was necessary.

Next time Steve Mitchell won't have the advantage of running incognito, but regardless, it is wonderful to have one more competitive rider in the BOTT LW class!

Season Two, Round Two - and a First Win!

Summary

SOAR Round 2 is in the books, and despite some mechanical gremlins I was able to record my first victory ever, winning the BOTT LW class after a great to-and-fro battle with Alex Radecki.

The Prairie Dog Racing endurance team had a thankfully uneventful race on Saturday, with no crashes or goof-ups in the pits.  We finished 7th out of 11 teams in the GTU class.


Round 2

June 20/21 was "All Bike Weekend" at Grand Bend, which means that there were motorcycle drag races, a big Harley Show and Shine event, and of course the SOAR road racing series.  It is quite a fun event, but one downside is that accommodating all of the cruisers means that the SOAR pit gets compressed to about half its normal size.  It was a bit inconvenient, but in a way even more fun than normal, having everybody in such close proximity all weekend.

Allen came through for us and showed up with a "new" trailer - a proper camper in this case, not something previously used to haul livestock.  It's kind of old and needs repairs, but Allen worked like a maniac in the days leading up to the event, getting it into serviceable shape.  We were all grateful for the comfortable beds, the working fridge, etc.   What a difference from sleeping in frost-covered tents during the previous round!

Round 2 was on the "Modified Track".  This is the shortest layout at Grand Bend and, honestly, it's not my favourite.  The slow sort of chicane section through turns 2 and 3 is a bit of a mystery to me - I have never found what I consider to be an efficient line through there.  The layout also uses the entire back straight.  That was a disadvantage for me last year when I was trying to run Rookie 600 on the Ducati, since all of the Japanese bikes would blow by me before the carousel.  Running only the Lightweight Twins class this year it actually works in my favour since I have more power than most of my competition.  But I still don't care for the layout.

I wasn't able to get away Friday to do the practice day with Allen and Steve, so I instead showed up Friday evening.  I brought some monster rib steaks and Steve grilled them to perfection on the BBQ.   

In the pits, everyone was nervous about the weather forecast - it was calling for decent weather Saturday, but almost certainly rain on Sunday.   This put Allen in a quandary.  He had got the BMW Boxer Cup Replica bike ready for racing this Round, but didn't have rain tires for it.  He was reluctant to register for the BOTT LW sprint race, knowing that chances were better than even he would need to sit out the final.  He was compulsively checking the weather forecast every 30 min, which at Grand Bend is about as useful as checking your horoscope.

Saturday

After a great sleep in the new trailer, we awoke to a nice morning but a weather forecast that had not improved at all for Sunday.  Allen made the decision to not register for BOTT and loaded the BMW into his truck...thus ensuring that Sunday would be bright and sunny all day.  Thanks Allen!

I took the Ducati thorugh tech as soon as it opened, but when I started it and put it into gear to leave tech, it threw on the engine light and stalled immediately.  Started it again, same thing.  And again.  And again.  Sh*t.

I put the tire warmers on in anticipation of solving the problem before morning practice.  The computer didn't show any trouble codes on the ECU, so I scrambled (with generous help from Steve and Allen) to check everything we could think of, including the battery, injector leads, grounds...we eventually reasoned that it might be the old kickstand safety interlock, which I had jumped when I removed the kickstand.  Steve suggested I take the endurance bike out for first practice while he and Allen worked on the jumper.  

Practice went okay even if the brakes on the Gixxer were crap.  When I came in, Steve and Allen told me that the Duc was running normally again.  I told them dinner was on me.

I took the Ducati out for second practice and got quite comfortable. My target was to turn 58-s laps.  I am not sure what I managed because the timing beacon ran out of batteries, but I felt in good shape for qualifying.

Below is a video of my afternoon qualifying race.  I almost didn't post it because I collected some bugs on the camera lens during the warmup lap.  However, I decided to put it up because there is some nice footage of Yarek Rutkowski in his first ever race.  Yarek pitted beside us with his SV650 and had a great first race weekend.  Always nice to gain another member of the SOAR family, especially one as pleasant as Yarek.  Also great to fill out the BOTT LW field even more.

Disappointingly, the Bauer brothers didn't show up for Round 2, so I lost my best competition.  That pretty much meant that I was going to be battling Alex Radecki on his 748, and Bob Tziougas on the SS1000ie.  Unfortunately right after the start Bob came together with two other riders in Turn 2 and went down.  He was mostly fine (tweaked his shoulder a bit) but couldn't make the restart.  Here he is on the Ride of Shame (photo from Sheri Manuel).

They red-flagged the race to deal with Bob's mess, and then re-set us on the grid.  As you can see from the video, I had a terrible restart, with almost everyone blowing by me before Turn 3.  But very quickly I re-passed all of them, except Alex.  Eventually I got him too, under braking into the carousel, giving me pole position for Sunday.

Prairie Dogs Endurance

Wow, is SOAR endurance racing ever taking off!  Someone said there were 23 bikes set up at the start.  The results only show 19, but sometimes teams don't turn in their time sheets, so there may indeed have been 23.  Here are the bikes all set up for the LeMans-style start, where the riders have to run across the track to their machines, start them and then  take off.

Steve did the first stint as always, but was about second last coming past the pits the first lap, and following that his lap times were well off his normal pace.  Allen and I didn't know if this performance was related to the quantity of Jamieson's Irish Whiskey he disposed of the previous night, or if there was something wrong with the bike (other than the stuff that is always wrong with it).  At the end of his stint he said he wasn't comfortable and had had a few minor slides.  I had done some suspension adjustments after morning practice because the forks had been pogo-ing on me with really inadequate rebound, so now I was wondering if I had made a mess of it.  As it turns out, neither Allen nor I had any issues during our shifts.  Observing this, Steve figured it must have all been in his head, got on the bike for his second stint and immediately was back up to his normal pace.  

The race was otherwise pretty uneventful.  Ken came by the pits but, remembering my accusation of how he jinxed us in Round 1, just kept walking muttering "I'm not saying anything to you guys".  With the McAdam Curse thus lifted, our fuel stop and rider changes all went smooth as silk, except for the one stint where I apparently missed four pit boards in a row.  Oops.  

In the end we finished 7th out of 11 teams in GTU.  Not terrible, but still a bit disappointing.  We all recognize that we need to get faster, but in addition to that we should work on the equipment a bit.  First priority is to swap out the gawd-awful master cylinder.  Into the carousel I was braking at least a hundred feet earlier on the Gixxer than I would be on the Duc.  No amount of brake bleeding, fluid changes or pad upgrades can fix it (we have tried). 

Sunday

There were a few sprinkles overnight and the skies were a bit spooky in the morning, but by the end of morning practice it was nothing but sun.  Awesome.  

The Ducati was being temperamental again, behaving the same as Saturday morning, but this time I couldn't even get the ECU to talk to the computer.  Apparently the problem wasn't the kiskstand interlock afterall.  Once again, it seemed to heal itself after a while.  By the time it was working properly again it was only 15 minutes to my first practice session and the warmers weren't on yet, so I decided to skip the first round rather than go out on half-cold tires.

Second practice session went fine, but there was so much traffic I didn't have any opportunity to set any fast laps.

I spent the rest of the morning watching the sprint races.  Once again, Amateur 600 had a huge number of entries - 27 I think.  There were at least three crashes.  The worst was my friend Brody Coveduck, who had another rider highside in front of him.  Brody really had no options and ended up driving over the fallen bike.  Brody came out of it mostly unscathed himself, but his beautiful black and gold Triumph 675 is pretty messed up.  Fortunately there doesn't seem to be much damage to any expensive parts except the tank, so we are hoping to see him in action again for Round 3.  

For the BOTT LW race I opted to take the outside position even though I had qualified on pole.  I felt like this would put me in a better position going into Turn 1.  This may have been a good decision because, as you can see in the video, even though my start was still pretty bad I didn't lose as many places as normal.

The race was exciting.  Traffic in the form of slower Lost Era HW bikes really affected our race in BOTT LW.  Bob was starting at the back and was never a factor, and I managed to get past Alex early to take the lead.  However, I was then stuck behind a LE machine and was desperate to pass, in order to put some distance between myself and Alex.  I made a terrible decision forcing the issue going into the carousel and nearly took out the LE guy from behind.  I just managed to save the situation and in the end I doubt he even knew I was there, so no harm no foul I guess...but I need to make better decisions in the future.  Anyway I ran off as a result and Alex got by, so I had the fun of hunting him down again and passing him, all the while both of us negotiating traffic.  I ended up winning, taking my first victory ever.

What's Next?

At the beginning of the season it looked like I would need to miss Round 3, but I have been able to rearrange my summer schedule to avoid this.  So, with only three rounds to go in the series, I am in really good shape to win the BOTT LW title this year.  Alex, Jordan and Dylan have all missed a race, and the way the points are structured this makes it mathematically impossible for anyone to beat me so long as I can always finish fourth or better, stay within two positions of Bob every race, and avoid getting get a DNS or DNF.  At this point it is not so much a battle with the competition, it is a battle with the bike's electrical gremlins that could cause a DNS, and my own on-track decision-making which can always lead to a DNF.  

More importantly, check out this cool PDR cookie that Allen's wife Tracy made: