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!