Round 2 2016 - The Descent into Mediocrity

Summary

A pointless and expensive crash in practice, and then mediocre results in the sprint races left me frustrated and wondering if it was all worth the effort.  But then I gave my head a shake...

Round 2 

Round two of the 2016 SOAR Series was held June 17 to 19 on the "Modified Track" configuration at Grand Bend.  This has never been my favourite layout, but last year it worked to my favour in the BOTT LW class because it uses the entire length of the back straight, and I had a horsepower advantage over most of my competitors.   I was curious to see if this would help me against the fast guys who showed up on SV650s in Round 1 and relegated me to also-ran status.

Weather conditions for the weekend were expected to be close to ideal with no precipitation in the forecast, but temperatures were going to be much higher than average for mid June.  Extreme heat always tends to bring more potential for accidents, as riders get overheated in their leathers and helmets and lose concentration on track.

Friday Practice

Steve and I were both able to make Friday practice again this round.  It was a pretty clean day all-in-all - there were a few crashes and breakdowns but I don't think they rolled the ambulance all day.  My best previous lap time on this layout had been a 57.8, and I had managed to equal that on the pre-season practice weekend this year.  By the third session on Friday I was turning 58.0 to 58.4 pretty much every time I had clear track, so I was happy with that.  No improvement from last year, but probably fast enough to still do something interesting in the sprint races.  

My only area of concern was in the fast sweepers (Turns 4 and 5).   On the right-hand Turn 5 in particular I wasn't using the whole track on exit, but I was afraid to get on the throttle harder because right at the apex I was hitting some kind of bump that unsettled the bike and sent it dancing sideways.  I tried monkeying with the suspension a bit but never found a solution.   

This was the "All Bike Weekend" at Grand Bend, which meant we had to share the pit area with some drag racers and also leave a huge section empty for some kind of Harley Show-and-Shine event Sunday.  That meant the entire SOAR crowd was squashed into an area about 50% of the normal size.  This is an annual event, so we know how to make it work - we just park all the trailers end-out from the fences (instead of long-ways), and also set up a third row of pits down the middle of the paddock. 

By the time we got the Prairie Dog Racing Luxury Living Quarters and Media Hospitality Unit out of storage, there wasn't much space left, so we ended up in the middle section.  

At this point, I need to introduce another character to this epic saga.  I choose not to name him, for reasons that will become obvious.  We will use an alias.  Let's call him "Stroker".  

Stroker arrived at the same time that we did, and ended up pitting right beside us.  I wasn't completely pleased with this, because Stroker and I have had issues in the past.  He rides this beautiful little 125-cc two-stroke GP-style bike, which weighs about 150 lbs.  It is no threat on the straights, but brakes on a dime and carries mad corner speed.  The problem is, his lines on that bike are nothing like those being followed by the rest of us.  Twice during practice in Round 1, I passed him on the straight only to have him cut right across my front wheel while I was still hard on the brakes entering the carousel.  Both times I had to stand my bike on its nose to avoid T-boning him.

I truly do not understand this behaviour.  A race is one thing, but in practice if someone gets by you it means, by definition, they are faster over a full lap distance.  Back off a tiny bit for a few corners, let them get some distance, then get back on it.  They won't be holding you up.  DO NOT under any circumstances re-pass them immediately, especially if you have to create a dangerous situation to do so!  

Anyway, during the rest of Round 1 I was too furious to talk to him about it; I doubted my ability to keep the conversation "constructive".  But pitting next to him in Round 2, the subject came up.  He was talking about how the corners were the only place he could pass anyone, because he was so outgunned on the straights. I saw my opportunity to broach the subject:

Me: You know Stroker, you should be a bit careful about that.  Sometimes when you are already on your big swoopy Moto3 line, other bikes are still hard on the brakes.  I don't know if you realize this, but twice in Round 1 you cut right across my bow with not a lot of room to spare entering the carousel and I had to stand it up and brake pretty hard to avoid hitting you.

Stroker: But that's how I have to ride, I can only pass in the corners.

Me: Maybe, but it's creating a danger.  I can pretty much guarantee you will have an accident if you keep doing that.

Saturday Practice

Can you see where this is going?  Here is what happened during the first (second?  I don't remember) practice session Saturday morning:

I apologize for what came out of my mouth there at the end.  Try to understand that the adrenaline is running a bit high after a crash.  I'm not proud of it.  I was still crazy mad when Ken MacAdam showed up with the crash cart.  I told him he might want to consider a restraining order when I got back to the pits.

Damage was pretty extensive.  About 3" were ground off the top of the right handlebar and throttle tube, brake lever guard gone, brake lever ruined, right foot peg unusable, plus of course a bent fairing stay, fairing all scratched to crap, exhaust can a bit crumpled but serviceable.  I figured my weekend was over, and was actually searching my soul for reasons not to push Stroker's pretty little bike off its stands in the pits and stomp on the fairing.

But then the inevitable happened.  While I was flailing around uselessly in the pits with steam coming out of my ears, Allen Pyburn, Glen McTavish (with his arm in a sling from his broken collarbone in round 1), and my brother Steve started looking over the bike and pretty quickly declared that they thought they could get it fixed in time for qualifying.  At first I was not having any of it, but they eventually convinced me.  I handed them my spare brake lever guard and a Chinese brake lever, and started walking up and down the pits looking for other bits.  My buddy no-not-that Bill Cosby came through with a handlebar tube, which Steve then drilled for the pin locations.  Glen got the brake lever installed, and Allen figured out what to do about the poor mangled Spiegler footpeg - he ended up mocking something up with the old, OEM, slippery-as-snot peg - not ideal, but somewhat functional.  We tried a couple of different options with the throttle tube, but ended up just shortening it to about 2/3 its normal length.  Again, not ideal but a workable compromise.

While all of this was going on, at some point Stroker peered around the corner of the trailer and asked, in a shaky voice, "Hugh, are you all right?".   I honestly don't remember the entirety of what I said to him, but I know it began with "I'm fine" and ended with the expression  "...a special kind of stupid."  Glen looked at him for a second, then looked back at the part of the bike he was working on, and said "Dude, too soon.  Just back away..."

Saturday Qualifying

I went out for my first qualifying race in the Battle of the Twins Heavyweight class with my partial throttle tube, slippery foot peg and off-centre fairing, not really knowing what to expect out of the bike.  So, I took it pretty quick through a couple of the corners on the sighting lap to see if anything bad would happen to me, but everything felt fine.  

As you can see in the video below, I actually gridded in the wrong position.  I was supposed to be in the middle of the first row of BOTT HW, beside Adam Golan on pole.  That was row six, but the row six cone was tipped over, which I took as a sign that they wanted us to leave an extra row gap to the Lost Era LW guys in front.  Everyone else followed my lead (??) and gridded one row back, leaving Adam alone on the front row.

This year I have both Adam Golan and Steve Mitchell to worry about, on their SV650s.   Adam is new to the class, but I don't know what has gotten into Steve this year - last season he didn't give me much trouble but this year he is much faster.  

Also, for Round 2, another SV650 showed up, ridden by Chris Murphy.  I haven't had a chance to meet Chris yet, but his bike looks pretty serious, with a completely after-market front end, including giant bad-ass radial-mount Brembo calipers.

Anyway, as the video shows, my start was kinda crappy and I got stuck behind Don Morris on his big powerful BMW again.  By the time I got past him, Steve, Adam and Chris were long gone, so fourth place for me.

I don't have any video from the BOTT LW qualifier, which is kind of a shame because it was my best race of the weekend.  I was starting third (outside of the front row) and actually got a great start for once.  I led the race for the first four laps, but then Adam made a nice, clean pass on me going into Turn 1 to start the last lap.  Steve then got by me with a bit of a sketchy, outside pass in the corner leading onto the back straight.  I chased him as hard as I could and discovered that I did, indeed, still have a bit more motor that he did - into the braking zone I was nearly alongside, but he braked later so I was behind again entering the carousel.  I left a gap to him approaching the dogleg, planning on using my corner speed through there to build momentum and pass him to the outside approaching the finish line.  This move takes a bit of commitment and courage because if the guy in front doesn't leave you any room you are going to end up on the grass.  Steve left me the space and I almost pulled it off; he maybe had half a wheel on me at the line.  Apparently the announcer Lindsay Thomson actually called me in second, but I knew that Steve had beat me.

The real excitement happened after the line.  Steve and I both had it pinned across the line of course, but some of the Lost Era bikes in front of us were already at trolling speed, having just finished their race.  I started braking to avoid running into them, but not too hard at first because I was conscious of the possibility that there might be someone directly behind me still going quickly.  Then one of the Lost Era bikes in barely-moving-Sunday-touring mode decided to steer  right up to the apex curbing of Turn 1, leaving me no space at all.  I grabbed a pile of brake and lifted the rear wheel way the heck off the ground, just managing to slow enough to avoid him.  I could just have easily tucked the front and gone down.


Saturday Endurance Race

There were a number of red flags during the endurance race, which I guess is to be expected for a three-hour event run in stifling heat.  One happened right off the  start, when Marc Laplante lost a negotiation with two or three other bikes all trying to get through turn one at the same time.  Another occurred when some object hit Lindsay Thomson in the throat on the straight, causing him to vomit in his helmet.

As for Team PDR, everything went tickety-boo, with clean rider changes and a tidy fuel stop.  We managed 128 laps, which put us fourth out of eight in the GTU class; second and third place each did 130 laps, so we are still in the hunt for sure.  Allen had a particularly good race, despite it being his first bit of riding all season - at the end of the weekend, Squids for Kids team principal Scott Forgie was remarking that Allen seemed to have found something over the winter.  High praise from the guy who owns GTU every season.

Here's a video of the fun LeMans-style start (I am the pilot), and Marc's unfortunate incident at Turn 1.

Sunday Sprint Races

My performance on Sunday was pretty lack-lustre.  I spent the morning practice sessions looking for more speed through Turns 1 and 5, and with later braking at the end of the straight, but it wasn't really coming together.  My crash the previous day still had me in a pissy mood, and I just wasn't feeling it.  Plus, it was hot as blazes and I was melting in the pits.

Here is the video of the BOTT HW final.  I only pulled a minor wheelie off the start, but rolled off the throttle too soon for Turn 1, letting Don by me (again!).  So that put me fifth behind Don and the three SVs (Chris, Steve and Adam).  I tried to get past Don entering Turn 1 on lap 2, but that didn't work out.  I eventually got him later that lap, with an inside pass in the last corner before the straight.  I went a bit deep on him and didn't leave him a lot of track, but there were no hard feelings afterwards.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful, until the second last lap when the fastest riders in Lost Era LW class started coming by me.  I was tired and hot by that point and hadn't made up any ground on the BOTT HW leaders, so I just concentrated on keeping out of the way.  Fourth place.

In the interval between my two sprint races I fell into a bit of a funk.  I hadn't really enjoyed the HW race, running as hard as I could but still not being able to come up with anything for the leaders, and ending the race feeling overheated and tired.  The Saturday crash, my second in two rounds, was still weighing on me, making me ask if this nonsense really was worth the risk, especially considering that I wasn't having all that much fun at present.  I actually told my brother that I was thinking of not doing the LW race, and that I might just forget about sprint racing for the rest of the season.

Ha.  But then I realized I was just being a dick.  I mean honestly... Did I really have to win to have fun?  Was I really that proud?  Why was it so hard to accept that there was a bigger gorilla (or three) in the jungle this season?  Why should I let another rider's stupid mistake affect me so profoundly?   Was I hoping for a dull season where I could win races without improving in any way?  Or did I want to accept the challenge and see what I could accomplish, even with a funky cobbled-together bike with a banana peel for a footpeg?

So, I gave my head a shake and decided to just go and have at the LW race, without so much concern about the outcome.

In the Disney version of this story I would have won the the LW race or at least made the podium.  Nope.  I pretty much sucked, pulling two stupid wheelies off the line and dropping from third to sixth by Turn 1.  But at least I sucked with a good attitude, which has to be seen as progress.  I actually enjoyed the race quite a bit.

Here's the video.  The three SVs, Jordan Renshaw and Don were all ahead of me off the start, but I motored past Jordan on lap 1 and then passed Don at the end of lap 2.  Jordan eventually crashed out, causing Ewan Brown to run off the track, so I actually got to lap Ewan after he re-entered.  In the end I finished fourth, having lost sight of the leaders and feeling the need again to stay out of the way of the LE guys on the last few laps.

A few Sheri Manuel photos of me not sucking too bad:

With a Little Help from our Friends

To cap off what had been a less than perfect weekend, once we had put the PDR HQ trailer away and were just finishing up packing our stuff, my brother noticed that the little trailer he uses to tow the endurance bike had a completely flat tire.  I was actually already headed out the front gates when he phoned me to tell me the bad news.  It turned out that the rubber valve stem was cut, so there was no hope of patching it.  By this point the awards ceremony was nearly over and the place was pretty deserted.  We really didn't seem to have a lot of good options, stuck with a flat trailer tire late on a Sunday evening.  Ken McAdam graciously offered to take the bike to his place for us and bring it back for Round 3, but suggested we first speak to Steve Kinghorn.  His exact words: "Steve is the biggest pack rat I know.  If anyone will have a valve stem for you it will be him."

Not only did Steve have the part we needed, he and Ken made it a personal mission to install it for us, breaking the bead with a 2 x 4 and doing all that other MacGyver stuff that experienced, helpful people do when fueled by enough compassion and beer.

Steve spent about 10 min trying to set the bead with a 12-V compressor and ratchet strap - I think he was just trying to make a point - but eventually gave up and just used the big compressor over by the drag strip.

So, all things considered, not the most successful weekend of racing, but full of great (typical) examples of the type of camaraderie that makes this nutty sport possible.  People who fix your broken bike for you even against your will, or who give you parts from their spares to get you back up and running, or give freely of their time to get you out of a jam when your equipment lets you down, or even stand in the sun all weekend manning a marshal's station.

It's a really really cool thing we've got going at SOAR, and I'm grateful to be a part of it.

The 2016 Season Gets Under Way - Practice Weekend and Round 1

The Long Winter

After my very successful first complete racing season in 2015 I had big plans for 2016.  With the Battle of the Twins Lightweight title won, I figured I needed a new challenge.  The plan was to build the motor in my bike (ported heads with oversize valves, high compression pistons - all the standard stuff for an air cooled Ducati), then return for 2016 and see about harassing the Japanese bikes in the amateur 600 class.

Then life kinda got in the way.

An ended marriage, new house, lots of expensive renovations, and big changes at work.  It all left me with not a pile of time or money to devote to fiddling with motorcycles.  April rolled around and the bike had pretty much not been touched, so I ended up having to reign in my ambitions a little.  For 2016 I will just contend the BOTT LW class again, plus also participate in Heavyweight to keep myself busy.

I am really pleased to have sponsorship support this season from Trackside Cuts Leather and Vinyl, and also Moto-D.

Practice Weekend

SOAR had its annual practice weekend May 7 and 8.  It was pretty cold but all in all the track conditions weren't bad.  I was still running on last year's slicks, and my only real objectives were to give the bike a shakedown and clear the cobwebs after six months off the bike.  My brother Steve was there as well but our Prairie Dog Racing teammate Allen Pyburn couldn't make it. He has picked up a Ducati 1098 to run in Twins Heavyweight this year, but didn't have the bike ready in time for the practice weekend.

On the Saturday morning we ran the Screaming Alien layout.  My first few sessions were a bit slow, which is to be expected I guess.  But eventually I got down to a 1:11.2, which was only a half second off my best lap from 2015.  Not bad.

In the afternoon we were to run Reverse Screaming Alien, but it rained over lunch and never really dried up again, so we didn't end up going out.  We spent the afternoon catching up with friends, playing with people's dogs, etc.  Photos below of Steve and Glen MacTavish yapping under the canopy, and our pit neighbours' dog Dexter.

Rather than trying to tent it in the cold weather, Steve and I opted to stay overnight at the luxurious Whispering Pines Motel in Grand Bend.  

On Sunday we ran the Long Track configuration in the morning, and "Modified" in the afternoon.  My times on Long were miserable; low 1:35s, compared to an all-time best for me of 1:31.5 -  almost 4 s off pace!  That was a bit disconcerting, given that Long Track was the layout scheduled for Round 1.  My times on Modified on the afternoon were better; in fact, I managed a 57.8, a few tenths faster than my best lap from 2015.  Very encouraging.

I ended the weekend feeling reasonably well prepared for the season - the bike had run flawlessly, and it appeared that I was more or less back up to speed.  Also, I picked up a fresh set of Pirelli SC1 slicks from Wayne Kennedy to ensure that I would have tires on hand for Round 1.  My new Moto-D tire warmers had also worked great all weekend, relieving me of the anxiety of wondering if my old crappy used set was going to konk out in the middle of a race weekend.   

Round 1 - Practice Day

Round 1 was held on the weekend of May 28 and 29, and both Steve and I were able to make the practice day on the Friday as well.  This is when my feeling of preparedness started to fade pretty rapidly.

I went through all of the usual rituals Friday morning, setting up the pit area, checking my tire pressures, making notes on suspension settings, etc.  I started the bike to warm it up, and it was idling happily on the stands.  I even managed to get the tire warmers on before the riders' meeting.

Everything felt 100% under control when I lined up with the other riders at pit out for the first session.  Starter Linda Willis waved us on.  I put the bike in gear, grabbed a handful of throttle, eased the clutch out, rolled 30 ft, and then the bike died.  Just died.  I hadn't even tipped it in to the first turn.  

I coasted onto the grass and stood there fiddling with the kill switch, key and starter for a bit, but no dice.  It wouldn't even turn over.  So, I motioned for the crash cart and enjoyed the Ride of Shame back to the pits.

I then spent the entire morning trying to fix the bike, while all of my practice sessions ticked by.  Steve helped as he could, giving advice and trying to diagnose the problem.  We eventually pulled a spark plug and hit the starter button, and a solid jet of fuel shot out about 8 feet from the spark plug hole, while another half litre or so of gas gurgled out of the exhaust can.  Apparently an injector had stuck open and flooded the horizontal cylinder, hydrolocking the engine.  We jumped the injector and it wasn't activating, so we pulled it to have a look.  There was no obvious way to clean it or anything, but when I reinstalled it it was working again (?).  

So, problem "solved", but I had wasted the entire morning in the heat and bright sun (hadn't bothered to put the canopy up....too obsessed with the mechanical issue), more or less bathed in Shell 91 the whole time.  Our neighbours in the pits were getting headaches from the stench of fuel (sorry Yarek).

I was ready to go back out on track in the afternoon, but I was overheated, sunburnt, and maybe a bit frantic.  Predictable result: in the very first session while chasing Steve into OMG corner I outbraked myself a bit, handled the situation poorly, and lowsided onto the grass.  Actually, I ended up right in a huge mud puddle, less than 100 feet from the ambulance.  The bike just lay there pathetically for the rest of the session while I convinced the EMS guys I was perfectly fine...then I had my second crash cart Ride of Shame in one day.  

So, more wrenching for the rest of the afternoon, disassembling things to pull the mud and grass out of everything, straightening the fairing stay, that kind of stuff.  Fortunately the damage was minimal, but Steve and I did have to walk down to the crash site at the end of the day to recover my brake lever guard from the mud.

I ended the day EXHAUSTED and somewhat frustrated, although also feeling fortunate that I had not been injured or done more damage to the bike.  By the time we got the camper trailer set up I was ready to pass out.  Steve grilled some steaks.

Saturday Practice and Qualifying

Things started to look up on Saturday.  The bike ran flawlessly in morning practice, and I managed a 1:33.7.  Still a few seconds off my best pace, but an improvement over what I achieved on the practice weekend.  

Qualifying was fun.  We had learned at the riders' meeting that the Amateur 600 class was so large that it would be split into two qualifying heats, with the top 14 from each heat advancing to the Sunday final.  A consolation race would also be run Sunday, and the top five from that would also go to the final.

This was all pretty exciting, and the 600 heat races were wonderful.  My friend Brodie Coveyduck won the first heat on his Triumph 675, which was a fabulous result for him.  The other big surprise for me was Conner Waugh's third place qualifying finish.  He got a new bike for this season but he must have been eating his Wheaties too.  What an amazing performance!

My first race was the Battle of the Twins Heavyweight qualifier.  There were nine riders registered, and grid positions for this first round were set according to the date that the riders registered.  I registered pretty late and so was on the third row.  

Some of the usual cast of characters have emerged again for Twins HW.  Bob Tziougras showed up with his 749, but sheared the cush drive during practice and so couldn't make the qualifying grid.  Jason Andreasson was there with his Ducati Streetfighter, but couldn't be bothered to qualify.  Don Morris was on the grid with his BMW R1200S; also Joe O'Hara on an RC51 and Steve Kinghorn on a TLR1000.  I need to give Steve Mitchell and Adam Golan special mention here.  These two guys showed up for the practice weekend with impeccably prepared SV650s, and are clearly really serious about winning some races this year.  Steve is the fellow who came out of nowhere to win the Twins LW race in Round 3 last year, but he didn't win any after that.  He's playing it cool, but I have no doubts that he has his sights set on the BOTT LW title this year.

Here is a shot of Steve, and then one of Adam (photos courtesy of Sheri Manuel):

Anyway, in the qualifying race, Steve and Adam blasted off into the distance right off the start, and I got stuck behind Don for a lap.  I finally managed to pass him on the front straight and put my head down to try to chase the other two guys.  I had them in my sights but was running around 1:33.0 and it just wasn't fast enough to make up very much ground.  By the time we got the last lap signal I knew there wasn't any hope of catching them, and just did an easy 1:34 to come home in third.  That was still a front row grid position so I wasn't too disappointed.  Also, my best lap while I was charging was a 1:32.8, almost a second quicker than morning practice. 

The Twins LW qualifier in the afternoon was more interesting.  We had 15 registered (!) but only 12 made the grid.  Again, I was starting near the back, but I had a decent start and was seventh going into Turn 1.  Steve and Adam started on the front row and were leading, and Don Morris was in front of me in sixth.  We all drove past Jordan Renshaw on his little KTM before OMG corner, and then Yarek Rutkowski (SV650) passed Rich Wilson (Ducati SS1000ie) in OMG corner to move into third.  I guess Rich didn't like that so much and tried to retake the position exiting the horseshoe a few moments later.  At 1:52 in the video you can see him go down tucking the front trying to get back underneath Yarek.  This happened directly in front of Don, who did a great job of avoiding both Rich and his bike, but had to drive well off onto the grass to do it.  I also had to take same evasive action to avoid running over Rich, so was passed by both Jordan and Ewan Brown (Ducati SS750 / 900 / 944...don't ask).

I was able motor past Jordan again on the back straight, and caught up to Ewan in the carousel.  I couldn't immediately figure out how to get past him though, and was still behind him by the time we came back around to Rich's crash site in the horseshoe again.  I finally passed Ewan entering Turn 1, but immediately after that they red-flagged the race in order to deal safely with Rich's bike.  My pass on Ewan ended up not counting because the race was stopped before I could cross the start/finish line ahead of him.  I qualified fifth, behind Steve, Adam, Yarek, and Ewan.




Another fun feature of Round 1 was the introduction of the SOAR Supermotard class.  These are mostly 450-cc (I think) 4-stroke dirtbikes with modified suspension and running street tires.  Part of each lap is on the asphalt and the remainder on the motocross track, but regardless of the surface they are on the riders corner MX style, drifting the tires, body upright and inside leg extended with the foot sliding on the ground.  It was a good-sized field and a total blast to watch.


Prairie Dogs Endurance

Allen Pyburn had an important family event to attend the weekend of Round 1, so the Prairie Dogs were short a rider for the endurance race.  We approached Glen MacTavish about taking his seat, and it didn't really take much convincing.  I mean, who wouldn't want a toe in the door with such an awesome organization?  He rides his own 2003 GSXR600 in the Lost Era classes, so it wasn't much of a learning curve for him to get used to our bike.

It was about the cleanest race we have ever run:  no mechanical problems, no offs or crashes, clean rider changes, and tight fuel stops.  The only glitch was right at the beginning.  I took the start and when I came around Big Daddy with the rest of the field, there was a row of cones right across the side straight, left over from when they reconfigured the track for the motard race!  We all put our hands up and cruised around the rest of the lap, expecting a flag, but none ever came.  Race control just scooted out there and picked up all the cones before we finished the lap, and never threw a flag.  Some of the riders caught on to this sooner than I did, and I was one of the last to realize we were "go" and get back on it.

It was Glen's first endurance race, but he did great.  Here he is, making it look easy:

The big news came the next morning when we learned the results; we had finished second in the GTU class, our best finish ever, tied with Scott Forgie's perennially untouchable "Squids for Kids" team on the lap count, but ahead of them on the track at the finish line.  I heard the news while we were walking to the Sunday morning riders' meeting, and I started jumping up and down in the middle of the crowd screaming "WE BEAT FORGIE????  WE BEAT FORGIE!!! WE BEAT FORGIE!!!  WE BEAT FORGIE!!!".

'Cause I am cool like that.  Okay, it was a bit ungracious of me...but shit...we beat Forgie and all...

Who came first you may ask?  Steve Mitchell and Adam Golan's team, "Twisted 'n Addicted".

Huh....

Sunday Sprint Races

My first race on Sunday was the Heavyweight Twins final and, frankly, I sucked.  I was starting on the front row and got an okay launch, but then Jason Andreasson came storming up beside me from two rows back just before Turn 1.  I got a bit startled by this and rolled off a little, which resulted in pretty much the entire rest of the field getting by me.  When the dust had settled I was stuck behind Don Morris on his BMW, and spent the entire rest of the race there.  Don has way more motor than me and is good on the brakes, so passing him on the straights was not an option.  I tried all kinds of crazy stuff to get by, but nothing worked.  Twice I tried to line him up at the exit to Big Daddy, and both times he rolled off slightly just as I was getting on the throttle, forcing me to roll off too, which stood the bike up and sent me onto the grass.  Both times he took a huge lead on me while I gathered it up and put it back on the asphalt, and both times I reeled him in again after just a few corners.  It was frustrating like crazy and in the end I finished fifth.  Would have been sixth but Steve Mitchell ran out of gas.

Truly a crap race for me, and a big reality check.  My lap times were probably two or even three seconds better than Don's, yet I somehow couldn't engineer a pass because the difference was all in corner speed and I haven't learned how to pass in the corners.  Last season was too easy for me, because I always had more motor or better braking than my competitors and so could just wait for a straight to get by them.  If I am going to continue to be successful I will have to learn to use my corner speed to effect passes.

Anyway, no video for that race.  I'm too embarrassed to show it.  Besides, the camera wasn't secured properly and it tilted down in the wind, so a lot of the footage is mostly of the tarmac.

The Lightweight Twins race in the afternoon was pretty dramatic. Adam, Steve and Yarek were starting ahead of me on the front row, and both Jordan and Ewan also got past me off the start.  I was okay with all of that, but then, in Turn 2, Don also came around me on the outside!  AAAARGGHH!!  You don't want to know the obscenities I was yelling inside my helmet.  I think I came close to being the first person to break a Shoei X-14 from the inside out.

Don got passed Yarek at OMG, and then Don and I both passed Jordan on the back straight.  I followed Don for most of a lap, then finally got past him after the horseshoe at the exit onto the back straight on lap 2.  All I did was squeeze him just a bit at the apex to make him lose some of his exit drive.  This is actually the first time I have ever intentionally compromised another rider's line on the race track.  It worked like a charm.  I guess this is the difference between racing and track day riding...

A lap later I passed Ewan on the brakes at the end of the back straight.  At that point I was running third with still seven laps to go, plenty of time to catch the leaders if I could turn some really good laps.  Lap four was a 1:31.2, the best I have ever done on Long Track.  I made a little mistake entering Turn 3 on lap 5, but no big deal - I was still just charging trying to chase down the two SVs.

Then, half way through lap 5...red flag.  Crap.  Double crap when I came around to the marshal's station on the front straight and saw that it was Glen MacTavish lying motionless on the asphalt, having just crashed out of the LE HW class.  Another rider had had had a brake malfunction and straight-lined Turn 1, just as Glen was entering the corner.  Badly broken collar bone for Glen, and an end to the race since the LE leaders had already made half distance.





Glen is kind of a trooper though.  Steve and I packed up his stuff for him and offered to drive him and his truck to his place.  He accepted the offer because there was no way he could drive safely with the pain he was in, but insisted we hang out for the awards ceremony first so he could pick up his third place plaque for the LE Lightweight race!

We had been lucky with the weather all weekend, but it started to pour just before the awards ceremony.  After we dropped Glen off at his place (where his wife Jen was clearly delighted with the situation), we were treated to some pretty dramatic skies on the drive back to the track.

It ended up being a pretty long day, especially for Steve who didn't make it back to Collingwood until well after midnight.

So, overall a somewhat disappointing first round with respect to my results in the sprint races, but still an okay start to what I hope will be a great season.  My take-away from Round 1 is that my race craft truly sucks, and that I am going to have to improve my starts and passing skills if I hope to hang with the leaders this year.

Looking forward to the challenge!

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.