Round 3 - Racing is hard...

Summary

A gentle lowside crash in Saturday practice sapped my confidence, but I qualified third for BOTT LW, then did poorly in the Rookie 600 qualifier.  Endurance race went well.  Rain Sunday, so got some practice on the rain tires, then switched wheels again as it dried for the afternoon races.  Was running second in BOTT when I lost a footpeg (!) and had to retire.  Skipped the Rookie 600 race.

Round Three

SOAR Round Three took place July 11, 12 and 13 on the "Long Track" configuration at Grand Bend.  A few days out the weather forecast looked a bit ominous, so quite a few regulars decided to sit it out.  Their loss! By late Sunday morning the track was dry and we had some great racing.

I hadn't run on Long Track for over two years, and so had no useful memory of any of the braking points etc.  There are a couple of challenging corners, including what they call OMG corner where you brake hard from a medium-length straight into a slightly decreasing radius slow 180° right-hander with very poor visuals.  I definitely could have benefited from doing the Friday practice day this time but it wouldn't fit into my work schedule.  So, I stuffed a sleepy 9-year-old girl into the car at 4:45 am Saturday and headed off.  What a good sport she was!

Saturday Practice

There was about 1.5 h of free practice Saturday morning split into three groups, so I made sure to get out right at the beginning of my group's first session to try to start learning the track.  After less than two laps while coming down the side straight into OMG corner I discovered there was no place to put my left foot - the footpeg had come off!  So, I put my hand up and putted around to pit out, put the bike on the stand and started rummaging through my bins of parts to find the spare (OEM) pegs.  No dice - I had left them at home.  Then began a tour of the pits, asking every Ducati rider and a few others as well if they could help me out.  No one had the parts I needed, but as luck would have it someone who had been behind me when the peg came off overheard the conversation and told me exactly where I could find it beside the track!  Ken the race organizer gave me a lift on his scooter and sure enough, there was the missing part lying in the grass right where we were told it would be.  Awesome.  Back to the pits, peg reinstalled (with Loctite and a pile of torque), other peg reinstalled similarly....and now it is 15 minutes until my last practice session and the tires are cold.  Put the warmers back on....

With only 15 minutes of heat in the tires I went out for final practice.  I was starting to get the feel of things when, after about five laps, for no apparent reason I had a gentle little lowside crash in the middle of the triple apex turn they call Big Daddy.  The bike didn't flip and came to rest in a mud puddle on the grass.  Minimal damage, but my leathers got a little dirty.

I set about trying to get the bike and my equipment back into shape.  It really wasn't hard.  Straightened the fairing stay a little, cleaned the mud out of the frame sliders and the clutch, that kind of thing.  Total damage was some new scratches on the exhaust and fairing, ground down sliders, broken brake lever guard, and a hole in my glove.  Lucky.  I borrowed the brake guard off the endurance bike, got out my spare gloves and had things ready in no time.

Meanwhile during all of this Steve and Allen were wrenching like maniacs trying to get the bodywork fitted up to Humpty Dumpty the endurance bike.  You may recall that substitute rider Brodie Coveduck smashed it all to bits for us last round at Shannonville.  To add insult to injury, turnout for the endurance race at the Shannonville round was so poor that they decided not to count the points!  Anyway, Steve and Allen pulled off a miracle sourcing parts and getting it back together mechanically in under two weeks.  The final product was ready to roll but not up to our normal aesthetic standards (which are pretty low to begin with).

Jeff Waller Memorial Ride

Before the qualifying races we had a memorial ride around the track in honour of SOAR member Jeff Waller who had passed the previous week from a longstanding illness.  I didn't know Jeff personally but he was one of us so I was proud to put a #77 sticker on my windscreen and parade around the track in his honour.  RIP Jeff.

The Round 3 event itself is named the Steve Shreeve Memorial, in remembrance of a dear departed friend of SOAR principal Ken McAdam.  It has as one of its traditions a silly pit-bike race where people dress up in outrageous costumes and race about on scooters and minibikes.  Great fun.  On this very special weekend there was also an amazing free BBQ, a super band (the Checkerboard Floors, with SOAR rider Tyler Wilson as one of the musicians), and even some fireworks.  What a blast and what a way to remember and honour SOAR members who have left us.

Qualifying Races

Since I don't have a pile of points so far, I was gridded seventh for the Battle of the Twins Lightweight Qualifying Race.  I was really looking forward to this race, because Bob, who is on a bike with the same motor as mine (Ducati SuperSport DS1000) was back in action after suffering a knee injury in Round 1.  He was gridded right next to me. Unfortunately Alex, with whom I had had a great battle in Round 2, was not on the grid because he crashed his 748 earlier in the day, in the exact same place where I had my incident.  Even so, we had a nice-sized group with 11 registered I believe.

The 5-lap qualifier was a pile of fun, as you can see from the video.  Bob and I thought we were battling for first, but in fact young Jordan Bauer an a Kawasaki 650 Ninja (I think) was miles ahead of us.  Sometimes things get confusing when they have two classes gridded together.  In the end I finished third behind Bob.

It seems I was pretty accurate with my estimate of what kind of times I would need on this configuration.  1:35 flat was good enough to keep up with everyone except Bauer.



As in Round 2, my qualifying races were back-to-back, so I came off the track from BOTT LW, did a U-turn and came back on for Rookie 600.  I was at the back, 8th out of 8 riders.  This class has really shrunk since the beginning of the season, as it often does.  I had a pretty awful race honestly, and the video below highlights my various screwups.  I passed one rider early on and was making up time on the next guy, but then had some kind of scary juddering front tire push entering Big Daddy, not terribly far from where I had crashed in the morning.  That was enough to sap all of my confidence and so I fell back, eventually being passed on the last lap to finish dead last.  Yuck.  However, on the one occasion that I did string together an entire clean lap, I managed a 1:33.6 - a good improvement over the previous race.




Saturday Endurance Race

The Prairie Dogs had a pretty good round on our cobbled-together ride.  Steve in particular was looking very racy.  There is not much in it between our lap times anymore.

During my first session on the bike I absolutely hated it.  There was way too much play in both the brake lever and the throttle, making everything feel loose and imprecise.  On the plus side, the lack of a steering damper didn't seem to affect things at all.  Eventually by my second stint I was starting to figure out how to ride around the bike's oddness, and began using the opportunity to test braking points etc.  That led to me running off in OMG corner once, and at the entrance to the carousel on another occasion.  No problem - I just got back on track and kept going both times.

We ended up logging 103 laps, but had two screw ups.  One time, Steve saw someone who looked remarkably like Allen holding something that looked remarkably like our pit board, and so dutifully came in on the next lap.  We sent him on his way.  Later, only a few laps into my third stint, I got a complete hamstring cramp in my left leg, causing me to run across the grass at about the entrance to Big Daddy.  I put my hand up and rolled into the pits screaming for a replacement with my leg still camping, but of course it took Steve 30 s or so to get his helmet and gloves on.  Personally I blame my teammates for my cramp, because while I was waiting to run my last qualifying race they took my canopy and all the water to go set up the endurance pit, leaving me to dehydrate in the sun like a raisin.  It had nothing at all to do with a lack of fitness on my part.  At least that is my story and I am sticking to it.

Man we are good looking.  Check out Steve's Kramer hairdo.

Sunday Practice

The weather report proved accurate and late Saturday evening it started to rain.  There were some torrential downpours over the night, and the Prairie Dogs (including the two kids we had brought along) were grateful to be sleeping in Allen's trailer rather than tenting it.

In the morning everything was soaked and there was standing water everywhere.  Even though it was supposed to clear up later, I decided to mount the rain tires to get some more practice in.  I don't have my bike set up with quick clips and such, so changing wheels involves cutting the safety wire off of 10 different fasteners, removing the fasteners, swapping the wheels, re-installing and re-torquing all of the fasteners, then safety wiring everything again.  45 minutes minimum, if I rush, and of course I am constantly puncturing my fingertips on the safety wire (they should call it danger wire) and bleeding everywhere.  At one point while kneeling on the wet ground, hungry with grimy hands and blood dripping down to my elbow, I was starting to question whether or not I was actually having fun.

By the time the wheels were on there wasn't much time left in practice, but I did get about 10 laps in before there was such a dry line developing that I thought I was going to tear up the tires.  By that point the sky was clear as can be.  So, cut off the danger wire...remove fasteners...put the wheels with the slicks back on...put the fasteners back in and torque...rewire, bleed....etc.  I did have some help though - here is Caterina torquing my caliper bolts.

  

BOTT LW Race

The twins race started off well enough.  Sorry, no video but let me try to describe it.  Alex Radecki had put his 748 back together, so it looked like he and Bob and I could have a good race, although Alex was starting from the back of the grid having missed qualifying.  I started better than usual and caught up to Bob after a few laps and managed to pass him, putting me in second behind only Jordan.  Unfortunately a few laps after that I outbraked myself into OMG corner and went onto the grass.  Before I could rejoin, Alex passed me, which put me in third.  It was great fun following Alex for several laps.  I was turning better laps than I had all weekend, really feeling in the grove.  I was gaining on Alex and was just about ready to make a pass attempt...WHEN MY FRIGGIN FOOT PEG CAME OFF AGAIN!!!!!  This time it came off just after the kink on the front straight.  Since I was so close to the pit entrance I just threw my hand up immediately and left the circuit.

In retrospect I probably should have tried to finish the race without my footpeg to salvage as many points as possible, and if I had had a few more corners to make that decision I may have chosen otherwise.  However, it may not have been too safe, and besides, I was pretty disgusted at that point.

Someone retrieved the footpeg and brought it to my pit, but rather than get the bike ready for the Rookie race where I didn't have a great chance of doing well anyway, I decided to call it a day, pack up and get my daughter home at a decent hour.

Summary

With half the season gone and only one points-paying finish, any hope of taking the BOTT LW title is now completely gone.  Actually, I don't think I was going to find anything for Jordan anyway, so that is probably a moot point.  From here on in I will just concentrate on getting more experience, improving where I can and logging the best finishes possible.  Overall I am still pretty pleased with my pace and progress.  But man, is there ever a lot to learn if you want have any success at this game!

How did I do with respect to my goals for Round 3?  Let's review:

Don't crash - Oops.  Nope.

Improve my race starts - Maybe, just a little.

First place in BOTT LW - Nope, wasn't going to happen.  Because Bauer.

Mid pack or better in Rookie 600 - Uh uh.

Show Caterina enough of a good time that she wants to come again - Only time will tell.  It sure was fun having her along.

Round 3 is this weekend...

Round 3

Round 3 of the SOAR series is this weekend at Grand Bend.  Actually it is Round 4 counting the RACE / SOAR joint event at Shannonville two weeks ago.  Track layout is "long track".  Forecast is for rain Sunday.

Series Standings, Competitiveness etc...

After my success at Round 2 I have convinced myself that I can be competitive in the BOTT LW class, and maybe make a run for the title.  The problem is, with my mechanical DNS in Round 1 and having opted out of the RACE / SOAR round that they added to the schedule, I am quite a few points behind much of my competition with only four rounds to go.  I will need firsts and seconds from here on in to have any chance against the guys who are competing in all the rounds, and even qualifying points are going to matter, so no more settling for second when there is a chance to challenge for first.  It's funny how quickly you can go from "Let's just give this a go and try not to embarrass myself" all the way to "Let's win the series!"  I don't really consider myself a competitive person but it seems I have got the bug.

I don't have much recent experience on the Long Track configuration, and so am not sure what kind of lap times I am going to need to be competitive.  Watching videos of recent races, I am thinking that something in the high 1:34 range might do the trick in BOTT LW.  We'll see what we can manage in Saturday practice.  It would have been great to do the Friday practice day this time, but my work schedule just wouldn't allow it.

I don't expect to do super well in the rookie 600 class but it was so much fun last time that I registered for it again.  In both classes (but rookie 600 especially) I really need to concentrate on getting away at the start more cleanly.

Weather Forecast - RAIN

Weatherman says 10% chance of rain Saturday, but 90% Sunday with a total of near half an inch.  Sure glad I got those rain tires.  If it rains, I hope it does it definitively so the call is easy as to which tires to use.  If it starts raining 20 minutes before the start I am screwed because I can't change wheels and get everything safety wired that quickly.  I'll need to make the call 45 minutes out.

I have never even ridden on rain tires, but I am not too worried about that.  I have done some laps in the wet on street tires during my race school and it didn't take me too long to get up to a half way respectable pace.  Anyway, it is the same for everyone, and if the guy in front is cornering faster than me I think I can find the courage to trust the tires and chuck the bike in there.

My nine year old daughter Caterina has decided to come this weekend.  She thinks the camping part will be fun.  I am REALLY hoping that she enjoys herself so she will come with me again in the future.  One more reason to hope that the weather is half way decent.

Prairie Dogs Endurance Racing

It seems that Steve has got the bike pretty much back together mechanically, and both Steve and Allen have been trying to get some usable bodywork cobbled together from two smashed up sets.  Whatever they come up with will not be pretty, but PDR should be rolling again Saturday afternoon.  Fingers crossed...  Big advantage for me is all the extra practice time I will get Saturday evening, going around and around and around for a total of about an hour.

Goals for this Round

So, expecting a challenging weekend but super excited as always.  To be able to share it with Caterina will make it that much more special.  My realistic goals for this round:

• Don't crash
• Improve my race starts
• First place in BOTT LW
• Mid pack or better in Rookie 600
• Show Caterina enough of a good time that she wants to come again  

Watch for tweets over the course of the weekend to follow along...

My team mates spend a pile of my money

Endurance Racing

So, as I have mentioned before, I am a member of the Prairie Dogs Racing endurance team.  At each SOAR round on the Saturday evening we do a 3-h endurance race, taking 20 to 25-minute shifts between three riders (myself, my brother Steve and our friend Allen).  The bike is a 2003 Suzuki GSXR that we bought last fall and got into passable racing condition over the winter (I guess "passable" is a double entendre here...).  We have been racing it in the GTU class mostly against other Japanese 600s, and doing okay.

Shannonville

After the 2014 SOAR schedule was already set, the organizers decided to cooperate with the RACE organization in Eastern Ontario and insert a joint round out at Shannonville, between the already scheduled Rounds 2 and 3 of SOAR.  This turned out to be a great event, with plenty of SOAR racers making the trek east on the 401 to fill out the grids.  Unfortunately, I couldn't fit it into my schedule, with it falling just two weeks after Round 2 and two weeks prior to Round 3.  So, I suggested to my team mates that they take on a substitute rider, and I even put in a good work for Brodie, who has been doing very well in the 600 Rookie class this year.

So, Saturday night I called Steve and Allen to ask them how things went, and I could tell right away from the coy answers that all was not well.  Apparently the team was doing very well, running second overall, when Brodie had some kind of incident under braking into a turn and crashed the bike.  Hard.  The term "cartwheel" was used.  At first I thought they were pulling my leg, but the pictures tell the story.  Here is a "before" and a few "after" pictures of the poor bike.

The guy in the middle in the photo is Brodie.  Bad Brodie, bad!  As you can see he is perfectly fine, which we are all happy about.  Smashing up bikes sucks but smashing up people sucks a WHOLE lot more.  Plus, replacement Brodie parts are hard to find on kijiji.

We have renamed the bike Humpty Dumpty, and Steve is working like mad trying to put it back together again (presumably with some help from All the King's Horses and All the Kings Men).  Many parts have been purchased over the last few days...not clear yet what fraction of that I will get to pay for, if any.  Someone found the instrument cluster in the grass and is returning it to us.  If Steve can get it all sound again for Round 3 in 9 days I will be very impressed indeed.

Crashing

So, this is all part of racing.  People and machinery get pushed, sometimes beyond their limits, and stuff gets broken.  Money gets spent.  Fortunately 9 times out of 10 injuries are minor or nil, and the only real consequences are the expense and the extra work of making it all right again, or replacing the machinery outright.  

I am trying to prepare myself emotionally for the inevitable day that I wad the Ducati into a little ball, but chances are I will still hate myself when it happens.  I really do believe though that the race track is where sportbikes belong, no matter how pretty they are and how much we love them.  Much nobler to have it fly to pieces after a highside battling for position on the final lap then to squash the front end T-boning a left-turning minivan.  Safer for the rider too!

 

Round 2 - That's Better!

Summary

Round 2 was on the Modified Track at Grand Bend.  Things started off looking bad with some mechanical issues but it all got sorted quick and I managed to make qualifying on Saturday and both sprint races Sunday.  Results pretty much on target, including a podium in Battle of the Twins Lightweight.  Feeling great with my first real sprint races under my belt.

Round 2

Round 2 was June 14 - 15.  I skipped Friday practice since I already had some experience on this layout (Modified Track), and instead hit the road before 5:00 am Saturday morning.  Arrived at the track at 7:00 to find my two Prairie Dog Racing teammates fast asleep in the trailer.  Woke them up rudely then got the bike unloaded and ready for tech.  So far all according to plan.

Saturday Practice and Qualifying

First practice session...and the bike breaks on the first lap.  Just started running on one cylinder.  Rode it back to the pits in a FURY.  Parked it, yelled some obscenities, then started preparing the "For Sale - Cheap" sign.

Eventually I calmed down, got out the diagnostics equipment and isolated the problem (injector lead again).  Fixed it in no time and got back on the track before the morning practice ended.

I eventually got my practice times down to what I was hoping for.  When I wasn't in traffic 0:59s were easy, and there were some low 58's in there as well.  Excellent - right on target.  I was pretty much correct with predictions on where I could make up some time, especially in Turn 1.

Qualifying for the BOTT LW race was interesting.  Our class was combined with Lost Era Heavyweight, with the Lost Era guys in front of us because they are faster.  BOTT LW qualifying quickly became a battle  between myself and Alex on his 748.  I basically followed him around for all 6 laps, never getting close enough to pass, but taking note of where he was faster than I was, and where I could make time on him.  I qualified just behind him in second.  I was very pleased with this, as it was confirmation that my bike could be very competitive in this class, as I had expected.

My Rookie 600 qualifying race was the very next one - I literally pulled off the track from my first qualifier, then did a U-turn and joined the mock grid for Rookie.  I was a bit tired and started riding kind of ragged.  I did make up quite a few spots working my way through the back of the large field (17!), and probably could have caught one more but then I screwed up the entry to Turn 2 and ended up running across the grass.  I ended up 9th.

Here are a few photos from Saturday qualifying.

Saturday Endurance Race

Our 3-h endurance race went pretty well.  I only did two stints while Steve and Allen each did three.  We messed up our fuel calculation and ended up having to refuel twice instead of once.  The GTU class is *very* competitive.  We finished last place (fourth) in GTU, but only one team in GTO turned more laps than us, so we were fifth overall.  Pretty respectable all in all and we are all getting faster.

Battle of the Twins Race - Sunday

I really botched the start in the twins race, sending the front wheel sky high in a completely uncontrolled wheelie.  In the end it didn't matter though because I caught up to Alex quickly and eventually passed him under braking into the carousel.  I led for a few laps but didn't really have a feel for how far behind me he might be...and then out of nowhere he gets me back in exactly the same spot!  As you can see in the video I had a plan to try to retake the position, but unfortunately I got lapped by the leader of the Lost Era race on the last lap, and so our race was shortened by one lap and I never got the chance to challenge Alex again before the finish.  I was happy with second but my intention is to fight harder for first in Round 3.

Rookie 600 Race

I was a bit nervous about the Rookie 600 race because there were 17 on the grid, with me about midpack at position 9.  Honestly, I got another pretty awful start but at least I didn't pull another wheelie.  Things didn't really spread out much midpack for the first few laps, and at one point I got behind a bit of an incident where the rider in front of me was forced to brake really hard to avoid the bike ahead of him entering Turn 2.  I kept my nose clean but lost a pile of positions.  That actually turned out all right because then I had the fun (and practice) of re-passing all of those guys.  I swapped places with one fellow in particular multiple times.  In the end, after all that action, I finished right where I started: 9th.

I was actually pretty happy with the way the bike performed in the race, against machines with quite a bit more motor.  The Ducati is very stable under braking and can carry a lot of corner speed, so I was quite often able to pass people entering the faster corners at the end of both straights.  I made a lot of passes into Turn 1 which gave the people in the grand stands a nice show.  The race was a lot of fun and has convinced me to stick with the rookie class for the rest of the season to see if I can move up the rankings a bit.  I will never turn the times that the front runners are capable of, but upper third of the pack should not be out of reach if I can dig a little deeper.  I did get faster over the course of the race, eventually turning low 58s consistently.  Video:



Summary

Having now completed my first real sprint races, I have to say that I am enjoying myself and am pleased with my progress.  Such a relief after the disaster of Round 1!  I even earned a little tire contingency money for my second place BOTT LW finish (thanks Bridgestone and RIPP racing).

Reviewing my goals for Round 2:

1. Don't crash - Check!

2. Don't miss any qualifying or sprint races due to mechanical issues - Check!

3. Get average practice lap times down to 0:59.x, and turn at least a few 0:58.x - I did better than this, putting in a pile of 58s and one 0:57.94.

4. Podium finish in BOTT LW (why not?) - Yep!  Hooray!

5. Mid-pack or better finish in Rookie 600 - Not quite (9 / 17) but close enough.

6. Have fun - Most certainly.

Getting Ready for Round 2

Summary

With Round 2 only 8 days away I am thinking hard about what I hope to accomplish and how I am going to manage it.  After my pathetic double-DNS in Round 1, the main objective for this coming round is to avoid mechanical issues so that I don't miss any sessions.  I am in full "Hope for the Best but Plan for the Worst" mode.

Round 2 - Grand Bend, June 14 & 15

I won't be doing the Friday practice day this round.  The track layout is the "Modified Track" - same layout as the practice weekend so I already have plenty of laps on this configuration.  It is the shortest track setup at Grand Bend, with the fastest superbike riders turning laps in the 52-second range.  On the practice weekend I had targeted 1:00 flat as a reasonable time and easily achieved it, with also some 0:59.x laps in the mix.  There is some video of this layout in the first blog entry.

To be honest this is not the best configuration for me, because it is one of two layouts that use the entire length of the back straight.  I can often gap the 600s exiting corners but once they get wound up, given enough space, they will eventually blow by me.  Long straights definitely do not work to my advantage.

Reliability

Obviously the main goal this weekend will be to keep the bike running reliably so that I don't suffer another mechanical DNS.  The diagnostics indicated that I had a poor electrical connection to one of the fuel injectors.  Unfortunately I never identified the problem with 100% certainty, but by the time I had tested every connection and put it all back together, it ran perfectly again.  So here's hoping...

I have also installed the new (used) oil cooler, and run the bike up to temperature three different times to test both it and the fuel injection.  Zero issues.  So, I will safety wire the oil lines, put the bodywork back on, then test it one more time.  But I think I will also bring the diagnostics equipment to the track this time, just in case.

I have also been nervous about the prospect of rain leading to a DNS, since I am running slicks.  Accordingly, I have acquired a lightly used set of rain tires and a spare front Brembo rim, which I will assemble with the OEM discs next week.  I am going to have to mount the rear rain tire on the OEM spoked rim.  It will look a little goofy, but at least I will be able to run in the wet if need be.

Competitiveness

If I can turn 59-s laps consistently in practice I should be very competitive in the BOTT LW sprint race.  But the 600 Rookie field is excellent this year so I am going to need to find some more time if I want to mix it up with those guys.  I have some ideas about where I can pick up a few tenths.

• Certainly I can brake later into the long "carousel" turn, since I am currently coasting a bit there before turning it in.  It takes a lot of nerve to stay in the throttle until the first set of cones (at over 220 km / h!) but I know it is doable if I can summon the courage.
• With a wider line entering the dogleg before the start / finish line I should be able to carry more throttle through there.  That will require getting closer to the curbing at the apex of the dogleg...but not too close.  The pavement is kinda humped up for about 12" beyond the curbing and can really upset the bike.
• I am also confident that I can enter Turn 1 with a lot more speed.  I am not using anything like the whole track there. 

The tight infield bit (Turns 2 and 3) remains a mystery to me, so I will be studying other people's lines during practice.

I have also been thinking hard about passing strategies.  I was pretty tentative in the endurance race last round.  That was mostly okay because endurance racing is supposed to be a bit more relaxed, but I was still sometimes frustrated with how long it took me to safely get by bikes that were obviously much slower.  The good thing about endurance racing though is that it gives you piles of practice.  For Round 2 I will be sure to use those 50 or so laps to experiment with alternate lines and different ways of getting around other riders.

Objectives for Round 2

1. Don't crash

2. Don't miss any qualifying or sprint races due to mechanical issues

3. Get average practice lap times down to 0:59.x, and turn at least a few 0:58.x

4. Podium finish in BOTT LW (why not?)

5. Mid-pack or better finish in Rookie 600

6. Have fun

    

Round 1 was a washout...

Summary

Well, Round 1 was a terrible disappointment.  The bike stopped running and I missed all of my qualifying races Saturday and so we packed up and left Saturday night.  I did manage to get licensed however and we also did the endurance racing Saturday, so it wasn't a total waste.

Friday - SOAR Race School

Arrived bright and early Friday to about 5°C and light mist...which turned to heavy mist...which turned to something that could only properly be called rain.  Everything was soaked and I didn't bring enough warm clothes.  I had two hours of race school classroom time in the morning, which was very useful - answered all of my outstanding questions about starting procedures grid assignments, flags etc.  But the building was unheated and I was wet and actually shivering during the class.  The classroom instructor was Mike Bevan, a top runner and previous champion in Expert Superbike, and he was just great.

Here is what our pit area looked like after the class:

After lunch all of the race school students had to do some laps with an instructor following to make sure our lines were safe and that we weren't totally incompetent.  Problem is the track was still about 80% wet and several of us had only slick tires.  Fortunately for me I also had the endurance bike handy wearing Q3 street tires, so I took that out with the instructor.  The instructor had race DOTs on, which must have been kinda spooky in those conditions.  After I had done five or six laps I went back to the pits to wait.  He eventually showed up and said "I am very tentative in the rain and you left me for dead out there, so you can consider yourself licensed."

Hooray.  I guess....

Eventually the track dried up, but when I started the Ducati it was running very badly.  A bit of a shocker because the bike has been very reliable (except for the oil cooler thing....) and was running great two weeks prior at practice.  We found some issues with the battery connections and got it running well again.  By that time it was pretty late so I didn't even set up the timing beacon or record any video.  The track layout was "Reverse Screaming Alien" which I have some prior experience on, and I felt like my times were probably okay, though certainly not the 1:10s I was hoping for.

I got registered with Bridgestone for the tire contingency program, and put the stickers on the bike.  It was looking even more bad-ass and I went to bed very excited.

Saturday - It all goes pear-shaped

To make a long story short, when it was time to go out for Saturday practice (on a nice, dry track) the bike wouldn't run.  Now it was actually turning on the check engine light, but I had left the connector cables for my diagnostics software at home so I couldn't check the codes.  I spent the whole day Saturday wrenching the bike, trying everything I could think of, and making runs into Exeter for parts (fuel filter, plugs).  This is how the bike looked during my qualifying races:

It is hard to get more pathetic than that.  I was just frantic, at first hoping to make the last practice session, then hoping to make qualifying, then just hoping to get it going for Sunday and start at the back of the grid.  No dice.  

Eventually I just had to admit defeat, throw down the tools and concentrate on the Saturday evening endurance race on the Gixxer.  That was quite a bit of fun and at least I got some practice with passing under (low intensity) race conditions.  After that we had a beer and a hotdog, then broke camp and headed for home a day early.  

I am extremely disappointed because, looking at the lap times others were doing, I am pretty sure that I could have been reasonably competitive in both of my sprint races.  On a happy note, a friend of mine on a Triumph 675, also a first year racer, decimated the field in the 600 Rookie qualifying race.  Way to go Brodie!  Still waiting for the Sunday results to see how he finished.

So, how did we do?

Reviewing the list of "realistic goals" for Round 1:

1. Get licensed - Check!

2. Don't crash - Check!

3. Turn some practice laps in the 1:10.x range - Uh,no....

4. Don't embarrass myself in the sprint qualifiers or races - Never had the chance.

5. Have fun - Meh.  Froze my butt Friday morning, spent 9/10 of Saturday frantic and frustrated.  So I'm gonna say "fail" on this one.

Definitely a failing grade overall.  Hopefully it all gets sorted for Round 2 in three weeks.  Diagnostics led me to an electrical fault to one of the fuel injectors and the bike is now running again.  You can be sure that it will be started and run on pretty much a daily basis for at least a week to see if it misbehaves again.

Plans for Round 1

SOAR Round 1 is this weekend at Grand Bend.  It will be a three-day weekend for me, because I need to do the race school on Friday.  Assuming they are crazy enough to grant me a race licence, I will get a bit of practice in on Friday afternoon and then again on Saturday morning.

I struggled a bit with the decision about how many classes to register for.   I am committed to the endurance racing with PDR on Saturday, and wondered if maybe that, along with the Friday school, would be enough for the first weekend.  And actually it looked like that would be all I would be permitted to do, since my family was understandably not thrilled to learn that I would be gone for three days straight.  However, they eventually acquiesced so the decision was mine.

I knew I wanted to do at least one sprint class, if for no other reason than to get the experience of a race start.  Battle of the Twins Lightweight is the obvious choice - my bike should be pretty competitive there.

The question was...do I also sign up for the 600 Rookie class?  Air-cooled twins up to 1200 cc are permitted, but could I be competitive against a bunch of young guys (and girls) on Japanese supersport bikes?  Also, that class is usually pretty heavily subscribed early in the season.  I could be gridding up with 15 to 20 other riders as inexperienced as myself.  Recipe for disaster?

The track layout will be "Reverse Screaming Alien".  I reviewed quite a bit of youtube video of past Rookie races on that layout, and convinced myself that lap times in the 1:10 range would be competitive (i.e., potential to podium).  So, even the high 1:12s I was managing last year at a track day on that layout would not see me getting lapped or otherwise humiliated.  Accordingly....I signed up.  If I can get my practice times down into the 1:10s I will be pretty confident going in, so that is the goal I have set for myself.  But if I even manage some 1:11s I won't be too disappointed.

So the weekend schedule is: Friday - school and practice. Saturday - practice, 6-lap qualifying races for both BOTT LW and Rookie, then 3-h endurance race.  Sunday - a bit of morning practice and then two 12-lap sprint races.  The only thing certain in all of this is that ibuprofen will be my friend on Saturday.  I wonder if Advil would like to sponsor an amateur racer?

Speaking of sponsorship, I am going to sign up for the Bridgestone contingency program, since I am running their V01-R slicks.  They pay back to third place for any class that has a minimum of six competitors on the grid.  That will include 600 Rookie for sure but we may even have that many in BOTT LW.  Of course expecting to podium on my first race weekend is a bit fanciful...but I would feel like an idiot if I somehow pulled it off but hadn't bothered to register for the contingency program.  Also, it sure would be helpful at this point to win a little tire money!

On the bike prep side, the replacement oil cooler didn't arrive until today and I couldn't wait that long to get the bike ready, so I just removed the old cooler and bypassed it.  These bikes run fine without coolers anyway, but I will keep an eye on the engine temperatures and install the new cooler at the track if I deem it necessary.

I just acquired a new front wheel so that I can get set up with rain tires, but that won't all get organized for this round.  Hopefully it doesn't rain or I am screwed for the sprint races.

So, in summary, Realistic Goals for Round 1:

- Get licensed
- Don't crash
- Turn some practice laps in the 1:10.x range
- Don't embarrass myself in the sprint qualifiers or races
- Have fun

I should add that there is a running bet within the PDR team as to who will turn the best laps on the endurance bike...we are talking serious gloating privileges here.