Race reports

July 1-2: Road Atlanta

WERA Cycle Jam

Pat #233

This race weekend crept up on me, I had just moved to Georgia a month earlier and started a new job. I was not even really unpacked from the move, let alone had I really made sure the bike was good to go. I hadn't ridden since Nov 05 when I did a trackday at the VIR Grand Course (which is freakin INSANE!!!!!!!) so I was rusty as well.

Luckily, due to my relocation, the wonderful circuit of Road Atlanta is only about an hour away now! So, that definitely made things a lot easier, not having to spend a whole day/night driving and being far from home.

Due to rule changes in WERA, 250GP bikes were banned in the Vintage 7 Middleweight class. This is absolutely no fun at all for me, (one of I think four 250's I'd seen in the past 2 years racing V7 MW, so it's not like they were out in force in the class) so I didn't plan to race WERA but it being close to home, and many friends were there, I decided to race.

I guess me winning the 2005 WERA GNF race of V7 Mw FROM THE LAST ROW OF THE GRID was the straw that broke the camels back, now wasn't it ??!??!?!!??!!!! 

Whiners who race other bikes in that class made their point very clear, to ban 250GP bikes, and since they have a lot of numbers on their side, my bike became illegal for the class overnight. Oh well, less money that WERA gets from me.

Anyways, it was a fun event, the 2006 Cycle Jam. It's the first time that the Cycle Jam hasn't been at VIR in a long time. Luckily I got some time off from work and made it up there to help wrench for the Wizard Racing boys and girls in the Endurance race.

I don't really remember the races too fantastically, but I remember riding fairly well considering I hadn't been on a bike in 9 months. I started to get into a groove in the Formula 2 race and was catching a few bikes in front of me, but I ran out of laps and finished 13th (after starting dead last). I had a great battle with Tim Birdsong, someone I met a year earlier at Road Atlanta, and we really fought hard until the last lap. I ran a high 1:39 so my times weren't horrible considering how little I've ridden.

HeavyWeight Twins Superbike is a joke for my bike to run in, at any track where there are long straights (such as Road Atlanta). Brian Stokes and Mike Smith checked out on the first lap, with their 1000cc monster v-twins. I finished 6th in a pretty uneventful race other than I was battling to take another position just up until the finish line (I finished 0.055 seconds behind 5th place). Picked out another 1:39 in the race.

V7 HeavyWeight is also almost another joke of a class for a 250cc vs. 1100cc battle at a horsepower track like Road Atlanta. Those old iron monsters like GSXR1100's and FZR1000's just disappear on the back straight, although I can hang with them in the tighter stuff, they all just leave me on the back straight every lap.  Luckily, most of the V7 MW guys bump up and race this class, so I had them to play with. I won the battle of the 600cc Honda/Yamaha crew and finished ahead of all of them -- equivalent in my book to winning the V7 MW race (ha! I hope some of you V7 MW guys are reading this, I'm joking..... sorta). I had another great battle with Stickboy, showing him how to brake into turn 10a, so it was a fun race for a lap or two. But I finished kinda alone, and I was catching the B Superbike Experts, which is ridiculous considering I'm on a 13 year old 250 while everyone else was on new 600's and 750's with fuel injection and sensors and all sorts of gucci shit. The highlight of this race was though, Jamie James showing up to the event with the "Yamasaurus" or "Yamamonster" or something - an old FZR1000 that was modded like crazy, and he ran laps over 4-5 seconds faster than anyone else. He could've almost qualified for an AMA race on this 17 year old machine. Unreal ! The thing sounded like a total beast....

Anyways it was a good weekend, other than the fact that I crashed in practice in the stupid chicane, and I t-boned a motard guy in doing so. I was very sorry for that and apologized later - luckily the guy didn't even fall down, little ol me and my little bike went flying. So I had to fix that, and get my head back in the game.

This marks the THIRD year in a row that I crash my first race weekend of the year. Strange?!??!!?? Well yes, but good insofar as I haven't crashed later in the season for all those three years. I'm knocking on wood, its not a terrible trend. Get one crash out of the way early, and move on....

I just can't ever bring myself to doing a new paintjob over the winter! Because I know I'll probably toss it down the first weekend out.

Overall a good weekend, saw some good friends and got to race, so its still better than the best day at work. Except for thos pay checks, they really help....

I didn't know when else I'd be able to race the rest of the 2006 season, I was hoping a bunch. Sadly I only made one more weekend racing before being laid off and having to put racing on hold (again). 

"Real Life" can really get in the way of racing, I tell ya...