I traveled down to the track on Thursday night with Dave Moss to work the Friday Practice. I spent most of the day prepping my bike and then the afternoon tuning suspension and pulling shocks, forks, etc. Saturday started out pretty hectic as my friend Jake was racing for the first time and I helped him prep his bike. I got placed in practice group 4 of 5 (5 being the fastest) because of my times from a year ago. It was the wrong group for me (too slow) but there wasn't much I could do about it because I didn't have any faster documented times. It was pretty frustrating just because it was impossible to put in clean laps and get into a rhythm, but at least I got to practice. At the end of the day I got a clean session and had some issues with my forks, but it was the end of the day so I the forks would have to wait until Sunday.
Sunday morning warm up I basically just tested the forks, came in every lap and made a change, another lap, another change. Dave and I were trying to get to a set up that would keep me from bottoming out the forks. The session ended, we had a set up that wasn't perfect but would have to work for the race.
Race #1 - 600 Superbike
I have no points for this class from last year, so I started 42nd of 62. The field was pretty deep as it was a money weekend for a few manufacturers, the usual fast guys then a bunch of AMA guys going for the money. On the start I just relaxed and tried not to get hit, it was a bunch of goons in the back. Everyone was single file by half way through the 1st lap so I could start picking guys off. Throughout the whole race I was unable to get a clean lap in as I was just swimming through traffic the whole race, but I managed to finish 26th with a best lap of 1:55.8. The forks weren't perfect, still bottoming out hard, so I had to make changes and go into race 2 with a set up I hadn't ridden yet.
Race #2 - 600 Production
I did have a few points in this class from last year, so I started this race 32nd of 57. I got a decent start and picked up a few spots through T1, only to get pinched in T2 and lose them. But, all in all it was a decent race, again I just spent the whole race working through traffic and didn't get any clean laps in. However, I ended up finishing 17th with a time of 1:55.3. I was also the top novice in this race.
All together it was a positive weekend, I have things I need to work on with my own riding and things to change on the bike. I earned crucial points that will get me much better grid positions for the next race weekend at Sears Point, especially in the 600 Production class. Hopefully a full exhaust system will be on the bike soon, shortly followed by a quick-shifter. Either way I'll be ready for Sears!
All the best,
-Michael Pesicka
AFM #417
No comments:
Post a Comment