Race Report

I’m not a big fan of bowl tracks. Overall Fontana isn’t all that bad of a facility, but let’s just say that it’s a good thing it has such nice garages.

Day 1 and we start off the weekend with me blowing braking sections and running off the track on every lap. I felt like I was riding fairly strong, but just made a lot of mistakes and never put in a clean lap. Somehow the front brake disk managed to melt itself as well. I knew I’d go much faster in the second session. Sure enough, I dropped about 3.5 seconds and was in the hunt with the fast group, but melted another brake disk. Final qualifying came around and I further dropped some time, even though the clutch was slipping badly.

Morning warm-up and we melt another brake, and get going at a decent pace. At this point I’m really looking forward to the race. Unfortunately though when the guys did some routine maintenance on the bike before the race they didn’t get a gasket re-seated properly. I got a great start and immediately moved up 8 positions on the first lap. I felt strong, but my foot slipped off the peg due to the oil. I had to pull in cause it had already soaked my entire leg and was getting on the back tire. I only completed one lap.

Sunday morning warm-up we sat out as it was raining pretty hard. Things went back and forth quite a bit as to whether we’d race in the rain or not there. In the end the word was that we would – I think only because nobody died in practice. Seems like plain logic.

We were lucky enough to be treated to sunny skies for the race in the afternoon though. Problem was that we’d never ridden the bike with really worn out tires. We got the chassis working pretty decent so long as you can keep the wheels both pointed in the same direction, but when you have to ride it sideways it would snap back violently and made it impossible to keep the throttle open. Although I was running with a strong pack early on, and looking for a way by, once we got to half distance or so it wasn’t possible to stay with the group. I drifted back and lost a few more positions (and had another brake component failure). I was disappointed with the final result of 20th, but knew some changes would improve things. That was the first bit of real data I got on the bike in that condition.

I won’t be riding the Buell any more. Things just didn’t work out with the team. It was incredibly frustrating to have the bike mechanically come apart session after session. I also had a few comments on how improvements could be made to the way the team functioned that weren’t that well received. Unfortunately my desire for progress was confused with complaining by someone that felt I was a threat to his job. Oh well. It’s all for the best.

I’m glad I get to focus on my own program now. I was not comfortable with the thought that my other commitments might be compromised, so it’s a nice feeling to be able to concentrate my efforts on the race program I’ve chosen. I’m racing in Portland this weekend for the first round of the OMRRA series. I’m really excited about it. Wish me luck!