Hot under the leathers!

A motoGP-style weekend!  4 solid days at the track, between the Chris Peris school and round 3.  Headed to the track on Wednesday, for 3 nights of sleeping in the car/riding and racing on the track. 

It would be hard to summarize succinctly the Chris Peris experience.  In a word, it was excellent.  Pretty neat to share a track with the likes of him and AMA pro Jake Zemke.  Also along for the trip was Ben Waters, a dirt tracker and a rider I have also read about in Roadracing World magazine.  Basically, my form needs work, some of which may be a result of how I have the bike set up.  If I was doing anything right, it was looking though the turn -- otherwise my head position was wrong, I was not getting off the seat, and I wasn't trail-braking.  A lot to work on then.  Lots of laps, lots of strategy, lots of information, and lots of fun.


The race weekend went quite well.  I was busy most of the day on Saturday with trackday students -- in all I likley turned over 100 laps -- albeit the majority at a slower pace.  Practice saw me get into the low 1:06s, and I started in 4th spot by nature of my standings in the series. 

Race 1:  Canadian Thunder GP (15 laps)

Doug got his jackrabbit start as usual and took off in the distance.  Cam slotted into 2nd, with Jason in 3rd and me close in pursuit.  Within a few laps 2nd-4th had gapped 5th place, and so we began our own private battle.  I did a few 1:05s in the race, and first got by Jason going into 1, and chased after Cam.  I got by him at the end of the front straight, and put in a bit of a blocking pass in turn 1 again, as he is so fast there.  This happened towards the last 3-4 laps of the race, and I consolidated the 2nd place, but not by much -- Jason was right on my tail, having also got by Cam.  Podium!

I spent the rest of the day on track with the trackday novice group, filming and offering tips and suggestions.

Race 2:  Canadian Thunder #2 (10 laps)

This was the first Sunday where there was new riders on Sunday, so I was unfortunately unable to get in any racer practice that day.  Despite turning many laps, none were close to "at speed", so I decided to grid at the back for the first race of Sunday in order to get my head back in the game.  A good idea really, as it allowed me to try and apply some things from the school -- one of which ultimately made the difference in the next race.  I diced a bit with Rico and Greg, and once past them, turned some low 1:06s again to get my reference points back.  I passed Steve on the last lap as well, allowing me to finish 6th after starting 14th.

Race 3: Canadian Thunder #3 (10 laps)

Another ding-dong battle for the bridesmaid's spot between Cam, Jason, and myself.  From the first corner, I was in 3rd -- Cam had an issue which allowed me to move up one place, and Jason chased me the whole way -- he was always close -- I never quite saw a wheel, but I could hear him the whole time.  Doug had scampered off as usual, and on lap 7 or 8, Jeff Stokoe on his TZ250 came past as well (not for place -- he's in Novice). 
I realized in the previous race that Greg and Rico would pull me easily coming out of turn 5 -- they went into the turn in 2nd gear, while I took a wider line in 3rd.  However, in a tight pack, the lower gear allowed them to accellerate much better and gap me before turn 6.  When I had some clear track in the previous race I practiced going down another gear -- it didn't cost me any time from what I could tell, and my drive down the back straight was much better.
This came in handy as on the last lap, Jason and I had to split Francisco, who had bike issues and was being lapped -- Jason was able to take advantage of this, getting by me on the entrance of 5 -- I then did a bit of an outside-in move, and used the stomp of 2nd gear to pull alongside, and ultimately get far enough ahead of Jason to make turn 6 before he did.  I held him off at the line, but not by much!!!  Another 2nd place finish. 

I'm now currently 3rd place in the standings, mere points ahead of Wilson.  The battle is heating up.  I've got some suggestions about improving the cooling of the ex from other racers (aside from an oil cooler) -- I hit a peak of 131 celcius on Friday -- TOO HOT!!!  I'll work on getting those temps down and report back to you all.