Race Report: August 12-13 Infineon Raceway - Competitor vs. Participant

After June's encouraging results at Thunderhill, I spent a lot of time visualizing the track at Sears Point and mentally working on my trouble spots. It seemed to work.

I practiced really well on Saturday and made lots of progress in the areas I had been thinking about. It came time for the Clubman race and I was gridded on the 2nd row, closer to the front than I had ever been. I got a good launch and held my own through the first few turns, and when things had settled down a little I could see the leaders as we went through the Carousel. New experience. I had a really good dice with some guys, passed most of them and finished in 5th, with a best lap of 1:55, a full 5 seconds faster than I've gone before. This will probably be my last Clubman race, because they are likely to kick me out now that I've gotten faster. But the result still counts and I made the papers (Check out http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=26721 and scroll all the way to the bottom)!

Sunday I had 2 races, Formula 4 and 650 Twins. In the Formula 4 race I got a reasonable launch but immediately lost a bunch of positions and spent the first half of the race riding behind slower people. Finally I remembered this was a race, picked up the pace a little (1:57 this time) and beat a handful of riders, finishing 39th out of 47 starters. I looked at my lap times from the race and I was really slow the first 4 laps, which doomed my results.

Next up was 650 Twins, after lunch. This is a tougher class and I've never done well in it. But I had talked to my pitmate Brewmaster Pete about aggression for the first lap and put it to the test. I blasted by the row in front of me at the start and kept on the gas, passing clumps of people in the first lap. I hooked up with a very large man named Ozzie (and I say this knowing I myself am a very large man -- he's got at least 60lbs on me) and we swapped places at least 3 or 4 times, all the while advancing through other traffic. I came up about a bike length short at the line, but I was quite pleased with my performance nonetheless. 29th place in probably the most competitive class in the club! I did another 1:55, but more importantly, all my laps were fast this time out and I was riding with real confidence. It's the first time I've ridden full race distance at Sears and not been lapped. Suddenly I'm improving.

Pass of the weekend: Formula 4, mid-race, got a great drive out of the final turn and headed for a little opening between rider 720 and the wall on the outside of the front straight. She started drifting a little wider to set up for turn 1. I swallowed hard, aimed for daylight and hoped I got by before she closed the gap completely. I was in 5th gear, throttle pinned, over 100mph and squeaked through with maybe a foot to spare. Fun stuff!

I also need to give a shout out to my pitmate Dave C. who, after a little suspension work on his bike, came out riding like a changed man, took about 10 seconds off his lap times and finished a solid 13th place in Lightweight Clubman.

Also thanks this time to Michele, who once again provided encouragement and a paddock feast fit for a king, and Nate, whose presence on Saturday inspired us to great results. And of course the unwavering support from Heritage Service Centre, who makes this whole program possible.

Next round is Sept 30-Oct 2 back at Sears. We may be riding the 4-hour endurance race if we can find another lunatic or two. Stay tuned for details.

Cheers...