The 2016 Season Gets Under Way - Practice Weekend and Round 1

The Long Winter

After my very successful first complete racing season in 2015 I had big plans for 2016.  With the Battle of the Twins Lightweight title won, I figured I needed a new challenge.  The plan was to build the motor in my bike (ported heads with oversize valves, high compression pistons - all the standard stuff for an air cooled Ducati), then return for 2016 and see about harassing the Japanese bikes in the amateur 600 class.

Then life kinda got in the way.

An ended marriage, new house, lots of expensive renovations, and big changes at work.  It all left me with not a pile of time or money to devote to fiddling with motorcycles.  April rolled around and the bike had pretty much not been touched, so I ended up having to reign in my ambitions a little.  For 2016 I will just contend the BOTT LW class again, plus also participate in Heavyweight to keep myself busy.

I am really pleased to have sponsorship support this season from Trackside Cuts Leather and Vinyl, and also Moto-D.

Practice Weekend

SOAR had its annual practice weekend May 7 and 8.  It was pretty cold but all in all the track conditions weren't bad.  I was still running on last year's slicks, and my only real objectives were to give the bike a shakedown and clear the cobwebs after six months off the bike.  My brother Steve was there as well but our Prairie Dog Racing teammate Allen Pyburn couldn't make it. He has picked up a Ducati 1098 to run in Twins Heavyweight this year, but didn't have the bike ready in time for the practice weekend.

On the Saturday morning we ran the Screaming Alien layout.  My first few sessions were a bit slow, which is to be expected I guess.  But eventually I got down to a 1:11.2, which was only a half second off my best lap from 2015.  Not bad.

In the afternoon we were to run Reverse Screaming Alien, but it rained over lunch and never really dried up again, so we didn't end up going out.  We spent the afternoon catching up with friends, playing with people's dogs, etc.  Photos below of Steve and Glen MacTavish yapping under the canopy, and our pit neighbours' dog Dexter.

Rather than trying to tent it in the cold weather, Steve and I opted to stay overnight at the luxurious Whispering Pines Motel in Grand Bend.  

On Sunday we ran the Long Track configuration in the morning, and "Modified" in the afternoon.  My times on Long were miserable; low 1:35s, compared to an all-time best for me of 1:31.5 -  almost 4 s off pace!  That was a bit disconcerting, given that Long Track was the layout scheduled for Round 1.  My times on Modified on the afternoon were better; in fact, I managed a 57.8, a few tenths faster than my best lap from 2015.  Very encouraging.

I ended the weekend feeling reasonably well prepared for the season - the bike had run flawlessly, and it appeared that I was more or less back up to speed.  Also, I picked up a fresh set of Pirelli SC1 slicks from Wayne Kennedy to ensure that I would have tires on hand for Round 1.  My new Moto-D tire warmers had also worked great all weekend, relieving me of the anxiety of wondering if my old crappy used set was going to konk out in the middle of a race weekend.   

Round 1 - Practice Day

Round 1 was held on the weekend of May 28 and 29, and both Steve and I were able to make the practice day on the Friday as well.  This is when my feeling of preparedness started to fade pretty rapidly.

I went through all of the usual rituals Friday morning, setting up the pit area, checking my tire pressures, making notes on suspension settings, etc.  I started the bike to warm it up, and it was idling happily on the stands.  I even managed to get the tire warmers on before the riders' meeting.

Everything felt 100% under control when I lined up with the other riders at pit out for the first session.  Starter Linda Willis waved us on.  I put the bike in gear, grabbed a handful of throttle, eased the clutch out, rolled 30 ft, and then the bike died.  Just died.  I hadn't even tipped it in to the first turn.  

I coasted onto the grass and stood there fiddling with the kill switch, key and starter for a bit, but no dice.  It wouldn't even turn over.  So, I motioned for the crash cart and enjoyed the Ride of Shame back to the pits.

I then spent the entire morning trying to fix the bike, while all of my practice sessions ticked by.  Steve helped as he could, giving advice and trying to diagnose the problem.  We eventually pulled a spark plug and hit the starter button, and a solid jet of fuel shot out about 8 feet from the spark plug hole, while another half litre or so of gas gurgled out of the exhaust can.  Apparently an injector had stuck open and flooded the horizontal cylinder, hydrolocking the engine.  We jumped the injector and it wasn't activating, so we pulled it to have a look.  There was no obvious way to clean it or anything, but when I reinstalled it it was working again (?).  

So, problem "solved", but I had wasted the entire morning in the heat and bright sun (hadn't bothered to put the canopy up....too obsessed with the mechanical issue), more or less bathed in Shell 91 the whole time.  Our neighbours in the pits were getting headaches from the stench of fuel (sorry Yarek).

I was ready to go back out on track in the afternoon, but I was overheated, sunburnt, and maybe a bit frantic.  Predictable result: in the very first session while chasing Steve into OMG corner I outbraked myself a bit, handled the situation poorly, and lowsided onto the grass.  Actually, I ended up right in a huge mud puddle, less than 100 feet from the ambulance.  The bike just lay there pathetically for the rest of the session while I convinced the EMS guys I was perfectly fine...then I had my second crash cart Ride of Shame in one day.  

So, more wrenching for the rest of the afternoon, disassembling things to pull the mud and grass out of everything, straightening the fairing stay, that kind of stuff.  Fortunately the damage was minimal, but Steve and I did have to walk down to the crash site at the end of the day to recover my brake lever guard from the mud.

I ended the day EXHAUSTED and somewhat frustrated, although also feeling fortunate that I had not been injured or done more damage to the bike.  By the time we got the camper trailer set up I was ready to pass out.  Steve grilled some steaks.

Saturday Practice and Qualifying

Things started to look up on Saturday.  The bike ran flawlessly in morning practice, and I managed a 1:33.7.  Still a few seconds off my best pace, but an improvement over what I achieved on the practice weekend.  

Qualifying was fun.  We had learned at the riders' meeting that the Amateur 600 class was so large that it would be split into two qualifying heats, with the top 14 from each heat advancing to the Sunday final.  A consolation race would also be run Sunday, and the top five from that would also go to the final.

This was all pretty exciting, and the 600 heat races were wonderful.  My friend Brodie Coveyduck won the first heat on his Triumph 675, which was a fabulous result for him.  The other big surprise for me was Conner Waugh's third place qualifying finish.  He got a new bike for this season but he must have been eating his Wheaties too.  What an amazing performance!

My first race was the Battle of the Twins Heavyweight qualifier.  There were nine riders registered, and grid positions for this first round were set according to the date that the riders registered.  I registered pretty late and so was on the third row.  

Some of the usual cast of characters have emerged again for Twins HW.  Bob Tziougras showed up with his 749, but sheared the cush drive during practice and so couldn't make the qualifying grid.  Jason Andreasson was there with his Ducati Streetfighter, but couldn't be bothered to qualify.  Don Morris was on the grid with his BMW R1200S; also Joe O'Hara on an RC51 and Steve Kinghorn on a TLR1000.  I need to give Steve Mitchell and Adam Golan special mention here.  These two guys showed up for the practice weekend with impeccably prepared SV650s, and are clearly really serious about winning some races this year.  Steve is the fellow who came out of nowhere to win the Twins LW race in Round 3 last year, but he didn't win any after that.  He's playing it cool, but I have no doubts that he has his sights set on the BOTT LW title this year.

Here is a shot of Steve, and then one of Adam (photos courtesy of Sheri Manuel):

Anyway, in the qualifying race, Steve and Adam blasted off into the distance right off the start, and I got stuck behind Don for a lap.  I finally managed to pass him on the front straight and put my head down to try to chase the other two guys.  I had them in my sights but was running around 1:33.0 and it just wasn't fast enough to make up very much ground.  By the time we got the last lap signal I knew there wasn't any hope of catching them, and just did an easy 1:34 to come home in third.  That was still a front row grid position so I wasn't too disappointed.  Also, my best lap while I was charging was a 1:32.8, almost a second quicker than morning practice. 

The Twins LW qualifier in the afternoon was more interesting.  We had 15 registered (!) but only 12 made the grid.  Again, I was starting near the back, but I had a decent start and was seventh going into Turn 1.  Steve and Adam started on the front row and were leading, and Don Morris was in front of me in sixth.  We all drove past Jordan Renshaw on his little KTM before OMG corner, and then Yarek Rutkowski (SV650) passed Rich Wilson (Ducati SS1000ie) in OMG corner to move into third.  I guess Rich didn't like that so much and tried to retake the position exiting the horseshoe a few moments later.  At 1:52 in the video you can see him go down tucking the front trying to get back underneath Yarek.  This happened directly in front of Don, who did a great job of avoiding both Rich and his bike, but had to drive well off onto the grass to do it.  I also had to take same evasive action to avoid running over Rich, so was passed by both Jordan and Ewan Brown (Ducati SS750 / 900 / 944...don't ask).

I was able motor past Jordan again on the back straight, and caught up to Ewan in the carousel.  I couldn't immediately figure out how to get past him though, and was still behind him by the time we came back around to Rich's crash site in the horseshoe again.  I finally passed Ewan entering Turn 1, but immediately after that they red-flagged the race in order to deal safely with Rich's bike.  My pass on Ewan ended up not counting because the race was stopped before I could cross the start/finish line ahead of him.  I qualified fifth, behind Steve, Adam, Yarek, and Ewan.




Another fun feature of Round 1 was the introduction of the SOAR Supermotard class.  These are mostly 450-cc (I think) 4-stroke dirtbikes with modified suspension and running street tires.  Part of each lap is on the asphalt and the remainder on the motocross track, but regardless of the surface they are on the riders corner MX style, drifting the tires, body upright and inside leg extended with the foot sliding on the ground.  It was a good-sized field and a total blast to watch.


Prairie Dogs Endurance

Allen Pyburn had an important family event to attend the weekend of Round 1, so the Prairie Dogs were short a rider for the endurance race.  We approached Glen MacTavish about taking his seat, and it didn't really take much convincing.  I mean, who wouldn't want a toe in the door with such an awesome organization?  He rides his own 2003 GSXR600 in the Lost Era classes, so it wasn't much of a learning curve for him to get used to our bike.

It was about the cleanest race we have ever run:  no mechanical problems, no offs or crashes, clean rider changes, and tight fuel stops.  The only glitch was right at the beginning.  I took the start and when I came around Big Daddy with the rest of the field, there was a row of cones right across the side straight, left over from when they reconfigured the track for the motard race!  We all put our hands up and cruised around the rest of the lap, expecting a flag, but none ever came.  Race control just scooted out there and picked up all the cones before we finished the lap, and never threw a flag.  Some of the riders caught on to this sooner than I did, and I was one of the last to realize we were "go" and get back on it.

It was Glen's first endurance race, but he did great.  Here he is, making it look easy:

The big news came the next morning when we learned the results; we had finished second in the GTU class, our best finish ever, tied with Scott Forgie's perennially untouchable "Squids for Kids" team on the lap count, but ahead of them on the track at the finish line.  I heard the news while we were walking to the Sunday morning riders' meeting, and I started jumping up and down in the middle of the crowd screaming "WE BEAT FORGIE????  WE BEAT FORGIE!!! WE BEAT FORGIE!!!  WE BEAT FORGIE!!!".

'Cause I am cool like that.  Okay, it was a bit ungracious of me...but shit...we beat Forgie and all...

Who came first you may ask?  Steve Mitchell and Adam Golan's team, "Twisted 'n Addicted".

Huh....

Sunday Sprint Races

My first race on Sunday was the Heavyweight Twins final and, frankly, I sucked.  I was starting on the front row and got an okay launch, but then Jason Andreasson came storming up beside me from two rows back just before Turn 1.  I got a bit startled by this and rolled off a little, which resulted in pretty much the entire rest of the field getting by me.  When the dust had settled I was stuck behind Don Morris on his BMW, and spent the entire rest of the race there.  Don has way more motor than me and is good on the brakes, so passing him on the straights was not an option.  I tried all kinds of crazy stuff to get by, but nothing worked.  Twice I tried to line him up at the exit to Big Daddy, and both times he rolled off slightly just as I was getting on the throttle, forcing me to roll off too, which stood the bike up and sent me onto the grass.  Both times he took a huge lead on me while I gathered it up and put it back on the asphalt, and both times I reeled him in again after just a few corners.  It was frustrating like crazy and in the end I finished fifth.  Would have been sixth but Steve Mitchell ran out of gas.

Truly a crap race for me, and a big reality check.  My lap times were probably two or even three seconds better than Don's, yet I somehow couldn't engineer a pass because the difference was all in corner speed and I haven't learned how to pass in the corners.  Last season was too easy for me, because I always had more motor or better braking than my competitors and so could just wait for a straight to get by them.  If I am going to continue to be successful I will have to learn to use my corner speed to effect passes.

Anyway, no video for that race.  I'm too embarrassed to show it.  Besides, the camera wasn't secured properly and it tilted down in the wind, so a lot of the footage is mostly of the tarmac.

The Lightweight Twins race in the afternoon was pretty dramatic. Adam, Steve and Yarek were starting ahead of me on the front row, and both Jordan and Ewan also got past me off the start.  I was okay with all of that, but then, in Turn 2, Don also came around me on the outside!  AAAARGGHH!!  You don't want to know the obscenities I was yelling inside my helmet.  I think I came close to being the first person to break a Shoei X-14 from the inside out.

Don got passed Yarek at OMG, and then Don and I both passed Jordan on the back straight.  I followed Don for most of a lap, then finally got past him after the horseshoe at the exit onto the back straight on lap 2.  All I did was squeeze him just a bit at the apex to make him lose some of his exit drive.  This is actually the first time I have ever intentionally compromised another rider's line on the race track.  It worked like a charm.  I guess this is the difference between racing and track day riding...

A lap later I passed Ewan on the brakes at the end of the back straight.  At that point I was running third with still seven laps to go, plenty of time to catch the leaders if I could turn some really good laps.  Lap four was a 1:31.2, the best I have ever done on Long Track.  I made a little mistake entering Turn 3 on lap 5, but no big deal - I was still just charging trying to chase down the two SVs.

Then, half way through lap 5...red flag.  Crap.  Double crap when I came around to the marshal's station on the front straight and saw that it was Glen MacTavish lying motionless on the asphalt, having just crashed out of the LE HW class.  Another rider had had had a brake malfunction and straight-lined Turn 1, just as Glen was entering the corner.  Badly broken collar bone for Glen, and an end to the race since the LE leaders had already made half distance.





Glen is kind of a trooper though.  Steve and I packed up his stuff for him and offered to drive him and his truck to his place.  He accepted the offer because there was no way he could drive safely with the pain he was in, but insisted we hang out for the awards ceremony first so he could pick up his third place plaque for the LE Lightweight race!

We had been lucky with the weather all weekend, but it started to pour just before the awards ceremony.  After we dropped Glen off at his place (where his wife Jen was clearly delighted with the situation), we were treated to some pretty dramatic skies on the drive back to the track.

It ended up being a pretty long day, especially for Steve who didn't make it back to Collingwood until well after midnight.

So, overall a somewhat disappointing first round with respect to my results in the sprint races, but still an okay start to what I hope will be a great season.  My take-away from Round 1 is that my race craft truly sucks, and that I am going to have to improve my starts and passing skills if I hope to hang with the leaders this year.

Looking forward to the challenge!