Rolling into the 5th round for the CMRA I had a
bit more time to prepare than I had for Round 4. I had a trackday going the
same direction a week before, which gave me time to work on getting lines
established on this rather technical track.
MSR Cresson presents some new challenges to this California
rider. It is bumpy, and there are bad seams in various places on the track.
This means that the “lines” are not necessarily the “best” line, but the ones
that are the fastest race line around
all of the extra challenges in the surface of the track. Granted, everyone is
on the same track, and apparently these bumps and seams have been there, well,
forever, but when I was used to maybe one or two corners where you had to take
those kinds of things into account, it was now pretty much every single corner
that had some extraneous considerations.
I decided to save a few bucks and only do ½ day on Friday to
refresh my memory. Some dumb-dumb, who shall remain nameless, decided that even
though her set up was working great the previous Sunday that she should change
things before the races. Needless to say, Friday’s sessions were nothing but
frustration as I was fighting the bike the whole time. I managed to go a little
faster than I had the previous weekend, but it was stressful and mistake ridden,
and it was all I could do to make it happen. After a strict reminder of “if it
ain’t broke, don’t fix it” from my friend/pit help/coach, I put things back
where they had been for the following day when I would have one brief practice
before heading out for my first race of the weekend.
It was a late night, but sleep was had, and we arrived
bright and early ready to kick off my second race weekend with CMRA. For some
fantastically magical reason, the bike was working great during my warm up
practice session, and I looked forward to gridding up and hopefully getting
drug into some faster laps.
We headed out for the A Superstock race, and with how CMRA
lines up their grids, I looked forward to being able to use my generally pretty
good starts to hopefully put me in the mix of things a bit more. My launch wasn’t
very good – for a split second my brain reverted to watching for a flag instead
of the lights, so I was a bit off the mark, but still got up with a number of
other bikes by the time we got to the first corner – and boy was there some
drama going on! Thankfully managed to avoid all the slicing and dicing and kept
my wheels on pavement, unlike some of my fellow competitors. After that it was
time to settle into the race and try to see if I could work on improving my
position in the pack. The first couple laps managed to get drug along with the
group a bit and dropped my times into the 26’s, providing my best lap of the
race. My fitness eventually proved to be a major hinderance as I started to
fade about mid-way through the race. My last two laps I really faded off only to
get passed by the front runner with about 1/3 of a lap to go – fortunately or
unfortunately, it wasn’t all bad as I was pooped!
I came in to find I had moved up the pack a little bit
though, with 3 riders behind me + one crashed bike, so that part felt great. I
looked forward to Sunday and hoping I could pull out some more speed.
First up on Sunday was A Superbike – generally one of the
faster classes, and I wanted to get a good launch and see if I could avoid
getting lapped this time around on this short track. My start was good this
time, and I did my best to hang onto the faster group as long as I could, dipping
into the 25’s. Once again, however, my fitness (or lack thereof) combined with
the heat, and I just couldn’t maintain that pace. I stayed pretty consistent in
the 26’s-27’s, and did not get lapped, which meant finishing all 8 laps.
I came
in exhausted, but I was pretty stoked to find that with the start, my fight, or
“rawr” as I like to call it, seemed to be coming back. Not fully fledged out
yet, but that was something I had lost after the leg and bike situations, and I
was beginning to wonder what it would take to get it back. Finding that I
fought through the start, held my spot, and didn’t just give up to other riders
was a great feeling.
Honestly, that was probably my highlight for the weekend.
After that there was a long, hot wait until my last race,
which was also the very last race of the day – F40 Heavy. I really hoped the
downtime would let me recover and that I could keep my motivation up to push
through for a final improvement.
Being the old-farts race, I had hopes here of fighting for
something more, but my lack of training off the bike bit me big time. I was 1-2
seconds off my pace earlier in the day and couldn’t seem to dig more than that
out of myself. Some defensive lines kept me from last place, but I was once
again fighting for “not last” rather than moving up through the pack. I finished,
but this race mostly proved that only a couple weeks of getting back to being
more active and working out wasn’t going to make much of a difference yet and I
had a long way to go before next year rolls around.
Overall, the round wasn’t bad. I got a valuable “slap in the
face” on a few things that I need to correct as a rider. First off, if it ain’t
broke, don’t fix it. Secondly, that fitness thing needs to be ramped up and is
going to start being one of the big factors holding me back if I don’t correct
it NOW. Thirdly, this bike can work for me, when it’s set up right. If I’m
not happy with it, even if I can’t put my finger on it, speak up and say
something. Someone else may have a clue what the issue is.
Good things were a) I moved up in the pack a teensy bit, and
I had some fun; b) I’m getting better on the throttle – where 600’s could beat
me in straights/faster sections at the California tracks (where my perception
of time was throwing me off), here, that is not the issue, and the other liter
bikes have to work to get around me (and it’s generally the technical areas
where they have to do it). As these pieces all start to fall into place, and I’m
getting them lined up where they need to be, the puzzle is coming together…
The weeks before the next round are being spent working my
butt off in the gym, getting my eating focused, and keeping other activities
going so my body starts to get used to the idea of being active again rather
than sitting around all the time.
Next round happens soon, so no excuses!
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