Such is Life – CMRA Round 7 Race Report – Hallett Raceway

With the second to last round of the CMRA fast approaching, I was excited to see what I could do at another new-to-me track. This time we were heading to Hallett Raceway in Oklahoma, and I had some time to review videos and get an idea of the track beforehand, so felt about as prepared as I could be without actually riding the track.

I took Thursday off of work to get loaded and have plenty of time to make the drive without feeling rushed. As we approached the track, however, dark clouds (literally) were looming. They opened the gates and we rushed in to find the group I’d be pitting with to try to unload before we got too wet. Things weren’t fully unloaded before the rain started, but most things were out and under the canopy before the real storm hit.

Thankfully Friday was looking to dry out, which was a very good thing since I needed Friday to start getting the track down. The first couple morning sessions things were still pretty damp so I sat them out, but on the third session decided to head out – very slowly – and take a look around.

The first thing I noticed is that the elevation changes are a lot more dramatic on track than they seem in the videos. I actually liked that, and while it adds an element of complication to a track, after “growing up” on California tracks, I was stoked to have some ups, downs, and blind turns again, even if I’m not a super strong rider in all of those circumstances.

As the day wore on and things dried out, I slowly picked up the pace, but was disappointed to find that by the end of the day, my best times were still in the high 1:28’s – a full 6+ seconds off my ‘realistic’ stretch goals for the weekend. Thankfully it looked like the sun would come out the rest of the weekend, and a few tweaks to my set up and I hoped for some better results on Saturday.

Saturday morning there is only one practice session and come to find out the power in our canopy had tripped before I was to go out. I still went out, hoping my tires weren’t too cold, but I could tell they weren’t up to temp and rather than try to force things, came in after a couple laps – at least the suspension and my body had a chance to warm up.

Then it was time to wait for my one Saturday race. I headed out for A Superstock not sure what to expect. There was lots of time to be found, but I wasn’t sure I had things to a point of really getting there. The race started without too much drama, and after a couple laps we settled in. I ended up with another conga line in this race, but couldn’t seem to dig too much deeper in terms of lap times. My best was a 1:26.6, so a big drop from Friday, but still a very long ways from where I hoped to be. I got good video, however, so that night sat down with my mentor and went over it to see what I was messing up. Got some good feedback for the next day, and then tucked in for a good night’s sleep.

Sunday dawned looking about perfect. I decided to skip the first practice session and let things warm up, then headed out for the second. With some extra feedback from Mike Canfield, we had made some more suspension adjustments after Saturday’s race, and I wanted to get a good test session in. Part way through my times were near where I had been, but I needed more preload in the front, so a quick pull in where my friend met me for a quick adjustment and back out. Came in from practice dropping nearly a full second off of Saturday’s times. I was looking forward to my races!

First up was A Superbike. The launch went fairly well, and with an inside grid, I basically just had to shove my way into turn 1 and establish my spot. I had several riders picked out who I figured I could battle with and who would be my carrots to help me drop the time I figured I could, only to find out none of them gridded up. Once again, I was mostly alone, fending off one rider on a R6 across the line, but otherwise not much of a battle. I had found a fair bit more time though, getting down to a 1:24.0, and decided a couple more tweaks were needed to the bike.

https://youtu.be/XJxNqvBgmNU

A sprocket change was high on my list of priorities. I was running the same gearing I had been right along, and the bike was a bit of a dog getting out of the corners. Found my larger rear sprocket and threw that on. Another turn of preload in the forks as well since I had been about at bottom, and knew there was more braking to be had now that my lines were getting cleaned up. The next race was going to be Formula 1, my first time in it, and I was 100% positive I could easily make it into the 1:22’s during that race.

We headed out for F1 and the warm up lap where I could test the changes. The bike felt awesome and as we came up to the grids my excitement grew – I was going to shatter my goals for the weekend, and that had me beyond stoked.

The grid formed up, the lights went out, and off we went – only to have two bikes in front of me and off to my right collide, punting the one rider straight into my path. He ended up slowing dramatically from his previous collision, and I was still on the gas, and couldn’t fully avoid him. My front right rotor caught the shark fin on the back left of his swingarm.

Thankfully we both managed to keep our bikes up, but I quickly realized I had no front brakes. Hoping the pads were just separated, I tried several pumps of the brake lever, but no dice. Threw my hand up quickly, and got through turn 1. Tried pumping the brakes up several times again with no results – I had lost my front brakes. Tried again a few more times as I used my rear brake to get around the track before I got in someone’s way, but never did get my brakes back. I figured I had torn a brake line or something along that line.

Got to the pit, and with the bike stopped, the brakes pumped right up – we quickly realized why, however, when the bike hardly would roll. It didn’t take long to find out my rotor was severely bent. Guess it was a good thing it wouldn’t close up while I was still rolling!

I didn’t have a spare front wheel or rotors with me, so that prematurely ended my weekend. Found out who it was that I had tangled with and found his pit to make sure he was okay, and then it was time to pack up and head home.

While I’m disappointed I didn’t get the chance to actually get down to the times I wanted, overall, the weekend was successful and I was headed in the right direction. Good feedback on my lines let me clean those up, started to get the track down, and started to get the bike pretty close to dialed in for that track, with a really good starting point for the next time I’m there.

Next up is MSR Houston, the first time I will be racing with CMRA at a track I’ve raced on before LOL! Planning to make a track day down there before then as a refresher and to make sure my set up is working for me now (the setup I was running that first-for-me CMRA round probably won’t be quite right now), and then come in to the final round of the year ready to prove to myself what I can do.