AFM Round 3 Race Report

I guess it was bound to happen at some point – that first race weekend that you just walk away from going – “meh.” Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a horrible weekend – I mean, the bike and I both came home in mostly the same number of pieces we left in, my gear is in the same condition it arrived in, and I’m back in the office on Monday morning. So, not a horrible weekend. Still better than working I suppose.

I headed up to Thunderhill on Friday afternoon. Despite cutting out of work as early as I could possibly justify, I still managed to find Friday traffic that turned my 2 ½ hour drive into 3 ½ hours. My bike and camping stuff was already there in the garage a couple of us had rented (since I was up there on Memorial Day Monday for a trackday), so packing was easy. It had already been a long week, and I had to move ie from one residence to another the following week while working 7.3 days a week, so I was just – tired.

Saturday dawned warm with a promise of hot. Thankfully I had my Skratch Labs hydration products to keep my body happy, even if my mind was taking the toll. The bike was great – the new fork springs and revalve by Catalyst Reaction were working like a charm, and it was a much happier machine. My practice sessions went okay, but the rising temperatures were starting to take their toll. I headed out for my first race of the weekend, AFemme Nv, my only Saturday race. We went out for a warm up lap, and I could tell I just wasn’t feeling it. I was hoping to get into the groove and start feeling like I had on Monday (which was awesome), so gridded up hoping that feeling would come back. It didn’t. I had a decent enough start despite the bike in front of me stalling, but as soon as we were going I could tell I wasn’t feeling it – at all. On my third lap coming down the front straight I get a meatball flag – my first response was “I’m not going THAT slow, I didn’t do any stupid, WTF” then realized it must be a mechanical. Looked behind myself and didn’t see anything, no oil flying out behind me, didn’t see any bits dangling, bike was running fine, so just threw up an arm and went back into the pits at a sedate pace. Dammit. There goes $85 and any points I may have gotten….pull up to the marshals to find out they had seen blue smoke billowing out from my bike. Turned out my front tire started rubbing so badly on the front fender that it was smoking – okay, well, that’s easily fixable, not a deal breaker for the weekend, but dammit. Oh well, off for a good night’s sleep to hopefully get mentally more on the game for Sunday.

Sunday morning promised some better weather – a little cooler with a slight overcast that was keeping the sun from beating down on us. My first race was race #2, so went out for a quick practice session to see if my tire pressures were happy, then got ready to race. I head out for 750 Prod Nv hoping to get into the groove for my next race. I had another decent start, but start traffic still throws me for a bit of a loop – when we’re all bunched up, I’m still a little too prone to backing off a bit and just letting things settle before getting on it….which means I lose a lot of ground right from the get go. The race was going okay for the first couple laps when I started to catch myself missing downshifts and getting tense on the bike. I forced myself to relax the last couple laps and just ride – I wasn’t in contention for any places anyways, so at least get my head right. I finished the race and headed in to relax before my Legacy Middle Nv class which was the one I really cared about.

Finally race #5 was getting called so prepped and headed out. I was looking forward to this race, and while I was feeling more relaxed, I still was struggling with getting my RAWR on. I had an okay start and we headed out. Pretty quickly we sorted out into our paced groups and myself and another rider who I’d battled with before were left to fight it out. He managed a pass on me on the second lap, but I was right on his tail. I followed for a couple laps and figured if I could get a pass early on, around turns 1 or 2, that I may be able to put enough distance between us where his superior power wouldn’t be enough to close it. I was on his tail down the front straight for the white flag prepared to make a pass happen now that I knew where he’d be and when, He missed one of his shifts into turn 1 which opened the door for me to swing up underneath. I drove through and was charging down the hill into 2 to start building that gap over the next several corners when a red flag came out. Dammit all again!! My pass was past the start finish, and I knew since we were already at a white flag we wouldn’t get a restart and our last crossing would be what would count. Ugh. Not my weekend.

My final race for the day was F1 Nv. This was a race where I knew I wasn’t a points contender – at all, so it was mostly to get some extra race time in. Add in that I had pretty badly burned my wrist on my exhaust over lunch while trying to get the rear tire back on after a flip. The start left us with a fair bit of traffic and I again was too passive about letting everyone else sort their stuff out in front of me. I had a couple bikes close by who had power on me, but I had places I could make up time. They gapped me a bit, and for a while I started to close that gap. By this time, however, I was getting a little tired, and that stupid burn HURT. My fitness level, or lack thereof in this case, was taking its toll as well. Rather than pushing and doing something silly for a “not last place” placing, I made the choice to just ride my ride for the last lap or so. Not really a racer attitude, but my weekend had not gone how I had hoped, and I was just worn out, so better to finish in one piece and come back to the next one with my guns blazing.

Despite all the setbacks and my lack of mental focus (due to schedules, trying to move right around this weekend, and just general life ‘stuff’) it wasn’t a bad weekend. I wouldn’t have called it a particularly good one though. The bike was great – my mid corner confidence came back in spades and I was very happy there. My Dunlop Race Tires were super grippy and more than did their job. I, however,  was still riding the bike like it was going to freak out on the brakes – the bike wasn’t doing anything weird anymore, but I was still riding it like it was. My entries into nearly every corner other than 2, 4, and 7 were HORRIBLE. Thankfully I have the tools to work through this mental block now that the bike is set up and happy I think I’ll be able to quickly make progress with a little seat time. 

My times were consistently right around my personal best at the track, less than ½ second off, but I didn’t set any new personal records. My finishes weren’t what I had hoped for, mostly because my times weren’t getting into what I had hoped for. Mentally I never got into the game this weekend. On my way home Sunday evening I was thinking about what some great racers say and remembered that clip of Rossi where, over numerous interviews, he says “I pooshed. I pooshed very hard.” *said in that accent* I realized instantly that at no point this weekend did I “push.” Whether I want to blame it on mentally not being in the game, the weather, combinations of all of it, it didn’t really matter. I didn’t “push.”

This weekend is in the books, and I’ll chalk it up to finding some things to work on and at least doing it even if not real well this time around. I’ll go get my moving done the next few days and get settled into my new room/residence. Back into the routine and shoot for going into the next round in a better state of mind, ready to push!