2010 Race Report #1 from CCS, Round #4, Road America, July 2-3-4Been awhile..., but I finally made it out to a race weekend and brought my bike with.
As most of you know, having gone through the owning 2 houses for about 6 months over last fall through this spring really took it's tool on my racing budget... so I was extremely happy to get out and just get back on track for a couple races... it felt really good. But unfortunately it will probably be my last for the year, but I'll explain that later.
On to the race weekend ramblings!
My race weekend started out on Thursday, July 1st. I loaded all my bike and gear into the trailer, waited for my tag-along & fellow Lithium Motorsports rider Ryan K from Minneapolis to get down to my place in Winona and get his bike ( a gawd awful looking - ZX-6
) & gear loaded into my trailer as well. We hit the road around 2:15 and pulled into Road America around 6:30. Met up with my good friend Mark S (also another Lithium rider) and set up our pit on a nice piece of pavement in a semi-quiet spot. As I was standing in line for tech...ugh - almost 2 hours because they were short handed... the guy standing about 2 people behind me looks strangely familiar... then I realize it's non other than former Jordan and current Eric Buell racing rider, Geoff May... that meant the EBR team would be there with both the new 1125RR the 1190RR
- Let me tell you these bikes are amazing... pics don't do them justice. Once registered for the weekend and got through Tech, we just hung out for the night and enjoyed Road A.... One of the most beautiful and picturesque tracks in America.
Friday Friday was practice day. I missed the first practice session after I found out that registration had given me the wrong color wrist band...
but made it out for the rest of the days sessions. I haven't ridden RA since 2007 and I haven't been on my race bike for almost 12 months... so talk about shaking off the rust. While the track layout came back with-in a couple laps, body position, corner speed, and braking ability were not coming back quite as quickly as I was hoping. And to top it off the last 2 sessions I was starting to have problems with my right hand cramping up to the point I couldn't feel it or move it correctly - not a good sign. That ment I was running well over 15 seconds off my race pace from 2007
I decided at that point I was just going to have fun and bring it home in one piece for the weekend.
Saturday Race Day, I had only signed up for 2 sprint races today, Middleweight GP & Heavyweight SS. So after a couple quick morning sessions I had most of the day to relax and watch as both my races were late in the day.
Race 1, MWGP - Being back on the race grid felt really good, but sitting there all of a sudden I realized I hadn't done a race start in almost a year...so needless to say I botched my start from mid pack pretty bad and ended up around 11th... Then just after the carousel, going into the chicane I completely missed my braking marker and didn't get it stooped until I was about 6" from the tire wall in the "the bend" that they set up to direct you into the chicane. So I navigated my way through blockade and back onto track, by this time the back of the pack was about 15 seconds ahead of me.
So I just put in some laps and cruzed around to a lonely 14th place.
Race 2, HWSS - Usually this class has pretty decent grids with most bike being 600's... but not this weekend. It was a small grid and only 1 other 600 showed up (and it was one fast guys) with the rest of the grid being filled out with 750's, a Ducati 999 and a Buell 1125... So I was out muscled down RA's 3 long straights... It was a pretty uneventful race considering I would catch the couple guys just in front of me from T-5 through the carousel, and up from T12 (Canada corner through T14) only to get left for dead on the 3 long straights. Then by the end of the 2nd lap right wrist cramped up up really bad to the point I couldn't work the throttle and brake at the same time.. So again I settled in, turned some laps and brought it home in 7th.
Sunday was a free day as I hadn't signed up for any races... remember the 2 houses at the same time thing
well race entries aren't exactly cheap. Ryan had signed up for a couple races but had to cancel them due to some brake fade issues (typical Kawai...) so we could enjoy the morning and get a early start back. lucky we did as Ryan's ride back to Minneapolis flaked out on him so I ended up driving a extra 4 hours round trip to drop him off, and didn't actaully get home until almost 3 am Monday morning.
Here are a couple pics from the weekend:
The Pits:
Ryan's gawd awful ZX-6...
See I told you it was bad...
Me - Looking (and riding) slow
Some more of me from one of the best photog's in the Midwest...
http://www.gron4.com/2010/070410/amt/82/After Thoughts:
1) 12 months is WAY to long to be off the bike.
2) I need to pull my head out of my ass... I was braking way too early.
3) I still love racing... nothing really get you going like it.
A big Thanks to my sponsors:
Rob and the crew at: Lithium Motorsports
Ben and the crew at: Two Brothers Honda
On a side not... Sorry it's taken so long to get this up, but if you've noticed I haven't been around much the last few weeks and for good reason - and some of you know why via facebook or other means. The Monday that I got back from Road A, My 2 year old son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. So I spent the next three day in a hospital with him, getting him back to health as well as getting trained on how to keep everything under control for him. No worries as he is fine now and will be fine, it just took some getting use to and the first week was tough. But until I get the finial insurance bill (1 1/2 days in ICU & another 1 1/2 in the peds unit can't be cheap...) I'm holding off racing to make sure I provide for my family. We have very good insurance so it shouldn't be bad, but I don't want to take any chances. So this may or may not be my final race report for the year, we will see.
Until the next time
Thanks
Jason Bartlett, CCS/CRA #82
