Round 3, HPR, June 9-10

I know I'm way behind, I'm trying to get somewhat caught up with this. So I'm just going to post up some pics and the results. I'll try to be more diligent... lets face it, I'm a racer which means I'm a procrastinator among other things... HPR, Full course: Middleweight Supersport 4, Heavyweight Supersport 4, Heavyweight Superbike 6, Thunderbike 1, Middleweight Superbike 5.

All images by WickedPhoto.

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb additional practice weekend, June 2-3

So last weekend this happened. It was 2 days of really short test times up the mountain. Saturday morning from dawn till 9am we rode the top half of the mountain, from Glen Cove up to the summit. Sunday morning from dawn till 9am we rode the bottom half of the mountain, from the start line to Glen Cove. This race is going to be crazy and I can't wait. I learned a lot in testing about tire pressures and gearing that needs to change, but most importantly I started learning the road. It was fast, it was fun and it's only going to get faster! Thanks Marty for teaming up with me to do this, having someone else in the same boat of now knowing shit makes things a bit easier!

Round 2, PPIR, May 19-20

Write up is a little late. I'm going to keep it short but picture heavy thanks to John at Wicked Photo. Pikes Peak International Raceway doesn't really get used a whole lot any more which made it really green (no rubber down on the asphalt) so it's kind of slippery and was really hard on tires. I practiced on Friday and only got about 4 or 5 short sessions on the rear tire I had for practice. I went through a whole rear tire on Saturday during one short practice session and 2 sprint races. I got 5th in Middleweight Supersport and 4th in Heavyweight Supersport. I decided to use Middleweight endurance to set up some suspension changes and get the bike to feel ok and stop eating rear tires. It worked. Sunday the bike felt great and I was able to get 3 sprint races and still have life in the tire. First was Middleweight Superbike and I fought my way up to my first podium in that class and got third. Second was Thunderbike, I got the whole shot and lead most of the first lap only to have Dave Gallant come around me in the last corner of that lap and lead the rest of the race. Dave is a really good rider and I was happy I was able to stay right with him for the whole race although there was no way I could get around him. Last race of the day for me was Heavyweight Superbike, I rode ok but my head wasn't' quite in it and I finished in 5th. Fun weekend, but a lot of hard work. Big thanks to Dave Rose again from STM Suspension for setting the bike up for a better run on Sunday.

Dave Rose Helping my giant ears out.

Gallant and I.

Stop looking back!

More Round 1 Pics

John Chadwick (Wicked Photos) takes rad pictures. Thanks for the shots John!!

Round 1, HPR, May 5-6.

Rough start! Friday practice was a bit of a nightmare. High Plains decided to work on the new patches in turn 5,6, and 8 resulting in really slippery sealant in the seams that was like ice when you went across it. Well, by the afternoon with the heat the sealant had started to smear across the race line making those 3 corners completely unrideable. Sure enough it caught me out. I went into turn 5, trailing in on the brakes lightly, and the front just folded. Pretty easy crash all in all, scuffed the bodywork and my leathers and beat up the rear set pretty bad, but nothing I didn't have spares to get fixed up. After that session we called a time out and decided to change the track configuration to use the cut off road and eliminate that section of the track. It made an earlier turn 4 that joined up with the exit of turn 8 so we didn't have to run through the messed up pavement in those turns. The new configuration ended up being a lot of fun and brought a few new challenges that were fun to figure out. Saturday I only ran Solo Middleweight Endurance which I didn't have points from last year in so I had to start on row 15 and in the second wave start. Ended up having a great time making my way up from 40whatever to 6th by the time the race ended with a red flag at about 3/4 distance. Next round getting to start on the second row should be a little better! Sunday I had a bit of wrench thrown into the program when Pirelli didn't send me a 180/55 rear tire like the bike is set up for. Instead I got a 180/60 rear. That tire is 7mm taller so it threw the geometry off. But, with the help of Dave Rose's wizardry we got the geometry really close and really close to being dialed in Sunday morning. It's not quite 100%, but it's really close and I think I can finish dialing it in during practice at round 2 at PPIR. Middleweight superbike was a fun race chasing the faster guys up front, and I ended up in 5th place. Thunderbike was the second race for me and I got to start on pole because of my points from last year. I got the hole shot and led the whole race and finished in first with about a 10 second gap. Heavyweight superbike my last race for the weekend and right from the start was rough. As I launched the bike the left clip on moved back about 3 inches. Apparently I didn't so a good enough job tightening it down when we were working on the geometry earlier. So, I spent the whole race trying to push the bar back (which didn't work at all) and struggling to turn left. I held third place for a while but in the last two laps while fighting the clip on I lost two places and ended up in 5th. I'm really looking forward to PPIR and getting some more seat time to get the bike dialed in for that new size rear tire (which hooked up amazing by the way). Big thanks to all the sponsors this year especially Oscar at Sol Performance for the Pirelli help and an extra HUGE thanks to Dave Rose with STM suspension for all the set up help, you really are a genius and wizard of suspension!

I'll have more rad pics (like the elbow down one up top) to post in the next week or so from my man John over at Wicked Photos, stay tuned!

Track day last Monday

Had a really good day of practice last Monday April 23rd out at High Plains. Bike set up felt really good. I feel pretty strong going into round 1 next weekend. Even got my elbow down in turn 2.

Friday Inspiration

Why else would we ride bikes...