Round 2 has come and gone and I am pretty happy overall with my progress. I posted another personal best time on another course. 2:15.66 on the perimeter is several seconds faster than i have gone before. It’s still not quite fast enough to qualify for the AMA SuperSport grid, but quick enough to dice a bit with my buddies. I got a lot of really good data from the GPX lap timer and the GoPro so i have some great information to drop some more time.
The trackday on Friday allowed me to get my brain back up to speed on the Perimeter track, which was nice. I even got to take the SV out for a bit. That bike is such an absolute giggle to ride! Confidence inspiring, and the boys from STM Suspension have it set up really well. I did identify an issue with the fueling, which we sorted out Friday night with a fuel pump.
My position on the board didn’t allow for much practice on Saturday due to some confusion with Timing and Scoring, which was unfortunate. I did go out for some laps in the endurance race to chase my teammate Tim and got some good laps in. unfortunately, he was a few corners in front of me when i got on the track, so i put my head down for 6 or 7 laps to catch him and ran out of steam. He was riding very well after his Yamaha Champions Riding School experience.
My biggest goal for this weekend was to get my data acquisition stuff sorted out and shoot some video for review. Right before the race weekend, i found some software called RaceRender that will overlay my video with the data and show me exactly what’s going on. So far, this has been an amazing learning tool! I have attached the videos to both races to show you what’s happening. I look forward to using this more to identify areas i am missing time. already i can see i am not to full throttle soon enough and need to open my entrances more.
Sunday i raced Formula 5 and Heavyweight Superstock on sunday. Both races had me held up at the start with slower traffic ahead of me. In the F5 race i got around him a few laps in and then chased down MikeH, dropping several seconds off the previous pace. What i did not know was that Nick had tagged along when I checked out and he went by me into Blackrock. We chased MikeH down, but i was unable to get them before the line. Great race, super fun. This video starts about one lap in as i exit W1, because i forgot to start the video at the grid and realized it down the straight.
Heavyweight superstock was basically the same story. Got stuck behind some slower traffic for the first few laps. I went extra wide into W6 to try and get turned to get some drive and MikeH and Nick went right under me. Dumb move on my part, i was so worried about the guy in front of me i forgot totally about the guys behind me. They went around the slower traffic and built a little gap. I finally got around the R1 and chased them but didn’t make up enough time to make it work. I am still 2nd overall for Heavyweight Superstock, which is great news!
Round 3 has us racing the East course for the first time this season, so hopefully it means new personal bests yet again and some close racing with my friends.