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WERA Round 1: Nelson Recap (Off and Away)

Gina, my dad and I arrived at the track Thursday night under a light mist of rain. Arriving at the track to drop off the trailer, a couple of the fast guys were already there. Sam Gaige and former AMA Superbike rider, turned contingency hunter Matt Lynn were there. We set up our smaller trailer amongst the big ones and headed off to the hotel for the night.

Friday morning was wet. We got to the track, unloaded everything and worked on a few things with the bike throughout the morning. My dad wanted to check everything – from the variable intakes on the injectors, to gearing, to shock length, to rigging our tire trailer up to our Zuma for easy transporting of tires. He's a bit of a machine and a MacGyver all in one.

After lunch the track started to dry and I went out for three sessions before it started to rain again. The sessions didn't provide much except to verify that a shorter gearing combination we had tried wasn't going to work. We ate at the track, packed up and headed to the hotel where Doug and Marion later arrived under a heavy washing of more rain.

Saturday morning was damp. Through registration and tech, and then we sat and waited. We skipped the first round of practice and went out in the second as the track was mostly dry by then. I wasn't sure how everyone else was doing, but my lap times weren't great as I was only able to get into the high 1:10's in the last of two sessions. We had made a couple changes with the bike and were ready to go for the race, but I was more nervous than ever. I was off the pace and for the first race of the season, I had more jitters than normal for some reason.

Saturday's starting grids are based off registration order, so we were gridded on the front row of a 20+ bike race. I had a good launch on the start, but was tentative in the first couple laps and slid down to 5th place. Sam had taken the early lead, followed by Justin Holderman, Jeff Palmer and Jeff Agnes. As I got more comfortable, I settled into a good rhythm and started going after them. First Jeff (Agnes) in T4, then Palmer in the same spot a couple laps later. By this time Holderman had a sizeable gap, but I closed on him each lap. The timer was showing low 1:09's which was a great improvement compared to where I was earlier in practice. Holderman had put some tight passes on early in the race, so I wanted to make sure I got around him and he wouldn't get back by. I closed up on him coming out of the carousel on his back wheel and drafted him down the back straight and then opened the gap through the kink and onto the front straight away. Each lap from there I stretched out a little more of a gap and had a solid 2nd place finish by the time the checkered flag waived.

It was a great finish and a big relief. Most everyone entered in the race had already been racing and this was our first race of the season. Sam was lights out with a 1:08.7 best lap, but we weren't too terribly off with a 1:09.001. That was nearly a two second improvement from practice. And I was quickly approaching my overall best time of a mid-1:08, so a good start to the season had begun. The top finishers were all on Pirelli tires as well, which was cool.

Sunday morning practice went well as the only guys faster than us were Sam and Matt Lynn. They were blazing and we were a bit behind them. My dad and Doug had made a couple changes to the bike to account for the increased pace, and we had no problem getting around anyone in practice that I came up to. It may have been pure coincidence, but at one point it looked like Matt waited for me to go by on the straight, and he came out right behind me – to be what I thought was a sizing up for the races. Given the scoring sheets from Saturday, Sam and I were the quickest of the day. Little did he know that by the end of the day – he'd have no problem getting through traffic and to the front, where I would have my hands full with it.

The races were tough as we started back in the 5th row for all of them. The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions (this was a three-region event) already had races and were gridded by points. Us North Central guys didn't have points yet, so WERA went back to last year's points for grid spots, which was fine – however a couple guys I finished in front of last year were gridded in front of me, which didn't make much sense. Oh well.

First race was 600 Superstock. I don't remember much of the race except I finished back in 9th. Not a good race. Back in the pits we were all a bit quiet. Laps weren't clean, my start into T1 was decent, but bunching up in T1, I didn't take advantage of early position gains. Matt capitalized huge and was up to the front in no time, although Sam held him off and beat him to the line. Awesome win for Sam. Onto the next race.

750 Superstock was next and came with a much better result. I was better into T1, more aggressive and was just able to get by some of the slower guys on the first lap that took longer to get around in the first race. I chased Agnes around for three or four laps, taking too long to get by him as Sam later told me. Sam was chasing me and once I got around Jeff just inside the kink, Sam was able to get around him as well and the race was on crossing the white flag. I didn't know who was behind me at the time, but I knew someone was close. Going through the carousel, I ran too tight of a line on exit, didn't get as good of a drive, and that allowed Sam to come alongside down the back straight. Heading into the kink, he had the line and took over the position. I followed him to the finish line for 4th. 3rd would have been better, but at least I had gotten back into the 8's that race and tied my best time overall, although given the pace of the day – mid 1:08's weren't gonna be enough. Jeff (Wrobel) had won the race and was running great. We had both run faster times trying to catch up to him from the start, but couldn't do it in time.

600 Superbike was next up. I finished 6th. Another bunched up start. I made up some positions and chased Palmer for the last couple of laps. I had a good run on him on the last lap and we came out of T13 nearly together. There's a bump coming onto the front straight that always causes the bike to wheelie and as I was coming onto the straight trying to get the best drive I could, I nearly wheelied right into the side of him, as the speed and counter-steering put me right on his path. The bike just missed him and I passed him just past the start/finish line. After looking at timing and scoring, I finished eight thousandths of a second behind him at the line.

750 Superbike was the last race of the day. Nathan (Dressman) had a great start and took off, stuffing it in early on riders and making up positions. I made up the positions but by the time I had Nathan in my sites, there were only a couple laps left. I made up ground on him, but it wasn't enough, and I took the flag in 5th. Once again Nelson Ledges showed my biggest issue is passing people on the start. I am going to be more aggressive from here on out on getting by slower guys. I'm simply too nice about it. I even talked to Matt about in between races, asking him for some advice on how he does it so well. Hopefully some of what he said will rub off on me.

Overall though, it was a good start to the season. We made it through the first round and got up to speed pretty well. I went into the weekend knowing I needed to do 1:07 lap times and they just weren't there yet. We learned a lot about the bike, as we had fantastic rear grip all weekend, where I can become more aggressive with the throttle as I get faster. We encountered some front-end issues in bottoming out the forks, which we seemed to resolve, but we now have some ideas in terms of suspension and gearing that will hopefully make the bike easier to ride next time we're at Nelson. I'm sure the rider will be a bit sharper by then too.

One other good thing was the conditioning I did over the winter paid off big. I didn't have any problems with getting tired in the Saturday 20-lap race and by the end of the four races on Sunday (where I was popping Motrin's most of last season), I wasn't sore or nearly tired at all, compared to what I typically had been.

Special thanks to everyone involved. My dad, Doug and especially Gina. Thanks to Marion also for bringing coffee in the morning, along with a monster supply of spaghetti we had Saturday night. Thanks to Tom (Beagle) who was pitted with us and helped out before he went and threw his back out, as well as Kov (Jeff Kovack) for his phenomenal photography. Round two is at Grattan next weekend.

Thanks,

-ek

Photography courtesy of Jeff Kovack – http://www.viphotography.ca

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | POSTED AT: 12:48 PM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports