On this page we'll feature our race reports and hopefully some results..... AFM Round 6 - September 6th
The pictures say it all. Managed my fastest laps ever around
Thunderhill (1:55s) and a bonehead move going in to turn 10 caused me to lowside. I ended up with a dislocated shoulder and
a general feeling of having taken a ride in a tumble drier (don't try this at home kids). Big, big thanks to Helimot leathers and also my concerned friends who helped out with the kids and the bike - Harley,
Billy, Eddy, Scott, Matt, Val and anyone else I missed while I was checking out the fine hospitality of Glenn Medical Center
(where I managed to make a nurse blush. Never thought I'd see that!).
My thanks go to Desmoto Sport, Dunlop, Helimot leathers, AccountNow Inc, Catalyst
Reaction and Keigwins @ The Track. Thanks, as always, to my family for their support, encouragement
and patience and kids, I'm sorry I scared you with the shoulder hanging out thing. I was saving it for Halloween.
AFM Round 5 - August 17th
Coming soon My thanks go to Desmoto Sport, Dunlop, Helimot leathers, AccountNow Inc, Catalyst Reaction and Keigwins @ The Track.
Thanks, as always, to my family for their support, encouragement and patience.
AFM Round 3 - May 25th
After missing round 1 due to my mechanical woes and round
2 because it clashed with my daughter's first horse-riding competition round 3 at Infineon Raceway was my first AFM race
of the year. Details coming soon.
My thanks go to Desmoto
Sport, Dunlop, Helimot leathers, AccountNow Inc, Catalyst Reaction and Keigwins @ The Track. Thanks, as always, to my family
for their support, encouragement and patience.
 WSMC Round 4 - April 18th Oh
to drive down I-5 yet again. Luckily gas prices are so low eh? Lorraine cunningly organized more family activities to prevent the rest of the family from joining me so off I went
again. Praise be for XM Radio and XM150 (definitely not one for the kids). The hits of the 80s channel is also a favorite
but that's also usually banned when I have company. Woo-hoo,
headed up a practice session (http://www.mylaps.com/results/showrun.jsp?id=777030). OK, you can't "win" a practice
session but it was nice to see a position 1 next to my name, albeit briefly. Having gently run in the new engine it was great
to feel the bike working again. April has really nice weather
in the middle of nowhere, sorry I meant Rosamond, so I didn't use the usual 20 gallons of propane staying warm in the
RV but the high desert is very prone to wind and there was a lot of it going on. Going through the ultra-fast turn 8 was particularly
unpleasant as the wind was trying to blow the bike from under you.
Having done well in practice I was hopeful for race day. Sunday was a glorious day and I managed a 5th place in Formula
40 having been pipped on the last lap as my clutch plates decided that they had enough and I was getting a lot of noise but
not much in the way of action. Thanks to a competitor I was able to "borrow" a set of used clutch plates as mine
were in the trailer that I didn't bring this time. Doh!
The schedulers had done a slightly better job this round and separated the two twins races to races 15 and 18, which
was better than February, but add in the fact that the races move from 6 laps to 8 laps when daylight savings kicks in meant
I'd be heading home even later than usual.
I line up for race 15, Battle of the Twins Heavyweight, and I see that we have one of the regular fast guys missing!!
Yes, a podium was within my reach. Little did I know that said fast guy was replaced by not one but two ex-AMA racers.
Down to 5th place this time. Race 18, Formula Twins,
was more of a repeat performance with the now heavily-used clutch plates not wanting to launch me off the line so the bike
waited until everyone else had disappeared around turn 1 before lazily heading off the line. It was fun to be so far behind
and having to catch up and I reclaimed my 5th place on lap 3 and held it to the finish.
Another fun weekend.
My thanks
go to Desmoto Sport, Dunlop, Helimot leathers, AccountNow Inc, Catalyst Reaction and Keigwins @ The Track. Thanks, as always,
to my family for their support, encouragement and patience.
AFM Round 1 - NOT! I
knew the season had got off to too good a start. To cut a long story short I was practicing at another of California's
fine in-the-middle-of-nowhere racetracks, the fine Buttonwillow Raceway, the week before round 3 when my engine blew up on
the Saturday. It was a nice 240 mile drive there and 240 mile drive back and I think I got at least 10 laps in before the
nasty sound of grinding metal brought my weekend to an end. Since this was the weekend
before the AFM (www.afmracing.org) season opener I knew that I'd be missing that one. Took
the bike to Desmoto Sport and Scott and Mel did a great job of fixing it in record time. A couple of thousand dollars
later :-( it was back in fine form. Unfortunately I'd also missed WSMC Round 3. Ho hum
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 WSMC Round 2 - February 17th
Made the mammoth trek back to the lovely hamlet of Rosamond, CA for round
2 of WSMC (http://www.wsmcracing.com). Courtesy of AccountNow (http://www.accountnow.net) I was able to head down on Thursday
night and get some much needed practice in on Friday in between responding to a never ending supply of emails and phone calls.
I'd forgotten how cold it gets in the high desert and Friday morning was brass monkey weather so I decided to let others
go out and test the traction before I ventured out. By lunchtime I was in the 1:28s which was faster than last month's
race times so I was reasonably happy. Saturday morning brought the brass monkeys back (see below
to save you searching for the term) and by the time I had thawed enough to ride it was mid morning and I was back in the 28s
and feeling good. A fellow AFM'er, Isle of Man nutcase and general fast-guy Craig McLean had also turned up to race so
I was looking at my perpetual 4th place against him and the regular fast guys.
Formula 40 was the first
race and after my usual crappy start it was catch up time. After passing a few peeps I found myself behind the same Yamaha
R1 as last month and that thing would leave me standing down the straight. I could catch up in the corners but didn't
quite have the balls to make a pass. Yes, I finished 4th with a best time of 1:27 so an improvement and if I could learn to
start and pass I could do even better.
Through amazing scheduling by the otherwise exemplary
WSMC staff the both twins races were back-to-back at the end of the day. Genius scheduling but of course no problem for someone
like myself in ahem almost perfect physical shape for racing. I should cut and paste my previous report - bad start, passing
people and this time I ended up 5th thanks to Craig's arrival on the scene. He took off like a scalded cat and that was
the last I saw of him. With a 30 second gap between races it was time to chug another couple of
gallons of VP Fuels fine U4.2 in the bike and off we went again for another 6 laps. More of the same racing with the same
bunch of guys and because Craig sat this one out I was able to get back to my usual 4th place with a best time of 1:26. The
fastest of the fast were in the 21s so still a ways to go.
According to the results I also
seemed to have raced in the 750 SuperBike class but clearly that was an uneventful race. Yet again
I was very happy to have finished all the races in one piece and it was time for the 350 mile jaunt home. My
thanks go to Desmoto Sport, Dunlop, Suomy helmets, Helimot leathers, AccountNow Inc, Catalyst Reaction and Keigwins @ The
Track. Thanks, as always, to my family for their support, encouragement and patience. Per
Wikipedia the meaning of "brass monkeys" - Early references to "brass monkeys" in the 19th century have
no references to balls at all, but instead variously say that it is cold enough to freeze the tail, nose, ears, and whiskers
off a brass monkey; or hot enough to "scald the throat" or "singe the hair" of a brass monkey. All of
these variations imply that an actual monkey is the subject of the metaphor.
 WSMC Round 1 - January 20th
Christmas saw my home office relegated to the garage to make space for
the kids iMacs so the bike and I had been spending a lot of quality time together - in fact, probably more than we spent together
in all of 2007. We both decided this needed to change in 2008 so we began preparation for the opening round of the Willow
Springs Motorcycle Club 2008 season. After a nice bath and hours of attention everything was looking pretty good, and the
bike didn't look too bad either. I hadn't been back to Willow Springs ( www.willowpringsraceway.com) since launching myself off the bike in 2004 and breaking my ankle so I decided to head down and get some practice in on
Friday. I'd forgotten how bloody cold it is down there and I wasn't planning on re-introducing myself to a traction-less,
sub-zero track. By lunchtime it was warm enough for a few brave souls to head out so off I went to start the bike and it wouldn't
run. Suddenly I remembered one of the reasons I hadn't spent much time riding in 07. After much cajoling and the odd bad
word she fired up and off we went for the two sessions remaining out of the twenty or so on offer that day. Such an auspicious
start to the season. After a couple of calls to Scott at Desmoto Sport ( www.desmotosport.com) that night we figured out that the quickshifter was buggered so it was duly unplugged and the bike (and rider) were
much happier. Saturday was more of the same sunny but freezing weather and since it was the official practice day
it was time to try and get some decent laps in. Did a few suspension tweaks courtesy of Dave Moss at Catalyst Reaction Suspention
( www.crstuning.com) and ended the day reasonably happy. A quick change of rubber to some of Dunlop's newest NTec tires it was time
for dinner and a marathon session of Flip That House. Because it seemed like a good idea at the time I had pre-entered
for four races, or two more than I usually do on a weekend. First up was Formula 40 with a bunch of very fast old farts. After
a decent start I followed a guy on another Ducati and went around the outside of him in turn 3, in the exact same place I
crashed in 2004. I found out later that he was one of the two guys I was dicing with back in 2004 so that puts that demon
to rest. I was extremely happy to see the checkered flag and finished in 6th place with a lap time of 1:30, or only 2-3 seconds
slower than I was 4 years ago! Next race was 750 SuperBike and after an uneventful race a brain fart on the last
lap dropped me from 4th place to 5th but my lap times had improved to the 1:29s. After a break of one race it was
time for Battle of the Twins Heavyweight (referring to the size of the bike, not the rider). After a great start I was pushed
back in to 4th place going in to turn 2 and the regulars pulled slowly away over 6 laps. It was incident free, as most good
races should be, but was a pretty tiring race as the wind was picking up and keeping the bike going where it should in the
super-fast turn 8 was taking a lot of effort. Finished the race in 4th place with more laps in the 1:29 range. My
last race of the day was Formula Twins with the same cast of characters up front and a dimished field due to the days attrition,
lateness of the race and the fact the wind was now pretty hideous. After being in third place off the start I was bumped back
yet again to what seemed to be my place in 4th. This happened in turn 2 which is clearly a sign I need to work on that turn
and I managed to keep the lead pack of three in sight until one of the leaders ran wide out of turn 1 on the 4th lap and crashed.
The red flags came out and that was the end of the weekend. I was very happy to have finished all the races in
one piece and to have made friends with the track again. Apart from the 700 mile round trip from home I'm looking forward
to coming back for the next round. My thanks go to Desmoto Sport, Dunlop, Suomy helmets, Helimot leathers,
AccountNow Inc, Catalyst Reaction and Keigwins @ The Track. Thanks, as always, to my family for their support, encouragement
and patience.
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