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Hypnotiq Racing Race Reports
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Archive - 2008 Race Reports
2008 WMRRA Round 6 Race Report - October 4th & 5th, 2008
This weekend @ Pacific Raceways capped the 6th and final round of the 2008 WMRRA season. What was shaping up to be a nice weekend weather wise, turned quite drastically as the weekend approached. This season had been one filled with ups and downs. I had not been on the racetrack as much as I would have liked. Between a early season crash, blowing a clutch, and a sick puppy, things just haven't gone the way I wanted. I was looking to end the season on a high note!
Friday - If it was going to be dry, I was going to head out and run the AF trackday. When I arrived at the track, it was raining pretty good. I don't need extra practice in the wet, so I just dropped off the trailer and bs'd with Josh & Chuck w/ Pirelli as well as Ross and Troyboy.
Saturday - The weather was questionable upon arriving at the track. I had DOT's mounted up already. I decided to leave them mounted and if it was dry for the 1st practice, I'd head out otherwise I'd wait till lunch and decide what tires to run for the 2nd practice. It rained for the 1st practice, so I went ahead and mounted up some Pirelli rains and got the bike ready to go in the wet. 2nd practice came and we headed out in the wet. This was mainly just to get my body warmed up. First lap out was fine but several laps in, Turn 4 and Turn 5 quite sketchy with wet leaves everywhere! I came back in and was gonna get ready for my race @ 350.
As we approach the 20min mark before the race, it appears that the track is pretty dry but the 600SS race, guys all went out on rains. I talked to riders that came in and they were 50/50 on rains or DOT's. I made the last minute call to switch to DOT's (I had rains mounted). Chuck grabbed my rear rain and got the DOT remounted to it. Dave Alexander jumped in and started to help get the front off. Dorn was headed over when he saw everything was under control and headed to Rowers pits. Meanwhile, Barry was getting my suspension reset back to dry setup. Chuck came back over and Garrett got my rear tire back on the bike and Dave had my front all set. We got the warmers on for about 10 mins. Big thanks to Chuck, Garrett, Barry, and Dave Alexander for working so hard to get me out on DOT's!
750SS - I headed out on the sighting lap and it appeared to be pretty dry but I started to get sprinkles on my visor. On the grid, it appeared to be a 50/50 split on rains/DOT's. The race started and I got a pretty good start but wasn't pushing too hard till I saw what the rain was going to do. After 2 laps, things seemed to subside so I started to go to work. On lap 3, in T8 as I hit the bump, it was still damp and I spun up the rear. I went into a full lock in T8 and was sideways heading towards the airfence. I thought it was game over at this point. Suddenly the bike snapped back into place and I was thanking Jesus all the way to T9. Time to get back to work. I was working my way through bikes when I came up on the back of Tobin & Rimes. They were both on rains, so I knew there tires were going away on them. I made a move past Tobin and started to chase Colin. I was getting pretty good arm pump at this point and it took everything I had to brake into T2. I made a move to go around Colin on the last lap, on the outside of T2. I saw him stomping on the shifter so I knew he had missed his shift. I knew he would hold his line but he didn't manage to get it into gear and needed to drift out. I checked up a little and tried to get setup to take another run. As we came out of T4, I saw him spin the rear up and I knew this was my chance. As we crested the hill down the back straight, we were side by side. We were playing chicken as we started up the hill into T5 and Colin finally backed off, letting me have the position. I noticed I was rapidly closing on Wadkins and thought I could get him before the line. I drove hard out of the bus stop and was able to beat him to the line by .007 seconds. It later turned out not to matter as he was assessed a 30 second penalty for taking the access road. When I came into the pits, I learned that I finished the race in 4th place!!!! Woohoo a new personal best!!!! After looking at the lap times, had I not took the first 2 laps so easy, I might have been able to run with Degross for 3rd, as we ran similar lap times.
750SS - 4th PLACE!!!!!!!
Sunday rolls around and it looks like it was gonna be dry. I got a new set of Pirelli slicks mounted up to the bike when the clouds rolled in. I decided to leave them mounted and if it stayed dried, I would go out in practice on them. It stayed dried so I got some laps in on the slicks and the track was very slick/cold. After a few laps, I brought in and made sure hot temps were good for the race.
750SB - I didn't have a ton of points in this class due to not being out in it a ton this year, so I was gridded in position 6-1. I got a rocket start and made my way up quite a bit into the field, taking down more and more bikes each corner. I was coming through 5/6, setting to get a good drive out of T7 to make a move on 2 bikes I thought I could get into T9. Unfortunately, as I grabbed a downshift between 6/7, I missed the shift. !#!$@^%$!!$#! I got my hand up and tried to get the bike back in gear but I was screwed. The entire grid went past me as I struggled to get back up to speed with no drive. When I saw Allister go by I was pissed. I finally nailed a start and got ahead of him and now he was gonna be long gone. I started to work my way through the field the best I could. The guys back here are very, very scary. They like to pick the bike up in corners alot. *eek* I finished the race but wasn't too happy about the mis shift. It cost me a good race for sure. I also made another mistake in having my TC set to 0 instead of Off like I thought I had. Finish was 16th in the race but from looking at lap times, had I not missed the shift, could have easily been in the 8-12th range.
Thanks to EDR, Barry @ GP, Pirelli guys, Dave Alexander, my competitors, and all the cornerworkers/raceday staff for a wonderful race weekend.
That concludes my 2008 race season.
I want to say a special thanks to my sponsors.
EDR - Eric, you built me a kickass bike this year and it has run damn near flawlessly for me the entire year. You and your crew were spectacular the entire year. Being at every race weekend and helping out the way they did is more than anyone could ask for. You should be proud of everything you've done this year. Hopefully next year will be a better year for me and I can get you some better results.
Pirelli - Chuck, Josh, and Garrett. You guys rock. Pirelli tires rock and your guys commitment to your racers is great. I appreciate all you guys did for me this season!!!
GP Suspension - Barry, you know you're da bomb! Your suspension kicks ass and I can't wait to get the 25mm front end in next year. Thanks for all your hard work this season making my bike handle.
Studio819 - What can I say Brandon, you make me look fast and Eric's bike look good. You're the best at what you do, keep it up!
Vortex & Lockhart Phillips - providing replacement parts quickly. LOL
My loving wife who supports me in all the time, effort, and money I throw at this sport acting like a kid. I love you!
Thanks again everyone and I can't wait for 2009 for some even bigger goals and accomplishments!!!
-Nico
2008 WMRRA Round 5 Race Report - August 29th & 30th, 2008
Due to numerous factors, I had to choose to spend this weekend on the sidelines.
We'll see everyone @ Round 6.
-Nico
2008 WMRRA Round 4 Race Report - August 9th & 10th, 2008
Well this one should be considerably shorter than most race reports.
Saturday, since it was August, a forecast of rain is definitely what everyone should be prepared for!$!#@$. I had mounted up the rains to the spare wheels the night before just in case. I put new DOT’s on the bike and said, we’ll just hope that it dries out and 2nd practice will be dry. Otherwise, I’ll switch to rains right before the 750SS race.
Well it dries out and I get a few laps in of practice in the 2nd Group 5 practice before a red flag came out. Barry had reset all my suspension setup the day before due to weight loss and the bike was handling well. The race was originally going to be 1 wave, so I didn’t bother to talk to Ross about getting me into the 1st wave. Well turns out it was a 2 wave start and I didn’t feel like making anyone’s job any tougher, so I just dealt with it.
750SS – I was gridded in the 2nd row of the 2nd wave, 31st position. I got an awesome reaction time and was feathering the clutch when I accidently let it out too far and brought the front end way up. I recovered but not after losing a few more positions. I was now in the ball of dogs, joy o joy. I worked my way through the group as best as I could. The race was shortened to 8 laps and I could have really used the last two laps to real the rest of the group in. I was dropping time and still a 1-1.5 seconds off what I can do. I had to check up a bit when the guy I was passing in T8 went off the track which prevented me from getting any shot of getting one more bike before the line. Oh well, I made it back up to 17th place which was disappointing but alright I suppose considering the position I had to start from.
Due to the airlift from the guy that went down in T8 and us having to end @ 4 instead of 5 for drag races, the OpenSS race got bumped to Sunday.
Sunday rolls around and the weather is cooperating quite a bit better. I went out in Group 5 practice and got caught behind a group going particularly slow. I didn’t feel like working through the group and I was warmed up so I pulled in. (We need to do something about the times for Group 5. Too many slow people). First race up is OpenSS.
OpenSS – Since it’s a smaller grid I’m in row 4, position 4. The position I hate with a passion since I always manage to get myself pinched. Looking around the grid, I see some bikes that I find quite surprising to be on the OpenSS grid considering the fact I know they aren’t SS legal bikes. Oh well, I guess most people don’t have the same respect for sportsmanship and rules as I do. Anyways, I had talked to Todd Horn about starts on Saturday afternoon and was giving some advice he gave me a try. Well it worked awesome!! I was up to 8th or 9th on the start and didn’t get pinched off in T1. I was pretty happy with the results. I was even passed Dave Nichols, who I knew wasn’t gonna let that stick for long. LOL Turn 4 I think between the two of us, we probably blocked most of the track. As I came through the back section, the bike was acting a little funny and I had to let some people by, by the time I was exiting the bus stop, I figured it out. Bike was climbing up through the RPM’s but I wasn’t going anywhere. #$@%!@#$%@! Fried the clutch on the start. I pulled off and returned to the pits. Turns out Troyboy had done the same thing. Wasn’t a good day for Suzuki clutches. Troy, Wendy, Brad, and I all had our clutches let go. Without a spare, I was forced to retire for the day and not run any of my races.
It was pretty much par for the course this weekend. Flat trailer tire, lost dbcom when didn’t zip up case, and a blown clutch. Can I just have one race weekend that goes smoothly please? LOL
Anyways, big thanks to Gary aka Papa Bear for helping me try and get my bike sorted out with the problem and taking it back to EDR for me so it can get a new clutch.
Thanks to all my sponsors, Eric Dorn @ EDR Performance & Barry @ GP Suspension North. These guys are always there when I need them. Chuck/Michael/Tyson/Josh @ Pirelli for great tires. NESBA Track Days, Vortex Racing, Lockhart Phillips, Studio819, and last but not least my loving wife who puts up with my endless time spent at the track.
After a 2 month break, its nice to have another race weekend in 3 weeks to try and make up for this weekend. See you guys Labor Day weekend.
-Nico
2008 WMRRA Round 3 Race Report - June 14th & 15th, 2008
The short version.
My passing is HORRENDOUS and it cost me a lot of positions this weekend. :(
The longer version...
So here it is June and the weather has still been iffy, to the point they're calling Junuary arond here. That said, the forecast for the weekend was supposed to be perfect. Sunny and low 70's. Finally a dry race weekend. Due to the weather and my wreck the last race weekend, I've only raced 1 race all year, so I was anxious to get out there and throw down.
Saturday morning rolled around and it was spitting on the windshield as I was heading to the track. WTF is this?
Practice goes fairly well. I'm able to get into a decent rhythmn and I'm clicking off within a couple of seconds of my fastest time, so I'm feeling good.
First up, 750SS. I'm gridded in Row 5, 4th position (1st wave). I actually got a killer start and was well into the row in front of me before those guys started to roll. However, not having a ton of starts under my belt proved to hurt me as I got pinched into the wall in T1 and had to back off. I try and make the positions back up and I'm coming down into T3 and I'm right on the back of Tobin, Rimes, & Troyboy. Sweet. Right where I want to be. After the 1st lap settles down, they manage to make their way around a particular bike that proved to be a problem for me. After the 2nd lap, I come into the bus stop and see a waving yellow. We're all pretty much at full tilt but I don't see the reason for the flag anywhere. Well as we stand it up out of the bus stop, there is Rower's bike dead center. I barely miss it, clipping it with my foot. As we make our way down the hill into T3, there's another bike down. I'm still trying to work my way around Mr. Swooper. He is yarding me out of corners (legal motor?). I got on the gas way early on the 3rd lap to try and get a good drive to get him into T5 but ended up looking at my front wheel as I go over the top of the bike from sliding the rear so bad. I settle back down and continue at it. He's holding me up ~4s a lap at this point and I'm getting pretty frustrated. Meanwhile, I'm seeing additional bikes in T2 and T4 laying on the ground. I finally had reached my point and as we were coming into the bus stop, I demonstrated to Mr. Swooper the art of the Eli Edwards bitch slap pass. I get by him and immediately drop down to the 31's (still to damn slow). I was reeling in my buddies Jay and Brady big time and as I was closing on them into T3 on the last lap, the red flag comes out for the bikes down in T9 and T3. Race was complete carnage. 8 bikes down in all, 2 transported. I finished somewhere between 17th and 20th. Pretty shitty. Looking at race times, had I NOT SUCKED AT PASSING, I would have been in the 7th-12th area. Best lap, 31.8, pathetic and below what I'm capable of. Must...work...on...passing.
Next up was due to be OpenSS but due to the transports and extensive track cleanup from all the bikes down coupled by the fact we had to be done by 4pm for drag races, the last 2 races of the day were postponed till Sunday.
Sunday rolls around and its a beautiful morning. Not a cloud in the sky.
Practice goes well. Just threw down 3-4 good laps to get comfortable on the bike and stretched out.
First up, OpenSS. After a pretty frustrating day the day before, I was ready to do something today. Fuzzy gives me my pep talk "Dude...time to ride angry." I'm gridded up in Row 4, position 3. I get a pretty good start considering I'm surrounded by 1000's. I'm with Allister, Valley, Nichols after the start. Allister manages to make it past Dave, but I was unable to. The rest of the 10 laps, I proceed to play Dave's shadow. I would close up really close in T2 and T9 but just couldn't quite get the bike in front of him. I was running quicker times but just couldn't put it together to get around him. Finally, Lap 8, I'm charging hard down the hill into T3 and ready to come around the outside when I hit Neutal. GODDAMNIT!!!. I know no one is behind me, so I slam it into 1st, let it dance and get going again. I'm able to close the gap back up in T9 as we come into the white flag lap. I decide to back off a bit through 5 and 6 to get a good run at T7 and up the hill into T9. I come around the outside of Dave in T9 and can feel my tire talking to me as it spins a couple times on me. I just couldn't quite get enough around the outside to stick it in front into the bus stop. I end up finishing behind Dave in 14th. Frustrating but at least I was having fun trying to get around. Best lap 31.6, still off pace. :(
Next up, 750SB. 57 bikes are scheduled to grid for this race, so this is gonna be an important one to nail the start. Once again, I'm in the 5th row, position 4, first wave. This time, I get a great start and avoid getting pinched into the wall. This time, I'm with Troyboy, Allister, and a couple other guys. We are all pretty much nose to tail for the first 4 or 5 laps. Allister makes it by Troy and then Brady. Around Lap 4, I came way too deep into the bus stop on Troy and Brady and almost had an incident. I managed to recover and continue on. Troyboy makes it past Brady so now I need to get Brady so I can run down Troy. Meanwhile, Barry keeps giving me the gap on the wall "No Gap". The previous lap, I looked back in T4 and saw no one there. Hmmm. Next time around, I turned all the way around and saw the bike right on my rear tire. GOOOOOOO!!!!!! I'm getting pretty pooped and I'm still all over Brady trying to get around. Meanwhile, the canadian behind me decides to pass me on the outside of T2 (have fun with that :)). He makes it by me and now I need to figure out how to get back by both of these guys. Lap 8, I come into the bus stop and on the exit I tuck the front pretty bad but manage to keep it up. I looked back and no one close to behind me and I didnt have the pace to get the guys in front of me. :( I just brought it home safely after that. I think I ended up around 17th or so. Hard to say since the results for 750SB were lost. Best lap was a 30.9, so I was starting to get my pace back. Must...work...on....passing
Thanks to all my sponsors, especially Eric Dorn for help getting my bike sorted out over the weekend. Barry @ GP Suspension North for giving me rock solid suspension to get around the track. Chuck/Michael @ Pirelli for great tires. NESBA Track Days, Vortex Racing, Lockhart Phillips, Studio819, and last but not least my loving wife who puts up with my endless time spent at the track.
I have some work to do over the next 6 weeks and hopefully I'll return in the beginning of August with some better results out there!!!
See everyone in August!
-Nico
2008 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report - May 3rd & 4th, 2008
The forecast for the 2nd round of the WMRRA race season looked promising. Much better than what March brought us. It was calling for a passing shower in the AM and then sunshine the rest of the weekend. Sweet!!
Saturday morning came and it was dry. Things were looking good. Looks like that passing shower managed to avoid us. I head out in the first morning practice, Group 5 practice. The bike is feeling mostly good but was unstable on the brakes. I clicked off a few 31's so with some adjustments I know I could be better in the race. I had Barry make a couple of changes and was going to test them out in the 2nd practice.
Lunch time rolls around and that "passing shower in the AM" has seemed to finally come. Oh well, its spotty at best but still DOT conditions, so I'm not too concerned. I was going to do Group 5 2nd practice, then throw some new DOT's on. Well the "passing shower" did not stop. After Group 4 went out, right after lunch Mark (DeGross) came in and said, definitely rains. I already had rains mounted so I grabbed them out of the trailer and went to swap them. I remembered that my front wheel had come off the mount I had on the wall, so I needed to double check the rotors. Sure as hell, one of them was bent. I quickly swapped the rotors with a spare set I had and went on my way. Thanks to Briggs for helping me get the rear wheel on so I could get the front safety wired in time for the 750SS race.
Call comes for 750SS and I head out. I move up to the front so I can get a clean warmup lap in and see what the conditions are like without all the spray from the other bikes. I was the lead bike out and won the warm up lap LOL. I settle into my grid spot, which was originally the first row of the 2nd wave. However, with the rain, they did it as a 1 wave start. I wait till the last possible second to drop my visor so that it doesn't fog up. By the time the light goes out, I couldn’t see anything. I started down the straight but my visor was completely fogged up. A bunch of bikes went by me. By the time I cleared T1 and was headed in T2 it was clearing up. I took the outside line and passed 5-6 guys. As I came down the hill, I caught a couple more. I slowly went to work, picking off bikes along the way. Around the half way mark, I made it around Danny (Lippis). I know he doesn’t like the rain so he definitely wasn't even close to his A game. Maybe D game. I got passed a couple more guys and was up onto Rowers tail. I thought I was going fast, until I saw he was having trouble with his visor which explained why I was seeing him. He waved me by as we came out of T4. I started through the back section. I think around Lap 8 (can't remember for sure), I thought I saw Chancy heading up the hill out of T7 as I was coming out of T5. I figured that was tail end of where a podium would be so I wanted to see if I could catch him. I had been slowly picking the throttle up earlier out of T7. This time I came through T7 and as soon as I got on the gas, I was on the ground. The rear spun around on me like a top. The bike and I were doing 360's across the ground on our side when it caught and it pitched me over the top. I did a little tumbling and came to a stop. !@!#@% GFDI!
I get back in the pits and access the damage. It’s not horrible but its not immediately fixable. I went and looked at results reluctantly to find that I threw away a 4th place finish. Way to go Nico. Dorn reminded me that I screwed up my pretty bike. :) I decide to load the trailer up and head home to relax and take some IB. I talk to Danny and he tells me to tell me him what I need and what he has so I can get back up and running for Sunday. Allister tells me I can take out his practice 750 on Sunday, so I can at least keep a decent grid position. Man, the guys in WMRRA are awesome. I told them I'd sleep on it and figure it out in the AM.
Sunday morning rolls around and MAN am I tight. I can barely rotate my shoulder and my neck hurt to turn it too far each direction. I went to the track to see if Galena was around to give me a massage. She didn’t come out, so I was SOL. I tried stretching it out and taking some Aleve + IB but it just wouldn’t loosen up enough. I put on my helmet and sat on the bike to see if I could even half ass race. There's no way. I decide to tear the bike apart and assess all the damage. Its not horrible. Fairing stay, upper fairing replaced or repaired, brake lever, brake side rearset mounting bracket, and a sub wiring harness. The CF exhaust has some broken CF but still functional.
It was great to see Bluth up here from OR to play with the WA boys, furry to slap me on the ass, Mark to remind me that I'm still slow, the Corona twins to help me drink away my misery from this weekend, ProHickey to remind me how long its been since I've heard the word Hickey, Baldy for teasing me, Papa Bear, Chris V., and all my other racing buddies.:D
I should have everything back together this week before OMRRA this weekend. I'll be heading down Friday evening and helping out Allister's endurance team on Saturday and doing the sprints on Sunday. It would be realy nice to get some good, dry races in!
Thanks to all of my sponsors! Especially Eric Dorn @ EDR Performance for his support. Pirelli/Tigershark Racing, GP Suspension North, NESBA Trackdays, Vortex Racing, Lockhart Phillips USA, Orion Moto, and my biggest supporter of all, my wife Jen! Thanks to all the WMRRA corner workers, especially the ones that picked my ass up in T7 on Saturday. Also, the race day staff, which make it possible for us to race every weekend!
Here's to hopefully a better round @ OMRRA. :)
-Nico
2008 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report - March 29th & 30th, 2008
There was snow on the ground. I like racing in the rain. Racing in the snow and bitter ass cold, I do not. :)
We'll see everyone @ Round 2.
-Nico
Archive - 2007 Race Reports
2007 WMRRA Round 6 Race Report - August 11th/12th
Hey everyone! Time for Round 6 of the 2007 WMRRA season. It's with bittersweet emotions that this will be my last race report for the 2007 race season. With my upcoming wedding and trip to Europe, I'll miss the final two WMRRA rounds. As always, my race reports are not short and since this one will have the season wrap up, it won't get any shorter! :)
Saturday morning could have started off a bit better. I had done the track day on Friday with Adrenaline Freaks and apparently when I loaded the bike back into the trailer, my dumbass forgot to turn the key off. New rule, key goes in tool box to force me to remember to turn off bike. I scramble around to find a trickle charger and Brad Gua bails me out, as he has a couple. Thanks Brad! I get the bike hooked up to the charger and go and get my registration paperwork/tech my gear. My air pressure gauge was acting screwy so I stopped by the Tigershark tent and had Josh double check my pressures. He looked at my tires and asked how many laps I had on them. “2 races and 2 full track days, so about 170.” He shook his head. I told him I was practicing for e-racing next year by seeing how long I could ride tires. He laughed. The plan was to head out in the 1st practice on these tires and then switch to new rubber for the final practice and the main events.
First practice goes pretty well for the most part. Group 4 is moving slower than usual and I was getting a little frustrated. I finally got some clear track to work with and was able to set a nice pace. Checkered came out and I ended the practice feeling pretty good. I talked to Greg Bouwens and he was feeling pretty good and he asked if I would have something for him today and I said “maybe”. I switch over to a new set of the SC's and head out in practice number 2. This practice was quite a bit more frustrating and I couldn't get clear track anywhere. Either I was getting faster or group 4 had a bunch of turtles into it. Practice ended and I wasn't in a particularly good mood since I couldn't get a good rhythm. Greg asks how it went and I shared my frustrating.
Onto the first race, 750SS. I had talked to Briggs before the race and he gave me a tip on getting better starts. He told me all the things to do and the one thing not to do. So we head out on the warm up lap and head out to grid position. I was in the 2nd wave, row 7. This should be fun. I get the start and the front starts to come up, I do what Briggs told me not to do and chop it and then realize it and get right back on the throttle. By this time, the entire 2nd wave has passed me except for Allister who killed his bike on the start. GREAT! At this point I'm cussing and screaming in my helmet for the better part of two laps. I'm making my way through the slower riders, best I can. Some of those guys have some crazy lines which makes it hard to pass at times. Allister got by me while I was trying to set one of the guys up and so I get impatient. Coming down the hill into T3, I try to take the 3 slower bikes on the outside. Well, I was carrying way too much speed down the hill and I couldn't get the bike slowed down enough to turn it in so I end up taking the access road. At this point, I hit the roof. More cursing and screaming in my helmet. I had to let the entire group go by, plus the guys I had passed the 1st two laps since there was no gap. I put my head down and go back to my screaming in the helmet. I'm charging hard through each lap, getting 1-3 bikes a lap. I'm closing in on the bike that I was originally going to take on the outside of T3 (#697) on the final lap. I come into the bus stop in a full stoppie trying to close the distance. I thought while I had the rear in the air, I might as well shift to 1st. I tuck in behind him and draft him to just before the chute where I come out from the bubble to get him at the line (ha ha Rick. :P). Needless to say, I was none too happy with the result. Between the start and running off in T3, it sucked. Finished 24th, with a best of :33 flat. The only thing to note here is that a 33 flat, was 3.4 seconds then my previous best in a race. I headed back into the pits and chatted with Greg and Briggs and shared what happened. Briggs and Greg said they wouldn't let me come off the track after OpenSS unless I turned a 32.5.
Second race for Saturday (and last), is OpenSS. I decide to go back to my way of starting, which yielded me a pretty good start in Spokane. I'm in the 4th row for this race. The flag drops and boom, I get a much better start. Greg still gets by me but was much better than 750SS. I keep Greg in sight and begin to work my way through the slower bikes. I got in a pretty good rhythm and was keeping Greg about the same gap from me which made me feel good. I was coming down the hill into T3 when I saw Antone and my buddy Josh. I was going to try and get Josh there but Antone slowed up more than I expected so I ended up shoving it in front of both of them and skating through 3 ahead. I started to go after Greg but I just didn't seem to close the gap. I cruised to the finish line without much incident after that. I checked my timer and 32.6 was in the books! I went and talked to Greg and he said he'd let that count as close enough. I ended up finishing in 11th place in OpenSS and all but two bikes in front of me were liter bikes, so that felt pretty good. :) I packed up the trailer and headed home to get some rest for Sunday. On the way home I called to tell Briggs my good news and ended up stopping by the Joker to have a couple beers with him and Scott to celebrate my accomplishment.
Sunday rolls around and I'm feeling pretty good. After how I ended Saturday, I felt like I could click off some 31's, maybe even 30's. I decided that I was moving well enough to go back out and race Formula Ultra again and have people to race with. My buddy Dave Robbins signed up as well so we hoped we'd get to battle. I headed out in Group 4 practice again (forgot to go and find tech to change me to group 5 practice). I started out in front this time to avoid the cluster that happened last time. I was able to get into a pretty good rhythm. I came in after practice and Greg asked how it went and I told him 31's were definitely in the cards today.
First up, Formula Ultra. Since I only raced this class once this year, and it was the big crash I had in the rain when I threw away 4th place, I was gridded in the last row with Dave Robbins. Oh well, at least things would be even. We headed out on the warm up lap and I was coming down the hill into T3 when I saw Pete Bertram lose the front end. We headed back around to grid and gridded up for the start. The light went out and I put my head down. I get a great start and get past a few bikes going into T2. I keep on the gas and just keep pushing. I was struggling in T9 with my rear tire. It just kept spinning up on me and wanting to pitch me. Half way flag comes out and I decide to take a peek behind me coming out of T4 to see where Dave is. He's coming into T4 as I'm leaving. Not quite the breathing room I was wanting. I'm trying to push through T9 but that rear just won't stay down. It's pissing me off since I only 20 laps on the tire before the race. Around lap 7, I start having problems with the rear in T2. I look back again and I have a little breathing room on Dave but not much. I can't push the bike any harder without fear of tossing me off of it. White flag comes out and I stay on it. Coming out of T4 this time, I see that I have enough of a gap to secure the position. I let up a little through T9 since I was having problems with the rear. I take the checkered flag in front of Dave! I was pumped would be an understatement. Dave congratulated me on the way down the hill and I came into the pits. I looked down at my lap timer and I had done it. 31.5 with a race average of 32.2. A new personal best!!! I've cut almost an entire 5 seconds since the last Pacific round!!!! Finished 14th behind a bunch of liter bikes and a couple 750 superbikes, so I felt pretty good about that. :) I went by Josh's trailer to see what the hell was going on with my tire. He took the hot temp and I was at 34psi. #@!~%! Way too hot. We dropped it down to where it should be for hot so that I was setup for 750SB.
750SB is the last race of the day. I'm already pretty pooped since I pulled the pin in that Formula Ultra race and pushed pretty hard. I'm in the 4th row for this race. I don't get a great start but it was alright. The bikes in front of me were moving slower though coming into T3 and I shoved my bike under Troy Cook in T4 (I knew he'd come give me shit about that later. heh). I have Colin Rimes, Mike Tobin, and Corson Piper all right in front of me. I try pushing to get to those guys but I just don't have the energy to hold onto my bike. I'm pushing but I can't seem to close the distance. I wanted nothing more than to beat Corson on the final race but in the end, I didn't have anything left. Troy ended up getting me back on lap 8 and I just didn't have it. I ended up crossing the finish line in 20th place out or 35 bikes and a best of 31.9.
That was it. I finished the 2007 race season with my bike and myself in one piece. The weekend was full of surprises and definitely allowed me to end my season a BIG positive note. I was pretty frustrated with how I had felt like I was against a wall with my times and wasn't improving like I wanted to. I had done one off fast times but never ran fast times consistently, within tenths of a second. Guys that used to be 5-10 positions ahead of me, I'm now racing with. I'm sad that this is the end of the season for me but it leaves me with nothing but positive feelings for the 2008 race season.
-2007 Season Accomplishments-
I have big plans for the 2008 season and will post up about them as details become available.
I'd like to take a moment to thank all of my sponsors for 2007.
That's it everyone. 2007 race season is over. I hope to see all you guys during the offseason and can't wait till we start things up again next year. I hope to have everyone's support again in 2008!
Thanks,
Nico
2007 WMRRA Round 5 Race Report - July 7th/8th
Man, it feels like forever since I wrote one of these. Hmmm, maybe it's because it's been a while. *g* You should all know the routine by now, so grab your lunch before reading this. :)
Small little blurb catching up on what has happened the last couple of months. The May round @ Pacific, I ended up having a mechanical with my clutch cable which I thought I was going to be able to make work through the weekend, I was wrong. I ended up pulling out midway through Form Ultra. I missed the Spokane races over Memorial Day weekend due to the fact that I had an internal electrical fire in my car the week prior and was still dealing with fallout with that. Just when I thought all the bad luck was done, for the June races @ Pacific, I had left my trailer keys in the center console of the truck. Jen didn't have her cell phone with her and was on her way to the Doggy 5k. She was due back at lunch, so I figured I'd just skip practice (rain anyways) and unload at lunch. When she showed up, no keys were to be found. After finally cutting the locks off, I would have only been able to make 1 race, so I said screw it. I wasn't in the mind frame to race.
So, now onto Round 5 @ Spokane. :) I decided to skip the usual track day on the Friday before the race weekend. I was out @ Spokane the previous weekend to control ride for NESBA. That was my first time on that track since one of my first track days, 2 years ago (sans blowing my engine on the 2nd corner of the out lap last year). With things as busy as they've been at work, I really needed to be @ work on Friday. Jen and I pulled into SRP just after 7 on Friday night. We dropped the trailer off at the track and said hi to gang of campers partying. We headed off to Prospectors to grab some dinner and then went to the hotel to get a good night's rest before the hot Saturday forecast.
Saturday would prove to be a very long, hot day. We rolled into the track around 7am and got the pit setup next to Allister. I was helping Allister with the NRC session and mentoring two of my friends, Daryll and Jared. I needed new tires for the races this weekend, so I put some take offs on my backup set of rims to use for morning practice and going out in the NRC session. No sense burning up new tires. I dropped tires off with Chuck and he got the take offs mounted and new ones on my primary set. I didn't feel like swapping rotors (carbon pads), so I had another set that I hadn't used since last year that were blasted, so I mounted those on the set of take offs. Originally the schedule had OpenSS as the last race on Sunday, so I was disappointed I wasn't going to be able to get a jump on the trip home Sunday. Jeff (Race Director) decided to try a suggestion coming from several riders of running SS classes on one day and SB on the other day. Hooray, no longer the last race on Sunday and this is a change I actually was trying for. Anyways, I head out in the first NRC session with Daryll and Jared and as we come up to speed on the front street, I have the worse wobble I've ever felt. #!%%$!%$ warped rotors! :@ Damn it. So I throw my hand up and wave Daryll and Jared on to go follow Allister while I go into the pits and swap everything out. Since I was putting the new rubber on and I needed to put on new pads this weekend too, I just did that at the same time and went and bedded them in.
I headed out in Group 4 pracitce #2 and tested things out. Everything felt good so I went back to the pits to get ready for the 2nd NRC session. I headed out with Daryll and Jared. I gave Daryll a couple of close quarters passes and came under him once to get him used to race situations. Jared was starting to pull away, so I went and chased him down and did the same with him for a couple of laps. They were both doing very well, so I told them they would be out with Allister for the 3rd NRC session since I had to get ready for OpenSS. The temperature was hot. 90+ degrees and I had been out on the track a lot. I went out in Group 4 #3 practice with Allister to get warmed up for the OpenSS race. Allister and I turn some pretty good laps and I feel ready for OpenSS.
OpenSS - I'm gridded up in the 3rd row (still milking the points from my 5th in the first race weekend. lol) I get my patented crappy start and have most of the field go by me coming into T1. This was my first race @ Spokane ever, so I wasn't sure how things shake out in T1/T2. I ended up putting my head down and chase a couple of the bikes that got by me. I had a bike crash in front of me twice in T9. It was hot and I was getting tired. As I came across Start/Finish the white flag was out, at that time Ross was right next to me and I wasn't sure if the white flag was mine or his, so I just kept my head down and kept going. I didn't see the yellow flag or pit board, so I kept racing. Turns out it was a white flag for me/checkered for him and I didn't know it. I was able to hold on for 13th place and turned in a personal best race time (first race, of course it's a personal best. :)) of 1:37:0. I came in from the race and was done. I had been hydrating all week and drinking a ton of water all day. I just think all the exposure to the sun got to me between practice, NRC, and the race. I sat with a cold towel on my head while I caught my breath before 750SS.
750SS - The start of 750SS comes up. I'm gridded back in the 7th row for this race. I get another patently bad start and have a bunch of guys go by. Guys I usually race with (or beat) get by me. I try to reel them in but the fatigue and heat are getting to me. I cut T3 a little close (in the dirt) and run off on the exit of T7. I look behind me and have a pretty good margin from the bike behind me. So I dial it back and decide finishing is most important. I keep my eye out for Eli/Ross to come by. I can see them coming out of T7 so I make way for them to get by me and they take the checkered. Phew, I survived the race. :) Best lap was a 1:38:5, oh well, I was pooped. Finished 20th. I was just happy to finish.
We packed up and went back to the hotel to shower, let Rossi out. Jen, Daryll, Jared, Laura, and myself went and grabbed some dinner and then I went back to the hotel and PASSED out.
Sunday rolls around and since my only race is @ 1155, I decide to get the trailer prepped so that after the race, I can just ride in and then we can get a jump on the drive home. Allister needed to get a few laps in on the big Ape and I only wanted to get a few laps in (conserve energy in the heat) so we headed out in Group 4 practice to shake things out. I headed out and did 4 or 5 laps with Allister and feel like I'm ready for 750SB. We line up for the start and we're off. I'm used to the Spokane start now so I'm going hard into T1 this time and to my surprise, I don't see anyone go by me. Hmm. That's odd. I'm usually the worst starter on the grid. Mitchell comes around me on the exit of T2 and I keep going strong. Someone came by me on my left coming into T3 and ran off the track but kept it up somehow and was still in front of me. I kept pushing and when I was coming into T8, I could still see the lead bike (I was around ~12th place). Holy #!$ I never get a start like this. What the hell had gotten into me. LOL. So I start going to work, one of the guys I usually race with got by me so I was trying to chase him down. I kept checking my rear out of T6 and could see that I was keeping Rick Rinaldo (on his new 600rr) at about the same gap so I was feeling good about that. I fell off pace for a lap and could see that Rick closed the gap considerably. On the 6th lap Rick came by me into T4 and was chattering out wide, I tried to get hard on the gas to get back around him but couldn't stick it. He maintained about the same gap from me until the last lap when I seemed to be closing in on him. He had just passed Josh and I was setting Josh up for T6 so I could go after Rick but Josh tucked the front hard on the brakes in front of me. I had to check up in T6 and by the time I got back on it, Rick had already pulled too much of a gap to do anything in the last 4 corners. Oh well. It was a good race and I had a freaking blast. All but 2 laps were in the 36's with a new personal best race time of 36.1. I ended up finish 18th. It was fun to battle with Rick during that race and hopes he stays slow on that new bike of his so I can keep having fun with him.
Jen and I loaded up everything, grabbed Rossi and headed back to Seattle. It was a long, hot weekend and felt good to be home.
Results Recap -
All in all it was a great weekend. My first time racing @ Spokane. It definitely was fun and I had a blast. I could have done without the extreme fatigue on Saturday but it just reminded me how much I need to work on my endurance over the course of the offseason this year.
A huge thanks to my teammate Allister for doing what he usually does. Congrats to my newly crowned Novices, Jared and Daryll. Also, thanks to all of my sponsors! Studio819 - Brandon Bones Photography, EDR Performance, I-90 Motorsports, Pirelli/Tigershark Racing, GP Suspension North, Adrenaline Freaks Trackdays, Vortex Racing, Sharkskinz Racing, Lockhart Phillips USA, Sidi, JMI Motoring, and my biggest supporter of all, my fiance Jen! Thanks to all the WMRRA corner workers and race day staff, who make it possible for us to race every weekend!
Next race weekend is August 11/12th @ Pacific Raceways. Hope to see you guys out there as this will be my last race of 2007 before getting married and heading off on my honeymoon in Europe.
-Nico
2007 WMRRA Round 4 Race Report - June 9th/10th
Playing catchup here. Nothing too much to report here.
Sunday morning, Jen dropped me off at the track and then headed off the Furry 5k. Turns out that I left the keys to the trailer in the center console and she didn't have her cell phone with her. She was due back at lunch and it was raining in the morning anyways, I decided to skip practice and just unload at lunch. Jen shows up and keys aren't there. #!$% By the time we cut the locks, there is only one race left and I wasn't in the mindset to race, so I said forget it and went home.
My bad luck string continues
-Nico
2007 WMRRA Round 3 Race Report - May 26th/27th
Playing catchup here. Nothing to really report. Due to my car having an internal electrical fire the week before the races and being busy with the insurance, dealership, etc... I didn't have time to get ready for the race weekend so I had to skip the Spokane round.
Let the luck continue...
-Nico
2007 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report - May 5th/6th
Playing catchup here.
So after the horrendous end to my first race weekend and a very expensive repair bill, my bike was ready for the next round at Pacific. Or so I thought. After going out in the first practice, my clutch cable was giving me fits. It was really heavy. I checked and it had become kinked from the crash in April. I didn't have a spare so I tried to make it work anyways. I fumbled through practices and tried to get everything ready to go for Form Ultra on Saturday.
Form Ultra. Since I was having clutch cable issues and didn't want to get in the way of all the super fast guys that didn't run in the rain the previous race weekend, I chose to start from the back. I got a horrible start (this time I can blame the cable instead of me. lol). I tried to make it work but after 4 laps in race pace, I just couldnt get it to shift right coming into T3. It wouldn't shift more than once. So I pulled off before something bad happened. Rather than waste more money.
Called it a weekend and decided to get things fixed before Spokane. Argh!!!
-Nico
2007 WMRRA Round 1 Race Report - March 31st/April 1st
Alright race fans! It's the first races of the 2007 season and always, my race reports are never short! :)
Arrived at the track Saturday morning and of course I could tell already, it was going to be one of those weekends! I forgot the keys to the trailer on the counter at home. I had to call Jen and ask her to bring down my keys. While I waited for my keys I helped Allister get our pit setup and helped out a new nervous, I mean novice Marcus get setup for the day. He was doing his NRC on Saturday and his Novice race on Sunday. It was raining and since I was already behind getting my bike out of the trailer I elected to skip first Med/Fast practice and make a call at lunch on whether to mount rains or DOT's. That would give me a practice after lunch and then my 1st race of the weekend @ 3:30, 750 Supersport. I talk with Chuck @ Pirelli and we make the call that it looks like its going to dry up so we get the DOT's ready to rock and setup so I can go out on the first practice. I head out for Med/Fast practice to scrub in the tires and after we complete lap #1, as Im coming into the chute the guy in front of me loses control and goes into the wall on the straight away after the chute. I get my hand up quickly and frantically waving because the bike is still running along the wall and can come across the straight at any min. I dont brake until I absolutely have to since its the straight away. Luckily we make it past the straight and the bike never came across. Definately something I could have gone without seeing. Amazingly enough, the guy is OK and no serious injuries. He was back at the track later that day.
So it's time for the first race of the weekend, 750SS. It's dry out and I'm feeling alright. I have exactly one 5 lap practice under my belt heading into the first race of the season. Eek! I'm in row 7. Its supposed to be roughly a 50 bike grid. The light goes out and we start. Everyone diving into T1 jockeying for position. I see a bike come across John Lippis front wheel, taking him out. A couple other bikes run off the track and T1. One of the bikes kicks up a huge dirt cload that hits my helmet and dirts trickles down into my eyes. Great, I can't see anything now. Everybody and there mom passes me as I try and blink out the dirt in my eyes. By the end of lap 2, I was able to see again. Time to start making up ground. I make up a bunch of positions but get stuck behind a set of two bikes that I can't seem to make it around. I'm starting to feel better as the race goes on, getting comfortable being on the track again. However, I was never able to quite get past those two bikes and ended up finishing in a less than stellar position of 27th, and about 3 seconds off my usual pace. Oh well, first race of the season and I have no time on the bike, so I guess I can't be too unhappy. :) This was my only race of the day so I wait for my dad to finish corner working and then we head home for the evening.
Sunday morning arrives and its clear skies. We arrive at the track and its clear everywhere! Hooray! Today is going to be an awesome day, albeit cold. Soon after the riders meeting, the clouds start rolling in. Wonderful!! I went out in Med/Fast practice and it was pretty dry. My practice times were under my fast times from the day before so I'm definately feeling better out on the track. Lunch rolls around and it starts hailing. GREATTTTT! I go over and talk to Chuck @ Pirelli and ask if he has any studded tires. The first race after lunch is 750SB. About 25 mins before lunch is over, the sun breaks through and it looks like it might dry up. I make the bold gamble that the track will dry out so I decide to go with DOT's.
Lunch is over, the horn goes off and its time to head to pre grid. It's sprinkling still and I'm the only genius with DOT's on. :) Oh well, I'll just take it easy out there and make the most of it. Right around Lap 4, Eli and Degross make their way around me the first time. Each time around the track though, there seemed to be a new bike down. I had moments all over the track but I was keeping it together. Around Lap 8, Eli and Degross make their way around me a 2nd time. I hold on and take the checkered flag, managing to finish the race on my DOT's and not be the last bike across the finish line. 11th place. Oh well, I survived. That was the important part. Fast lap, 2:05. *LOL*
My next race is an hour later and it doesnt look like it's gonna clear up. Pirelli is out of rain tires and I dont have time to swap tires off of another set of rims. I know my buddy Adam in Novice has the same gixxer, has rains mounted, and is done for the day. So we quickly swap tires/rotors (his werent SS legal or bedded for carbon pads). Barry from GP Suspension North quickly comes over and softens my bike up for the rain. I'm ready to go for OpenSS.
OpenSS gets off to a clean start and Im trying to adjust to being on rain tires. It's been almost a year since I've been on them. I had no idea what place I was going into T2 but lost a couple of positions by the end of the 1st lap. It took about 2-3 laps to get comfortable and then I started to get to work. I started to work my way through the pack, I made up 4 positions with 3 laps to go. Im now behind a guy on a 1000RR and he yards me on the straight and the entrance to T2 but by the time we exit T4 I'm back on his tail. We are side by side into T8 and I realize I can get this guy in the bus stop. We come onto the straight and the white flag is out. I realize I need to make the move on this lap. I make sure I'm hard on his tail coming out of T7. I set myself up for T9 so that I'm on the inside coming out. I get on the throttle and stay on it till I get far enough past him and make it before the bus stop. I get a good drive out of the bus stop and I'm able to hold him off @ the checkered flag! I felt great after this race. I went over to check the results and I had to do a double take. I knew I was moving but didnt realize I had made my way up to 5th place!!! Woohooo! Top 5. I'm on cloud 9!!!!
Next up is the 3rd race of the day. This being only my 2nd expert weekend, I've never had 3 races in one weekend. Racing in the rain is mentally draining but I have enough in me to do the last race for sure. It's still raining so its gonna be another wet race! I got a decent start and was 6th going into T2. I took it easy for the first couple laps as I got used to the rain again. I made it past one bike and was running in 5th and was behind a guy on a 1000RR that kept yarding my ass on the straights. it's the same guy I made a last minute pass in the bus stop in the OpenSS race. I knew where I could get him so I just sat back and waited to make my move. Staying close enough so that I could make it. I made the pass just after the half way mark and tried to see if I could create a gap. I'm now in fourth. I couldn't do it but i was able to keep him from making the position back. On the last lap, I was coming into T5 and I was a little offline and hit the bump in T5. I felt the front compress and I knew I was heading to the pavement. The bike and I started to slide across the gravel. It looked like it was gonna be a nice slide but then the bike caught and the damage begun. I popped up quickly and kicked the gravel. I was pissed. I was in 4th place at this point! 4 more corners and I would have been done.
I make it back to the pits and several other racers had made it by to make sure I was ok and to see the carnage. It was nice to hear from some of the other racers how well I was riding and commenting about the pass I made in the bus stop. I was still mad at myself for crashing. I talked to Dave Robbins for a bit and he tried to make me feel better but I just wasn't in the mood at the time. At first glance, it appears that I have two rims to repair, replace subframe, replace fairing stay, fiberglass work, and check out the forks/frame. I haven't torn down the bike yet, so there may be more. I'll know more tonight.
After having time to sit back and reflect about the weekend, the races, and the crash, Im extremely happy with how my weekend went. I went out in the rain and was turning out some pretty good results. Racing in the rain is not easy and definately takes a lot out of you. I made a small mistake and paid for it but I think the confidence I've gained and the experience really is invaluable. I want to thank all the seasoned veterans that came by my pit and talked to me afterwards to help me realize this. I really do appreciate the advice/encouragement.
So to recap the weekends results:
A huge thanks to my teammates Allister and Mitch for helping out this weekend. Also, thanks to all of my sponsors! Studio819 - Brandon Bones Photography, EDR Performance, I-90 Motorsports, Pirelli/Tigershark Racing, GP Suspension North, Adrenaline Freaks Trackdays, Vortex Racing, Sharkskinz Racing, Lockhart Phillips USA, Sidi, JMI Motoring, and my biggest supporter, my fiance Jen! Big thanks to the corner workers for enduring the hail/rain and picking me up in T5. :)
Thanks to everyone that made it out this weekend to watch and to the support of all the other racers out there who have helped me become a better racer and given me advice.
Next race weekend is May 5th @ Pacific Raceways. See you guys then!
-Nico
Photo courtesy of Studio819 - Brandon Bones Photography!
Archive - 2006 Race Reports
WMRRA Round 8 Race Report - Oct 7th/8th
I guess I should start off by saying that there is no Round 7 report since I elected not to go to Spokane for Labor Day weekend. I would like to add to the news that I was elected to the WMRRA Executive Board as the 2007 WMRRA Supersport Representative. I'm very much looking forward to volunteering some time to a club that has provided me with a tremendous amount of fun and opportunity. I'm honored to represent the riders of WMRRA. I can't wait for 2007!
I had been waiting for this weekend for a while now. I was nervous and excited. Nervous because I didn't want to look like an idiot out in the expert classes but excited because I had made it to this point.
I didn't get any practice in on Friday due to the fact it was raining (god I hate this state sometimes) and I knew we had a dry forecast for the weekend so I opted to remain lazy and bullshit with the HDFFC guys, Brad, and Allister.
Saturday morning came and the practices were delayed due to some pretty intense fog. We were about 45 mins behind so practices were shortened up. I went out in the first session on my DOT's from last race weekend just to get warmed up. I was in Med-Fast practice, Group 4. WOW! I have a whole new appreciation for things after that practice. Holy shit. Nothing bad, just need to get used to what CLOSE is. :) Our next practice wasn't till the session right after lunch so I took my time when I came in and switched over to new tires to scrub in for the last practice session before my races. Practice went well, tires are good to go, let's race.
750SS, my first ever expert race. I was starting to get butterflies and then the 5 min horn sounds. I watch pit gate waiting for the bikes to show up and yank off the tire warmers. We are sitting at pit out and the nervousness just continues to grow. I head out on my warm up lap and work my way to my grid position. Last I heard was this was a 43 bike grid. Eeeek! I suck at starts too, good thing I'm in the second to last row of the grid. :) About the time went out, all the nervousness went away. I remember how to do this, it's called racing. I get my typical shitty start and I'm being helped up pretty well the first few laps by #84. Once I make my way around him, I begin to charge hard. I start working my way through the bikes. I felt good. Then I see the half way marker! WHAT??! This thing is only halfway over?! Who knew 2 laps could feel like so much longer. Oh well. With two laps to go, I see a fellow graduated novice I knew, Adam. My goal: Not finish behind him. As we come across the white flag, I'm closing the gap pretty well. Coming down the hill into T3 I go flying past him on the brakes and duck in under him. I finish around to the line for the checkered flag. I checked the lap times and I was definitely being held up. First 3 laps were :41/:40/:41 and then I drop down to 36/37's. End result: 24th out of 43 bikes (waiting for the official race results to see how many bikes grided). Best time: 1:36:134. A new personal best! Woohooo! That was my only race Saturday, so I head home happy.
Sunday morning rolls around and as I get about a mile from the track, it starts raining!!! WTF?!?! This wasn't in the forecast. Not a happy camper. I sit around and watch the weather. It looks like its starting to dry up but its doing that stupid ?tweener? whether. In between light rain/no rain, not drying the track. I decide I'm not going to do practice and just wait till lunch and make the call for rain tires since I have races at 2 and 2:55. 650SB before lunch runs and it pretty much dries the race line so I decide to stick with DOT's. The tweener whether starts again but it appears that the track is staying dry. As we are getting reading for OpenSS race, a sidecar blows its oil cooler on the start finish line and leaves an oily mess from Start/Finish to Turn 1. Great. An oil spill in T1. Not someplace you want to yard sell your bike. After the 30min cleanup, sidecars run their race and we hear the horn. We are watching pit gate and no bikes are coming. Turns out that a sidecar crashed in the final lap and they had to airlift the rider out.
OpenSS finally grids. I'm in the last row of this grid. I get a better start this time but still get stuck behind a couple of slow guys that I had to work around. After that, I tried to work my way up but there isn't a big field here so I end up riding around by myself for a while. :) I didn't feel like I had run that hard but times showed me in the 36's again so I can live with that. Final result: 14th out of 19 bikes on the grid. Best time: 1:36:784
Next up, 750SB. I only had a small breather (8 lap Novice race) between OpenSS and 750SB. Horn goes off and we head to pre-grid. See Colin Rimes on pre-grid and he told me to kick some ass, as he knew it was my first expert weekend. That was nice of him. I'm in the 6th row out of 8 for grid. I actually get a better launch this time but my buddy James (#67) gets by me from the row behind and so I start to chase him and Colin (#880). Colin makes it by James in Turn 8 but there wasn't enough room for me to make it too so I back off. This then turns into a battle between James and myself. Lap 4, we are coming out of Turn 4 and James looks back to see who is behind me and my # plate is about a foot from where he is looking. He knows I'm there now so he begins to do everything in his power to keep me from getting by. He is slowing me down through 6 so I try to get him on the drive up the hill but don't quite have enough to get him in 8. He brakes early for 9 and I come under him and try and out drive him into the bus stop but I just didn't have the guts to shove it in there. This went on for the rest of the race. I got close on lap 7 of finishing the deal in the bus stop but James got back on the gas and got back by me before we tipped in. I pulled out wide for the checkered to try and beat him to the line but just couldn't quite get there. Great race. Had a lot of fun dicing with James but in the end it showed me how much I need to work on my passing. I had him in a few spots I just needed to actually have the guts to stuff it in there and hold it. It will come with time. I finished 18th out of 24 bikes and my best time was a 1:38:329.
That's it. The end of the 2006 WMRRA race season. It was a great season and I couldn't have asked for anything more. I had 5 goals when I started the season.
Have fun!
Graduate Novice.
Turn a :36 in a race.
Not be the last bike across the line in my first expert race.
Not get lapped by the lap leader in an expert race by the end of my first season.
I'm more than happy to report that I accomplished all 5 of these goals. Though the fifth one may have an asterisk next to it, since it was a shortened race to 8 laps. :)
I'm very much looking forward to next season. Coming back strong and working on the things I need to in order for me to be a faster, better racer.
Thanks to everyone this year for their support. Coming out to the races and watching me race, racers who gave me advice/ribbing/teasing, and my sponsors for helping negate some of the costs! I-90 Motorsports (Zach Gordon), GP Suspension North (Barry Wressel), EDR Performance (Eric Dorn), Tigershark Racing/Pirelli (Josh Bryan), , my loving g/f (Jen) for putting up with my addiction, and the best photographer in motorsports, Brandon Bones (Studio819)!
One round left with OMRRA next weekend. Sprints and endurance races.
Until then...
-Nico
WMRRA Round 6 Race Report - Aug 12th/13th
The beginning of what I hope to be my graduation weekend into Expert class. I need to complete my final two races this weekend and be observed in the final race by race day staff to make sure that I'm moving fast enough to run in expert as well as not doing anything stupid on the track.
Saturday came and it was the start of the typical race day. Scrambling around the pits to make sure I make it through
registration, tech, etc. I have to throw some new tires on before my first practice (I can't wait till I'm no longer a novice and not screwed with first practice of the morning).
Everything is setup and I head out in the first morning practice to get my tires scrubbed in. 3 laps complete and the tires are scrubbed pretty good and I've worked my way past most of the slower riders. Track has started to warm up so I start to dial things up. Each lap I start laying it down a little harder as I'm in a zone. I come in from practice and yell through my helmet. "Game fucking on! I'm in the zone!" I was really pleased with that practice, check out the lap timer and it had a couple of 38s/39s in the final few laps. Perfect.
I head out in the second practice and just turn a few laps to stay loose and on my game. I come back in and throw the tire warmers on and check out my grid position. I'm positioned in spot 2 (1st row, 2nd spot). Finally!! I'm not screwed in the back of the grid. Although my starts are not exactly anything you can write home about. Jen and her mom had stopped by with some lunch for me and to watch the races. I had them go out to T5/6/7 since that is always a good place to watch from.
Time for the race, I wait for the whistle for them to release for the warm-up lap and Allister starts tearing off the tire warmers for me so I can get out there. I proceed around the track and head to my grid position. And the start.well in typical Nico fashion, I get a crappy start. 5 bikes all make their way in front of me. One of the riders, I know I'm quite a bit faster than holds me up till Turn 3. I finally get by him and start to get to the front pack. I don't want to lose site of those guys. They are a little quicker than me so I'm hoping maybe they can tow me around the track a bit. Well I come on the bike in 4th position and he is holding me up in a couple of spots. I can't seem to get past him because he has more drive than me being on a liter bike. The biggest problem was him hitting the brakes in 6 (not dragging, actually braking). I almost ass packed him once but every time I tried to get him on the exit he just had more HP than me. Finally I decide it will have to be on the brakes into T3. I come down the hill and don't even bother looking at the corner. I'm looking at his brake hand, waiting for him to brake. After I see him brake, I wait a half a second and brake hard. He left me about 18in on the inside corner so I took it and chattered in under him. He looked over expecting me to check up but I just rolled on and he stood it up a little. After that, it was on. I took off not even knowing where he was. Just doing my best to make sure he doesn't get it back in front of me. Second to last lap, I'm coming out of T9 and I feel the bike start to go sideways. Great, this isn't going to be good. It feels like its about to start to high side when it straightens out. NEW PROBLEM. I'm carrying way too much speed into the bus stop so I get on the brakes hard. Next thing I know. The bars are smacking side to side and the ass end of my bike is wigglying side to side. All I can think is "Fuck. I'm about to crash and I'm in 4th!". I drop the brakes and hope that I can just shoot off in the dirt. Luckily things settled and I was able to downshift and still make the corner. Never giving up a position. Whew! Now became the lappers game. We had been hitting lappers since lap 3. Now it was starting to get thick. I was ducking and weaving my way through the pack and making sure to setup so that the guy behind me couldn't make the pass too. I see the white flag and finish my hard charge. I look back coming out of T4 and see that I've lost the liter bike from earlier and no one else on my tail. I finish the lap, pumping my fist as I crossed the finish line. 4th place!!
I had a bunch of people stop by and say hi after the race. They thanked me for my show in the bus stop. LOL Troy (Race Director for the weekend) stopped by and said "Dude! Not only did you manage to almost high side twice in the same lap, in T9 and then the bus stop, but you also did it in successive corners. Nice job!" I chuckled.
I go and check the official race times. New fastest race times for Nico. w00t. 3 - 37's, a handful of 38's, and a couple 39's. Best part, not one 40!!! Things are coming together nicely. I'm ecstatic at this point. I pack up and head out as I'm supposed to meet Jen and her mom for dinner.
Sunday. The big day. It's time to graduate. I have Allister sign off on my grad form and take it to Troy. Allister was kind enough to write a note on the bottom of it, to the effect that I'm a tool but I should be graduated anyways. Thanks buddy. :)
I have Barry (GP Suspension North) make some tweaks on my bike as I was having problems with T9 on Saturday and losing traction. I go out in the one and only practice but never really got a clean hard pass due to some cleanup that had to happen in 9 and it forced me to take a highline. Oh well, guess we'll find out in the race. I check grid position, same as the day before. Great, hopefully I can start better.
Jen stops by with her mom with my lunch and I send them out to T3 to watch the race. Figure they'll enjoy watching us fly down the hill after I had them watching from T5/6/7 the day before.
We grid up for the start. I get a better start this time but I don't let the clutch all the way out till too late. Damnit, I gave up like 9 bike positions coming into T1. Everyone bunched up so I just backed up and waited for it to get sorted out. I started to pick bikes off, working my way up to 5th. I'm not pushing too hard just making sure I finish the race so I can graduate. I have a couple of friends go by me and I try and make the pass back a couple of times but just wasn't willing to push it that far. There was some definite sketchy stuff out there with some of the novices. Plus all the NRC guys were out there now too. 53 bike grid and I was just trying to make it through the back 47 alive. :) I end up coming across the finish line in 7th. I check race times and most of mine were 38's and 39's. Good deal. I track down Troy to find out about my graduation. Troy had this to say. "Congratulations. You didn't do anything extraordinarily stupid! Good luck in Expert." Wooohoooo! No more novice for me!
I spent the next couple of hours watching a couple of the races, helping Allister out, and taking it easy. Packed up and called it a weekend as it was a success. I've graduated Novice. Time to run with the big boys! :)
Thanks to my sponsors for making life a little easier. I-90 Motorsports (Zach Gordon), GP Suspension North (Barry Wressel), Tigershark Racing/Pirelli (Josh), I-90 Motorsports (Zach), EDR Performance (Eric), my loving g/f (Jen) for putting up with my addiction, and the best photographer in motorsports, Brandon Bones (Studio819)!
Thanks to all the racers for making it a fun weekend as always!
Until next race weekend...
WMRRA Round 5 Race Report - July 8th/9th
Well after the first race weekend of the year at Spokane was cancelled due to us not getting a track use agreement, everyone, including myself was very much looking forward to finally getting to Spokane.
I headed out Thursday evening with Allister and his family. My bike was headed over with the I-90 trailer, so I just needed to hitch a ride out there and I'd be coming back home with Jen.
Friday morning, I had taken my time getting ready to head out for the track day. Brady had come by and finally gotten a fire lit under my ass to head out for a session. I gear up and head out, as I'm coming out of T2, I feel my bike start to bog a bit. I roll off and back on and hear BOOOOOOOOOOM!. Turn around and see smoke pouring out of the bike. Fuck, I just blew my engine. I pull off the race line and coast into pit exit. I start pushing my bike and Mitch was running towards me with a gas can thinking I ran out of gas. "Sorry dude, unless you have an engine with you, it won't help".
We get it back to the pits and up on stands and see the nice viewing window I had put in the front of my engine. Threw the main rod bearing through the front of the engine. Ooops!
A friend of mine showed up after seeing what happened and handed me a beer. Appropriate because my weekend was now over. So much for graduating. :(
I spent Saturday corner working since I was going to be racing and I had to wait for Jen to get into town. I had fun watching some racing from T6 and Allister and Jake crashing into each other on the out lap battling for position! :)
Oh well, this is what racing is I'm told. Time to get a new engine in this bad boy so I can hopefully graduate in August!
Thanks to my sponsors for making life a little easier. I-90 Motorsports (Zach Gordon), GP Suspension North (Barry Wressel), Tigershark Racing/Pirelli (Josh), I-90 Motorsports (Zach), EDR Performance (Eric), my loving g/f (Jen) for putting up with my addiction, and the best photographer in motorsports, Brandon Bones (Studio819)!
Until next race weekend...
OMRRA Round 3 Endurance/Novice Race Report - June 24th/25th
Hey race fans. It's time for another installment off "Can Nico make race reports any longer?"! =-)
It was time for Round 3 in Portland for OMRRA. As many of you know, I skipped Round 2 because of the iffy forecast and I couldn't have any more rain races count towards graduation so it would have been a wasted trip if it rained. Anyways, moving along.
A couple weeks prior to the event, I had been talking to Briggs Willoughby about my WMRRA race and he mentioned that endurance races are great for practicing and I should consider doing one. He mentioned the upcoming Portland race. I jokingly said if he and Brian (Lockhart) came out of retirement, I'd do it. Long story short, we spur of the moment decided we were racing the endurance race and I would be the lucky novice to sacrifice his bike to the endurance gods. Apparently it's the rules that you have to use the Novice bike. =-P
I headed down to Portland Friday evening to drop the trailer and claim some wall space for the endurance race. I finally had the opportunity to met a nice guy I had been talking to on sportbikes.ws about various issues with racing a gsxr. Thanks Eric, it was nice to put a face to a name/conversations. =-)
Saturday morning arrives and Brian and Briggs show up shortly after I started setting up. We get all setup and Briggs starts telling me everything he doesn't like about the bike setup. Clip-ons, shifter position, blah, blah, blah. What a premadonna! (just kidding Briggs). I told him to make whatever changes and I'll adjust. Turns out I loved the new setup. Makes riding the bike much easier. We get setup on two different practices. Fast and Novice. Briggs goes out in Fast practice to get acquainted with the bike. I head out after that. Things are feeling pretty good. I give the bike back over to Brian and let him go get situated. After Brian finishes up, I take the bike out for one last practice. I take off on the outlap and everything is good to go. As I come down the straight away, I decide Im gonna work on braking deeper in T1. I go about a second past my last brake marker and grab the brakes. The brake lever comes in about a half an inch and acts as if I'm applying brakes but its not slowing me down. I know it wasn't brake fade since the lever would have gone to the bar pretty much. I think maybe my hands still on the throttle a bit since I had been blipping. I drop and grab brakes again. Same thing. Just not slowing me down. Drop and grab one last time. Same result. Almost as if something is glazed over the rotor or pads. SHITTTT! Panic mode has now set in as I know I'm gonna run straight off in T1. I start tapping the rear as soon as I hit the grass. Gradually slowing but the wall is coming fast. I keep trying but about 35 feet from the wall, I decide to stand on the rear brake and low side the bike. This will save me and the bike from hitting the wall and minimize bike damage. We both stop about 10ish feet from the wall. Pick the bike up. Hmm, brakes work fine. WTF?! No bike damage other than a bent frame slider bolt. Thankfully. I head back into the pits and Briggs and Brian can't even tell I crashed. We looked the bike over top to bottom. Lines were tight, no leaking, no nothing. This is unnerving for me. :( We re-tech the bike and I bed in the rotors on the other set of rims (carbon brakes on disks that hadn't had carbon brakes yet). Braking seems to work fine.
We discuss our plans for the endurance race. 1.) Don't crash 2.) Have fun. We could careless how we place/finish as long as its upright and we have fun. We had a friend of Briggs next to us, Greg Bouwans and also pitting with Allister McKinnon and his team so we could all help each other out. The endurance race started with Briggs running leadoff. The plan was to go for 40-50 mins before pitting. Briggs comes in about the 35min mark and its my turn to go. I tear off onto the track and start working into a decent pace. I'm looking down at the timer and Im kinda shocked at the times. I was running pretty quick. Greg passes me as I come into T7 and I decide to tuck in and follow him as long as I possibly can. Nice part about endurance is, the really fast guys are running a few seconds off their fast pace to not eat the tires. This makes it so I can at least keep them in sight for a couple of laps before they leave me and I can actually learn something. During that time, I hit a 1:15:84. A new personal best! w00t! Well in all this pushing, I wore myself out. Ooops.=-) It was the 25min mark and I give the signal to pit. I come in and Brian heads out. Briggs tells me I need to work on my endurance. =-) He says next time I go out, absolutely no pitting until I see my low fuel light. Things are running like clockwork and we are working through the rotation. My turn to mount up again. I decide to go at a tad slower pace so I can run longer out there. I head out and end up behind Hellius and decide I want to follow him for a bit and see what I can pick up. Well I head into T4 and all of a sudden I feel the rear tire go. Oh shit. Well after what felt like 5 mins, the rear hooks up and bucks me. I land back on the tail with my right leg almost off. I see the corner workers in T5 jump up out of their chairs. I'm able to get back in the saddle and take the grass shortcut through T5. Whew. Time for a new pair of drawers. LOL. I dial it back and just do my sighting laps, 18's and 19's. It's getting greasy out there and that rear is spinning a lot, so I start short shifting the back straight. I made it about 35mins this time but I was getting a cramp in my groan (Portland needs more left's) and had to call her quits. I signaled to come in and told Briggs I'd try harder next endurance race to have more stamina. =-) Rest of the race goes without incident. We check the results at the end, wow, we finished 4th in Heavyweight class. I guess there's something to be said for being consistent and not crashing. heh
After the race, we head out to grab some food/bench race with some of our friends from WA. Brad Gua, Tom Wertman, Greg Bouwans, etc. We had a good dinner and Briggs, Brian, and I decide we'll probably do the rest of the endurance series. It's time for them to head back North, I needed to stick around Sunday for my graduating races.
Sunday morning. I look over the schedule and see no warmups for NV4/NV5. Hmmm. I go and talk to Shawn Gist and apparently someone forgot the Novices. heh The correction is made at the riders meeting. I get some new rubber on the bike since we destroyed the tires the day before. I plan to go out and get a few laps in and get them scrubbed and then come back in and get the warmers on since my race is 2nd up in the morning.
Race 1. I'm grided in pole position. On the start, I damn near kill the bike. God damn it!!! Jett Chandler, another guy get by me. As I come into T1, Rachel puts on a beautiful move to take me just as I'm tipping in. Way to go girl! I chase Rachel down to get past her and try and go catch Jett and the other guy as they were starting to make space. After I past Rachel, I never did make ground on those two. As I came around T9 on the 2nd to last lap, I head check and see a red ducati behind me. White flag comes out. Well I'm not giving up my 3rd so I brake deeper than I ever had into T1. I kept repeating that through pretty much every corner. As we came around T4, I see the guy that was in 2nd had crashed so I was now in 2nd. As we come onto the front straight for the checker, I'm tucked in and get to the line. Whew, he didn't get me. I turn around after T4 and we give each other the thumbs up. Great racing. =-) Check out my lap timer and every lap but the out lap was a 1:16. I was pretty happy with that. Best lap was a 1:16:164 in the race. w00t. Overall. 1st in NV5 class, 2nd overall in the Novice race.
Race 2. It's definitely freaking hot out. Barry had told me it was 102 and the surface temp was North of 140. Eeeeeeks! I have my dad pour a couple of water bottles down my back before I head out. Since I know this is my graduating heat, I decide that I'm not gonna go balls out. Im grided in pole again. This time I get a great start. I come all the way into T1 and Jett just barely gets in front of me. I tuck behind him and start chasing for a bit. Bad Nico!!! 3rd lap, I slide the rear pretty good in T4. Its pretty slick through there. I end up letting a few bikes get by me as I start to reel myself back and keep it to 18's and 19's. As I come out to the front straight and approach the white flag, I head check and see Chrys Holland behind me. I decided then and there I had a rule about having two teenagers in front of me in a race so I decided to kick it up a bit. I was able to keep Chrys at bay for the last lap. I finished 3rd in NV5 class and 5th overall for the novice race. Best news? I'm no longer a Novice!!! I've officially completed 4 races, with sub 1:22 average and no crashes! I'll be completing my volunteer work next OMRRA weekend and running my first expert 750 race. Time to get spanked by the big boys! =-)
All in all, it was a fantastic weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better time. I could have asked for some cooler weather but hey, it's the PacNW. At least it wasn't raining. =-) I'm sore as hell from a lot of racing the last two days and I'm sure I'll be walking funny to work tomorrow. LOL
Oh yeah, and I went from a personal best @ Portland of 1:19:88 to 1:15:84!!!! w00t!
Thanks to my sponsors for making life a little easier. Tigershark Racing/Pirelli (Josh), I-90 Motorsports (Zach), EDR Performance (Eric), KFG (Barry), and Studio819.
Thanks to all the racers for making it a fun weekend as always! Does it really get any better than racing? I didn't think so either. =-)
Thanks to Briggs and Brian for helping out the Novice with race advice and plenty of race stories.
Next up, WMRRA Round 5 in Spocompton!
Until then...
-Nico
WMRRA Round 4 Race Report - June 10th/11th
Well race fans, welcome to Round 4 of the 2006 WMRRA schedule. Some of you may have noticed that there was no Round 3 report. Well due to some legal issues going on with the track in Spokane, we were unable to come to terms on a track use agreement and were forced to cancel that weekend. It sucks because Spokane is a lot of fun.
Moving along...
Saturday morning we arrive and upon entering the track we find that the drag racers were taking up almost 50% of the pit space with their toy haulers parked. Argh! This blows. Allister manages to get a spot and we block off enough area so that we can setup pits for Pyrrhic Racing Team. ;) Do the usual morning crap. Register, gear tech, bike tech, blah blah blah. Get the bike ready to go.
The track is damp but it has stopped misting/drizzling. Since us Novices are at the bottom of the food chain, we get to go dry out the track for everyone else with the first practice session. Head out in the first session and it is definitely wet out there. Not even pushing it and the front is pushing in T7 and the rear is sliding all over the damn place. Booo. Hissssss. Session pretty much goes without incident and I head back in. Let everyone else know what the track is like.
Second practice session, head out on the first lap and take note that the track is dry everywhere. Time to get things sorted out. I'm still working on the suspension changes Barry Wressel with GP Suspension made to my bike. He extended the forks, revalved them, dropped my front end and raised the rear. Pretty much a new bike. I definitely noticed better handling at the track day on Friday but still getting used to things. I get out on a decent practice session and feeling like Im starting to be comfortable with the new setup. Lap times are about on par with what I was doing the day before. Nothing too great.
Lunch, I check grid position and I'm setup 5th row, 5th spot. 23rd bike on the grid. We're the 2nd race after lunch. Just before I'm suppose to report to pre-grid, Jose and Daryll show up to watch. I send them off with Jen as I head off to race.
We grid up for the start of the race. Light goes out and the guy in the first row goes into a tank slapper as he damn near 12 o'clocks his bike. I'm thinking. GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAT. I get a pretty shitty start, only made up a few positions. I start working on the field, taking a bike here, and a bike there. So much traffic and congestion though, I don't feel like I ever really make progress. As I come out of the bus stop on the final lap and we approach the death chute, I contemplate making a move to take all four bikes but then I remembers its only Novice, and not worth pushing it. I kick back and take checkered. Finish 15th with a best lap of 1:42:984. LAME! I'm definitely faster than that.
I see a familiar face near my pit and he says Nico. It's Bill! Bill didn't even know there were races this weekend and just stopped by on the off chance there might be. He lives in Cashmere, so he doesn't make it over very often. Thanks for coming out Bill. Next time, you'll have to watch one of my races. :) I watch a couple of the afternoon races and then pack up and head home to have some dinner with Jen and relax. I haven't slept well since before Reno.
Sunday morning arrives and I get a bit of a later start since most of the pits is already setup. As we head towards the track, we notice that there are perfectly blue skies!!! Yes! After getting to the track, I take a look at the schedule. Practice @ 9 and race is at 4:10. #%!$$%@ Great, 7 hours of just sitting around. Gay!
I finally received a part for my brakes that was suppose to take care of my mushy brake problem. Barry swore it would. I install the piece and then I head out in my one and only practice session in the morning and I get into a rhythm. Its like a switch flipped over night and I'm starting to get in tune with things. Oh yeah, and my brakes are AWESOME! Thanks Barry. I come in off the track pumped up but its not like I could sustain that till race time.
First race of the morning is set to be 600SS. This should be an awesome race, so Jen and I head out to the hill to watch from T5, T6, and T7. Race starts at the pack of bikes make there way through. I noticed Wendy Leber had a great start and was near the front of the pack. Way to go Wendy! Moments later, we see the red flag come out. Uh oh. Not good. Moments later, my buddy Dodge, down at the T7 corner station yells to me. "5 bike crash in T2, bike #442, #542, #42, #63. Ambulance on the track and transporting. Life flight has been mobilized". Damn, not #63. That's Steve. I quickly head back to the pits and meet up with Gary. We head over to T2 to see if we can see anything or find out who it is that is getting life flighted out. After a while we find out its not Steve and breathe a sigh of relief (but still feel bad for whoever is hurt).
After lunch, I went out and watched 600SBK from the hill. I see Eli come through on the first lap and note that he has some SICK lean angle through T6. Next lap through, more SICK lean angle, when I see the front end let loose. He tries to save it with his knee but its too late. He lowsides and slides all the way to the inside of the apex at T7. His bike has come to rest, half sitting in the apex of T7. Eli quickly jumped up and picked up the bike. First break in traffic he hauls it across the track and out of the way. Glad to see he was ok and that bike was out of the way. That was definitely not a good place for it.
We watched a few more races, including watching Allister secure a 2nd place finish in one of his races! Good job Allister.
Time for Novice Heat #2. I'm grided in the same position. 5th row, 5th bike. Joy! We head out on our warm up lap and report to grid. Light goes out, race time! Well, I get about the shittiest start known to man. I think I was probably the last bike through T1. I proceeded to curse and yell in my helmet and as I'm stuck in this herd of sheep. I put my head down and go to work. Forgive me for not having many details on the actual race, as I went into a zone and things are pretty much a blur. I started taking bikes down, 1 by 1, sometimes 2 at a time. I'm closing on a pack of 4 bikes fast coming into T3, as we drive down the back straight I think I can setup to take some of them in T7/T8. Well they managed to make it by a lapper in T5 but I wasn't and had to check up. God damn lappers! Grrrr! I could have pushed it in T5 but it would have been close. I start going hard again. My hand is killing me from the air pump I have going on. I manage to pick off 3 of the 4 and begin chasing the last one when I see the white flag come down on us coming onto the front straight...gotta do it now. I noticed the last lap that he drifts wide on the exit of T2, so I hug his rear tire coming through T2 and after the 1st apex, I drift out to take a late apex on the 2nd apex and get the hard drive down the hill. Works to PERFECTION! I shoot past him. Shift to 4th, shift to 5th. Bounce off the rev limiter. Shit. Shift to 5th again, bounce off the rev limiter again. WTF. Finally get it into 5th as he shoots past me coming into T3. @$#!^!$^%!^$! By this time I'm setup all wrong for T3 and I'm in the wrong gear with no corner speed. I manage to catch him coming into T5 but I don't quite have enough to get him coming into T9. I try again coming out of the bus stop and had a problem shifting again. We cruise to the finish line. I'm freaking exhausted and pumped. I know I was running hard. Harder than I've ever run on the track. I make my way into the pits. A few of my friends came up to me to congratulate me and tell me I finished t-4th across the line. Sweet! A couple of other novices stopped by to compliment me on passes I made on them. I was so out of it. I looked down at the lap timer. 1:38's. YESSSSSSSSSSSS!
I checked the official race results. Best lap time, a personal best in a race of 1:38:993 and according to the official results, 7th.
After being thoroughly exhausted, we packed up the pits and called it a race weekend. Jen then had to listen to me talk about the race for the next several hours, over and over and over again. Sorry babe.
Thanks again to all my friends that stopped by to say hi this weekend. It's great to have fans out there cheering for you. Thanks to my teammates, Allister and Mitch for helping me out in the pits. Thanks to all the other Novices for making it a great race! Thanks to my sponsors/supporters: Studio819, Pirelli - Tigershark Racing, EDR Performance, GP Suspension (Barry Wressel), I-90 Motorsports (Zach Gordon). Thanks to all the other racers giving advice and support. Barry Wressel, Luke Gaylor, Brian Lockhart, Briggs Willoughby, Wendy Leber, Louie Cohn. You guys are great!
See you guys for Round #5 in Spokane in July where I will be graduating from Novice on Sunday. :)
In the meantime, I'll be heading down to OMRRA in 2 weeks to run my final two novice races and graduate OMRRA Novice! Wish me luck.
- Nico
WMRRA Round 2 Race Report - May 6th/7th
So a month later, it's time for the 2nd WMRRA race weekend. The early forecast had called for nice weather. In typical Seattle fashion, the forecast changed and was calling for cloudy on Saturday and rain on Sunday. Joy!
Saturday morning we arrive at the track. I was in line, talking with Brad Gua when we were noticing a bunch of trucks/trailers that were not vendors entering the facility early. Turns out some people were playing dumb with the gate pass and pretending they didn't know they couldn't come in before 7. Booo! Anyways.
I find Allister in the pits and we get setup. Setup is going smoother/quicker now that the whole process isn't overwhelming. I make my way through tech and then just chill out and relax before first Novice practice @ 9. I head out on the first practice and taking it pretty easy. Last time I was out on the track, I crash tested my bike/body in T2. :) Everything went fairly well but I was noticing my brakes were kinda mushy. After the session, I returned to the pits and re-bled my brakes. Ok, much better.
I head out in session 2 and things are feeling much better. I'm getting past my problem with the crash in T2 but growing quite frustrated with the # of people out on the track. There were just so many bikes it made it hard to get any clean laps and get a good practice session. Oh yeah, and I HATE liter bikes. Grrrrrrrr. Those guys kept parking it coming into T5, throwing my whole back section off!! Not to mention the one that likes to roll off mid corner.
After lunch, I make sure I'm chomping at the bit and the first one over at pre-grid so I can get out in front and get some clean practice. I head out and things are awesome. Nothing but clear track in front of me. I start picking up the pace and really start to get in the groove. Few laps in, I start to hit some of the slower bikes/riders and get past them and back to open track again. I kept looking back hoping to see someone come up on me but they must have all been stuck back in the mess of the pack. :) I did notice my brakes getting squishy again. God damn it!!!!!!!
I find out that the Novice race has been moved up to accommodate the expert classes that had conflicts so I got my ass in gear and checked grid position. I'm 6 bikes from the back. Well this sucks! That means Im pretty much stuck with the mess in front of me. Not to mention, I have to launch in Wave 2. LAME!!!!!!
We head around on our warm up lap and report to grid. It was a huge cluster. There are no numbers on the cones and people couldn't figure out where their rows were, etc. The launch Wave 1. Wave 2, still screwing around for about 30s finally takes off. I make my way half way up the pact before T1 and then get a few more bikes coming around the outside of T2. It was a mess of bikes and I did my best to work my way through it. I had some problems with a few of the liter boys doing stupid shit but eventually got around them. In the final lap, I had a bike pass me on the outside of 3 but I just dove back on the inside of T4 and forced him to check up and had the better drive and was able to keep him away. I finished the race upright, which is all that matters. Can't really say where I finished since the bikes were launched in two different waves.
Since the forecast was calling for crappy weather on Sunday, I elected to do my corner working instead. Might as well work a corner in nasty weather than in nice weather. :)
So if you aren't interested in any of my corner working stories, you can just skip to the end :)
Sunday morning I arrive and meet Liz @ the radio shack. She put me in T7, yay! While waiting for the corner working meeting, I was messing around on Laura's TTR90. I'm a dumbass and lowsided when I slammed on the rear brake and slide the bike around, I manage to lose the front and tear a nice hole in my jeans! Ooops! Anyways...I'm on radio and I'm paired up with another novice, Pat. Good guy and I had a ton of fun hanging out with him in T7. Since it was raining, I was ready for a pretty active day of picking up bikes and carnage. Practices made it pretty cleanly without too many incidents.
This is where things get interesting. Someone had come across the radio saying they were going to follow the last bike out and go to the pits. I see the final bike clear T5 and just as I radio in that the final bike clears my corner, I hear my dad who is working T5 come across the radio.
T5: T5 to control. We have a car down in Turn 5
Control: T5 can you repeat
T5: Yes, we have a car down in T5.
Control:
Meanwhile, Pat and I are curious so we head over to find out what the hell happened. We come around T6 to find a Z3 backwards up on the embankment. You can see a pic here :)
Someone else on the radio: T5, can we get the bike # down in your corner.
T5: It's not a bike, it's a car
Same person:
After we get that cleaned up, its off to the races.
600SB was the first race of the day. Eli had gotten out to a pretty good lead. The had called the white flag lap when coming into T6, I see Sully had closed a big margin. Eli I think had started to let up thinking he was far enough ahead. I hear it come across the radio. Bike #74 takes the checkered. Damn that sucks.
Formula Ultra was a blast to watch. As the bikes come into T6 on the first lap, I see Eli start to lose the rear and goes into a bit of a high side. I'm thinking "Oh shit! We're going to have to pick up Eli". How he managed to save it, is beyond me but he does and makes his way up the hill still in 1st. Pat and I look at each other and are like DAMN!. Next lap comes and Eli makes it through without incident. 3rd lap, Eli comes up the hill out of T7 and gets his bike even MORE sideways than he did in the first lap. Pat and I are both thinking, "Great, Eli just went down". In even more amazement than previous (if that was even freaking possible), Eli had managed to not crash. Wow! He manages to hold on for the win. Watching Eli save both of those "should have been highsides" is one of my best memories from the weekend.
OpenSS is the first race after lunch. Of course the rain is coming down hard. Making it a nice wet track. As the first lap starts, we have a 3 bike crash in T3. Lippis' dad, Sully, and Wertman all down. Up and moving so that is good. After the lead bikes make it out of T7, we shortly hear, bike #72 down in bus stop. Rider is not moving. :( Control comes across and red flags the race. Turns out he was temporarily knocked out but was mostly ok. Good news. OpenSS gets rescheduled to end of day.
That means the Novice racers are up next. This should prove to be entertaining. Surprisingly, they all made it through the first lap in the rain without incident. Colin was up front and moving really well. The crashing began soon after that. At the half way point, we had 5 bikes down. Just after that, the 2nd bike (#933) who had been battling with Colin pulls off a pass coming into T5 and then loses it and crashes. Shortly after that, we ended up with two bikes stacking themselves up in T7. A total of 8 crashes in the Novice race (you guys know that finishing the race is more important than winning in Novice, right? ;))
Of course, after the Novice races the sun comes out and the track dries up. Most of the rest of the races that afternoon went without incident and had some really good battles. :)
Next up, OMRRA, May 20th in Portland, OR and WMRRA, May 27th in Spokane, WA.
Stay tuned for the next installment.
- Nico
OMRRA Round 1 Race Report - April 29/30th
Since I didn't want to wait till I fulfilled a specified # of WMRRA races before I could be granted permission to race OMRRA novice race, I chose to do the OMRRA novice school.
I arrived on Thursday afternoon and arranged to do a quick session @ the PSSR track day to make sure that everything was fine on the bike @ speed. Everything checked out. Sweet! Novice classroom session was that evening. Nothing too exciting and was pretty much on par with what the WMRRA classroom session was like.
Friday morning arrives and I start setting up the pit. I end up with Cory pitting next to me (I knew him from .ws). We bullshit and get our pits together before riders meeting. Riders meeting arrives and I find out that a guy I met @ NESBA the weekend before was going to be my mentor (Geoff Lambert). Nice guy. Turns out his sponsor for the weekend, Eric is a novice with me in WMRRA so it was cool to meet both of them.
It's time for the on track sessions to begin with students and their mentors. This part of the school I thought was much better than WMRRA. We were able to spend time following the leader, practicing close quarters, passing, and practice starts. Very beneficial on all counts.
The afternoon allowed us to go out and practice on our own and work with our mentors if we needed. I was still learning the track so I headed out to figure things out. I was consistently dropping time and coming back in and asking Geoff and Rick (@ SB motorsports) for some advice. I skipped the last practice of the day since my rear tire was feeling greasy and I needed to change tires.
Saturday morning arrives. Get to the track and get setup and get nice and relaxed before morning practices begin. Forecast calls for "chance of showers". I can tell you EXACTLY what time those showers are going to start right than and there. 5 mins before Novice race #1 begins. First practice of the morning, I didn't want to put the new tires on. Cold track, new tires, yeah, I don't want to do it. :) I go out on the tires that were getting slippery from Friday afternoon. 4th lap and Im spinning it up down the back straight and stepping out and sliding coming out of 9. Ok, time to pit and change tires. 2nd practice I pretty much just scrub my tires in and work on some of the things I had been struggling with. The very last practice went pretty well. I was hitting some low 19's and feeling pretty good about everything.
Cory and I check the grid. Holy shit, I'm in pole position. This outta be fun. Cory was in 4th position. We both had been turning similar times and they were some of the faster times for the novices so we were looking forward to mixing it up in the race. Well as race time approaches, so do the clouds. As I predicted earlier, 5 mins before Novice starts, the rain starts. Oh well, rain race. Just have to remain upright. Times are irrelevant. As we get ready for our warm up, the grid sounds the air horn for final call. Well a couple of guys misunderstood that and took off for their warm up lap. Well bike #1 realizes he wasn't suppose to go and hits the brakes. Bike #2 ass packs him and they both hit the ground. Whoops! After a couple of mins we launch on our warm up lap. We proceed to grid and launch. As Cory and I head into T1, we both get split by this gray/primer Ducati. We both look at each other and go WTF? I could see this coming. As we exit T2, genius boy on the Ducati got greedy on the throttle and spun up the rear and put himself sideways, continuing his high side. Talking to another guy (Brad) later, he said the guy was in the back of the grid and pretty much hole shot passed everyone. There was a guy out there on a 600RR with bigger balls than the rest of us so I just sat back and remained upright. We were hitting lap traffic around lap 4, so I was just being careful passing them. I ended up finishing that race in 4th position. The corner workers all gave us a round of applause as we did our cool down lap. That was nice of them.
All of the experts had packed up and headed out since they didn't have to race Saturday and it was nasty out. The rest of the Novices stuck around for Race #2. Race #2 comes up and grid positions are the same. The track is a lot wetter with standing water now. As we get ready for the warm up lap I notice the guy on the 600RR with big balls has rain tires on. Cheater!! The rest of us are running DOT's. I know I can't race with him so I know I'll have to let him go. After we grid and launch I make it out into the front position for the first lap. As we come into T1, the guy on the 600RR goes by me. Bye bye. Can't race you. We started hitting lap traffic on the 2nd lap so it added another element of fun. During one of my failed attempts to sneak through a guy on a Kawi made his way by me into the 2nd position. I'm able to stay close through the traffic. As we come into T3 on Lap 6, I see him setup on the same line as the lapper in front of us. I adjust my line so I can stand it up sooner and get on the gas. I shoot by the two of them going into T4 and then take off down the back straight. As I come out of 9 onto the front straight, I see the white flag. ONE LAP TO GO!. I'm going to do everything possible to hold onto 2nd place. I have no idea where he is. I get through T1-4 and start out onto the back straight. I'm on the gas a little harder than normal and the back end is stepping out all the way down the back straight. Damn it, stop doing that. As I come into T7, I come in a little faster than I had been and the front end slid a little bit. Oh shit. Luckily it stopped before the candy strip. I get out of T9 and down the front straight for the checkered flag! 2nd place finish. Woohooo!
I came back into the pits a wet rat. I dried off and loaded up the trailer and then headed over to Hooters with a bunch of the guys from the Columbia River team. While I was waiting for them, the Hooters girls thought I needed to be branded and decorated. LOL. Then we had the 18 year old waitress that kept leaving herself WIDE OPEN for smartass comments, and being the smartass I am...couldn't resist. Let's just say, I think she was happy when I left. :)
What a great first weekend for my OMRRA Novice. I would have preferred to race in the dry but you have to take what you can get in the Northwest. It was nice seeing all the guys from .ws that I've spent the last 6 months or so bullshitting with. Hope to see all you guys again soon.
- Nico
WMRRA Round 1 Race Report - April 1st/2nd, 2006
Warning - Since this is my first one, it'll be kind of long. :)
Saturday -The day has finally arrived. It was time for NRC (New Racer Clinic) for my 2006 Novice season with WMRRA (Washington Motorcycle Road Race Association). After months of waiting and anticipation, it was time to race.
I woke up Saturday morning and saw what wonderful weather Mother Nature had in store for us. It was raining steadily with periods of hard rain. Good thing I had rain tires mounted the day before at my track day by Pirelli. ;)
I arrive at the track around 630 and join the line of eager racers waiting inline for the gate to open @ 7. Since I have a gate pass, I get to shoot down the left lane when the gate opens. We get into the pits and I head over to where Allister, my buddy and pit partner is parked and start getting the pits setup.
Now that the pit is setup, I grab my gear and head over to take (I get to bypass registration since I prepaid). My gear checks out, so I head back and grab my bike. The moment of truth...did I remember to safety wire everything and have everything in place to pass tech? Whew! Yup, sure did! Hooray! :)
We attend the riders meeting where we get paired with our mentors. I already knew that it was Allister, but I found out who else would be running with us. We discuss meeting up and then head back to our respective pits till we need to go out.
Since Mother Nature isn't cooperating with us, I take this time to mount my rain tires. Things are taking longer than they should and we are running close to the start of the 1st NRC session. I get everything back together and gear up and get ready to head out with Allister and the two other guys in our group.
We head out onto the track. I'm in the 2nd position and Allister has told us he is going to be taking it nice and slow as he is just showing us the "race line". All I have to say is, Rain tires are COOL! We get through that 1st session without incident.
A couple of the guys (racers) I know from Oregon who are up visiting/racing stopped by to say hi. Bryan, Jason, and Dodge.
After lunch, we were approaching our 2nd NRC session. We all gathered up again but this time I wanted to be in the lead since it was hard to try and track Allister's line with someone in front of me weaving back and forth. It started to dry out this session and I was praying for rain so I didn't chew up my rains. Sure enough, 2nd lap, the rain starts. Hooray. A couple more laps go by and we are coming down the hill into 3 when it starts hailing. WTF? Another lap after that it was like a monsoon but it was really cool and a lot of fun. Anyone who knows me is probably wondering if this is really Nico since they know I hate rain. Not anymore. :)
Later in the afternoon, it is time for our 3rd and final NRC session. Allister has to prepare for Formula Thunder, so he sends me out with another expert rider. He lets me and the other novice rider (907) know that he is just going out for a few laps as he has a flat tire that he just added air to. We head out for a lap and he waves us by. We take off and start picking bikes off here and there. He jumps back in front of us after a couple laps, gives us the thumbs up and pits. The other bike and I continue to work on passing people and in the meantime were passed a couple times ourselves. I came in after this session pumped. It was A LOT of fun!
The end of the day has come and it was time for our "race simulation". We all run out for our warm up lap and then head over to the grid. We grid up and prepare for our race. I was put in the 6th row, all the way on the inside. Now for the start...
I try feathering the clutch out during the launch but the front wheel won't stay down. I shoot all the way down the inside making it up to 6th position before I cut inline. As we round Turn 1 though, the sun is right in my eyes and I don't have my tinted shield on so I cant see shit. I get out of the race line and let a few people by. We head down the hill and the back section is shaded so I make up some position. As we head out of the bus stop though, the sun is DIRECTLY in the line of sight. I can't tell where the walls are in the death chute or on the straight. I slow down and get off the line, letting by whoever had the balls to go blind. After the 3rd lap, the race was red flagged. It was a simulation and they wanted to know how we reacted.
Head home for the evening and pass out around 9pm. I was poooooooooooooooped!
Sunday -
Sunday is a tad more relaxing. I forgot about daylight savings time but thankfully my cell phone alarm didn't. :) Since we didn't have to setup pits really or register/tech anything (since no one crashed), I didn't have to be at the track too early. Just in time for the riders meeting.
I graduated NRC the day before, so now I have my official WMRRA Novice race license! Woooohoooooo!
We have the rider's meeting and find out there are going to be 61 novice bikes at the grid! Eek. Talk about a full grid!!! It was drying out but Doppler showed rain coming and I didn't want to change to my spare set of rims with DOT's on them. The bike already had rains on them so I decided to skip practice that morning and be prepared with rains in the afternoon race.
I had stopped by Bryan/Jason's pit to say hi and see how their weekend was going. Bryan was running a bit behind for practice after a tire change, so I jump in and safety wire his front calipers/pinch bolts real quick.
Well right before lunch, I realize that it's not going to rain likely, so I switch over to my DOT's. As race time approaches, the clouds are getting darker. PLEASE just hold off until after my race.
The time is coming for us to race. The anticipation is growing and so are the butterflies. It's for real this time. So many emotions going on. The horn sounds and I head over to pre grid. I'm obviously anxious so Im one of the first over there. We head out to the hot pit area where I end up out in front. We head out on our warm up lap and the butterflies are gone. Now it is pure adrenaline. We head through the track and finish our warmup lap and head over to grid. I'm in the 25th grid, so I'm in the 6th row back.. I have a Ninja 250 in front of me on the grid, so I'm trying to figure out whether to shoot by on the left or right side. I look behind me on the left and I have a liter bike. Ok, not going left. Look behind me right and its an R6, ok, I'll go right.
It's time to race. The light goes out and I shoot out to the right and take off. Oh shit, R6 in the 3rd row killed the bike. Manage to get around that bike and through the cluster into Turn 1. I pass a few more bikes and have a couple liter bikes make their way past me as well. We head around the track and as I come into turn 1 on the 2nd lap I can see a bike hit the dirt in 2 and make a huge dust cloud, while 4 other bikes target fixate and head off the track with him. I look away and continue on my way. I'm mixing it up with a few bikes. Passing, being passed. It's intense and a lot of fun! Lap 4, I come through turn 5 and push the front getting a nasty little shake. I shake it off and get going again. I now have bike #904 in front of me. We start on Lap 6, and I try taking him on the brakes into turn 2 and just don't have the balls to go outside and finish out in the rough area so I tuck in behind him. We get around to turn 9 and I brake deeper than him but couldn't quite make it under him. As we head into turn 2, I try and take him again but I went in way hotter than I could handle and ended up wide in the corner. Doh! He gets some space on me and I make it up as we head through the back section. As we come out of the bus stop I'm right on him and we are racing down the front straight. The white flag comes out.
That's It! I will not finish this race behind this guy! It's on baby...
We come into turn 2 and I can't quite get him on the brakes, so I decide to try and tuck under him as he runs wide out of the turn. Well he head checks and sees me so he cuts me off. Bastard. As we come up the hill out of 7 I decide it's now or never. As we leave 8 he starts on the traditional line. I decide to come hard on a lower line and get him on the brakes. I come in hard and cut him off on the line and get the position in front of him. I heard from several people that were watching from the bus stop that this got some applause from the spectators. w00t! Shoot down the front straight and see my first race checkered flag! :)
That's it! My first race weekend in the bag. I'm finished with NRC. I have my WMRRA Novice race license. I've completed my 1st Novice race and my bike is still shiny and in one piece!
What an amazing weekend. I can't remember the last time I had so much fun.
- Nico
| Nico Tomacelli |
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