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WERA Round 6: Nelson Ledges Recap (No Trophies for Winning Practice)
2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. Those were my finishes from the weekend. I'm sure you can see one number is missing from that sequence .. and it isn't 6th place.
My dad and I were off to the races Thursday night and into Warren, Ohio by 10:30pm. Checked into the Holiday Inn and up the next morning for Friday practice, where Nelson Ledges actually had a pretty good turnout for a Friday. Doug and Marion arrived in the afternoon and we continued putting in laps on the bike. Moose and Theresa were there from Trackside Racers Supply and are almost like family, so that was great as we don't get to see them enough during the season. I was into the 1:10 range before the day was done – about a second from where I wanted to be.
Saturday morning's practice started off promising. I had crept into the 1:09 range, along with Sam (Gaige) and Bill (Stranahan) who were there as well. The next fastest times were in the 1:11's, so there was a bit of a gap between the three of us and the rest of the field. As the 20-lap Middleweight Solo race began, Bill got off to a great start and was leading by at least 10 bikes after the first lap. I was back in 4th or 5th position and by the time I had moved into 2nd place, Bill had opened up the gap a bit more. As the next couple of laps progressed, Sam came by on the inside going into T1 taking over 2nd place and heading off to chase down Billy. That would be the closest I'd be to the two of them, as they essentially checked out.
As the race finished, I would grab 3rd place with a 30 second gap back to 4th. However Sam and Billy had gapped me bad, getting into the 1:08 range and knocking off a second from their practice times, where I only knocked off two-tenths from mine. Last year my fastest time on the old bike during the solo was a 1:09.0, so that wasn't exactly encouraging. On the flip side, my dad had won his race – dicing with a 125 machine and continuing his streak of Solo-20 wins.
We were struggling with the bike. As the 20-lap race-pace pointed out, the bike was squatting a lot, not wanting to finish the corner. We weren't using all of our fork travel either, which seemed to point us in which direction to go. As my dad, Doug and I hemmed and hawed about what to try for tomorrow, we came up with a good solution; which in hindsight we should have tried before the race. I actually thought about pitting in to try a couple changes during the race, but I couldn't justify coming in while sitting in 3rd place; as bad as I felt having Sam and Bill leave me like they had.
After talking to Garry Saturday night, he offered to come up Sunday morning and lend a hand. After we got him up to speed with how things were progressing, he suggested a couple changes that were right in line with what we were thinking – only a bit more drastic. The changes served well as we were the fastest of the 600's in morning practice, with a 1:09.4. The bike felt much better and in the last session, we tried several more changes – all of which didn't feel quite as good, but at least told us what didn't work with the bike. We were now using all of our fork travel and the bike was handling much better. And this was just practice.
Gina had driven down for the day, bringing Maggie, our little boxer along as well. She's been so busy working, she hasn't been able to come out to many of the races this year like she has in the past. It was good having both my ladies there at the track for support. :)
The first race of the day was 600 Superbike. Still without points in this class (as this was the race I sat out of at BeaveRun), I was starting from the last row. With a quick drop of the flag, I was off a little less than ideally, but into T1 without much lost. I made my way through the field, starting from 15th place and eventually finishing 5th. On the white flag lap, I caught up and closed onto Mike Books and Blake Kelly who were racing for the last podium position. I nearly had a draft-pass on the back straight that might have gotten me around both of them, as Mike was looking up on the inside to pass and I had a line around the outside. Mike had to check up and I wanted to slingshot around the outside of both of them, but I couldn't quite draft Blake well enough, as he was running his "Superbike" that has a little more oomph than his Supersport bike does. The draft didn't happen and I had to settle for 5th. One or two more laps and maybe I'd have finished a little better. However my lap times weren't any faster than they were in practice. Just like Saturday, Sam and Billy were in the 1:08's and I was still in the 1:09's. We had tried a suspension change for the race that didn't work out well, so we put that back for the next race.
750 Superbike was next. Starting from the 5th row, I was 9th after the first lap and had passed Mike (Books) on the last lap to finish in 2nd place, behind Billy. He was continuing to ride well and while I had made progress through the field, I was still stuck in the 1:09's. Too tentative in passing people was part of the problem. Starting alongside Billy would have been nice, as I'm sure some clean laps, similar to practice would have been beneficial. Chasing Billy would have surely helped too. That's racing though.
4th place was the end result in the 600 Superstock race – our third race of the day. Starting from 11th, it was a similar script in this race, only this time I couldn't get around Mike. He was just quick enough that I couldn't find a way past, and I had to settle in and finish behind him. He was good in some sections and I was good in some others. After following him for four laps, I wanted to tell him to let me by so he could follow me – and we'd both make ourselves faster, although I don't think he would have gone for that idea. :)
In any event, lap times were less than stellar and I was repeatedly surprised at how erratic some guys were riding. All over the place, nearing crashing in every other corner. Far from smooth. I'm not perfect, but these guys were all over the place. It speaks how nice it is starting from the front and not having to deal with passing these guys and worry about being taken out in the process. Oh yeah - Sam and Billy finished 1st/2nd again, both doing 1:08.7's. I was on that pace last year .. oh the memories.
750 Superstock was the last expert race of the day – and perhaps the last expert race to be held at Nelson before they tear it all down and start to rebuild it. This was a race I should have won. I always want to race the fast guys, but Sam and Billy weren't entered in this race and I definitely had a shot to win it. However that didn't go according to plan, as a bad start (ugh, again?) put me in 10th place heading into T1. As I was going through the first few turns and seeing all the bikes in front of me, I thought, "oh man, this is going to take some work".
I spent the next few laps trying to skate in, out and around everyone else – who was riding nose to tail and stepping on each other at seemingly every turn. A few of the guys were again all over the place and I was frustrated by it. One of them crashed out, which made things easier and by the time I was in 3rd place, the leaders had a good gap on me. I closed up to them with one clean lap after seeing the white flag, but it was still only with a 1:10.1 lap time - faster than both of them had run, but still a slow lap by what I had expected. I finished 3rd and quickly made my way to post-tech to get the bike looked at and then back to the pits to get out of my leathers.
Disappointing overall is the feeling. It's just not clicking right now. I'm riding well in practice with clean laps, but racing isn't about clean laps. It's about racing. I think I'm simply not riding the bike as aggressively as I was last year. Maybe that's because of the injury – it's not in my head while riding, but I'm definitely not sticking the bike in there and sliding it around like I became accustomed to – or like I was at Nashville. This was my 2nd race weekend of the year technically, but still. I also know that I've likely come back from the surgery a bit earlier than I should have, but I still feel good enough on the bike where I know I can ride better.
I also wonder if we are getting sucked into tinkering with the bike too much, rather than just going out and riding it. Do I think the bike could be setup better and geared better? Sure. But could it be ridden better the way it stands now? Definitely – without question. Even on a bone stock bike I should be riding faster. On that note, the bike was spitting and sputtering throughout the day. We're going to replace plugs and check the ignition coils and see if we can figure out what the problem is. Hopefully it's that simple.
Congrats to Sam and Billy who rode absolutely great all weekend long. They were the class of the field without question. Congrats also to J.B. (Mattison) and Jeff (Wrobel) who rode extremely well also. Jeff went from being a lapper at the beginning of the year to dicing it up for top 5 finishes now. They both are solid riders and a lot of fun to race with.
Oh BTW – my dad continued to kick ass, winning two more races on Sunday, while finishing 6th in the Heavyweight Superbike class – against the likes of Aprilia and Ducati 1000's. He was simply rolling all weekend. He looked great and also had a nice battle with former GLRRA racer Allan Burley on Sunday. It's great to watch him ride so well.
So without much time, we're getting ready for the Grattan National this weekend. It's a different format, with qualifying on Friday, an endurance race Saturday and then the sprints on Sunday. There will be *a lot* of fast guys there, so I need to get on the pace fast. Without racing the last regional at Grattan, we'll be a bit behind the ball, but I need to go out and just drop the hammer. No more Mr. Nice Guy. I need to be doing 20's around Grattan by Friday afternoon.
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- You're currently reading "WERA Round 6: Nelson Ledges Recap (No Trophies for Winning Practice)," an entry on Witchkraft Racing.
- Published: 07.8.08 / 6am
- Category: Race Reports
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About Joe…. I can’t believe how he was riding his SV on Sat. The forks were hardly doing the job other than holding it up. He was riding harder than he should have under the conditions. No wonder he looked beat after the solo 20. Because we tweeked the forks for Sunday, he came in looking better (that is saying something) and less beat up. Outstanding racing. The other thing is I think that he has gotten into the competitions heads. They challenge a little but can’t hang with him so they race for what is left. Commanding from the front it’s called.