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Aaron’s Analysis – AHRMA @ Grattan

By Aaron Bagwell:

Witchkraft Racing's Bitter Sweet AHRMA Experience

Witchkraft Racing’s Aaron Bagwell was in attendance at the AHRMA round at Grattan Raceway. For those of you who are not familiar with AHRMA it is a vintage motorcycle series that travels the country. You see everything from hand shift Harleys and Indians to former GP Ducati’s from years past. In addition to these historical machines there is also a series know as the Battle of the Twins. This series allows 3 classes for modern twin cylinder machines such as my SV650.

The plan was to show up Saturday morning and get up to speed quickly for the afternoon races. There was some testing to do on the bike, a small suspension change and the addition of race fuel. The hopes were to improve the overall feel and confidence with the bike for the WERA National at Grattan in July.

This plan was thwarted a little with a downpour Friday night and a few lingering showers Saturday morning. We showed up to a damp track and standing water that as it turns out would be around all day. As morning practice progressed the majority of the surface would dry leaving water in Turn one and entering the esses only, coincidently two of the better passing zones.

The first practice was uneventful and SLOW! With the water and large contingent of bikes the fastest lap during Practice #1 was a 1:36, almost 10 seconds off of my best lap at Grattan. Although slow it was still at the top of the chart. Practice #2 showed a small improvement to the track but still left a lot of room for improvement with a chart topping best time of 1:33. During both practices the bike seemed to be sliding around a lot and I was unsure if it was the track or the tires I had on the bike. To be safe we mounted up a set of tires that only had 16 laps on them going into the day. A side note to this trip was the attendance of my fiancé’ Kim who was a huge help with tire changes, warmers and hydration. I was extremely happy to have her there especially as it was her birthday.

On to the racing. My first race was BOT Formula 3. This class is for Superstock legal water-cooled twins, 650 cc or less. Hence a deep field of SV’s. I was starting from the middle of the front row for the class. Running along with us were BOT Formula 1 bikes, big 1000cc twins. At the drop of the green flag we were off. My starts continue to leave a little to be desired as I tucked into 2nd place in class behind Jason Smith another WERA regular. I tried to remain smooth through turn 1 where there was water on the entry as you tip it in and a stream across the track at the exit. You really had to tip toe through that area. At the conclusion of the first lap I was able to get a good drive and draft past Jason and pulled away to a 3.5 second victory. It has been a while since I have seen that top step of the podium. The most enjoyable part of this race though was dicing it up with the Red Ducati being ridden by Doug Polen, the former World Champion. He drafted by me on the straightaway. I was able to pass him once in traffic heading up the hill to the straightaway but that was short lived. I know he was not pushing by any means but it is still “cool” to say that you passed a legend.

On to race #2, BOT Formula 2. This class allows Superbike SV’s and larger displacement air cooled twins like some of the older Buells. Again I had a good starting position in the middle of the front row and again at the drop of the green I would fall back. This time it was 3rd into turn 1 behind Jason and a rider from the NE, John Lounsbury on a nicely prepared SV. I was struggling to get past John on the first lap and to add to my frustration Jason was getting away. Not to be denied I made a big lunge on lap 3 into turn 1 and left my braking as late as I could to clear John, a bit of a risk with the damp track but it worked. Now it was time to hunt down the leader. Jason had opened up a good 10 bike lengths on me. I told myself to relax and just reel him in at my own pace. It did not take long once I was clear; I was able to put together a good lap on the infield and again drove hard up the hill and drafted Jason before turn 1. With that completed on lap 3 it was time to ride smooth and controlled and evaluate some of the changes to the bike. The suspension was hard to evaluate in the wet conditions in turn 1 but the race fuel, what a difference. The throttle seemed so much more responsive to my input. My best time in this race would be a 1:29.3 which is still way off where I had hoped to be. The condition dictated the times though, having to tip toe into turn 1 and delay getting back to the power until late on the exit due to water really takes time away. Would I have been in the 1:26's? We’ll never know…

As for the bittersweet, it is bitter to set lap time goals and not be able to reach them regardless of the circumstances .. but it sure is sweet to leave with a couple of victories.

Thanks again to Kim – my biggest fan and we look forward to being back to Grattan on July 10-13 for the WERA National.

Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | POSTED AT: 7:31 AM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports