Wera West 2008 Round 1

[GPTECHMAN]

Should be fun, hopefully I can learn a lot on saturday's trackday/practice

Been to the track once, but think i can battle it out up front if I can work my up from a crappy start. Should be solid grids and the weather from todays forecast is in the 70s.

Learning lines will be first and foremost, working on suspension and weaknesses come next.

Pretty excited and nervous because its a new track to me and new organization to me.

Anyone else going...?
I know that Bill, Jared, Allan, Chris, and maybe BB

Cyanide
veejay
jeff
any of you guys racing?

[Arnold_R1]

Shag, LV, Deniz and I are going to be jibbin up at Mammoth's 8ft of white wonder this weekend so G.L! :thumbsup:

[veejay]

i think some of the big headz guys are going...

i'm not racing. I raced my SM there last year and it was fun, but that straight is just way too long for my bike!

[shaggy]

Shag, LV, Deniz and I are going to be jibbin up at Mammoth's 8ft of white wonder this weekend so G.L! :thumbsup:

:rolleyes: it'll be more like 12ft by the time we get there :thumbsup:

Good luck Sean, work on your starts in front of your house. If you get a good start you'll be right up there man!

[brakstad]

What time (approx) is race time? Might haul the kids up to watch, it kinda on the way to LAX anyway...

[Arnold_R1]

Did you guys see this update?

FASTRACK RIDERS JAN 12TH URGENT MESSAGE

POWER DISRUPTION @ CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY


California Speedway just notified us that their major
transformer has exploded and that it powers everything
around the race track. Southern California Edison and an
electrical contractor are saying it will take more than a
week to repair.

They will be hooking up generators so we can run timing and
scoring but that will be the extent of electrical power
available.

There will be no electricity or air in the garages or on the
islands so you must bring a generator to run your tire
warmers and compressors!

Since there is no power The Pit Road Café will be unable to
open so you will have to go out of the Speedway complex to
get food and refreshments. Please pack your cooler etc.
accordingly.

This will be for both January 12th Fastrack Riders event and
Sunday, January 13th for the WERA West Race.

There will be no PA System available so we will broadcast on
FM 103.6 for all announcements. It is highly recommended
you bring an FM receiver radio to hear all announcements for
the track day as well as the race.

California Speedway apologizes for the inconvenience!

[pulse]

sean, i will be going in your passenger seat...just let me know when we leave lol

[Shady]

I'll be there Sunday morn or Sat afternoon to watch. :thumbsup:

Racing generally starts at 10am on Sunday

[GPTECHMAN]

Racing generally starts around 10am on Sunday.

not this year... 11:30 they say:eek:

http://wera.com/pdf/fontana011308.pdf

[shaggy]

what a cluster Fuc&! they better discount all the prices for not having any facilities working there...

Good luck Techman and Shady!

[GPTECHMAN]

thats how we roll.... :roflmao:

[Arnold_R1]

what a cluster Fuc&! they better discount all the prices for not having any facilities working there...

Good luck Techman and Shady!

Yup, and be sure to turn your radios to 103.5 not Rock 105.3!

Don't want miss last call because you were listening to resurrection sunday :roflmao:

[GPTECHMAN]

Should be quite the crowd...plus jeremy toye will be there as well

Cypress California, January 9, 2008 – Graves Yamaha Supermoto teammates and reigning AMA Supermoto champs Mark Burkhart and Brandon Currie are scheduled to ride the Fastrack Riders practice at California Speedway in Fontana this weekend January 12. Both will ride Josh Herrin race winning Graves Yamaha prepared YZF-R6s in the Saturday practice session for the WERA West Regional races on Sunday.

Mark and Brandon will be accompanied by the Team Graves Yamaha Road Racing Crew and the Team Graves Yamaha Supermoto Crew. Said team owner Chuck Graves “This should be very exciting for everyone involved. Brandon has attended a track day once before and Mark did 5 laps a few years ago on a friend’s bike at a track day. We are looking forward to see if the pavement skills they have honed aboard their Yamaha YZ-F Supermoto bikes will pay dividends in Road Racing and let them have a bit of fun. Based on their times and comfort level they will most likely race the following day!”

In addition to Mark and Brandon, other Graves Motorsports supported riders will be attending the weekend’s events to test their new 2008 R6 race bikes. The list includes Willow Springs Overall Champion and #1 plate holder Karl Lowry, the super fast R6 WERA regional contender Amber Rimes, 2007 WERA National 600 Super Bike Champion and 15 year old rookie sensation Tommy Aquino and Graves Motorsports/Simi Valley Cycles sponsored AMA Super Sport Championship contender Michael Beck.

[pulse]

they must have heard techman was racing and they wated to learn a few things.....

[GPTECHMAN]

Power Back On At California Speedway
Jan 11, 2008

Copyright 2008 Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. (This original, copyrighted material may not be copied, cut and pasted, published or otherwise reproduced in any way in any medium, which means, don’t post this on another website or BBS. If you want somebody else to see this, send them a link or post a link to this page.)

Electrical power has been restored at California Speedway, in Fontana, California, just in time for this weekend's Fastrack Riders track day (Saturday, January 12) and WERA West regional race (Sunday, January 13), according to an official representing both organizations.

The failure of an electrical transformer caused a power outage in the area of California Speedway earlier this week. Originally, it was believed repairs would not be made in time to restore power for this weekend's events. This would have forced the track day and racing organizations and riders and racers to use generators to meet their electrical needs. But electricity was restored to the facility this morning.

[pulse]

that is good news...sweet!

[KaTooM]

Congrats Sean, looks like you did pretty good!!!

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=273615

[fratellobp]

Congrats Sean, looks like you did pretty good!!!

http://www.mylaps.com/results/showevent.jsp?id=273615

Damn, bro... :38s your first time there (since it was only once and a long time ago)!!!
That's VERY good!!! Did any of anyone's advice help? Looking forward to the race report and video (hopefully). Beautiful day out there. Well done.

[Lost]

Way To Go Sean!!!!!!

[Shady]

Good job Sean! Next time learn how to use the clutch! ...and next time keep your damn hand up on the grid until the 2nd wave goes through....you almost got ass-packed BAD :squid:

[GPTECHMAN]

So here it is...my recap of a "learning experience"

Well Im pretty disappointed with the whole weekend actually, not because I had bad results and or times, but it was because I

"didn't really get beat by anyone except for myself" -Jared Cosgrove

That pretty much summed up my races this weekend.

It kind of started on the wrong foot from Saturday, when I signed up for fastrackriders it was because I needed practice, since I didn't know the track (and still don't...lol)

Long story short...Fastrackriders ran the most poorly organized trackday due to the lack of anouncements, the inability to maintain on the clock for the first half of the day, and the amount of red flags. They pretty much red flagged everything, and didn't have a single control rider on the track to kind of keep people in check. NOTHING

They also had extremely poor customer service with my tech sticker...they made a mistake and didn't correct accordingly and had me do all the leg work to rectify the issue.

Long story ending...I got 2 red flagged laps in before Noon and I got 2 or 3 sessions in for the day...and all of them were red flagged.

Tire sitch wasn't better, Pirelli ran our of new tires...WTF???
No new fronts...not even old ones...no DOTs just slicks.
So I ran my first race on an old supercorsa MEDIUM compound which I wasn't to keen on.
First race, stalled the start....lol SWEET
Put my hand up til the second wave past and when they were gone I proceeded to start my bike back up...lol There was a guy walking across the track cause he thought that all the riders had left....well there was me, he saw me coming and ran back :)

So started and couldn't see a single freaking rider going into the long sweeper...uh can you say frantic?!?!?!?!
So started dead last..lol 29th position...well rode like an @sshole all the way up to 10th...and with a little more time I would have caught a few more.
Only good thing is that my last lap was the third fastest of the race. What a douche...oh well
Had back to back races and didn't even grid accordingly...was so frazzled and worried about the start that I gridded way in the forth row. Last out of the start again I worked up a few positions, but this race was Formula 1 and I was against some liter bikes that were of considerable pace on me. I kinda gave up to conserve tires for the last race.
Oh well, incredibly disappointing start, but hopefully I could make better in the last race.

Last race I ended up running a take off front cause it didn't feel very planted with that old front. Ran the diablo super corsa front that I had practiced with.


Last race superstock was a joke, I had another start, dead last but made my way around some people.
My second lap was retarded...and I blew 3 out of the 3 hard braking spots, not including T1...sweet.
After riding like a jackass I decided that I wasn't going to blow anymore turns and in doing so, I didn't commit to some passes...Got held up and that was that.

Would have ridden a race that was mistake free and at least somewhat clean, but I think it would come with some track experience. 38s in practice not bad. 38s in the race...crappy

I will go into a WERA vs WSMC write up as well to compare orgs...

[GPTECHMAN]

Big thanks to Jared and Bill for crew chiefing
Melbell for letting me borrow her master cylinder and brake system
Bengt, alex, and Ana for support

[GPTECHMAN]

Oh yeah and no video of races, the camcorder got switched to SD Card from tape....ahhhhhhhhhhhhh while loading the camcorder in the bag.

[GetnJgyWitit]

well good news is that on crap tires and a track you don't know along with blowing hard braking points you kept the bike up! Plus you finished 10th after giving everyone a half lap lead! Not to bad if you ask me.

[Lost]

Sounds like you made the best out of crappy situations, a true racer!

..and hopefully one more person understands why i cannot stand fasttrack and will not run their events..

[GPTECHMAN]

Sounds like you made the best out of crappy situations, a true racer!

..and hopefully one more person understands why i cannot stand fasttrack and will not run their events..
I do!!!

http://www.socal-sportbikes.com/xmb/images/smilies/flippy.gif

[pulse]

definatley an interesting weekend to say the least. we learned alot and i feel like we got sean on the pace pretty quick so that was really good and going from last to passing 19 riders to take 10th with the 3rd fastest lap of the race is nothing to be ashamed of! just a bit more time on that track and he can drop a second or two with ease, but we just did not get enough time on the track. time to hit up the qualcomm drags haha :)

[brakstad]

Big thanks to Jared and Bill for crew chiefing
Melbell for letting me borrow her master cylinder and brake system
Bengt, alex, and Ana for support

Not sure how Bill. felt about Alex taking on some of his crew chief duties :)

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y3/brakstad/IMG_8946_800.jpg

[shaggy]

MAYHEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

good job man, now go for a class championship at willow!

[GPTECHMAN]

Here are a couple of snaps
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/243830333-XL.jpg
http://studio819.smugmug.com/photos/243818331-L.jpg
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/243830462-XL.jpg

[Arnold_R1]

Congrats mang! Freaking WERA and their yellow number plates! :throwup:

btw, is that a sticker peeling off on your lower in the last pic?!?! :roflmao:

[HenryF]

Great job Sean.

[KaTooM]

Pictures are up!

http://caliphotography.exposuremanager.com/g/california_speedway

My one and only shot...

http://caliphotography.exposuremanager.com/p/1221/cp2_132738#photo_s

[GPTECHMAN]

Few more snaps:squid:
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/244697759-XL.jpg
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/244697838-XL.jpg
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/244697938-XL.jpg
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/244697951-XL.jpg
http://gptech.smugmug.com/photos/244698051-XL.jpg

[Lost]

The sticker peeling up is on purpose. Sean is keepin' it real, and showing everyone his roots, Team Shambles... :) lol