brakstad
11-17-2008, 04:52 PM
Last WSMC race weekend of the year… Got my PRO licence at the end of the October race weekend and deceided to race Fomula 1 in November! Basically just for fun, having done New Racer School in February then competing in F1 9 months later.
My first race of the day was the F40 lightweight. By Sunday morning I knew that it was going to be game on! The guy that beat my by a couple of tenths last month was signed up again. He was third in the overall F40LW champinonship 12 points behind me, so I had to defend my 2nd place. I was on pole for the race, he was 2nd. He got a better start than I did and was a good bike length ahead. He rolled off into T1 and I just kept going a little bit deeper; came out of T1 in 1st place. Stayed ahead for the first couple of laps, but then he came by me after I got a crappy drive out of 9. I stayed behind him for the rest of the race, then I saw a small opening going into T5 on the last lap. Went for it and came through T5 in 1st, but knew he would have motor on me, so as expected he blew by me by T7. I stayed back a bit into T9 to try to get a good drive on to the front straight; I did and was right on him, but even in the draft he just gapped me… Finished 0.17 secs behind and wrapped up 2nd place in the class championship. Satisfied with the results, with all but one lap in the 1:26s
My next race was F1, race 13. I was the only guy on a 600, everyone else on liter bikes. 14 racers signed up, I was gridded 13th. Two racers did not start, so 12 of us racing. I sayed with the back of the pack for a few laps, had a couple of passes into T3. Kept battling for a few laps and had the two guys infront fairly close. Felt like the race was going on forever, kept the first 9 laps in the 25s and 26s. I thought I was on lap 14 or something like that when I saw the half-way flag indicating lap 10 of 20 were completed. From this point on I started loosing it. Sweat was drippig into my eyes, bike was starting to move around a bit and I was getting mentally and physically tired. On a few occations I did not hit my upshifts right, not putting enough pressure on the shift lever. I struggled to get the bike standing up straight out of T9 and T2 and breaking into T5 was getting harder and harder (read: get in shape!). On one of the last laps I went into T1 and got some bad front end chatter. I thought by brakes were fading or something like that, so I decided to let go of the front brake. This is when I realized that I was still on the gas!
Towards the end I was expexting to get lapped by the leaders, so I was watching Karl Lowry’s crew chief. If he was holding out the pit board I knew I was about to get lapped…. On lap 18 he was starting to prepare the pit board so I knew he must be getting close. The overall championship had not been decided yet, so I wanted to make sure that I did not get involved (read: fcuk up) that battle! I looked back between T1 and T2 and saw the #1 plate in T1. Between T2 and T3 I looked back again, he was by himself and still quite a bit back. So I went through the omega, T5 and T6 and just stayed wide in T8 and T9 to make room on the race line. Finally on the front staight he blazed by me, which was nice because the checkered flag came out and I didn’t have to complete another lap! He had a 13+ sec advantage on 2nd place which is why he did not pass me sooner, but he did appreciate the fact that I was aware about him being there and getting out of the way! Anyway, I finished 9th (some others crashed or had mechanicals), ran the second half of the race in the 27s and 28s, and got a nice $400 check for my efforts!
So at the end of the day/season I had wrapped up the following:
Overall championship: 45th (of 262 total racers this season)
F40 Lightweight: 2nd (of 23)
600 ModProd: 5th (of 63)
Top Rookie Expert: 3rd (I missed a double-points race in June due to travel, would have been close for 1st if I would have competed that weekend). I was the only rookie to get a PRO license, so that was kind of cool.
Congratulations to Adam for his middleweight novice win! Great to see other hypercyclers getting into the mix too; congrats to nocontrol and Mayo!
Congrats to Sean (3rd and 4th) and Allan (started 25th, finished 9th in ModProd!) on their results too!
I want to thank the folks that have been very supportive through this whole race season. I could and would not have done this without you! So big thanks to Gptechman, Bill., Deathblow, Pulse, Melbell, Shaggy, Carol, Janell, Deno, Theresa for your support!
Until next year…
My first race of the day was the F40 lightweight. By Sunday morning I knew that it was going to be game on! The guy that beat my by a couple of tenths last month was signed up again. He was third in the overall F40LW champinonship 12 points behind me, so I had to defend my 2nd place. I was on pole for the race, he was 2nd. He got a better start than I did and was a good bike length ahead. He rolled off into T1 and I just kept going a little bit deeper; came out of T1 in 1st place. Stayed ahead for the first couple of laps, but then he came by me after I got a crappy drive out of 9. I stayed behind him for the rest of the race, then I saw a small opening going into T5 on the last lap. Went for it and came through T5 in 1st, but knew he would have motor on me, so as expected he blew by me by T7. I stayed back a bit into T9 to try to get a good drive on to the front straight; I did and was right on him, but even in the draft he just gapped me… Finished 0.17 secs behind and wrapped up 2nd place in the class championship. Satisfied with the results, with all but one lap in the 1:26s
My next race was F1, race 13. I was the only guy on a 600, everyone else on liter bikes. 14 racers signed up, I was gridded 13th. Two racers did not start, so 12 of us racing. I sayed with the back of the pack for a few laps, had a couple of passes into T3. Kept battling for a few laps and had the two guys infront fairly close. Felt like the race was going on forever, kept the first 9 laps in the 25s and 26s. I thought I was on lap 14 or something like that when I saw the half-way flag indicating lap 10 of 20 were completed. From this point on I started loosing it. Sweat was drippig into my eyes, bike was starting to move around a bit and I was getting mentally and physically tired. On a few occations I did not hit my upshifts right, not putting enough pressure on the shift lever. I struggled to get the bike standing up straight out of T9 and T2 and breaking into T5 was getting harder and harder (read: get in shape!). On one of the last laps I went into T1 and got some bad front end chatter. I thought by brakes were fading or something like that, so I decided to let go of the front brake. This is when I realized that I was still on the gas!
Towards the end I was expexting to get lapped by the leaders, so I was watching Karl Lowry’s crew chief. If he was holding out the pit board I knew I was about to get lapped…. On lap 18 he was starting to prepare the pit board so I knew he must be getting close. The overall championship had not been decided yet, so I wanted to make sure that I did not get involved (read: fcuk up) that battle! I looked back between T1 and T2 and saw the #1 plate in T1. Between T2 and T3 I looked back again, he was by himself and still quite a bit back. So I went through the omega, T5 and T6 and just stayed wide in T8 and T9 to make room on the race line. Finally on the front staight he blazed by me, which was nice because the checkered flag came out and I didn’t have to complete another lap! He had a 13+ sec advantage on 2nd place which is why he did not pass me sooner, but he did appreciate the fact that I was aware about him being there and getting out of the way! Anyway, I finished 9th (some others crashed or had mechanicals), ran the second half of the race in the 27s and 28s, and got a nice $400 check for my efforts!
So at the end of the day/season I had wrapped up the following:
Overall championship: 45th (of 262 total racers this season)
F40 Lightweight: 2nd (of 23)
600 ModProd: 5th (of 63)
Top Rookie Expert: 3rd (I missed a double-points race in June due to travel, would have been close for 1st if I would have competed that weekend). I was the only rookie to get a PRO license, so that was kind of cool.
Congratulations to Adam for his middleweight novice win! Great to see other hypercyclers getting into the mix too; congrats to nocontrol and Mayo!
Congrats to Sean (3rd and 4th) and Allan (started 25th, finished 9th in ModProd!) on their results too!
I want to thank the folks that have been very supportive through this whole race season. I could and would not have done this without you! So big thanks to Gptechman, Bill., Deathblow, Pulse, Melbell, Shaggy, Carol, Janell, Deno, Theresa for your support!
Until next year…