New Year, New Season-'09 1st quarter recap :)

[jadeblue1]

2008 ended with one more round of surgery for me, to remove the plate in my collarbone. I still had 2 more visits to the doctor before he'd clear me to race.

(at the August Infineon round, I decided to take a 600 in the side in the middle of T1 during morning practice, broke 8 ribs, fractured my left scapula, stripped a screw out of my plate, and cracked my Suomy helmet-I was so glad i had good protective gear on! I got knocked out when the other bike hit me, so I don't even remember the crash. However, now the statistically odds are in my favor, so I think i'm done crashing for a while. BTW- if you break ribs, they will bug you for a very long time :P )

As my doc put it, "have you decided to stop falling down?" i said, sure would like to . Then he said, when do you want to race again? I said, January 5th at Fontana . He shook his head, and said, "ok, do it, but it's against my reccommendation, just don't fall down. And if you behave yourself this time, you'll be fine for the race you want to do in Vegas at the end of the month."

Hot dog! Zoran and Jay decided I would do well to put a stock front end on my bike, since it's a 2nd gen and I don't have motor mods, I would be more competitive as a superstock or proddy racer. So when Zoran brought my new and improved slightly used and recycled bike to me at Fontana, I had 2 practice sessions on it, then Saturday was over.

***Let me mention here, I strongly reccommend a notebook or a routine to double check your race setup...especially if you get interrupted a lot. I remembered to put on my race tire, but I forgot to change my rear sprocket. In fact, it didn't even occur to me that that was the problem when I was binging off the rev limiter in 6th gear on the Nascar bank....

Sunday I ran Lightweight superstock (LWT SS), and D Superstock (D SS) on the Hyosung. I was out of shape, I got tired pretty quick, and was running 6 sec off my pace. Needless to say, I was very disappointed and couldn't figure out why I was running like crap.

Fast forward to the end of January...an unusual occurance for WERA-2 rounds in the first month-crazy! After beating myself up for running so poorly at Fontana all the way up to Vegas, I decided to be extra vigilante about my routine and my notebook. We got there on Friday, but were so delayed because of the weather, and it was raining at the track, we all opted to just skip practice and go into town. I had lined up some indoor skydiving, and then we had sushi and all crashed out. Saturday morning was chilly, but sunny, and when we got to the track, I went to my kit, grabbed my rear sprocket, and started to swap tires...when i got to the sprocket, my 47 was already on the bike...no wonder I was having so much trouble at Fontana! (I run a 46 at Fontana for more top end). DUH!!

Now I felt a whole lot better...I was still getting used to my spongy, flexing front end, which was waaayyy different than the GSXR front end I was used to. I ran the Lwt solo endurance, I was gridded dead last (22nd) and managed to work my way up to 14th. Saturday ends, and I feel a lot better about making some progress.

Sunday morning-I've got Heavy weight twins superstock (HWT SS), LWT SS, and DSS to run. HWT is my first race, and I'm a little nervous. We only had one round of practice that morning, and I wasn't feeling settled with my bike just yet. The flag drops, I get a pretty good start, and launch past an 848 and an RC51 onto the tail of a Triumph 675. Then I miss a shift going into T1, and they motor me...but I didn't let them get away. They could flail me on the straights, but I clobbered them on brakes going into the turns...the whole race was me up into 5th or 6th behind the Triumph, then back into 7th or 8th on the long straights. I was pushing the front end all over the place because I hadn't figured out how to ride it yet, so after 8 laps of 5th/8th, 5/7th, I ended up 7th at the line on the front straight. Now I was ready for Lwt ss.

LWT SS gridded up, and I got the first Holeshot of my racing career. I held onto first place until T3, because my brain was screaming the whole time-if you're not used to running up front, it's tough to be the pack leader. So I slipped into 2nd, and held onto it until the last lap of the race, when my lack of seat time at that track showed itself and I just ran out of talent in the last 3 turns before the front straight. But it was an awesome race-one of my best yet... DSS-I did ok here, but 1/2 way through the race I was getting kind of tired, and I just got in front and put it in cruise mode...the other bikes I was racing against either pulled off or had a mechanical or something, because I didnt see anyone near me.

As of today, I have now come to terms with my stock front end after 2 days straight in the rain at Thunderhill (2/14 & 2/15). I actually like it, and am looking forward to putting it to the test at the AFM Buttonwillow opener on Mar 22nd. I will only be racing the SV-no Hyosung this time. I want to see if I can drop 5 sec off my race time. It's not really that tall of an order, and it would give me a 2:01-2:02 to shoot for.

However, next weekend I will be racing the WERA Nationals Opener at Roebling Road, just outside Savannah, Georgia. I'll be on an SV killer- the Aprillia 550 SXV, motard style, and I will be gridding up with SV's. I cant wait to see a new track, and 3 days of riding is always a good time. here's a link so you can see what it looks like:

http://www.roeblingroad.com/

[live2suck]

Congratulations.

It's good to hear you've healed up well, and good luck at the races next weekend.

[Kurt'sSV]

Have fun in GA.

[Morcheeba75]

Nice meeting you again at SOW. Good luck in Georgia :-)