After Buttonwillow where Mike Lowenstein told me how much daylight he
could see under my front wheel going over the bumps in turn 1, I
decided to try Phil Douglas's (#695) suspension modifications. Phil,
the owner and main dude of AfterShocks, had successfully helped me
figure out what had been wrong with the A bike's chassis setup for 4
years, and his attitude impressed me. So I figured that even though I
liked the Fox/Lindemann setup I was running on the W/X bike, I would
give Phil's setup a try too. Having a spare bike is nice; in this case
it meant I got to keep my good Fox/Lindemann setup while I tried
something else. If I got to the track and Phil's stuff wasn't working
for me, I could always switch back. So to this risk-averse motorcycle
racer it seemed like a good deal.

Friday (dP school): The idea of going to this school was to get some
track time before the races on Sunday. Track time is always scarce at
Sears Point. Did a 2:06.52 early in the day, but had trouble even
getting into the 2:07's in the afternoon. Paul Somerville (#311) and I
griped to each other about the wind that had picked up, and we figured
that was the reason why neither of us could manage to go faster.

Phil's suspension mods on the W/X bike felt fine, but I knew I wasn't
really going fast enough to be sure. The only way to see how something
feels going fast is to go fast on it. Still, when it feels good at
2:06, that's a very good sign. The old, bad A bike setup had put me on
my head at 2:09, and I never managed to break 2:08 at Sears with it at
all. So even though I was slow, it seemed like all signs were that the
suspension was good.

My front fender on the W/X bike (which I got repainted before the
March races at Buttonwillow) had a couple of cracks in it that I had
tried to repair with ABS cement. After the Buttonwillow races, I
noticed that those cracks had started to come apart again because I
hadn't gotten the cement far enough into them, and I procrastinated
doing anything about it. On Friday I continued to procrastinate until
my fender broke into two pieces in turn 10 and got its detached front
half munched by the tire. It made a bad noise, but everything turned
out to be OK. Except now I was missing a fender.

Saturday practice:

Joe Pardo (#728) rescued me by bringing a spare fender from home on
Saturday. He also brought the rivet gun and rivets that I needed to
attach it to its metal bracket. Thanks, Joe!

Saturday practice was pretty disappointing because it was rained out
except for one session for each group. Saturday afternoon was sunny,
which meant the new rider's school got to use the track without a
hitch.

Sunday:

Morning practice on Sunday went OK. I took the spare (A/W) bike out
for its first time since moving the W/X suspension over to it. It was
pretty interesting to compare the suspensions between the two bikes. I
definitely feel certain bumps more with the Lindemann/Fox setup, and
others more with the Aftershocks setup. Both are good, but the
Aftershocks setup felt more comfortable and seemed like it was keeping
the ride height up in the corners better, as advertised. Sadly, I
forgot to move my transmitter to the A/W before I went out, so I got
no lap times. The chassis geometries of the two bikes are now
essentially identical for the first time since the 130/80 tires became
unavailable. Based just on the feel of the suspensions, and on my
strong impression that I was going quite a bit slower on the A/W bike,
I decided to ride the W/X bike in the race.

On the W/X bike, I went out in group 3 with Paul and Nick. I followed
Nick around for a while hoping to learn a few secrets, but he got
balked so badly in traffic on the second lap or so that I was
essentially forced to pass him. At that point I lost patience and
didn't let him back by. Secrets be damned, I started just trying to
work on my own riding. I didn't manage anything better than a
mid-2:06.

So here I was again, before a race at Sears, having managed no better
than a 2:06 in practice. I really need to learn how to do better in
practice at Sears because I think my race times suffer when I don't.

250 production was the 5th race of the day, and I was on pole thanks
to my win at Buttonwillow. Not that I want to give up pole position,
but it seems like it's wasted on me. I just don't start that
well. When the flag flew, I got off the line last of the first row. At
least I didn't loft the front wheel and come to a stop like I did at
Buttonwillow, but a few people from the second row got by me, too.

Frank Mazur (#8) got off the line quickly as he always does, and Paul
also got off the line very well, and was running in second place
behind Frank. Third was Kevin Scott (#680), I think, with Nick
Tenbrink (#809) behind him. I'm not sure who I saw from the second
row, but it might have been Mike Lohmeyer (#177) and maybe others. If
you read this report and you passed me on the start, please let me
know so I can make this paragraph more precise.

I had a lot of people to pass if I wanted to stay in touch with Frank,
so I got busy. By turn 2 I was probably in 6th or 7th, and I think I
passed Kevin (and Nick?) on the brakes going into turn 4 for third
place. The next person I needed to worry about was Paul, who I figured
I could get on the entrance to the carousel because he had been
complaining all weekend about how slow he went there compared to me. I
started to go underneath him on the entrance but then I hestitated --
I don't remember why. I think he moved toward the inside quicker than
I expected, so I aborted the pass and lost all the speed I had over
him at that point. No longer able to get him on the entrance, I still
felt I had to pass him ASAP or risk losing touch with Frank who had
already opened a growing gap. I nailed the throttle hard for the rest
of the way through the carousel and as I went around the outside of
Paul the rear tire started spinning. I love spinning the rear on a
Ninja 250 if I don't crash in the process; there's something so absurd
about it. This time I didn't crash -- I just painted a big black
stripe around the outside of Paul and started chasing Frank.

I got close to Frank going into turn 11 at the end of the first lap,
but he probably didn't even see my wheel. That was the closest I would
get for the rest of the race. It was clear from the second lap when we
started to encounter lapped traffic in turn 7 that unless Frank
screwed up, I wasn't going to catch him without some sort of miracle.
I imagined I would be under pressure from behind, so I just tried not
to let Frank get away. The best way to avoid getting passed is to go
faster than the person behind you, so that's what I tried to
do. Frank's fastest lap (a 2:02.986) and mine (a 2:03.659) were both
on lap 2 where we got a clear track for at least half the lap. After
that lap we both slowed down because of the heavy lapped traffic from
other waves and from ours, although I did manage a 2:03.751 again on
the penultimate lap when the traffic was packed solid. Frank played
the traffic very well and I didn't handle it as well in most cases, so
he was able to stay just out of reach for the rest of the race. I
looked back a few times and didn't see anyone giving chase, so I
supposed I had a good gap, but I didn't want to make the mistake of
slacking off like I'd done at last year's October date at Thunder
Hill.

I finished the race about 3.5 seconds behind Frank according to the
results sheet, and about 21 seconds in front of Kevin who took third.

I was happy to get second place, but I was even happier to have
returned to 2:03 territory after spending all of 1999 in the high
2:04's (at best) and 2:05's. I know a number of places where I can
speed up; actually doing it won't be easy, but now I can see how
2:02's are possible. Maybe someday I'll see how 2:01's are
possible. :-)

So now Frank and I are tied for points, and I wonder who'll have the
pole position at the next race. It doesn't matter much; front row is
front row, and I'm not sure there's any big advantage to being on the
very inside.