11-13 May, 2001 Thunderhill A mixed weekend: Good progress on the big bike; A tradition broken and a tradition perpetuated on the little one. For the last year or so I've felt I didn't get much benefit from lots of track time at Thunderhill. I seem to be able to come up to speed reasonably quick, and then I can't speed up any more no matter how much time I get. And of course it's the easiest track to get time at... But that phenomenon is specific to the EX250. The GSX-R 750 makes me a complete beginner, and I wanted all the time I could get on it. Even on the EX250, Friday practice seemed like a good idea. Lots of people had been getting all sorts of track time in preparation for this race, and I had gotten none so I figured I should do the Friday. Paul Somerville (#311) had done a 2:13.39 at an earlier practice day, which is about a second faster than the prior 250 production lap record set by Nick Tenbrink (#809) in October, 1999. Paul's new record came as no surprise to me; it was about time the effect of the radial tires was seen at Thunderhill. On the GSX-R 750 I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know what sort of times the winners were doing, and I didn't know what sort of times to expect for myself. Friday practice Friday practice was uneventful. I got into the 2:13s on the little bike and 2:08 or so on the big bike. The day was pretty hot, and the track ran groups, and I was in different groups on my two different bikes. This put me on the track 2/3 of the time, and I ride the big bike quite inefficiently still so I got tired fast. I ended up skipping several sessions in the afternoon because I was too tired to benefit from them. Friday night I made a list of things to work on in practice Saturday. Saturday Practice The list I had made Friday night really helped me focus on things that needed improvement. The main place where this showed up was in better use of my energy in riding the 750. I was more relaxed and I went a little faster, getting down to a 2:06.759 in the second session, and getting close to that time a couple more times through the day. It's not a great time, but I wasn't wearing myself out so badly on the bike, either. My EX250 practice was pretty uneventful, except that the dividends of my focus on areas to improve netted me a 2:12.433, a 250 production lap record. This was the first time I had ever held a 250 production lap record at any track. Scott Winders (#901) chided me that the time didn't count since it wasn't done in a race, but I still considered it a departure from my past history of never holding a 250 production lap record at any track. I figured the record might stand only for a practice session or two, but I had broken new ground for myself. Sunday Practice and Races 750 Production was the first race of the day. I still am not at all aggressive enough at starts on the 750. Anyone who showed me a wheel on the way to turn one was allowed to pass without any sort of dispute from me. After things cleared out a little I started passing people. I had talked with Bill Fordyce (#141) Saturday and he had said he was having a bad weekend. I could tell he must be right when I ran him down and passed him a couple of laps before the end. I made my way up to 13th place by the end of the race. Not much of an improvement in finishing position from Sears Point last month where I finished 17th and would have been 14th if I hadn't run out of gas on the last lap. At least this time I didn't run out of gas, so I guess I must be improving. My best time in the race was a 2:02.684, about 4-5 seconds off the leaders. I can see where I am leaving that much time on the track pretty easily. I can't just go out and grab it, but it at least looks tractable. In 250 production, I got what might have been the worst start of my life except for the time my bike popped out of gear and Steve Chan hit me from behind in 1998. This time when the green flag flew, I wheelied once, brought the wheel down, and wheelied again. Going into turn 1 on the first lap, I was in *at least* 16th place, maybe worse. Following is a list of people who were definitely in front of me (confirmed by checking with them, by video, by distinct memory of passing them, or some combination of those): 311 Paul Somerville 728 Joe Pardo 10 Frank Mazur 63 Tom Dorsey 357 John Prelock 886 Chris McGrail 610 Jim Race 808 Steve Chan 689 Dan Kimble 177 Mike Lohmeyer 175 Vlasyimyl Kotyza 695 Phil Douglas 322 Yoav Damti 561 Jesse Dolan 345 Bruce Gutman There might have been more, but I don't know. In any case, it was a bad, bad start. I started hacking my way through traffic as best I could. Video shot of the cyclone from the pits on the first lap shows me in ninth place by that corner. Within a few laps I had made up enough ground to take second place. I got into lapped traffic early, somewhere around the end of lap 2, I think, when I'm pretty sure I was in third place. I passed Joe Pardo (#728) for second place on the third or fourth lap, and on the last lap I looked over my left shoulder to see how close behind me he was. I saw no one anywhere close and there was no hope of catching Paul by the end of the race, so I slowed down quite a bit just to bring it home safely. And after the last corner, here comes Joe, motoring by me on the straight! He had been just behind me on the right, where I didn't look! Doh! Oh well. Live and learn. He stayed with me well in traffic, and did an excellent job of capitalizing on my stupidity at the end, so I took third place. Paul rode a great race. He simply didn't make any mistakes. He led from flag to flag, and no one challenged him. I made mistakes, beginning with my start. And mistakes beget mistakes, of course. After my horrible start, I made all sorts of errors trying to get back up to the front. Bad lines, missed turn-ins, poor predictions in lapped traffic, and so on. I did manage to turn the fastest lap of the race and to better my 250 production lap record to 2:11.715 on the second lap, but I never managed to get closer than about 20 bike lengths to Paul. I made up a lot of ground, but not enough to win. My consolation prize was that my lap record is not only better than it had been after Saturday's practice, but I bettered it in a race, so Scott should accept that it's official now! :-) And so I maintained my history of never winning from pole position. It seems like every time I have the points lead, I do something stupid and treat the points lead like a hot potato. I would really like to break that streak this year! I won't have the opportunity to break it at the upcoming Sears Point races because my poor performance at Thunderhill put me two points behind Paul in the running season totals, but hopefully I can put myself in a position to have that opportunity at Thunderhill in July. Don't be surprised if I pull another bonehead doofus move, though. :-)