Sears Point
			  17-19 August, 2001

The year so far had been good. I came into this weekend leading the
points for 250 production, and having improved my finishes pretty
steadily (if slowly) in the 750 production class where I've been
riding for the first time this year. Holding a fairly close second
place in the 250 production points was Paul Somerville (#311), and Tom
Dorsey (#63) was sitting in third some distance back.

				Friday

Friday was one of this year's two pre-AFM-weekend dP Safety Schools at
Sears Point. Aside from AFM practice, those schools are the most
convenient way to get track time at Sears Point, so I signed up.
Unfortunately I signed up a little too late and ended up second on the
waiting list. Even more unfortunately, recent construction at Sears
has the track temporarily shortened so Dennis, the head dude at dP
School, wanted to shrink his group sizes at the school and he warned
everyone that probably no one on the waiting lists would get into the
school as a result.

I showed up and took my chances anyway. Racing and practice for racing
are the sort of thing where you must be present to win, so I was
present. And it turned out I got in, so I was very glad I went.

My plan for Friday was to focus mainly on the big bike, my GSX-R 750,
which I just started racing this year and which I still feel quite
unfamiliar with. The little bike, my EX250, I know much better and
while I still learn from practice on it, I learn more on the big
one. My intention was to ride only the big bike until the end of the
day, and then play for a couple of sessions on the little one.

I did my first session of the day on the big bike, and realized that I
felt so awkward on it that I would be better off waking myself up on
the little bike. So I changed plans a little bit and did my second
session on the small one. That helped quite a bit; in the third
session I felt much better back on the big bike. In either the third
or fourth session, the bracket that holds the front master cylinder
reservoir broke and the reservoir started flapping around. I pulled
off early and fixed it by drilling a new hole in the unaffected part
of the bracket; I'm going to need to get some rubber washers to
isolate that bracket from vibration. I had asked Gary Jaehne (#12) if
he would ride my GSX-R and comment on it, and he agreed to do it. We
had to postpone his ride by one session when the reservoir bracket
broke, and the rubber washer fix was his suggestion when he heard what
the problem was.

Once he did ride the bike, Gary gave me some very useful suspension
advice. Riding the bike, he noticed how much it likes to shake its
head and he made some suggestions aimed at fixing that. We reduced
preload to the minimum in the front, increased rebound damping to the
maximum in the front, sped up the rebound damping two clicks in the
rear, and slowed down the steering damper by one click. Gary
recommended I look into some lighter springs for the front. It was
interesting to me that the front and rear rider sag values were
already set to the rule-of-thumb numbers that everyone recommends
(1.375 inch in the front and just over an inch in the rear) and there
were problems. Reducing front preload to the minimum increased the
front sag to about 1 1/2 inch.

When I rode the bike after these changes I was very glad I had asked
Gary to check it out. It handled way better on hard acceleration over
bumps. In places where I had been just holding on and hoping for it
not to shake me off, I could now open the throttle with much less
worry. The changes he recommended definitely moved the bike in the
right direction. I suspect he was right that a spring change up front
might help even more. The bike felt better after the changes, but it
was too late in the day for me to go any faster, apparently. My best
time for the day came from a pair of laps that had totalled 2:54.30,
for an average of 1:27.15 each. My best time from the couple of
sessions where I'd ridden the little bike was a 1:32.19, and I hadn't
been trying to go fast. I wondered whether it would be possible to get
below 1:30 on the little bike, and I conjectured that it might.

			       Saturday

Saturday was a fairly uneventful day.

Like he had done at Thunderhill in July, Gary was planning on riding
Jim Race's (#610) EX250 in the 250 production race on Sunday. Gary
asked me if I would be willing to tow him around in a practice session
and help him see where he should increase his speed. During the day's
second session on the little bike, that's what I did. His best time
prior had been a 1:36.x. It was clear even on the warm-up lap for this
session (which he led) that he was primed to go faster than that
pace. Once I was leading, I looked back frequently to gauge his pace
in various sections of the track and I tried to show him a couple of
places where it seemed like he could increase his speed a bit. It
seemed to work; in the session he spent behind me he got his times
down into the 1:32s. I haven't gotten a good tow in a long time, and
this reminded me how useful a tool it can be.

Not only did I not get any towing, I didn't really get to ride with
much of anyone on Saturday. I was in groups 3 and 5, and most of the
faster 250 production riders were in group 2 so I didn't get to watch
them ride. My best times on Saturday on the big bike were the same as
Friday's times: 1:27.1x. Since I had focused on the big bike Friday
and spent Saturday's first two sessions just getting warmed up and
then towing Gary, I hadn't really tried to go quickly on the little
bike until rather late in the weekend. The first session where I did
try to speed up a bit, I managed a mid- and a high 1:31, and the next
session backed those up with more 1:31 and low 1:32 laps. On the basis
of these laps, I decided it was unlikely we would see lap times below
1:30 this weekend. On such a short track, it takes quite a bit of
effort to shave of a second from the times, and the distance to get
below 1:30 seemed a bit much for any of us to cover. I was pretty sure
1:30.xx times would be possible and necessary in Sunday's race,
though.

Lois had made plans to come to the track for Sunday, and she arrived
in town on Saturday evening. We got a hotel room in Novato and had a
nice Chinese dinner together.

				Sunday

All the racing descriptions here are going to sound very strange if
you try to follow the details. Because of the construction work going
on at Sears Point, the start/finish line was moved to the straight
beween turns 6 and 7. So turn 7 is the first turn, and turn 6 (the
carousel) is the last one. Turn 9 is the highest-numbered turn, and it
leads to turn 1, the lowest-numbered turn. Turn 9 is completely
different from the normal Sears Point turn 9. The normal turn 9 is a
fast left-hand sweeper, the fastest turn on the track. The present
turn 9 is a tight, downhill, changing-camber, slightly blind
right-hander, one of the slowest turns on the track. The new bypass
asphalt that makes up the new turn 9 is narrower than the rest of the
track, so turn 9 seems to decrease in radius as you come over its
little crest and see the exit.

Sunday morning practice was uneventful on the little bike, but I
managed to shave another second off my times on the big bike. I was
down to several 1:26.xx laps, with a best of 1:26.319.

My old friend and long-time riding buddy Kevin Tiene showed up to
watch the races with his daughters Sophia and Fiona.

The 750 production race was the first race after lunch. I heard the
call for the workers to return to pre-grid to get taken back to their
stations, but somewhere around that time, the section of the track's
PA system in my part of the paddock area began cutting out
intermittently. I didn't realize it until later; I just assumed the PA
was quiet and the call for my race was delayed for some reason. But
after a while I started seeing people suiting up and taking off for my
race, so I did the same. It turned out that I and about three others
were way too late to make our warm-up lap. We didn't even get the half
a lap between turn 1 and the starting grid. Instead we got sent
straight up the drag strip to start the race on completely cold tires.

The first lap was an exercise in restraint, trying not to get spit off
as my tires came up to temperature. My start was bad as usual, and I
let a lot of people go in the first few corners as I tiptoed
around. As the end of the lap neared, I started speeding up and
passing people. I had no idea what place I was in because there had
been so many people ahead of me early on, and by the time I started
moving forward the leaders were long gone. Just as in July's 750
production race at Thunderhill, the last the last person I passed was
Alan Fortin (#200). I hung out behind him for a couple of laps. I was
on the verge of being able to mount an attack when Ken Hill (#4) came
by, running second in the open superbike class that was gridded with
us. At one point Alan held Ken up so badly in the carousel that I
almost got by both of them and un-lapped myself. It sure would have
been nice to pass Ken Hill in a race, but it wasn't quite going to
happen this time. :-) It took me another whole lap after that incident
to get by Alan; it happened in the carousel just before the checkered
flag. It turned out I finished 7th, and it's hard to say whether my
finish position was affected by my missing the warm-up lap. Everyone
who finished ahead of me had best laps that were faster than mine, but
maybe I could have caught a tow from them and gotten by at some
point. But they were quite a ways ahead of me at the finish, and I
imagine it was pretty unlikely I would have finished anywhere but
where I did.

Seventh is my best finish so far on the big bike. It's partially
explained by the natural progression of my improvement and growing
familiarity with the bike, but I have a feeling the small grid in 750
production at this event was part of the story, too. For some reason
the grid size was down somewhere around 20. There were 17 finishers.
This is about 10 less than usual. My best time from the race was a
1:25.56. Kenyon Kluge (#96) who won the race had a best lap of
1:22.862, and was the only 750 production rider to turn in a lap in
the 1:22.xx range.

750 production had been race 5, and 250 production was race 7. I got a
break of only one race in between, but it was longer break than it
might have been because the in-between race, 600 superbike, got
red-flagged and restarted.

Before the warm-up lap for 250 production I did a couple of practice
starts in the old hot pit. That area wasn't actively being used as a
hot pit but it seemed like a very safe place to do it, so I did and no
one complained as far as I know. After a couple of mediocre practice
starts, I pulled all the way to the front of the pre-grid. Not many
people had shown up yet for the warm-up, so I was third in line, I
think. This time I would *not* be late for the warm-up! :-) Then I
realized I wouldn't want to be the first one out for the warm-up lap,
so I moved my bike off to the side and waited. When the signal came
for the warm-up lap I looked back at the group of riders starting to
go out. It was a HUGE sea of bikes. This was one of those rare (but
less rare in racing than anywhere else) moments you know you will
never forget. I saw the seemingly endless stream of bikes stretching
to the back of the pre-grid and starting to move, and I couldn't help
thinking, "Holy shit! Look how many there are! I must be *insane* to
think I stand any chance of beating all these people." It was a very
humbling moment, and if I had been feeling any hint of overconfidence
before, it was gone now.

I let most of the stream of bikes go, and took off for my warm-up.

It turned out this race was an eventful one. At least one of the
workers said it was the day's most eventful, and I can believe it from
the things I saw and the additional events I learned of afterward.

When the green flag flew, Paul got off the line better than me, but
the two of us were ahead of the rest of the front row. This was my
third good 250 production start in a row; three decent starts in a row
is absolutely incredible for me. My starts have always been
horrible. I'm sure something is about to go wrong because my starting
karma has been good now for three consecutive race events. Once we got
off the line, there were no passing opportunities for several corners.
I got by Paul at the first apex of turn 7 just after the start, but he
didn't see me and was headed for a tight line by the second apex
curbing. I wasn't sure I would be cleanly by him before he got there,
and there would be no room for me if I wasn't. So I decided to wait.

Speaking of waiting, if you wait until the point where there is
absolutely no hope whatsoever of making the corner and then brake, you
can outbrake just about anybody (except someone else who can't
possibly make the corner). That's what I did to Paul coming up to turn
9. He braked and I waited until I couldn't possibly make the turn,
then I braked. It worked. I got past him! I dove for the apex, but of
course I had to pay the piper for my ill-considered outbraking
move. The outside edge of the track came up awfully fast, and I knew I
was going dirt riding. The previous weekend I had gone over to my
friend Carl's house and ridden an XR100 around his back yard. That,
plus all my fire road experience on my Nighthawk had me ready. :-)
When the dirt came, it was pretty loose and the bike got quite a dance
going. It was a fine line. If I rolled off too much the front tried to
plow. If I rolled on too much the rear tried to come around. A couple
of times it seemed like both were happening at once. A friend who was
watching said I went nearly full-lock flattracking at one point. But I
just tried to do as little as possible, and my luck held out. I was
able to re-join the track right where the new pavement meets the old,
and I lost only three positions. Paul, of course, got back by. In his
wake were Frank Mazur (#10) who moved into second, and Steve Chan
(#808) who moved into third.

There were only three people ahead of me, but the gap to the front was
considerable. Still, this was just the first lap and I had a while to
do what needed doing. I was quite a few bike lengths back from Steve
as we drove up the hill to turn 2, and exiting turn 2 I witnessed
something I have never seen before. Frank Mazur crashed. I don't think
he's crashed since the first season I raced, 1996. I just assumed he
was never going to crash again. I don't know what happened or
why. Just vwoop! and he was sliding on the ground. That left me in
third behind a somewhat spooked Steve Chan and Paul Somerville. I made
up ground on Steve pretty quickly and passed him going into turn 4
before the end of the first lap, and then I started trying to reel
Paul in. In the space of the first lap I had gone from second to first
(very briefly) to dirt to fourth and then back up to second. Except
that Frank didn't come around, people watching at start/finish might
have had no idea they had missed anything.

I reeled Paul in during the second lap and passed him in the carousel
at the end of the lap. On the start/finish straight he motored right
back by me, though. He guarded the inside for turn 7 very tightly, so
I had to pass him from the outside. I outbraked him and left him room
at the first apex. I thought I was completely past him by a third or
so of the way to the second apex, but after the race he told me I had
come across his front wheel and he had to brake to avoid
contact. Oops. Sorry, Paul.

Things for me were pretty uneventful from then on out through the end
of the race. I looked back a couple of times to see who might be about
to mount an attack, and I saw Tom looking like he was growing closer
at one point. This was still early enough that we hadn't gotten into
lapped traffic yet and it seemed like there was still time for him to
mount a charge if he was going to. So I turned it up a little to try
to keep him solidly behind me. I guess it worked; next time I looked
back he was farther away. But the strange thing is that my lap time
sheet doesn't really show a very clear picture of me getting on the
gas. In fact, it shows me getting progressively slower. The lap where
I reeled Paul in and passed him was a 1:30.519, the fastest lap of the
race. The next lap was a 1:31.132, and the following three laps were
in the 1:32s but each one slightly slower than the last. I'm not
really sure where it was that I looked back and decided to wick it up,
but this is one of those little embarassments of racing -- when I
think I'm going faster, sometimes I'm not.

Somewhere around halfway through the race we started to encounter
lapped traffic. It took a little while to get packed solid, but by the
time I saw a yellow flag in turn 3 on the second-last lap, there was
pretty much a steady stream of lappers to contend with. The flag
brought me nearly to a stop because I really could safely avoid
passing the lappers so I had no excuses. I knew, though, that while I
had a noticeable gap on Tom, this flag could eliminate it completely
if I was unlucky. I got confused coming over the top of turn 3A
because I couldn't see an incident associated with the flag. I later
learned the incident was right at the apex. At some point I decided I
must have passed the incident already, and started putting traffic
behind me again. From that point on, I didn't look back; once I was
out from under the flag I just focused on getting through traffic as
quickly as I could in the one lap that was left.

Tom told me later that my fears had nearly been right. He nearly
closed the gap to me during the flag, and said he almost passed me in
turn 4. That lap was a slow one: 1:34.8. My last lap was also pretty
slow, probably because of the ongoing traffic issue. It was a 1:33.9,
but in spite of its being so slow, I somehow had a gap of over two
seconds on Tom when I took the checkered flag and the win. He must
have had issues with the traffic, too.

After crossing the finish line, as I was leaving the track I saw
Paul's bike dirty and leaning against the wall at the track exit near
turn 9. Paul had crashed. No wonder I hadn't seen him the couple of
times I looked back. Later still, I found out it had happened when he
and Tom tangled just before turn 9. I imagined Paul must be crushed,
and I was sure Tom felt horrible about it, too. It was a big
disappointment to me, as well. Having Paul close to me in the points
this season has made everything more exciting, and to have him suffer
this sort of setback takes a lot of the fun out of it.

With two races left in the season and a maximum of 75 points available
to the winner of each one, Tom is 76 points behind me in second place
in the class, and Paul is in third, 17 points behind Tom.

As I was packing thing up in my car to get ready to leave, Doug
Pitcock (#56) came by asking if he could borrow my bike to ride in the
750 superbike race because his bike had transmission trouble. This was
the first time I had met Doug, and I really didn't know anything about
him except that he's a fast 750 production rider. After some hemming
and hawing and deliberation, I decided I would want someone else to
extend me the same favor if I was trying to salvage points and I had
bike trouble. So I said yes, hoping he would bring my bike back in one
piece.

He obliged, and of course he rode the bike faster than I had been able
to, by 2 seconds a lap, to take ninth place in 750 superbike. He said
the bike was still excessively prone to headshake, so I have some work
to do before the next race.  Now that two experienced big-bike riders
have given the same complaint, I need to figure out how to reduce that
problem.

Hats off to all the AFM workers who made the day run very smoothly
even under unfamiliar conditions. Great job!

Thanks to my partner Lois for being there and supporting me at the
races, and thanks to everyone who shared congratulations and kind
words on my win.

Most of all, here's wishing Paul a speedy recovery from his broken
hand and a quick return to racing!