AFM 2016 - Last Round at Buttonwillow Raceway

This is Going to be a Short One...

The weeks between round 6 and this last round (7) was crazy busy with things that weren't moto-related (how unfortunate!). I wanted to do more dirt riding and practice my starts, but I didn't get around to that. I needed to get some riding in because I knew ahead of time that I would miss Saturday due to a family's wedding that day.

But, at times, things don't go according to plan and I decided that I still wanted to come down and race Sunday. I knew it would be rough since my competitors would have Friday, Saturday practice and Saturday races all under their belts.

Yup! This was going to be interesting, I thought.

Sunday - Novice 250 Production and Lightweight Twins

I arrived at the track Saturday evening around 10:30 pm. Luckily, Greg was ready to go to bed and the Dunlop tent stopped playing music a little after 11 pm. I got a great night's sleep and woke up excited and ready to rock and roll that Sunday.

I was the first group out for the short practice session, so the track was cold, which means I can't really push it. This didn't really matter because as soon as I picked up a bit of speed, I felt like I was going to run of the track. Even though I've been to this track and ran this configuration a handful of times, I still was having a tough time nailing down my lines and hitting my apexes.

I came off track a bit uneasy, but I wasn't feeling defeated like I at times do when I don't perform well during practice. I figured that I could figure it out while I raced, and I just had to get my hand and focus on keeping up with the rest of the guys.

As we gridded for my 250 Prod race, I was (as I always do) feeling very nervous but was super focused. I needed to not botch my start and make sure I can stay with everyone. Unfortunately, I did sort of botch it by staying on the front brake a tad too long when Phil dropped the green flag. Everyone shot ahead but I eventually caught up going into turn 2.

I saw my competitor Pao right ahead and he was sandwiched between two expert racers. For a few laps I kept all three within sight and passed one eventually. The other expert got by Pao and he was my target for the remainder of the race. I desperately wanted to pass him, but since I wasn't familiar with track, I wasn't sure where to or how.

However, on our last lap I was closing the gap and I knew I would pass him eventually. I was getting a bit nervous as we were going into The Sweeper and I was still behind. But once we got through The Esses and headed into Sunset (the last turn before the straight) I knew I could get him on the exit. Sure enough, as we exited I pulled away and crossed the start/finish right ahead.


Though I didn't get podium, it was still a fun race and I felt very proud of myself that I was able to go into this without having much practice or seat time at all. During this race, I also set a personal best and dropped five seconds from my previous PB at Buttonwillow.

As for the Novice Lightweight Twins race, well... that didn't go as well as my 250 Prod one. The good news is that I FINALLY was able to get a good launch off the line! However, when it came to going into turn one I back off since there was a whole lot of chaos around me. Again, I'm not familiar with the track so I didn't know where I needed to be in order to get around all the bikes.

I eventually stuck with previous competitor, Jak and he was my carrot for this race. Things looked good initially: I was able to, again, get a good drive coming out of sunset and almost passed him going into turn one. I, of course, backed off though going in and he stayed ahead. This definitely put some fire under his ass because he started to pull away more, all while I was making more and more mistakes. I was also having a really hard time refocusing, which was weird because I was able to be so focused in my race earlier. Anyway, this race ended up being terrible as I was left all alone to race myself. I really don't like that kind of racing...

Anywho, the good news is that I was able to race and I, overall, had such a wonderful season. There were a lot of highs and lows, and to be honest, I didn't perform the way I wanted to. But, this showed me that I am capable of getting better--I'm just a person where it takes time and a shit ton of practice to make progress. I've come to terms with that, and decided to look at it the way I look at my personal health and fitness. Did I lose weight and get fit in one month? Six months? No. That took a ton of time that I 100% dedicated myself to. I've decided I'm going to 100% dedicate myself to becoming an even better rider than I was this past season.

To help me get to where I want to be in terms of riding, I've decided to go ahead and move up to expert. This will pressure me to perform at my optimal level--I'm never going to get better if I don't ride with the fastest of the fast on these little bikes.

Now, as for the bike I want to race next year, I am leaning towards my old faithful Santiago (the Ninja 250). Even though a lot of my competitors will be moving up to 300s, I haven't ridden the 250 to its full potential, and feel that I need to before I move up. It's going to be a fun 2017 and I'm looking forward to racing with everyone again.

As always, I want to thank my sponsors who've supported me all season: Suomy Helmets, Spy Optics, RACER gloves, Sidi Boots, and Moto Guild. I also want to thank the AFM staff and turn workers for doing an amazing job--can't wait to see some of you at the banquet! Also, these always rad pictures would not exist without Max and Koi over at Oxymoron Photography. Finally, I want to thank all those who helped me so far on my racing journey: Ken Hill, Z2 track days, and my main squeeze, Greg. 

See you in 2017! 

AFM 2016 – One Last Time at Thunderhill for Round 6

Preparation

After round 5 at Sonoma, I knew I needed a bit…no, A LOT of help. I decided to reach out to Ken Hill, who is a professional motorcycle coach that teaches his riders to go faster as safely as possible. I’ve worked with Ken in the past at Rickdickulous moto camps, as well as attended his dirt riding camps. Every time I work with Ken, I improve a lot.

This time around, I felt I was a bit all over the place and needed clearer guidance when it came to my riding. I started a bit (figuratively) blind. I wasn’t getting my eyes to where they needed to be and didn’t put as much thought and practice on improving my riding. I guess I was getting content even though I have a crap ton of things to improve upon.

Ken gave me a few tips and advice on how to get my mind recharged when it came to technically improving my riding. I decided to do some dirt bike riding before round six to practice and apply the things that Ken told me to work on. I started with moving more eyes more and asking myself, ‘What type of corner is this? Where am I going to the brakes and/or letting off? Did I hit my apex? How soon am I getting on the throttle?”

Greg also helped a ton by bringing cones along while we did drills on the oval track at Metcalf. I’m not going to lie, it was quite a frustrating experience since I wasn’t flawless. But I kept going, and slowly, things started to click in my brain.

Track Day Practice

At the track day, I set out to work on my entry into corners. There were many corners where I could brake/let off deeper in the corner, but I didn’t want to work on all of them—I needed to pick just one or two to work on.

For one session, I went out with my friend Gordon, who is also an instructor for Z2 track days. Gordon rides a 300 and is fast, so I knew he could provide little bike pointers as well. After a few laps around Thunderhill, he provided great insight. What stuck in my mind for the rest of the weekend was when he told me that if I was going to brake or let off early into a corner, I needed to get back on the gas quickly. I was having problems with coasting into corners, too, so this tip was important in regards to picking up my speed. After we had chatted a bit more, I asked him if I had to pick one corner to work on, which one would it be.

He immediately said turn one.

“Okay, I think I can get better at that turn if I just make sure to lift at the right brake markers,” I thought to myself. Turn one is a balanced corner on the little bike—meaning that how you enter the corner is just as important as you exit the corner. You pretty much have to be pinned going in, lift a hair (or not at all for those who are studs), and get back on the throttle. No coasting…

I started working on turn one, as well as turn eight. Greg followed me for another session, and he and I discussed that if I’m working on turn one, I might as well work on turn eight as well since it’s another corner that I lift and coast into. He told me that I could easily drop two seconds if I didn't coast. Again, no coasting...

What's the goal for the weekend? No coasting... 

Saturday – Practice, Novice Formula 3 and Lightweight Twins

"Okay. I think I can do this."

Even though, I couldn’t help but still be a bit pessimistic—I’ve been trying to get better at Thunderhill since my crash three years ago. It’s been a very long and arduous road, but I’ve been slowly shaving off time, but the problem is that it wasn’t enough to be competitive.

Practice on Saturday went okay since I was able to get down to my personal best time at that track. I was relieved I was able to do that, but it wasn’t where I wanted to be; I really wanted to drop more time.

Due to the forecast of rain showers on Sunday, the race director decided to run Sunday’s first three races on Saturday. That meant that I had two races for the day: Novice Formula 3 and Lightweight Twins.

As always, I get incredibly nervous/excited/anxious prior to gridding up. Also, I was a bit worried about my race starts. Out of all of the preparation that I did before this race round, I forgot to practice my race starts (doh!). I tried to get my wheelie out of my head and go back in time when I wasn’t so bad at them.

Unfortunately, I did take a step back in regards to my race starts: I had a bad launch for the Novice Formula 3 race. Everyone flew past me, and I ended up back of the pack. I quickly fought my way through, trying as best as I could to get as far up as possible. I tried to keep the front runners within sight, and was also going back and forth between a guy named Jaakko, who was pretty aggressive…which was awesome—it was now a race!

Eventually, he was able to stay in front, but just barely. At that last lap, I knew I wouldn’t be able to get him on the straight, but I still tucked as tight as I could and opened up the throttle until I practically twisted It right off. He finished ahead, but that’s okay! He made it fun.

Fortunately, I got to encounter him again during Novice Lightweight Twins. I had a similar start to Novice Formula 3, so I had to play catch up. I caught up to Jaakko again, but this time, I wasn’t able to pass him. I stayed right behind him the entire race, so it wasn’t as fun as the first, but it was still a good race since I had a carrot to chase. And not only that, I was able to drop three seconds from my previous personal best! FINALLY!

Overall, Saturday was pretty awesome.

Thumbs up for awesome racing. 

Sunday – Novice 250 Production

At the beginning of this season, I made a point to podium my 250 Prod races. Well, that didn’t happen, but I still made it a goal to obtain a podium spot.

As I gridded up, I tried hard to focus on getting a decent race start this time around. And, well, I sort of did. It was still garbage, but at least I improved a bit (baby steps). I was able to quickly get up to fourth place, with my competitor Troy in third. OH MY GOD! I am so close to third place it’s not funny.

So naturally, I fought. I tried passing him in many corners, but it wasn’t until we got onto the straight where I could pass him. I got a good drive out of turn 15 and was able to lawnmower past him before I encountered turn 1, where he was able to pass me back.

During our battle, it started to rain lightly. I was very aware of this and watched to see if he would back off—he didn’t. I’m not going to lie, I was hoping he would because riding in freshly wet asphalt spells potential disaster. But, the minute I realized he wasn’t backing off, I mentally prepared myself for HIT air vest deployment down the road and pushed on.

Again, I was able to only get by him out of turn 15 until he again passed me into turn one. That lap I saw more rain drops on my shield, but I still pushed. It wasn’t until I got to turn 10 that I saw the red flag and knew they were calling the race. I didn’t know how many laps we got in (we needed to complete four in order to call the race complete), but I was super pumped and ready to go again if need be.

Sure enough, we completed our four laps, and since I passed Troy on that last lap before they threw the red flag, I got third place. OH MY GOD! FINALLY! I couldn’t believe it, but it was true. I finally accomplished two goals I set for myself that weekend: to drop time and to get a podium spot in Novice 250 Prod.

I couldn’t have had such an amazing weekend without my kick ass sponsors: Suomy Helmets, Spy Optics, RACER gloves, and Moto Guild. I also want to thank the AFM staff and turn workers for doing a fantastic job given the weather conditions! Also, these rad pictures would not exist without Max and Koi over at Oxymoron Photography. Finally, I want to thank all those who helped me so far on my racing journey: Ken Hill, Gordon Pull, Z2 track days, and Greg <3