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Old November 9th, 2019, 12:19 AM   #70
Mechanikrazy
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Name: Al
Location: Orange County, CA
Join Date: Dec 2015

Motorcycle(s): Thruxton R, R6 450 triple, EX300 (sold)

Posts: 263
AFM - Round 3 - Thunderhill

Round 3. More friends. New friends.

Joining the AFM paddock this year has provided a lot of great conversations.
At its core, I think motorcycling is a very individualistic hobby. Tomorrow's problems, future concerns, past issues, none of it matters when your entire mental capacity is focused on the present and your entry speed into turn 1. The outside world cannot interrupt you. But at the same time, riding provides us with experiences that we want to share, often resulting in hilarious paddock conversations. It has been fun to find a group to chat motorcycles with.

For round 3, I set a goal of getting to 2:08 on the 450. I was still mentally resetting after a super slow low side at Sears in a cold first session. Originally, I had planned to run the aesthetically rough fairings that came with the bike until I could earn it with lower laptimes. But thanks to the crash, I ended up just painting and installing a new set of fairings. For my first time with an HVLP spray gun, i think it came out decent. The Valspar paint laid down decently, but I didn't mix in any reducer on the clearcoat. Unfortunately, I didn't figure out the settings right for the clear, and ended up with a rough textured clear. I did a better clear job with Spraymax 2k rattle cans on my last bike. But still, the bike is more than acceptable to me for a 10 feet paintjob.

Going into the weekend, I had a previous baseline of 2:17 at Thill on a mostly stock Ninja 300. Mentally, I was dead set that I had to beat it with a full gas K-Tech, double the horsepower 450 R6. Of course, easier said than done.

Saturday Clubman Lightweight
This was an interesting one due the number of waves. We were gridded with Afemme Lightweight to consolidate down to four waves. I only remembered a few of the bikes around my grid position, so the vast majority were unknown to me. This meant that as we headed towards Turn 1, I had no idea which bike was in which class and what risk would be for position. Without this knowledge, I just tried to take some low risk passes lest I risk throwing it all away for no reason. Since Clubman is a warm up for Sunday, I was only pushing in "safer spots" with run off in an effort to make sure I could run Sunday. It took a little while to settle in, but I eventually got some clear track and got to 2:13.

Contact. Racing incident. In turn 14, I ended up entering a bit faster than I thought. Being harder on the brakes, I ended up blowing the run down to the apex. On the drive out of 14, I wasn’t carrying as much speed and did not track out wide. Turns out Ian from F40 was coming up and was trying to set up inside of me for turn 15. We ended up having some light contact, but both kept it up. Our chat afterwards ended up helping me with 14/15 on Sunday. Sorry, Ian. :laughing Ended up 4th with the 2:13. Then some Casa Ramos for dinner with the 450s.



450 SBK
Before this race, Dave Moss helped me readjust my suspension as I bottomed out the front forks in clubman. Also, before I went racing, I went up to the hill at T14 to watch the fast 450 riders in Lightweight Superbike to see how they dealt with 14 and 15. Seeing the line from up on the hill was more insightful than just following a rider, as the exit of 14 looks completely different (and with much more real estate) when viewed from above. 450 SBK was a good indicator of the amount of lap time I still need to drop. Fairly uneventful race. I spent most of my time trying to gauge myself relative to one of the expert 450 riders, and was eventually able to make a pass. I dropped another two seconds to 2:11, and was finding that I was still giving a lot on corner entry. Finished third novice, but with a sizable gap to first and second. My goal was to finish on the lead lap, but still ended up getting lapped by the Super Dinos.



F4
Formula 4 was a quiet race. I actually really like F4 because I don’t worry about hindering the leaders since we start in one wave. I found myself picking up a little more speed in turn 6. Finished 2nd novice.

450SS
Last race of the day. Last chance to shave some time for the 2:08 goal. I focused on turns 2, 6, 14, and 15 in this race. I felt like I was being better on turn 6 and getting a drive out. However, I know I still need to get more aggressive on the power on drive out of corners. I have been trying to get to full throttle between each corner even if just for a second. Ended up getting passed by some of the fast riders in the following waves. Ended up getting to 2:10. Finished 2nd novice.

At the end of the day, I lowered my laptimes and brought the bike home in one piece. So I’m happy with it overall even though I didn't hit my goal of a 2:08. I am slowly whittling down my laptimes, and will hope to keep improving. The new goal for round 4 will be 2:06. The real goal as always is to eventually stay in touch with the main pack of expert riders. But regardless, I’ll be back. It has been awesome meeting everyone and learning from everyone.

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