AFM - Round 5 - Sears Point / Sonoma Raceway
Captain Ahab had his white whale. Sisyphus had his boulder. Me? I have Sears Point.
When I first started riding motorcycles, I signed up for a California Superbike School. In the first attempt, we got rained out and rescheduled. In the second attempt, I got through most of the day and even got my knee down in T4. Then I got a little greedy on corner exit and my ambition outweighed my talent. Lost the rear. Lowside. Crash.
A short while later, I went back to Sears Point to cornerwork. It was a cold and wet morning with some standing water on course still. First session out. T3. Tucked the front. Crash.
Then I took a break from motorcycles, moved to the east coast, started riding again, and then moved back to California. This year, I decided to just jump into AFM and see how much I could improve. In preparation, I signed up for an April Z2 day at Sears Point, now Sonoma. It was chilly out, but I thought I should ride as many sessions as possible. I also thought to be smart and get a tow from an instructor. To that end, I was off warmers early, sat on the grid waiting, rode some very slow early laps, and then tried to slowly ramp up the pace that first session. I thought I was at 60% effort entering T3A. Overrode the front. Tucked the front. Crash.
Three days. Three crashes. That brings us to this weekend. Saturday was painfully slow for me. I was incredibly frustrated at my laptimes and how far off pace I was. Sears is shorter and faster than Thunderhill, yet I ended the day slower than my Thill lap times. I was riding stiff and awkwardly, and I was just glad to end the day without a crash. But Saturday night still ended up being a good time hanging out with folks in the paddock. Special thanks to Mark for feeding me. Haha.
Sunday came around and I was signed up for three races. Having gotten my first crash free Sears day ever out of the way, I started to loosen up a little bit. Race 6, I cut 5 seconds off Saturday's time. Race 9, I was about the same. Race 11, one last second off the lap times. Was it slow? Definitely. But did I have fun? Definitely. And most importantly, did I bring my boat back safely to harbor? FINALLY.
Photo cred: Oxymoron Photography