CVMA 2012 Round 3 Race Report

[Rexbo]

*WARNING: IS LONG*

CVMA Round 3 Race Report
250 SuperSport & Ultra Lightweight Shootout

Rewinding to round 2 CVMA, I had left the track with a dropped valve on cylinder #1, and a whole weekend’s worth of championship points lost despite qualifying on pole position. Going into this round, I knew I would be missing both the 250 SuperSport race and the newly created Ultra Lightweight Shootout on saturday due to an old friend’s wedding, so the pressure is on to try to make up for lost points. Fast forward a month to CVMA round 3, and I show up Sunday morning with a brand new engine and a serious game face. The entire 250 grid has picked up the pace by a solid two seconds, with two other competitors dipping into the 2:07 range during the Saturday races, and since I missed qualifying, grid position #18 would be my home on row 6. This race weekend will require something beyond what I’ve done before.

Practice:
The bike is feeling good, suspension still dialed in, and I get on my pace immediately. Surprisingly, the new engine pulls smooth and hard despite having no tuning tweaks, and doesn’t once hiccup. The temperature for the day is only 85-90 degrees F and the track has tons of grip, with a slight cross breeze that dies down towards the end of practice. Fastest time of practice goes to #747 Darren Sims at a 2:07:43 and I’m only 0.03 sec behind him, and my hopes of taking home a win are quickly diminishing.



Ultra Lightweight Shootout:
Gridding at the back of the pack really hit home just how much work there was to be done, with the pole sitter seemingly off to the horizon. No time to think about that now, crank the engine over, feel the clutch point, then the numbers flash and the green flag drops. A great launch shoots me past the back three rows of bikes, and downshifting into turn one I’m side by side with the pole sitter Jon Hong who dropped to 6th with a bad start. Driving out of turn two I pass by him on the outside, slightly spinning up the rear wheel on the outside berm to dive into turn three, shutting the door on him and gassing early towards onto the short straight to pick up another place from Bryan. I’m strong through the double apex left handers of turns 4 and 5, and I power past Dean into 4th place to drop into the flat double apex rights of 6 and 7, hard on the heels of the next victim. I pass by him on the inside scrubbing speed into the slight right of turn eight, dive the apex at the top of the hill and get an early drive out of ten to draft behind Darren onto the back straight, giving him a friendly one finger salute on the way past into second place. Up front is the green and pink bike of previous WSMC champ Josh Fogle, and he’s running a quick pace. I hang behind him and see what lines he takes and where he’s going. He knows I’m behind him, and takes defensive lines for the rest of the first lap, but sacrifices too much speed hugging the interior of the last corner and I get a better drive into his draft and sling by him to brake down into turns one and two, and the rest of the race is a blast to the finish line without looking back and a fastest lap of 2:07:6.

Front View

Link to original page on YouTube.

Rear View

Link to original page on YouTube.








250 SuperSport:
Another long long distance from my starting place to the front row, but this time I know that it can be done. The green flag drops and I get a picture perfect start with the front wheel just barely coming off the ground. I immediately slot into 9th place down into turn two, and gain three more places up into 5th place braking into turn four, nearly losing the front end but just chattering onto the racing line until getting on the power and settling the bike into a stable lean. The leading pack of four bikes gets slowed down in the next two right handers and I latch into the back of them but we’re four bikes wide entering corner 8, and I’m on the outside, setting myself up to take the inside line at the top of the hill turn 9. Darren brakes extremely late and shuts the door on me at the top of the hill, so I lose my drive out of the turn, but luckily he loses his front end on the downhill and I pass him on the power out of turn 10. Meanwhile, Jon has pulled a 10+ bike length lead out in front and is quickly disappearing into the distance while I’m still trying to pass by Josh coming out of the bowl, but no chance. We’re side by side down the short straight but I give him room to hold his line and set myself up to pass him on the brakes down into turn 16, where he was weak during the shootout. I make a clean pass, get a good drive onto the straight, and see Jon crossing the start line as I’m barely getting on the straight. The next two laps I push as hard as I can without losing the front end and slowly reel him in until on lap 4 I’m on his tail and coming out of turn 7, I’m passing him by. The rest of the race is head down, and I don’t see his green bike in my sights for the rest of the race. A second win in one day from the back of the grid, and as I find out later, a new 250 lap record on lap 3 with a 2:06:3, demolishing the previous record by a solid second!

Front View:

Link to original page on YouTube.





All in all, an extremely successful round, and this summer sees a few changes coming! As of the rider’s forum on saturday, CVMA will become a winter series, running from September through April, with a one month break for december. This means that the remainder of 2012 counts double for championship points, to finish both this season and begin next! Speaking of points, the current spread of points in 250 SuperSport is 26 between me and Darren in first place and 25 to Jon in second place, so in order to take the championship again, I need to win at least the next five of six remaining races. With Brian Bartlow of Feel Like a Pro planning to come out in November, and Tony Baker and his MRA wrecking crew also heading out, the championship will likely come down to the very last race in November!

This summer also sees lots of travel and improvements on the way. We will be heading to Colorado to race at Pueblo Raceway with MRA on June 30th and enjoy the scenery along the way, as well as hit AFM at Infineon over labor day weekend to dice it up with the best of the west coast. There is also a brand new race series put on by Twisted Track Promotions at Reno Fernley Raceway at the end of July, which would be fun to check out as well as meet other racers from around the country, which is really the best part of the day.



Lots of thanks to Slim at Nexx helmets, whose helmets proved their worth this weekend when a rider’s head was struck by the front wheel of another bike while on the ground going over 80mph, and walking away from the crash unharmed. Even more thanks to Cycle Gear Lomita, Dainese Store Costa Mesa, Dale Kieffer at Racer’s Edge Performance for the stickiest tires available, and Poly Moto Engineering for the great ideas and endless support. More thanks to Brian Bartlow @ Feel Like a Pro for constantly inviting me to go race more, and making me think that he's always one step faster than me.

[Alex]

Great writeup! The video of the supersport race doesn't look like it's working yet, but maybe it's still uploading/processing on youtube.

[Shawn3210]

goooooood ****

[Jiggyfly]

Nice write up, & good job!

[Dmented]

[Dmented]

...hahha...
BUT SERIOUSLY, great write up!

[Nemesis]

Good write!

Man, it sucked when I ran out of gas Sunday for the 250SS race. Felt so good that race too.

[Rexbo]

Originally Posted by Nemesis

Good write!

Man, it sucked when I ran out of gas Sunday for the 250SS race. Felt so good that race too.

man, you were FLYING, you can see from the vid how far behind I was, you probably would have taken the win!

[Nemesis]

Originally Posted by Rexbo

man, you were FLYING, you can see from the vid how far behind I was, you probably would have taken the win!

Thanks bro. Honestly I never imagined I could do 2:07s. I felt like I was messing up a lot in the turns that race and my pace felt slow. So, I was surprised to find out I was doing 2:07s.

There's a few areas I felt I could drop 2-3 seconds overall.

Rex, remember last year...did you ever imagine we'd be pulling these times? Man, we thank every single 250 racer for coming out and inspiring us.