WERA-West Round One -- Fontana (Jan 9th-10th, 2010)
Simply escaping the persistent cold & rainy conditions of Seattle was enough to stir up a bit of giddy excitement for the upcoming weekend at a race track I had not circled before. Likewise, Dave Alexander made the flight down to California quite entertaining - he's got enough stories to keep anyone amused for hours! When they announced the forecast as we were preparing to land in Ontario, CA, everyone on the plane let out a huge sigh of relief.
This would be the first time I've ever hopped a flight to a race venue like a "Rock Star," and played "Princess" by renting a car and staying at a motel overnight while someone ELSE carted my bike and junk to the track! I wanted to make the most of the whole experience because I wouldn't have the money to do it again all year... unless a miracle allowed for a trip to Vegas in November.
The goals for this weekend were simple - Have fun and don't take things too seriously; Shake down the bike to make sure the transmission and other items we were testing were actually working properly; Obtain some valuable seat time and experience learning a new track.
On Friday, we met up with Corey Baum and Chris Sabora as they were pulling into the Auto Club Speedway's (Fontana) pit area. The first thing that struck me with awe was the immense size of the facility. Just traversing the access roads to our final destination took some time. We drove by a glimmering tower covered in multi-colored lights - were we actually in Vegas? The amenities were incredible to me! Garages? With plenty of working power outlets? Nice bathrooms? And a shower that doesn't cause you to shriek in fear if your bare feet touch the slimy floors? Wow! After Corey and Chris helped to unload everything, Dave and I headed back to the hotel where I would flop around like a fish all night (as usual), trying to trick my body into thinking I needed to actually be ASLEEP vs. awake and taking care of patients.
Saturday morning would mark the beginning of the Fastrack Rider's track day at Auto Club Speedway. I signed up to run in the second racer group session because I didn't want to be in anybody's way. My last time in the saddle was the first weekend in October 2009. Thus, the first few sessions were focused on figuring out where the track went and getting a handle of the bike again. What I found so amazing with the Auto Club Speedway layout was that you could literally blow almost all of the corners with little chance of crashing or hitting something solid! This is a bit foreign to us in Washington State. Likewise, the pavement surface was void of any potholes outlined in spray paint! Neat!
Halfway through the day I had a bit of a scare. When I pulled up to the entry gate to the track, the throttle decided to stick open as I turned the handlebars to the left. Luckily, the clutch was disengaged. Once I rolled back into the garage, Chris, Corey, and Dave had the R6 apart quicker than I could blink! They swapped throttle assemblies and had the bike ready before our next session. While all of this was going on, I spent some time working on making a decent fuel map with the Bazzaz software. The R6 had some noticeably flat spots on acceleration through the high rpm range. In the end, I managed to tweak things enough to make the map workable for Sunday.
During the last session of the day, I spent most of my time trying to figure out just what I could get away with by purposely blowing a few of the "hard braking" corners. This was actually fun! Since the riding group I chose to go out with included many different types of bikes with varying top speed and acceleration capabilities, finding a decent number of clean laps without running into traffic posed a bit of a challenge. However, I at least came away with a sense of how the track flowed by the end of the day.
After flopping around again overnight, I woke up Sunday morning anxious to get the race weekend started. Morning practice would be my first time out with some of the "ultra-fast" folks. Throughout the previous day and with the last two practice sessions, my lap times kept improving. However, this continued to change my selected braking points, and it left me questioning my gear choice going into and coming out of some of the important corners - that is, the ones leading onto significant straight sections of the track. Maybe talking to one of the local "hot shoes," and having him or her take me out for a few laps would have helped, but I eventually ran out of time. I would have to work with the choices I made in practice. I've had very little success with trying to "practice new things" during a race. Your brain tends to revert back to the last consistent set of actions it knows under these conditions. At least that is what I've found!
My first race up would be C Superbike (mostly 600cc bikes). Right before I went out, Jason McCarty tried to explain the differences between WERA's vs. WMRRA's race starts. Apparently, the WERA starter gets things going A LOT quicker. Thus, I was promptly left with my pants down at the line! Goodbye halfway decent grid position! Coming into the first corner reminded me of the beginning of the 2009 season with WMRRA - I watched everyone in front of me jam themselves into a space that fit far fewer bikes. Though I was amused with watching them bounce off of each other, I decided to not be a part of it. My goal for this race was simply to FINISH... upright. After spending six laps of feeling like I was going backwards, the checkered flag came out and I came back to the pits in one piece. Result: 28th, Best time: 1.36.6.
The Women's Supersport race was next on the list. Unfortunately, we would be missing Joy Higa - she was taken out in practice coming into Turn One. Amazingly, Joy came away from the crash without any broken bones. However, she ended up with a badly bruised leg and a destroyed R6. I felt very bad for her. That's not the way anyone wants to start the season. However, we were all relieved that she was going to be fine.
I really had no idea how this race was going to go. On the warm-up lap, I somehow managed to shift the R6 into neutral coming into one of the tight chicanes, so I coasted along till it was safe to pop it back into gear. During practice, I had noticed that the bike was starting to run a bit hot (109C and above). We found that the fan was not turning on, but we could not figure out what the problem was after running a number of tests. Why did I decide to start worrying about overheating the bike at the line THIS time around? Not sure... As we gridded up for the Women's race, I elected to wait till the very last minute to open the throttle on the R6 for the launch. This was not helpful - I nearly dropped anchor at the line again!
To my surprise, nobody came around me into the first corner. This was a bizarre new experience - actually leading a race for once. Okay, ummm... now what? Part of me thought, "pretend like you have found some open track in practice... and DON'T screw up!" So I spent most of the race assuming there was somebody right on my tail. Every time I came out of the corners onto a straight section of track in a gear too high, I figured someone would take the opportunity to rocket past me as the R6 fell flat on it's face! What became abundantly clear to me was that part of my gear selection issues resulted from not knowing what gear I was actually in for each corner entry. Duh! This was something I should have sorted out on Saturday. Though I didn't go any faster during this race, I at least began to get a grasp on where I was losing A LOT of time on the track.
Part of me was a bit torn about the Women's race though. I'm all for encouraging more women to come out a give racing a try, and what WERA is trying to do is a great start to things. However, what I would like to see is a series run like the one up in Canada or in Europe - a series that scores the bikes separately based on engine displacement. I know, we don't have the interest level yet to decently fill the grids, but I don't find it terribly fair that someone on a SV650 is pitted against others on 600cc or 1000cc in-line fours. If there is a genuine interest in a Women's Series here in the US, it is my hope that we can garner enough interest to allow for something similar to what was promoted in Canada or Europe in the future. Result: 1st, Best Time: 1.36.6.
My final race of the day was B Superstock (up to 750cc bikes). You think I would have learned by now, but I didn't even have the bike in gear when the starter threw the board sideways! Thus, my decent grid position quickly went to waste again. However, a red flag came out, and we were sent back to the pits. Word was passed down that Raynor Friesen, one of my teammates, had crashed on the warm-up lap. They found him under the tire wall just before we completed the first lap of the race. He was unconscious for a period of time, so they would need to take him to the hospital. Nobody seemed to really know what happened. Part of me wasn't thrilled about this, and I almost wanted to throw in the towel for the weekend, but Dave Alexander talked me out of it. He basically said, "You came all this way and spent all this money. Why waste seat time? Go race."
Dave made a valid point, so I decided to give it one last go. Finally, I pulled off a more reasonable start and only a few folks got around me into the first corner. The sun was starting to go down a bit, and it made for some interesting lighting in some of the corners, but we all had to deal with it. After a few laps, I managed to catch up to and pass a couple of riders on the brakes. Luckily, they didn't find their way back around on the corner exits. In the end, I finished the race with far less self-created chaos than during C Superbike. Result: 10th place. Best lap time: 1.37.2.
Over the weekend, I really enjoyed meeting and racing with some great gals - Krystyna Kubran, Nadine Lajoie, Christie Cooley, and Marisol Lacour. Furthermore, Jenny Besaw, Justin Lowitz, Jason McCarty, and all of their friends kept things tremendously fun in the pits!
Words cannot express just how much I appreciated all of the help Dave Alexander, Corey Baum, and Chris Sabora provided in the pits. My bike might have not even made the grid on Sunday morning without their assistance. Likewise, Dave managed to find the time to not only fix the issues with my R6, but he also tirelessly worked to get John and Raynor Friesen's bikes running beautifully. Chris and Corey did a fantastic job with hauling my R6 and pit gear all the way down to Fontana, along with helping to get everything set up early, and working with all of us in the pits on the time consuming tasky stuff (among many other things). I'd also like to thank everyone else that lent a hand in the pits over the weekend. You made my first trip to Fontana a lot less stressful than I imagined it would be!
Sure, it would have been nice to have one more day of practice, but the weekend certainly forced me to get a taste of trying to learn a new track quickly. There's a lot of time to be gained there - especially with consistently finding the right gear to be in on corner exits, and with line selection. If I can scrummage up enough money, I'd love to come back to Fontana this year to work on all of this.
Overall, I was extremely pleased with my first WERA-West race weekend. All of my goals for the two days down at Fontana were met! Furthermore, my energy level throughout all of the races did not falter. Yes, the races were only 6 laps, but I found myself nearly exhausted after 6-7 laps of a 10 lap race last season (really). Thus, I regretted not running the fourth race I had originally signed up for. At the very least, this weekend proved to be a decent indicator that my physical preparation for the upcoming race season is headed in the right direction.
What's next? Dave Alexander is planning on running a leak down and compression test on the R6 motor, as well as figuring out how to get the radiator fan working again. Other than this, we are not planning on doing anything to the motor or to the suspension for the 2010 season. The primary focus is on the rider - getting oneself in better shape and obtaining more seat time (two things I've always needed to improve on). In February, I will be testing some new fuel down at Thunderhill. There's no guarantee that it will actually help to improve my lap times in the long run, but spending the money on fuel that does not provide any improvement in horsepower from pump gas (only because the map works a bit better) seems a bit wasteful.
Finally, I'd like to thank all of my 2009-2010 sponsors for their ongoing support with their fantastic products and services! You have helped me to finally get a chance to run a race weekend outside of Washington State - and at a major AMA level track! It is my hope that we will have the opportunity to run at other new venues in the near future.
The 2010 WMRRA Season is almost upon us - I look forward to seeing everyone out at the track!
Cheers,
Wendy Kristen Leber
fourwindsroadracing.com