In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln
Last weekend was filled with 'ends' for all of us. Some of which we are aware before it occurs; with these we can choose to embrace or deny, but we know they are coming. Some 'ends' we are not aware until the moment they occur. But, it is usually the 'ends' which we have no idea occurred which seem to affect us the most.
I knew going into this weekend that my 2012 season would be ending. I knew it would be the last time this year I would be facing off with my foes in the four championships in which I participate. This would be the last time I had to hold off my foes from knocking me out of the top three spots in each of the aforementioned championships. I knew these 'ends' were coming, but i couldn't decide if I was happy to embrace or settling to deny their reality.
Saturday
I never felt quite right on Saturday. Mentally, I wasn't sharp - I wasn't distracted, but I wasn't all there. Physically, I was still very sore from last month's crash. My right ankle doesn't work, my back has been having problems, and I screwed up my left foot pretty well. I don't mind pain, pain I can handle. The physical inability to move is another story however. Mechanically, the bike wasn't right. I couldn't get the suspension to be quite right during practice. My normal settings were causing a bad rebound tear in the rear and my front felt disconnected, almost like I had a passenger steering for me. But as I yell out my instructions for the steering I desire, I only receive a front which chatters, clanks, and tucks at or just past the apex.
Middleweight
When the middleweight race came around i was running a coupe seconds slower than normal. I wasn't happy with it, but i was ok with it. I was ok with it because I went into this race in maintenance mode. I relinquished second place in the championship to #889 Stephen Rue when I crashed during the race last month and had a 53 point deficit. I knew how fast Stephen is at Thunderhill and knew the only way I would be able to take the position back was with some sort of mathematical anomaly such as Rue crashing out. Behind me in the championship was #861 Ramsey Junaid, trailing by 26 points. Odds are I was not going to beat Ramsey, but I didn't need to beat him. All I had to do was keep within 26 points of him and go home in third place; all I had to do was finish.
The green flag drops and we all go charging towards turn one, only to suddenly be brought o a halt by a red flag being pulled from the race director. I put my hand up and begin slowing down when just then it hits me; I am on the front row and I have about 30 guys behind me all cramming for the same piece of real estate at full throttle, some one is going to ride right up my back side, this is going to end very ugly. Fortunately, every racer keep under control and slowed to and eventual halt. It is the weird moments like that which are the most fearful in racing, not the 100 mph turns leaned over grinding your body on the ground. It is weird moments like that which leave racers paralyzed or killed. It is moments like that which me feel very lucky that everyone responded well and no one was injured
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| (See the red flag to the left of the picture???) |
Restart
After about a 20 minute delay dealing with the injured racers who crashed in the first wave of the race, causing the red flag, we were once again on the grid ready to do battle. The two waves ahead of us take off into the distance, and our engines come alive. Howling over any memory of the incident which occurred only a short time ago. Drowning all fear, doubt, and hesitancy deep into our gut and replaced by adrenaline - the green flag waves and we are racing for the last time as a group in 2012.
I get a good start, but everyone around me gets a better one and I fall to forth place before entering turn one with Ramsey just in front of me on the inside. I duck underneath Ramsey at the apex and get a run on him going into turn two. I feel pretty good about the positioning of #644 Travis Trevethick in third place and run a wide fast line around the 180 degree turn 2. I get by Travis and can almost reach out and touch #780 Kyle Schirrmacher and Stephen Rue right in front of me. I knew Kyle had the championship locked and wasn't going to go 100% in this race. A plan was quickly devised; if I got ahead of Kyle right now, he will likely hold everyone up for long enough where I could pull a gap on the pack and scout Rue for the 600 Superbike race on Sunday (more on that later). I line up to take the tight inside line on turn 3, leaving Kyle to the outside to act as a blockade for anyone who tries to run the wide line to make an entry pass going into turn. But instead, Kyle came down tight and shut the door on me, forcing me to shut the throttle and allow Ramsey to come around the outside of both Kyle and me. I tried poking my nose around Kyle on turns 4, 5, and 5a, but instead found myself lined up in a position to go around the outside of turn 6. I pass Kyle just after the apex and crack open the throttle only to be forced to close it again as Kyle's exit leaves me having to evade my front tire from being clipped. This flung my body in the air and felt like I was about to be thrown completely off the bike.
This was the beginning of an intense race. Positions being swapped at nearly every turn, outside, inside, over the top, it didn't matter. Everyone wanted to win and no one had anything to lose. Before I knew it, I found myself behind #744 Manuel Hernandez in 8th place and losing touch with the front. At this point I just had to get moving and not let anyone else get by. Hernandez proved to be incredibly difficult to pass and we ended up going back and forth quite a few times until we finally came together in turn 6. I'll let the video speak for the race, because there is no way I could write every pass and move made during the race.
In the end, I took 7th place. As soon as I saw Ramsey had won the race, I did some quick math in my head and realized I had just been dropped from third in the championship by 6 points - the difference in points Ramsey received by moving up from 2nd to 1st place in the race. This was one of those moments where I realized my championship goals came to an end not at the end of this race, but rather when I crashed a month earlier. That crash was one of those 'ends' which I didn't know occurred until later.
Sunday
I woke up on Sunday very sore from race the day prior. This only contributed to my fatigue, as I could not sleep well Saturday night. Running on only a couple hours of sleep, I found myself napping every chance I had between races and tasks in the pits. The end of the season went from being something which I denied out of sadness to something I welcomed out of suffering.
750 Superbike
I had enough points in the 750 championship where I could have not started and would have still retained my 3rd place championship standings. I knew I would not be able to beat Travis or Ramsey to move up a position, so I raced in an effort to find some speed and to be on track and score points if Travis or Ramsey happened to receive DNF for some reason (heck, if they took each other out I would become class champ).
Instead I found myself in a battle with #607 Jeff Keohen for 4th place. I did not want to crash in this race and not be able to race in the 600 Superbike race later in the day and I knew chasing Travis, Ramsey, and #743 Jordan Edginton would likely lead to the crash. As a result, I simply fell in behind Keohen until the last lap when I made a move on the brakes going into turn two and ran mid-track lines into turns which I felt Jeff may try to pass. I finished in forth place with a best time of 1:58.8
600 Superbike
You have read a few times so far that I wanted to make sure nothing happened to me before the 600 Superbike race. If you remember from last month's race report I went into the final round of the season 2nd place in the championship, leading Stephen Rue by only 7 points. This made for a very interesting scenario: If Rue won and I took second (unlikely because Kyle is much faster than me at Thunderhill) we would be tied for second in the championship, and I believe Rue's number of wins will give him the championship position. However, if he came in second and I came in third, I would be second in the 2012 championship by a single point. If he beats me by any more than one position, I would be third in the championship.
This knowledge in addition to my third place championship position in formula 1 being locked in mathematically meant that I was going to have to wake up and haul balls in this race. Rue's position was the only thing of importance to me for this race. I instructed my girlfriend to only signal to me Rue's relative position to me and not any other rider. I had to prey for a good start and some lap traffic.
But that plan went out the window after the green flag dropped. By the time we got to turn one, I had fallen to fifth place and was focused solely on Rue's tail section. I was caught behind Jeff Keohen again and could play the waiting game like I did earlier. I wasn't going to get by in the fast sections, I knew that for sure, so i opted to use my braking abilities to ride the outside paint on the entrance to turn ten and work around Keohen. This pulled me back in the hunt of the front three, led by Rue.
Once we got to the front straight, Keohen charged by me with a vengeance. It was obvious he did not want to let me get away from him as I did in the 750 race. As we came out of turn thirteen, I see Kyle pass Rue and move into second place. I knew this would be my best shot to try an get by Rue; he was just passed and has a few racers around him. Situations like this leave riders as victims more than anything else. It looked as though Rue got a bad drive resulting from having to choke up a hair from Kyle's pass, opening the door for Jeff and me to go by him on the brakes into turn fourteen.
At this point I am in good shape, I don't really care about Jeff any longer, I just wanted to create whatever separation i could between Rue and me by getting Jeff between the two of us. I was shaking in my boots going down the front straight, just waiting for the imminent move of Rue going by me on the gas. But I didn't see him. I kept thinking to myself, "Don't crash, don't crash, it's ok if Rue goes back by you, you'll still take the championship".
When we get to turn ten I see the opportunity to put Jeff between Rue and me. We hit lap traffic and I zoomed around the outside of the lapper, moved up on the exiting curbing. Just as the lapper began to tip it in left for turn eleven, he shockingly glanced at me on his right. The shock of me squeezed in next to him made him miss his turn in and caused him to run wide. Fortunately, I was able to get on the brakes, pull underneath him and block Jeff. This gave me the run down the back straight, leaving Jeff in my memories.
I finished in 3rd place with a best time of 1:57.6 and taking 2nd in the championship.
Formula 1
Just like 750 Superbike, I came into the weekend locked into third place in the championship behind Travis and Ramsey. Odds were against me moving up in the standings, so I had a lot of pressure off my shoulders.
I got a terrible start as I dropped the clutch too quickly and got a nice "clunk" from my bike before having to pull the lever back in to save it. Once I got going, I was trying to find my way my Hernandez again. I planned on making a move in turn 10, but Hernandez took care of it for me and ran wide in turn nine, clearing #914 Ricardo Villegas out of my way too. Form here, all I really did was pace #818 Andy Marinshaw as we made our laps around the track. I was running a hair quicker than he, but we would need a lot of laps to make up the difference he pulled on me in the first couple laps of the race.
For a moment, I was on the verge of just pushing it to my absolute limit, knowing that I have no further races and can't get less than third in the championship. I finished 4th with a best time of 1:58.1 and retained my 3rd place in the championship
2012 Wrap-up
Middleweight: 4th place of 55 racers
600 Superbike: 2nd place of 35 racers
750 Superbike: 3rd place of 24 racers
Formula 1: 3rd place of of 24 racers
In the end, I met my goals laid out before the season. I got my first class win in a hard fought battle at Infineon in Formula 1. I learned a lot in both riding skills and suspension set-up. I found times where I was frustrated with my tight budget, my antiquated machine, and my inability to get any practice time outside of race weekends. The one thing I need to remember is to have fun; I have a tendency to forget that. I also got my first podium this year, and when I did I was ecstatic beyond belief. But only a few months later, I treat third as a complacent disappointment. I need to remember to keep things in perspective.
Unfortunately, this season ends with a few more 'ends'. The most frustrating part of these 'ends' is that I am not even sure of exactly what these 'ends' are, but I know they are coming. I want to come back and race in 2013, but my budget is not allowing that to occur. I will need to gather some good sponsorship money in the off-season just to afford the costs of racing, despite that fact that I am doing it at an impressively cheap budget. Financing is putting a likely (short-term) end to my racing.
I have a milestone coming up in my personal life, another 'end' of sorts, which could leave me here in the bay or living on the east coast. I have the opportunity to finish the next step in my education at some very prestigious schools. While there is nothing I love more with school than racing, the reality of being able to come back to the bay just to race seems slim. It is an 'end' I know is coming, but I currently choose to deny. But, if I am able to make the racing finances work well enough to come back for racing, I guarantee I will.
A quick thanks
Thank you to everyone who supported and sponsored me this year. Jeff with Viets performance helped me with making sure I always had the right rubber at the right time. This was my first year with Bridgestone, and I couldn't be any more impressed with the durability or feedback from the tires. I often found myself changing the tires for no other reason than I felt bad that I had them on for so long.
Thanks to Dave Moss of Feel The Track for always getting my suspension dialed in, even when I have no idea how to describe what is occurring. Dave's suspension set-ups were by far the best thing to help overcome my power deficit.
Thank you to Jim and Nickie Williams of Catalyst Reaction. They were able to take my stock forks and Elka shock and perform mechanical magic which rivaled the most expensive suspension systems one can buy.
I also want to say thank you to Arlen Ness Racing. When I rode like an idiot, The Arlen Ness leathers, boots, and gloves saved my hide. I have walked away from a few big crashes in the same set of gear and have never needed even the slightest repair work. It is as good now as the day I received it, despite sliding on the asphalt at triple-digit speeds. My mom and girlfriend are especially happy with your product.
A huge thank you to my friends and family who supported me. Thank you to my girlfriend, Georgia, for her tireless efforts trackside. Thank you for making the long drives in the middle of the night after a long day at work so I can do school work in the passenger seat. Thank you for the cooking, pit-management, and loving care when I am having a rough time. Thank you to all my friends who stop by my pits and say hi, despite the fact that I am pitted out in the middle of nowhere.
Finally, Thank you to all my friends with whom I battled this year, especially those too fast for me to beat. I hope to race with you next year in the expert class, even if I am still on my rat bike.
The End....
