TDESMO
07-25-2010, 12:52 PM
Here's my race report from Saturdays race at Blackhawk Farms. If you guys like reading these I will keep posting as the race season progresses.
Background
Blackhawk farms is a 1.95 mile track in South Beloit Illinois. After last racing at Road America going to Blackhawk was quite a different experience. Blackhawk is a tight technical track where a 600 can turn similar times to a 1000. There are several very hard braking zones and only one fairly short straight with top speeds on my bike of only 145 or so mph vs. 175 at Road A. I guess Blackhawk is a typical club racing track in that it is pretty torn up by the cars in a few spots and you definetly don't want to be off-line there. The worst spot is turn 1 where if you run it wide you will hit a patch that is rumble strip like and also very soft. I hit it a few times in practice and it was scary causing the rear to step out!
I got there on Friday and got in a few practice sessions. I had only been to Blackhawk once before for a trackday back in April. Despite a few damp spots on the track from the morning rain I was able to get up to pace quickly and turn a few 1:17's and one 1:16. This was 2 seconds faster than i went at my last trackday, so I was happy and knew I was on pace to run at the front in super twins.
Saturday Race #1-GTO
It rained all morning, so I didn't get to go out for practice. Luckily it mostly dried up in time for my first race. GTO is a 25 minute race open to big twins, and 750 and 1000cc japanese bikes with no restriction on modifications. I was gridded on row 1 of the amateurs with the experts all gridded a few rows up. The plan was to just use the race as a warm-up since I hadn't gotten any morning practice.
As was the case at Road America, my start was not great and I got passed by a few people despite being on row 1 of the amateur grid. It was a long race so I didn't want to do anything stupid, but at the same time did not want to let any other amateur get too far away. I picked off 1 amateur on a RC 51 in turn 2 and then got past an expert on a Aprilia 1000 going into the bus stop.
I was now able to get on the back of the only Amateur in front of me who was sitting on the back of another expert. I sat behind that group for a lap to see what kind of pace they were running and try and pick a place to get by. On the next lap I was able to out brake the amateur for first place going into the Silo Turn where I passed him on the inside. I was now on the back of an expert on what was probably a gixxer 750.
I got right up on the back wheel of the expert and ended up sling-shotting him for the pass going down the front straight. Unfortunately I ran it too deep into 1 and went wide into the choppy pavement allowing the expert to re-pass me due to my lack of drive. I was able to get back up to him by mid-lap and sling-shotted him again on the front and this time made the pass stick.
By this time I was off the front of the amateur's but well behind the top 4 experts. I worked on smoothly dropping my lap times and ran a '18,'17, '17, and finally a 1:16 without pushing it overly hard. Going into the bus-stop turn on the next lap I took a slightly different line, which took me over a concrete patch in the middle of the track. I had been taking that line in practice the day before because of the puddle on the inside of the track, so I thought it was a good line to experiment with.
Right as I tipped it in for the bus stop I lost the front very quickly and was on the ground sliding before I new what was happening! Luckily I detached from my bike and there was no one anywhere close to me to run me over. I slid cleanly to the edge of the track and then got rolled over a few times when I hit the curbing. I knew right away I was un-injured so that was a relief. We got my bike out of the impact zone and then watched the rest of the race from the corner station. Needless to say I was pretty pissed when I saw that I was at least 20 seconds ahead of the nearest amateur on the lap I crashed. Oh well, I guess that's racing.
Post Crash Analysis:
I wish I could say that I made an obvious mistake like trail braking to hard into the apex, or going in to hot but I didn't. I have pushed the front way harder without crashing before. After talking to the corner worker after my crash, he told me that there was a patch of dirt right where I crashed left over from the puddles caused by the heavy rain. They were nice enough to clean it AFTER I crashed:mad:
The damage to the bike was not that bad. I broke the clip on bar on the right side as well as the peg. Unfortunately I was done for the weekend as the tabs on the frame where the rear sets attach to were severely bent, and could not be fixed without a welder. Watching the twins race from the sidelines was really frustrating, because I would have easily won with the lap times I was turning in the GTO race.
I will be back at Blackhawk on August 21st for the next round of CCS racing, where I hope my luck is better.
Background
Blackhawk farms is a 1.95 mile track in South Beloit Illinois. After last racing at Road America going to Blackhawk was quite a different experience. Blackhawk is a tight technical track where a 600 can turn similar times to a 1000. There are several very hard braking zones and only one fairly short straight with top speeds on my bike of only 145 or so mph vs. 175 at Road A. I guess Blackhawk is a typical club racing track in that it is pretty torn up by the cars in a few spots and you definetly don't want to be off-line there. The worst spot is turn 1 where if you run it wide you will hit a patch that is rumble strip like and also very soft. I hit it a few times in practice and it was scary causing the rear to step out!
I got there on Friday and got in a few practice sessions. I had only been to Blackhawk once before for a trackday back in April. Despite a few damp spots on the track from the morning rain I was able to get up to pace quickly and turn a few 1:17's and one 1:16. This was 2 seconds faster than i went at my last trackday, so I was happy and knew I was on pace to run at the front in super twins.
Saturday Race #1-GTO
It rained all morning, so I didn't get to go out for practice. Luckily it mostly dried up in time for my first race. GTO is a 25 minute race open to big twins, and 750 and 1000cc japanese bikes with no restriction on modifications. I was gridded on row 1 of the amateurs with the experts all gridded a few rows up. The plan was to just use the race as a warm-up since I hadn't gotten any morning practice.
As was the case at Road America, my start was not great and I got passed by a few people despite being on row 1 of the amateur grid. It was a long race so I didn't want to do anything stupid, but at the same time did not want to let any other amateur get too far away. I picked off 1 amateur on a RC 51 in turn 2 and then got past an expert on a Aprilia 1000 going into the bus stop.
I was now able to get on the back of the only Amateur in front of me who was sitting on the back of another expert. I sat behind that group for a lap to see what kind of pace they were running and try and pick a place to get by. On the next lap I was able to out brake the amateur for first place going into the Silo Turn where I passed him on the inside. I was now on the back of an expert on what was probably a gixxer 750.
I got right up on the back wheel of the expert and ended up sling-shotting him for the pass going down the front straight. Unfortunately I ran it too deep into 1 and went wide into the choppy pavement allowing the expert to re-pass me due to my lack of drive. I was able to get back up to him by mid-lap and sling-shotted him again on the front and this time made the pass stick.
By this time I was off the front of the amateur's but well behind the top 4 experts. I worked on smoothly dropping my lap times and ran a '18,'17, '17, and finally a 1:16 without pushing it overly hard. Going into the bus-stop turn on the next lap I took a slightly different line, which took me over a concrete patch in the middle of the track. I had been taking that line in practice the day before because of the puddle on the inside of the track, so I thought it was a good line to experiment with.
Right as I tipped it in for the bus stop I lost the front very quickly and was on the ground sliding before I new what was happening! Luckily I detached from my bike and there was no one anywhere close to me to run me over. I slid cleanly to the edge of the track and then got rolled over a few times when I hit the curbing. I knew right away I was un-injured so that was a relief. We got my bike out of the impact zone and then watched the rest of the race from the corner station. Needless to say I was pretty pissed when I saw that I was at least 20 seconds ahead of the nearest amateur on the lap I crashed. Oh well, I guess that's racing.
Post Crash Analysis:
I wish I could say that I made an obvious mistake like trail braking to hard into the apex, or going in to hot but I didn't. I have pushed the front way harder without crashing before. After talking to the corner worker after my crash, he told me that there was a patch of dirt right where I crashed left over from the puddles caused by the heavy rain. They were nice enough to clean it AFTER I crashed:mad:
The damage to the bike was not that bad. I broke the clip on bar on the right side as well as the peg. Unfortunately I was done for the weekend as the tabs on the frame where the rear sets attach to were severely bent, and could not be fixed without a welder. Watching the twins race from the sidelines was really frustrating, because I would have easily won with the lap times I was turning in the GTO race.
I will be back at Blackhawk on August 21st for the next round of CCS racing, where I hope my luck is better.