Race #1- Buttonwillow, March 24-26
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Mar. 24- “Unofficial” Practice Day |
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Two weeks before the first AFM race
weekend of 2006, Team JaS was scheduled for an important test of equipment and
rider. However, as seemed to be the pattern for this winter, Mother Nature
commanded respect when she unleashed intermittent bouts of heavy rain and
even hail (yes…I said, “hail”) allowing only ¼ the number of laps typically
completed during a normal two-day trackday weekend to be completed.
Consequently, we decided we’d better go back to the track for a half-day
practice the Friday before the race weekend officially started.
It turned out that this decision
was a good one as we were able to get in some valuable track time on Friday.
We were also fortunate to uncover a problem with the bike before it became
worse: the Termignoni slip-on muffler was showing the rigors of racing as
hairline cracks developed on its underside. Luckily the Buttonwillow race
shop was open and available to perform some ad-hoc welding but it was clear
that a new exhaust would be needed.
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Mar. 25- “Official” Practice Day |
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Saturday, the “official” AFM practice
day, we encountered even more inclement weather. Just as Sherwick was ready
to mount the bike for his first practice session of the morning, the clouds
opened up and the rain came showering down on the track. After the rain
stopped, the track was still inundated with standing water, often at corner
apexes where bikes would be at maximum lean – not very rideable on slick
tires! To expedite the drying process, the AFM organization invited all of us
to take to the track with our cars! With me at the helm and Sherwick in the
back seat (we were carrying a passenger), we took six slow laps behind a
caravan of other cars, trucks and one John Deere blower. This turned out to
be more track time than Sherwick would have on the bike and we were able to
look for better lines, brake markers and exit points not easily noted when
riding at more than twice the speeds we were driving! Just before the half-day point, we
had the option to forego the 2nd half-day of practice in order to
save on costs. However, if we decided to ride again, we could not retract the
decision. We carefully weighed many factors while considering the
cost-benefit risk of foregoing the rest of practice and decided to “call it a
day”. As it turned out, the rain dissipated the last 2 hours of the day as
the sun finally shown itself, and Sherwick missed out on 2 potentially
valuable sessions. Did we make a bad decision - we would only find out come
race day. |
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Mar. 26- Race Day |
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This day would be a challenge. But Team
JaS was very familiar with challenges, having survived the recent fiasco with
Ironman
New Zealand. In spite of early planning for this season, starting back in
November of 2005, along with detailed preparation schedules, we still arrived
at the first race with the following concerns:
So the confidence to race hard
would be slightly lacking for the first race of the year. The plan was to try
to learn as much from this weekend and abate the pre-season jitters by
getting through the first round with safely. We awoke to a very welcomed dry day
and a more promising weather forecast. Like a well-oiled machine, Team JaS
dove right into the day and proceeded to prepare for Sherwick’s first
practice. This included the following schedule: The previous day’s inclement
weather caused the schedule to be adjusted resulting in Saturday “Clubman”
races to be pushed back to Sunday morning.
These races were new this year to AFM in order to allow novices a
chance to get up to speed. Once novices achieved lap times within 115% of
their class leaders, they would be allowed to race in Sunday’s expert races.
One good thing about the delay in schedule was that Sherwick’s primary race,
Open Twins, would start a little bit later in the morning - when the track
was warmer and there was more time to prepare. As luck would have it, Open
Twins had been scheduled to be the first race to kick off the new AFM season! Sherwick was gridded in the 2nd
row, in the 8th position. He had finished 11th in the
2005 championship and a few top-ten competitors were absent. Having not done
a race start with the new Yoyodyne slipper clutch, Sherwick tried to release
the clutch as usual, resulting in a botched launch of two wheelies. The first
turn came with about 2/3 of the pack in front of him. It was clear that
Sherwick was down on power as he was losing ground on the straights,
indicating that there were more problems with the exhaust than met the eye.
He would eventually drop back to finish 16th with a best lap of
2:05:387, 3 seconds off the pace from last year’s best. See a short video
clip of Sherwick making a pass here.
Nevertheless, he posted consistent lap times with little variation throughout
the entire race distance, indicating that his riding had improved.
His 2nd race, 750
Superbike, was rather uneventful. Being new to this class, he started at the back
of the grid but would also finish at the back. This was a rather
disappointing start to the season but TeamJaS was not to be deterred! Onwards
and upwards for the next race! In addition to fixing some mechanical issues,
we were expecting some new upgrades to the machinery so there was more
performance to be expected.
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Note: Chupps, the glue holding
together Team JaS, was sick all weekend and this no doubt put an emotional
strain on the whole weekend. However, it was merely a hint of worse things to
come. Read more…
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Enjoy the ride –- Team JaS Special thanks to: |
