Race #7 - Infineon, September 28-30

Trying Too Hard

We were back at Infineon one last time for a three-day race weekend. This would be AFM’s annual endurance round with Friday’s full-day practice, Saturday’s 4-hour endurance race and Sunday’s normal array of 13 races. We arrived at the track Thursday night to unload our bikes and gear into our garage and were at our hotel by 8pm.

One more round at Infineon

September 28- Practice Day 1

Friday practice went like clockwork apart from a leaking reservoir cap which we quickly replaced with a spare. By the end of the day after 18 laps, we were within half a tick of our best practice time for Infineon: 1:50.95 unofficial (1:51.057 official).

Practice day 1 best lap = 1:51.057

Prepping a spare master reservoir (just in case)

September 29- Practice Day 2

Saturday practice consisted of only two sessions but we were unable to improve upon Friday’s times with only seven laps available. Nevertheless, we were able to experiment with tire pressures. We set our tires ~1psi lower than normal in order to compensate for the low ambient temperature in the morning, loosely following the general rule of thumb: for every 10°F rise in temperature, pressure increases 1psi. This turned out to be quite accurate as the temperatures rose from 55°F at 8am to 64°F by 10:30am. Incidentally, we logged our best lap of 1:51.29 unofficial (1:51.403 official) on the last lap when the temperatures had risen ~ 10°F!

We then got fresh Michelin rubber front and rear, filled up the tank with race gas and changed our fuel map. By 2pm, we were free to watch the endurance races! We took the opportunity to view up close all the key turns around the track, comparing braking points, lines and exits among the different bikes and then checked on our friends Lance Williams & Eric “GoGo” Gulbransen riding a Yamaha R1 in the open class, Eric Arnold and other Keigwins instructors aboard a Suzuki GSX-R750 in the 750 class and Matt Green & Scott Schwanbeck on their Desmoto Sport Ducati 749R (kitted to 848cc) also in the 750 class. Desmoto Sport eventually finished 3^rd in class and 7^th overall out of 45 teams!

Practice day 2 best lap = 1:51.403

Scott Jenkins of Desmoto Sport behind 3^rd place endurance bike

September 30- Race Day

On Sunday, with brand new tires and in only five laps we were able to immediately descend down to a best lap of 1:50.14 unofficial (1:50.407 official) placing us 9^th fastest out of 52 riders in our practice group!

Sunday practice best lap = 1:50.407

Practice went well Sunday morning

Race #1- 750 Superbike

750 Superbike was our first race, just before lunch. We got a great start from our 4^th row position which put us in a top 15 position but this race would be curtailed by a red flag with only 3 laps in the books. Not wanting to burn our clutch, our second launch was bit “soft” and we got jammed up on the inside of T2 as we watched a few positions slip away, putting us back in around 20^th by the end of the first lap. With only five-laps in the restarted race, we did not have enough time to regain any of those positions. We were only using this race to settle into a comfortable pace, but even in traffic, we managed to turn a 1:48.702. This would be our best lap time for the weekend, which was unusual for 750 Superbike but we were a little disappointed with our 23^rd finish out of 51 starters.

750 Superbike: 23^rd, best lap = 1:48.702

750 Superbike – always busy

Race #2- Open Twins

We had an unusually long wait before Open Twins as we were again scheduled after 600 Superbike (known for its crashes). This time there was an incident in T8, one of the fastest sections on the track involving a friend who ended up being helivac'ed away- never a pleasant sight to witness before one’s race. Due to the delay, it was announced that our last two races would be cut short to five lap super-sprints!

We got off to a great start from the second row into 5^th behind McLean, Green, Montano and Robey. However, it was short-lived as Williams came by within the next few corners- he had just come off of AMA nationals at Laguna Seca along with Saturday’s four-hour AFM endurance race and was on a roll. Then Gonzales lead a charge by us and Robey only to have trouble holding the pace. In lap two, as Robey tried to square up Gonzales into T11, an opportunity opened up as they slowed too much for the tight right-hander. We came up the inside of both of them on the brakes similar to our last Open Twins race here but this time we held it together and jumped from 7^th up to 5^th . Nevertheless, the power of Robey’s 1098 showed its superiority over our 999 as he out-accelerated us on the front straight into T1. This duffed us up a bit and that was all he needed to check out. It was weird race: although the pace felt high with the bike barely under control pushing the front into corners and head-shaking out of them, we were only running 1:50’s at best. Instead of hitting the rev limiter at the top of hill above the Carousel, we were now hitting it at the apex of T5 at full lean. This forced us to back off a bit which cost a some drive into T7. A mis-shift on lap three was all that Gonzales and newcomer Nick Hayman needed to get by. Even “the Tiger” Metz made a nice block pass into T9 and we had nothing to offer in retaliation. Metz was obviously on pace and proceeded to dispose of first Hayman and then Gonzales. So after a promising start to the race, we were disappointed with our 9^th placing but we learned something valuable in the process.

Open Twins: 9^th, best lap = 1:50.443

Just ahead of Open Production leader Cory Call

Race #3- Formula 40

Our strategy for Formula 40 was hastily constructed in the brief time we had between the cool-down lap of Open Twins and the warm-up lap of Formula 40. In between, we had pulled into the hot pits, grabbed a quick drink of water, wiped down our face shield and roared off just moments before the “5” board was shown indicating no more warm-up time. We needed to relax and let the lap times come to us instead of forcing the issue. We focused on the track instead of the competition. This seemed to work as every one of our laps was within half a tick:

1:49.478

1:49.822

1:49.970

1:49.809

We finished in 10^th out of 28 and which was a good end to the weekend!

Formula 40: 10^th, best lap = 1:49.478

Ahead of Eric Arnold in Formula 40

We now have moved up to 9^th for both the Open Twins and Formula 40 championships which means a guaranteed 2^nd row start for the last race of the year: Buttonwillow Backwards!

We’re looking forward to this final race and hope to close out the 2007 season and our 999 in style. We like the flowing nature of the counter-clockwise course but will need to seriously gear-up for the super long back straight! We should have plenty of time for set-up and testing as we will be there Thursday before the race weekend. Our motto is “always be prepared and allow plenty of time ‘cause you never know when Murphy will strike!”

Enjoy the ride!

–- Team JaS

Special thanks to:

Fiber Wise Pasta

Panolin America Lubricants

Vortex Racing Components

Oxtar Boots

Stomp Design Stompgrips

Suomy Helmets

LeoVince Exhaust Systems

Motowheels Performance Parts

Michelin Tires