Race_AFM_6_7_8

AFM Race 6: Thunderhill September 6-7

Thunderhill was still hot in September. We knew the Beast would have a field day churning our poor Dunlops into the freshly re-paved track with its 170+ horsepower. Gone were the bumps but in its place was grippy but abrasive tarmac. We had been experimenting with harder tire compounds and higher pressures all through practice but the tires were still complaining of abuse up to our first race.

As usual, we put on fresh rubber before Formula 40 Saturday afternoon but the left rear was pretty ugly after just one race. We placed a season-best of 6^thand AFM’s archaic dBcom timing system even had us down for 1:52.4 but we knew it was optimistic. We felt we had more speed left and decided to “flip” the tire for Sunday’s races (with slick tires, it is possible to run them in reverse swapping left and right sides).

Open Twins saw us in a close battle with Steve Metz and Eddy Gonzales. We were fortunate to come out on top with an 8^th place but it wasn’t easy. We were spinning and sliding everywhere and the lap times showed it. We were almost one sec per lap slower than F40 (by our own XT Racing lap timer).

Both sides of the rear tire were now shredded and we needed an answer. So we consulted with the Dunlop technicians at Sport Tire Services who interestingly advised us to go one compound softer presumably because it would spin less due to more grip. Open Superbike would put this theory to the test. Sure enough, the spinning stopped and we continued our upward progress in this class to finish in 8^th with a weekend best time of 1:55.6!

Open Twins: 8/17

Formula 40: 6/32

Open Superbike: 8/23

Fastest lap: 1:52.387, 96.1mph (dBCom timing)

Bad tire… Good tire!

A packed house in Open Superbike

AFM Race 7: Infineon September 26-28

Practice makes perfect but only if you are practicing the right stuff! We signed up for a track day with Pacific Track Time and were fortunate to get some unsolicited tips from Michael Earnest who had been following our progress all year. His generosity on passing on knowledge from 25 years of racing successfully in AFM and AMA resulted in a new best time of 1:44.8 (even faster than our race time)! We applied the slow-in-fast-out strategy with a set of well-worn tires for the entire day and focused on improving our average lap times for each session even as the tires got greasy.

We were gridded 12^th on the 3^rd row in the middle for Open Twins. We quickly ducked in behind Eddy Gonzales, Nick Hayman #753 and Steve Metz, out-braking Eddy on the first lap and Nick on the second lap into turn 1. Craig Smith #667 (top Open Grand Prix rider who recently turned to twins on a borrowed Ducati 848) passed us into turn 11 and we were only able to re-pass him once before he got by for good. We followed Metz for a few laps who proved to be more difficult to overtake. We tried twice to get by him in turn 7 but each time we went wide and Steve came underneath at the second apex. The third time we made it stick and were able to come home in 7^th!

In Open Superbike we were gridded on the 2^nd row in 7^th due to our recent higher finishes. We grabbed a good start and were solidly in 7^th until a mistake in turn 1 caused us to go off the track! The traction control had not been any aid to us all season – triggering only occasionally – but we found out that it did indeed work in the dirt! We were able to reclaim the position in the last turn on the last lap thanks to backmarkers (slower riders at the back of the pack being lapped) for a best finish to date in this class!

For Formula 40, we would start on the front row and after a dramatic, hard fought finish, Team JaS podiumed for the first time with a 2^nd place! We blasted off the line from our front row start (5^th position on the outside), passing three riders and shot into 2^nd place never to relinquish it for the entire race. For eight laps we had the leader within 1-3 seconds but with third place breathing down our neck. Third place (current points leader Peter O’Sullivan and eventual #7 AFM plate holder for 2008) tried several times to overtake us including on the last lap. Going into turn 9 (a relatively slow chicane) O’Sullivan #142 tried to capitalize on a missed a backshift on our part. We were going deep this time…too deep and all he had to do was sneak up our inside to take 2^nd. But as luck would have it, he too missed a shift and would have to resort to going around our outside…but it would have to be through the dirt! We both went off track and amazingly returned to the tarmac in the same positions. With him still close behind us we approached the final turn only to be greeted by backmarkers. As a racer, one of the most stressful times (besides the start) is coming upon lappers. The closing speeds are so great that decisions must be made in an instant – hopefully the RIGHT decisions! Things got confusing momentarily as we dodged them, but Team JaS got around and drove hard to the checkered flag with a one second gap on third and only two seconds from the win!

This was a stellar finish to a fine day of racing where we finished collected two sevenths and a second! All of our races are now becoming much more exciting to watch as we slide and spin our way towards the front!

Open Twins: 7/22

Formula 40: 2/24

Open Superbike: 7/20

Fastest lap: 1:44.210, 76.7mph

Lots of overtaking (in Open Twins)

And a podium finish (in Formula 40)

Made a great weekend for Team JaS

AFM Race 8: Buttonwillow October 18-19

We had a splendid final weekend with AFM. Apart from some quickshifter and traction control (DTC) adjustments, the bike was working very good. The DTC (set at 8 out of 8 as we had been increasing it all season) was cutting the ignition on the front straight – we think due to sort of wheelie control. Once we turned it down to 7, it was observed that we were able to "carry the front wheel 4 inches off the ground for 35% of the straight"!

Good starts would be an enigma for us this weekend. Maybe I should have read the handbook beforehand. For Formula 40, a slow reaction had us held up behind Pete Demas (currently 3^rd in points) for the first lap. Matt Green #315 (current Open Twins points leader) entered this race for the first time this year and stormed through from the 4^th row. He and and his Desmoto Sport-tuned Ducati were truly impressive to watch as he overtook us at the top of Lost Hills. We were convinced he would continue to drift wide into the dirt as he passed us on an impossible line but somehow he was able to make that bike turn! Like a steak fork, he then stuck it underneath Demas into the Sweeper, the stab causing Demas to momentarily stand it up in surprise. We tried to jump on the opportunity but had to wait for the front straight to get by him. Once by Demas, we settled in behind Pat Blackburn (currently 2^nd in points) for the rest of the race finishing in 4^th just ahead of Bud Anderson. We also managed to drop time from 1:54.4 in Friday practice to 1:54.1.

We tried a more aggressive start for Open Superbike but this resulted in multiple wheelies with the last one setting down right before setting up for the first turn! We had to back off and as a result six or seven riders demoted us to 13^th or 14^th before the third turn. We had some pretty close moments while passing on the brakes but were able to make it up to 11^th by the end of the race with a best time of 1:53.6.

Open Twins was the highlight of the weekend (and perhaps the year)! We tried a calmer start which was drama-free but this put us in mid-pack at 10^th behind riders who had been running slower lap times all weekend. Our thoughts of settling in for a lap before making any moves were shattered when “GoGo” crashed the party. Eric "GoGo" Gulbransen (past Open Twins champion and notable AFM/AMA personality) was returning to racing on an underpowered 2008 KTM Super Duke (with rumors of campaigning the new RC8 Superbike in ’09). He had started several rows back, but jumped on us before the Sweeper on the very first lap! That was a bit of a surprise as we followed him through the Esses and repassed him on the front straight. Admittedly, it was relatively easy with 40% more power but a part of us wanted to stay behind to watch him ride the Duke like an angry bulldog (what an appropriate visual). Here are Eric’s own words. We then made our way past Don Babb (owner of Modesto Ducati), Nick Hayman (owner of Monroe Motors) and Eddy Gonzales (of Honda Peninsula Ducati) who unfortunately had his timing belt snap on the next lap! We were now up to 7^th ahead of all the Ducati dealerships and next up was Scott Schwanbeck (currently 4^th in points). We got him on the backside of Lost Hills and were now in 6^th behind Pat Blackburn #110 and Bud Anderson #37. As we roared onto the front straight, Bud was trying to squeeze by Pat on the outside so we decided to move up the inside of BOTH of them - up to 4^th! But Pat (who is currently 5^th in points) would have none of it and forced his way up the inside in turn 2 in order to put a lapper between us. Unfortunately he was so far up the inside (almost into the dirt) that he could not avoid going wide at the exit. Fourth was ours again! But Pat, true to his personality, was relentless and went by again through the bumps on the inside of turn 3 also known as Cotton Corners. These were the nastiest bumps on the whole track which we thought EVERYONE avoids! All the while Bud was right on our tail and after following us for another lap made the same pass in Cotton Corners as we came up on backmarkers – Bud was observant. Yes, lappers have become an unavoidable part of our races as we’ve gotten faster. But we were able to hang close to Bud for a 6^th placing. We were pleased with the finish as well as having the fourth fastest lap in the race at 1:53.9!