California State Championships Race 1: Buttonwillow Raceway, 8-9 May 2010

This would be the first time we would race with WERA who would host the first round of the revived California State Championship Series (thanks to race organizer & WERA racer Shandra Crawford) boasting “The Fastest Riders in the State”. We had only two race weekends in the books and none at this track – in fact, we hadn’t raced at Buttonwillow for over a year. We were in dire need of some track time especially given all the changes that have come along in 2010. We would also be running DOT race tires (treaded) for the first time as it was required in Formula 40 in WERA. So we signed up for a day with The Track Club. We chose a Tuesday in the two days they would be hosting thinking that it would be less crowded than Monday but we very surprised when they announced that they would be running the track in the reverse direction! Needless to say, we did not get any valuable data that could be applied towards the race. But at least we were able to sort out our suspension and traction control trim settings to cope with the bumps at “Bumpywillow”. We then dived into the WERA/CSC race weekend which was preceded by an open track day on Friday. Apart from experiencing front end chatter from the DOT’s (which was absent with the slicks) and terrible starts (which we would later find out was due to a severely notched clutch hub and basket), we had a decent weekend. Here’s the play by play…

Buttonwillow Raceway

Once in a while, mysterious things happen to a motorcycle that are unexplainable. With a Ducati, these things happen more frequently. Morning practice was one of those times. Our quickshifter, which had been working perfectly throughout all of Friday decided to become unresponsive during morning practice. We surmised that it may simply be due to the colder temperatures but we didn’t have time to experiment and dialed up the sensitivity halfway through practice which seemed to cure the problem. However, little did we know, that single click from “7” to “6” would come back to bite us…

Open Twins Since we did not have any points in the host club, we were gridded in the third row (in the outside position which was better than the inside) but in 6^th thanks to our lap times. Upon launch, the clutch grabbed slowing our drive, but we were able to hold our position into the first turn. Circulating around the track during lap one, we found ourselves at the tail end of a four-rider train. Meanwhile former AFM #1 plate holder James Randolph (#112) was running away from the field on his black and orange KTM RC8R and WSMC regular Mauro Deviasso (#171), whom we had battled with at WSMC round 3, was getting away in 2^nd . We were anxious to pursue him and the opportunity came very soon as we made it past the four riders by the end of lap 1. We were consistently closing the gap and Mauro’s tail was in clear sight coming out of the last corner but the hyper-sensitivity of the quick shifter caused the bike to buck severely down the bumpy front straight, which compromised our terminal speed into turn 1. We tried to compensate by braking much later and unfortunately missed our brake marker and went off track. Even after losing a massive chunk of time once we were back on the tarmac, we could see that there was still plenty of cushion to the four riders we had previously passed. These problems, coupled with the chatter from the DOT tires (the next race F40 required DOTs), caused us to carefully reconsider our desire to gain one more spot and we decided to back it down and bring it safely home in 3^rd place.

Formula 40 As with Open Twins, we started in 6^th position. But this time, we got off the grid with more grunt and made up one position heading into turn 1. Again we were at the back of a train, this time in 5^th. We did not have time to diagnose our quickshifter problem and just turned it off for this race but we were easily able to keep in contact with group, patiently waiting for an opportunity to pass. That opportunity never came until there was only two laps left in the race. We got 4^th place on the brakes going into Lost Hills. We proceeded to gap him and move in on 3^rd and was fortunately close enough to move past him when he went slightly off track at Cotton Corners on the next lap. We could see 2^nd and worked hard to reel him in – but we had less than one lap left! On the very last lap, we finally caught him in the esses and with lappers adding some confusion, we attempted to square him up in Sunset. However, we were not able to make the pass out of the last corner and it seemed that our final attempt would leave us still in 3^rd. Thankfully, the start/finish line is far down the front straight at Buttonwillow and although we were not past him out of the corner, we were able to start our drive earlier and slingshot alongside him to nab 2^nd spot by a mere one one-hundredth of a second and just 4 seconds shy of first!

Formula 1 This would be our first appearance in the premier class that will be used to crown the "Fastest Rider in the West" in the California State Championships. We were gridded way back but fortunately the top race is allocated an additional two laps – which we would use to our advantage! We started in 11^th position on the 5^th row, but thankfully again on the outside. We had little drama on the start, but our clutch gave us an unexpected wheelie or two causing us to be dead last heading into T1. That didn’t last long as we were able to get by two riders in one move on the outside as they bunched up on the inside. We found ourselves again, at the back of a train , but this time we were in 12^th and it was a bullet train including the likes of AMA veteran Jeremy Toye (#57), James Randolph, and current WSMC / former AFM #1 plate holder, Jeff Tigert. The train was pulling out of the station fast and soon undocked as the top four riders soon pulled away, leaving the rest of us to fight for 5^th. Just like in F40, we made a pass going into Lost Hills to take 11^th on lap 3, 10^th on lap 5 and 9^th on lap 6. We made a final pass for 8^th place on the last lap to finish in the top ten!. Here is the race coverage published in RoadRacingWorld.com and also a video of the action created by none other than “GoGo” Gulbransen, longtime championship racer and official videographer for the CSC series.

We currently are sitting third overall in the California State Championships. Next round will be July 31 – August 1 at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma with the AFM.