A Memorial Weekend to Remember
AFM Road Open Twins Series - Round 3
Infineon Raceway: May 23rd and 24th, 2009

Saturday and Sunday May 23rd/24th Memorial Weekend, when all good boys and girls are relaxing at the lake, a modest turn-out of diehard AFM motorcycle racers were hanging their rear-ends out in the breeze at the ever-challenging circuit at Sears Point, in the County of Sonoma - prosaically referred to as Infineon Raceway.

I decided that 2009 is my year to go into credit card debt, spend money on tires, gas and suspension, and do some racing… after all, I am on the wrong side of 21.

At the last Infineon round, my friend and hotshot 50-something year old (don’t ask) racer, Bud Anderson, had said to me: “you’re starting to go ok - why don’t you step up to an 1198 and buy yourself a coupla of seconds?” Good point …except that my current steed - a 2003 deep-sump stock-engined Ducati 999S that dynos out at 132 rear-wheel horsemen with its kustom free-flowing zorst system - is paid for, and a better rider such as The King Tom Montano could probably do a 1:41 at Sears on it (sorry, “Infineon” is so, like, dull) – about 4 seconds faster then I’m going just now.

OK then, it was decided: I spend Visa’s money on gas and tires and track days, and aim to improve my personal software.

I usually practice on the Friday before a race weekend to get my mind in gear early, as Saturday is an actual race day for me because Formula 40 (a.k.a. Formula Old Geezer or Formula Old Fart) is held at the end of day after practice and the three Clubman races (held for novices). The competition these days amongst us forty year olds (well, forty+ in my case), is pretty darn stiff and if everyone came out it would be a giant class – as it was on this somewhat quiet holiday weekend there were 26 entries.

Anyhoo this time I couldn’t practice on Friday 22nd as I was organizing the Munroe open house for the new Ducati Streetfighter launch. So instead I practiced the previous Thursday 14th, the day before the AMA Nationals at Infineon, and I had a blast following Jake Zemke and Steve Rapp and Chris Ulrich around for a few corners. I actually stuck with Roger Lee for a whole lap, and even passed a coupla less-experienced guys who were all over the track looking for the right line. Great fun – and y’know they weren’t really much faster thru the apexes …but they sure got off the corners hard.

Onwards and Upwards!

Saturday rolls around, I go do the practice sessions and everything basically feels good. I’m trying some stiffer springs front and back to stop the bike from squatting in the corners and it felt a little harsh but not too bad.

The F40 race comes up at about 4:30pm, and I’m gridded on the front row for the first time since I quit racing in 1991 – cool! In fact I’m in grid position #4, outside right, a good spot at Infineon. The flag drops and I instantly wheelie off my mark, so I hold steady on the throttle, slip the clutch a bit more, nail it again, and bang I’m in second place going up into turn two – holy cow! I stay focused on the leader, flyin’ Peter O’Sullivan (don’t forget the “O”), and try not to think about who’s up me RS. I follow Peter for 3 laps and watch as he walks away from me with no sweat evident – nice.

Lap 4, coming into turn seven, a red Honda thou’ passes me on the brakes – and the day dream crumbles a bit. The guy is smooth and steady but doesn’t get away from me over the next coupla laps. And then we come up on backmarker traffic – great! I can do this, I’ll attack him in traffic, I have a clear mental image of it. We come thru turn 10 up on to three backmarkers braking early for 11, he goes outside ‘em, I dive inside to the apex and I’ve passed him and I shoot up past start-finish to the chicane leading into turn 1.

I’m so excited that I forget to downshift for the chicane, my feet fly off the pegs and I run the bike thru the dirt, legs akimbo, then downshift and try and drive up the hill looking for turn 2 …and he passes me back. Dammit! OK he’s running smooth and fast again, and I follow him, cursing myself, looking for another opportunity. We take the white flag that signals last lap and he’s still not making any mistakes. We come all the way around the track and he’s protecting the inside line into all possible passing corners. We drive up to the final hairpin turn 11 and he’s way on the inside braking like a demon, but running a little deep. I set up wide, turn inside him and we’re drag racing for the checkers. He’s a little faster than me and I cross the line level with his rear wheel. Good effort all around - and for me, my first podium since, well, a long time.

One of my talents…

Sunday morning we drive up to Sears Pt thru a foggy Marin county, cranking tunes in the truck, still buzzing from the trophy high. The track’s cold, I’m slow to warm up in the one early morning practice session a busy race schedule allows, and before I know it I tuck the front end coming into the apex of turn two on the third lap of my session, touching the front brakes to avoid a slower rider. I knew I should’a changed that front tire yesterday. Every time I try and save money on tires I mess up: I ran a coupla races in the last year on used tires and slid all over the place to a lackluster finish and now I crash because I tried to get more mileage out of a 3-day-old front tire! Not known for my brains. I was already leaned over a ways when the front let go so the damage to the bike is confined to broken levers and controls on the right side – and with my zero-budget Franken-stitched pre-crashed bodywork you can’t even tell it’s been down again.

Back in the pits I work at a fever pace to get the bike fixed up and re-teched before my pre-Open Twins warm-up race, 750 Superbike, race four on the schedule that day, for which my 2-cylinder 999cc Ducati is eligible. I take the extra time to get the front tire replaced because I want to have learnt my lesson this time. Thanks to some timely help from my friends and a fortuitous delay in the start of race 3, I get everything repaired, tire warmers on, gas in the tank and ready to go.

Race starts and of course I’m super-paranoid everywhere: I keep imagining tucking the front end everywhere. I give myself a break and stick to a decent pace without risking too much throttle. The last two laps of the race take forever – I’m zoning out thru anxiety and my eyes are rolling back in my head. Through some kind of miracle I make it to the checkered flag without piling it. And I get 10th in the class, not too shabby and I regain a little confidence in my ability to not always crash.

But back in the pits there’s no time to lose as I replace the two-race-old Dunlop rear slick tire I fitted new for the F40 race the day before– it took a mere 40 on-track minutes to burn thru that $300 of prime rubber, yow! Gas up, tire warmers on for a few minutes and I head out for the Open Twins race.

The Usual Shennanigans

I’m gridded on the front row again – I’m starting to like this - the green flag waves and I drive a smooth start without wheelie this time – and I’m in second place behind young Craig Smith. Yes, again! This time the bubble is burst after one lap as Open Twins points leader Matt Green motors past me on the straight, riding with sore ribs from his get-off that morning. At least I’m in good company. And you know what they say: if you don’t crash from time to time, you’re not trying hard enough.

Then my current nemesis and Open Twins arch-rival (in my head anyway), Tiger Steve Metz passes me on the brakes into turn seven. Curses again! So I now get to try and hang on the back of those two guys, as Craig disappears into a solid lead. But they’re not getting away - they are leaving me out of the Carousel turn 6 leading on to the back straight, but I’m catching back up thru the slower stuff. The laps are winding down and I’m starting to think of a last lap Hail Mary on the brakes, when I roll the throttle on a fraction early coming out of the Carousel and the back steps WAY out and the bike throws me up out of the saddle in a classic highside. I’m looking at the front windscreen from the wrong side… ah Jeez, not again! But my butt comes back down in the seat, the bike straightens up and, today, fortune favors the old-and-bold. I immediately switch to cruise mode and take a now-distant, but still sweet, fourth place – although I’m spoiled now and want lots more cheap plastic trophies.

Well that was quite a weekend – a podium, a crash and a crazy-ass near-crash …and a ton of fun. Was it worth $800 in tires alone to get a cheap plastic trophy? - heck yeah! …can’t wait ‘til the next round at Thunderhill, June 13th & 14th.

Thanks to all the help from my friends: Terry and Wes at Sport Tire Services (Dunlop), Linda at Jungls Catering, Brendan of Ducati North America, The Lube at Vehicle-Systems.com, Jim Williams of Catalyst Reaction Suspension, and my compadres at Munroe Motors for their support.