WMRRA Round 2 — PIR

Goals coming in: complete races, be competitive, get more comfortable at PIR, and look for some battles. Target lap time was my Friday 2Fast SuperPole pace of 1:13.76.

Saturday

Overcast and slow to warm up. Qualifying ended P2 of 16 at 1:15.533, about 1.7s off my Friday pace. Joe Kinsman (#23) dropped a 1:14.5 to take pole. Front row with Joe and Terry Cherington (#93) next to me. I swapped to a fresh SC1 rear before the racing started.

R5 (Open Amateur): From P2 on the front row, I dropped to P3 off the line behind Kinsman and Jeffrey Toevs (#27). Worked back to P2 lap 2, took the lead from Kinsman lap 3. Set fastest lap on lap 5 (1:13.649, quicker than my SuperPole). Backed off on the last lap and Toevs closed it down to 0.587s at the line. P1 Open Amateur, P1 overall.

R9 (Novice 1000): From pole. Holeshot, led wire to wire. Laps 2–5 were 1:15.342, 1:15.314, 1:15.312, 1:15.309, four laps inside 33 thousandths. P1 Novice 1000, P1 overall, won by 25.7s.

Sunday

Already warm by morning practice, very different feel from Saturday. Sunday grids carried over from Saturday qualifying, so I was on the front row again.

R19 (Open Amateur) is the one to talk about. I knew I had jumped it as soon as it happened. Conservative starter all through Saturday and Round 1, and I wasn't even trying to be more aggressive in R19, I just kept reading the flag going up as the moment to go, instead of waiting for the actual start (the release).

From P2 on the front row. Took the holeshot and led laps 1 through 6. Cary Cadonau (#101) settled into P2 and kept closing: 0.66, 0.48, 0.55, 0.44, 0.27, 0.26s back lap by lap. The dynamic was clear: Cary got me on the brakes into Turn 1, and I could get him back on the power down the straight. Cary passed me into Turn 1, I got him back in Turn 4. Pushing to hold him off, I had a moment on the back side between Turn 6 and Turn 7, where the camber of the track changes. The whole bike got vague. Felt like I slid six inches; in reality it was probably only a half inch. Got as neutral as I could, let the bike settle, then got back to it. By the time Cary came past me in Turn 1 again, I didn't have much more to give and he started pulling away, about a second a lap.

Set a new PB (1:13.437) on lap 7 trying to keep up. Cary proceeded to drop a string of 1:12s the rest of the race while I held in the 1:14s. Held P2 overall on the road to the flag, 4.4s back. Post-race, the 3-position jump-start penalty dropped me to P5 Open Amateur, P9 overall.

R24 (Novice 1000): From pole. Got to battle a bit with Steve Schock (#930) early on before I settled into the lead. My last race of the day, shortened to 7 laps after an oil-down in Formula Ultra. Big thanks to Kevin Nanthrup, who walked me through where the oil had been dropped and what the clean sweep looked like. Best lap 1:13.888 on lap 6. P1 Novice 1000, P1 overall.

Takeaways

Final tally: 3 overall wins (R5, R9, R24), 3 class wins, and a P5 in R19 after the jump-start penalty (happy the win streak is over). Fastest flying lap was a 1:13.437 in R19, quicker than my Friday SuperPole goal of 1:13.76, and a good jump on last year's PB in the 1:15s.

My right arm still isn't strong enough to keep me stable into heavy braking, which caused some struggles and errors with where I was on the bike. Coming into Turn 1 in particular, I couldn't push back against the clip-ons the way I wanted, so a few entries had me way on top of the tank. Grip tape is finally on order.

Thank you

To the OMRRA staff and volunteers who run these weekends. Class sponsors CCK Racing (Open Amateur) and Slingshot Lounge (Novice 1000). Sage, for giving me everything I need to push to go faster. Mark and the family at 2Fast. Aaron, my pitmate. And Elliot, for showing up to pit crew.