First Pro Race with Moto America!
First Pro Race!
Well the big race for Coffee Break Liberty Racing this year arrived and it was in the Super Hooligans class with Moto America at COTA (Circuit of the Americas) In short what an experience that I’ll never forget.
The move in day Thursday might be a good place to start but not much to say it others than just how I didn’t even finish working on the bike until 1am that morning and had to be at the track around 9am. Moving in and setting up was a chore but not as bad as I was expecting and just one of those things we all have to get done. I am very grateful too for my crew for the weekend, Amanda and Aric as when we went to tech we failed the first go through and the tech inspector was trying to tell me how to fix this small problem real quick but I was so tired I wasn’t catching any of the information he was saying but Aric and Amanda were! Keeping in mind the high for the weekend was 107 with a little reprieve Sunday with only 98 degrees.
Friday was practice and qualifying and we got some great laps when compared to the weekend prior with the track day. I was able to qualify 26th of 47 entries and make the main race for both Saturday and Sunday! Again it was baking hot but got to walk around and meet people and talk with crews and teams close by and also learn some of the processes of Moto America that I and we as a team were just not used to when it comes from going to a pro level race for the first time as opposed to club racing. Made a crucial mistake too which ended up killing my battery and also wiping out the tune on the power commander, thankfully I had the charger with me and charged the battery in the hotel that night.
Saturday, first race was up! Starting from near the back of the grid of 33 I knew there wasn’t going to be any amazing stories of glory. The plan was to keep it upright and make nice easy clean passes, don’t force anything risky for no payout was the plan and LEARN! Well the first start happened and I had perhaps my worst start ever, this is my plan it seems in pro racing now too… something I need to work on this off season. By T1 up the hill I was last aside from the one rider that had to start from pit lane. I made ground quickly though as I know where to go on this track and was making back positions through out the entire lap. Things are very wild though that first lap and I know I’m simply not aggressive enough, something else to work on but that’s not a skill thing more confidence and a change of mentality. The races in Super Hooligans are “short” so the strategy is much of a sprint at a club race; no time to settle in its GO GO GO from the start to the finish because these races are so short! There was two red flags in the race one of which gave me a better chance at the start and I did do better but still nothing great. Finished the first race 24th.
Sunday we had a warm up session in the morning where I only went out for a lap or two just to get another practice start. The Sunday race did have a better start but my gosh was it more wild going to T1 than the day prior with people from the row behind me trying to win the entire race it seemed and going up the hill seeing parts flying off bikes in front of me was a lot to take in. I didn’t want much of that so just settled in behind the madness and planned to pick up positions in a bit safer manner. I was keeping up better this time but NEVER had the confidence going into T12, the turn at the end of the long straight, all race and over shot the turn every lap. Not the way I wanted to end the weekend as I was doing decent throughout the rest of the lap but was giving up 2-4 seconds on that turn alone in that turn every lap. There was a red flag and a restarted race but much of the same and I ended up battling for last place but still had a lot of fun but was disappointed to have blown T12 every lap as I know I could have done much better but didn’t. I finished P25 in that race. That was it, I got to race at COTA a track I have well over 1000 miles on and enjoy a lot. And though I kick myself I have to remember that this is only my second year racing, first pro race and I usually race a Yamaha R3 with 36 hp not a 2003 Aprilia Tuono with 115 hp and that I only got it 7 days before I took it to COTA to race it! Was it the result I was looking for, no but for the shoe string budget and how quickly this came together I can’t be too disappointed with how things went. This off season there will be adjustents made quickly to the ergonomics which will help immensely. I do also plan to race this Aprilia in some club racing to so I can get more seat time.
Huge thanks to those that helped over the weekend, Amanda, Aric, Charlie, Dillion, Jordan, Craig, Roger, Brian and Sam. Built some great relationships rather quickly and am still getting messages from people “hey we met at COTA” oh we did?! COOL MAN!! Also another shout out to my Sponsors, Blud Lubricants, Just 1 Racing Helmets, Galfer Brakes, On Road Off Road Suspension and all of you that support the program through purchases through the CBL store! Thank you so much! One more race of the season with WERA at Barber in Oct and I hope to see many of you there!
