This is my first race season and the first time I had the 848 out since I took it off the road back in October to prep it for racing. I arrived at the track Thursday late afternoon and setup up my tools and gear in the center garage #15. I watched the open track practices and walked around the garage area chatting with everyone I could introduce myself to. I'm a tad shy believe it or not so it takes a good bit for me to pop out of my shell in situations when I don't feel comfortable. Everyone was tremendously friendly and encouraging.
Friday I took the Penguin advanced class and while I don't think that I'm quite ready for most of the material that was presented, the information was incredible and a tad overwhelming for me. The track walk really rocked, thanks Eric! I took it really slow on my practice laps while I tried to refresh myself with the marks I started learning last year and I started getting used to the new bike. I made the decision to switch to GP style shifting and I would estimate that I'm still spending just a little too much concentration time remembering to reverse my shift instincts. My practices went pretty well although I was running a sluggish 1:48-1:50 on my lap timer.
I participated in the Mock Rookie Race on Friday and that went well. After entering through turn 1, I resumed a normal practice session pace and finished the afternoon.
Saturday morning's group 3 practices were another matter entirely. After a few relaxed laps in my first warm up session, I started to increase my pace and noticed that the Ducati was seriously stuttering through several RPM ranges. This behavior continued through the second practice session as well. I'm not certain when this happened however at some point my bike threw an exhaust valve error and after several attempts to stop/start the engine the code went away.
I did the rookie race and had a pretty good start at the line. I quickly realized that I must be out in front of the acceleration curve of the riders in front of me a little more aggressively in order to match their increasing break away speed. Shortly into turn three, a red flag was thrown and we had a restart. I ran the rest of this race to completion without incident and would up with a best lap time of 01:42
I ran in Novice Formula 1 (race 6) and generally felt confident in that run although I was still running lap times in the low 1:40's. My engine was still really rough and it made it really difficult to accelerate hard with the the bike bucking. I did a real bonehead move and pitted out on the white flag when I mistook it for the checked flag.
I participated in one more race Saturday, the Novice Formula 2 (race 9) while I was much more consistent with how deep I was driving into the turns I was starting to feel a bit fatigued. The temperature dropping a few degrees by the afternoon and the bike seemed to be running a little bit differently. Seemed like the break-up range shifted down by about 1500 RPM and this made it a little easier to getting closer to decent engine speeds. Times were still a little pretty sluggish with 1:40 as my best lap. Although the times were much more consist.
Sunday I only participated in 1 race, the Novice Starter 1. I blew the launch and stalled the bike. When I tried to restart it on the grid it started but only ran about a couple hundred RPMs and stuttered like crazy. I must have really flooded it or some of that nature. I moved to the sideline and waited for the rest of the wave to exit while I tried to restart. She finally started and rev'd up slowly to a normal idle. The track official asked me if I still wanted to try and get into the race and off I went. Although the fudged start shoot my confidence a bit, I completed the race without further incident and would up running consistent 1:38s.
All in all it was an awesome weekend. Seacoast took my cycle home with them to try and sort out my engine woes so hopefully I'll be all set for the next practice sessions and I can work on the things that need improving and improve the stuff that ain't so rotten.
Thanks everyone for helping me get through my first race weekend ever!
-diz
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