Joey and I exiting the Rattlesnake on 250s

We had a lot of fun at the track this weekend despite the 100-105º heat. I got to the track with the 250 at about noon on friday and did four 20 minute sessions with Lone Star Track Days. I started off with 14:46 gearing and wasn’t getting into 6th and the bike wasn’t pulling 5th very well, so i bumped it down to 13:46. This felt much better to me and it would pull 6th gear all the way into big bend and all the way into tombstone.

Saturday morning started off well with a round of practice before we started the F4 sprint. I was lined up 3rd row center and got a great start off the line, but once again got out powered by most of the field around 3rd or 4th gear by the time we got to turn one (big bend). I held my position after that and battled it out with another 250, Joey, for the rest of the race. I’d pull up along side him coming out of little bend and the rattlesnake and have a good run on him, but he’d motor away from me once we got upright. It was close at the line, but I couldn’t quite get him and I finished 7th.

Joey and I in the Rattlesnake

After a bit of lobbying, myself and a couple of other riders were able to get the E Superstock race moved to saturday after the mini sprints. I was a bit nervous that the turnout wouldn’t be very good (especially since there wasn’t a mini endurance this weekend), but we had seven 250s at the starting line (much better than the two entries we usually have). I had pole position and got another great start off the line only to be beaten to turn one again. I found myself in fourth, once again battling with Joey. This time it was for a podium spot. I tried as hard as i could to get around him, but no matter how much corner speed i carried, he still motored away from me on the exits. He weighs about half as much as I do, so he’s got a bit of an advantage there, but i suspect that the biggest problem is the gearing. It seems that a lot of the 250s are gearing the bikes to only run 5th gear instead of 6th. I’m not sure what ratios all the gears have, but i suspect that maybe 3rd and 4th pull better than 4th and 5th and that might be why i’m getting beat on the starts and corner exits. We’re going to gear it back up in Hallett next month and see what kind of difference that makes.

I’m pretty happy with my lap times for the weekend though. In the E Superstock race i ran a 1:35 ever lap with a fastest time of 1:35.1. The race leader was running consistant 1:32s and second place was running 34-35s.

I had the Hero camera set up on the bike for the E Superstock race, and had it up and running when i got to the line, but i asked dad if he could see the little red light flashing (indicates that its recording) and for some reason he pushed the shutter button and it stopped recording. the starter was about to do the board/flag sequence so i didn’t have any time to mess with it and missed recording the race.

Thanks to Bruce Marriner, CMRA #164, for the photos.