Brian's Race Report from Buttonwillow, CA

11/07/04 Buttonwillow Raceway

After my bad luck last time at Buttonwillow, I was eager to get back out to this track and prove I could do well here. Last time, I was taken out in the first lap of my first race by another racer's crash. That weekend, I was on track to do very well. This time, I had things to prove.

In addition, I would be bringing a new toy to Buttonwillow. The day we left for the track, I had a new race bike delivered to me, and I planned to race it that weekend. I was lucky enough to get a race prepped bike from Vesrah. It was one of their sprint bikes; an 04 Suzuki GSX-R750!

Thursday

Thursday night, we all met at Pat's to load up the trailer. Pat and Mike had prior family commitments, so they weren't going to be joining us for this round. We would have 2 other racers coming with Tom and I though. Matt Bollman and Tom Boge. To be honest, my new bike was supposed to be delivered Thursday, so I could do a once over on it, but weather delays made it not arrive until Friday. That meant that Thursday night we just loaded up Tom Boge and Matt Bollman's gear along with my RC51. It was a long night hoping my bike would arrive on time.

Friday

Luckily, I had taken the whole day off so we could leave early for the 8 hr drive. I ended up having to go to the distribution center to pick up my new bike, instead of waiting for them to deliver it. I picked it up at 8am and had it back to Pat's by 9:30. Since we were planning to leave at 11:30, and because there was a lot of final packing/loading to do, I didn't have time to do anything other than un-crate my bike and load it into the trailer. Before starting it, I would need to put  coolant in it, connect the battery, add fuel and hope for the best.....all at the track. Kinda risky, except I know Vesrah bikes are well taken care of.

We got on the road at 12 and headed out for Buttonwillow. With Tom's lead foot, we actually made it there by 6:30 pm after losing an hour to the time change, leaving ourselves enough time to unload in the pit, go to dinner, and get to bed at a decent hour. This is a first for Team BSR...we usually arrive very late for road trips.

Saturday

Ok, goal of the day was to get my bike ready to ride. 2nd goal was to learn to ride it. Luckily, that bike is so well taken care of that I didn't have to do anything other than what was expected. It started right away (after I found the ground wire for the power commander) and ran great all weekend!

After I got it running, I decided to stick with my plan to race the Suzuki in 4 of my 5 races for the weekend. In the 5th race, I had to ride a twin (SuperTwins). I did this because I knew it would take a while to get used to the new bike.

After missing the first session of the day (working on my Suzuki), I took the RC51 out for it's only practice session of the weekend. I wanted to ride it to make sure the electrical fixes I had put in place worked, and to re-learn the track. After the first session, I was well off my previous pace, but it was VERY cold and slippery. With rain threatening all weekend, the temps were in the low 60's at best.

For the rest of the day, I rode the Suzuki. Man, this bike is AWESOME! It's so well set up that I didn't touch a thing on the settings. I might make a couple small tweaks for next weekend's races, but for this weekend I was focused on bigger issues....learning when to shift, etc. Coming from a twin to an inline 4 was not as challenging as I expected. In fact, I actually kept the RPMs too high in certain places that were not good. After about the 2nd session, I had figured out my shift points and was happy. I ended the day 1 second faster than last time we raced here, with a time of 2:03. My goal for the weekend was to break under 2 mins.

After practice, I changed tires on the Suzuki and put Michelins on them. With help from Dale Keifer from Racers Edge, I was able to adjust the geometry on the bike to compensate for the different tire dimensions.

That night, we got to bed EARLY! I think we all were so tired we made it to sleep by 9pm. Granted, that's 10pm in AZ time, but still...early for us.

Sunday

I was wide awake by 4am. That will teach me to go to bed early!! ;-) By the time we actually got to the track, I was rearing to go. I had to verify the ride height changes on the Suzuki were good, but more importantly I wanted to do well racing.

After some minor issues with not being put in the correct grids, I got everything straightened away. In expert Unlimited GP qualifying, Matt Bollman met his time goal for the weekend and ran a 1:53, qualifying ahead of AMA regular Nick Moore! Go Matt! He later crashed, but was not hurt. He'll be out at Firebird next weekend.

In the 25 minute GTO race, I had a great time. I ran in 2nd or 3rd place for about 80% of the race! Near the end, I started to get very tired and started making mental errors. My pace fell way off and I decided to chill out and finish the race upright. It was only the 1st race of the day. On the last couple laps, I made a couple mistakes and got passed by 2 riders. I was able to run faster than they were, but I was unable to get by them again before the end of the race. I finished in a decent 6th place and come VERY close to making my goal for lap times. I ran 2:00.0 in that race.

In HeavyWeight Superbike and HeavyWeight SuperSport, I finished in 2nd place. These were big wins for me because it's better than I've done in these races in the past. I had some very fun battles with a couple guys, including Tom Boge, and won 2nd in the HW Superbike on the last lap. 1st place was an ex-expert running 1:53 times....not catching him (this weekend). In HW Superbike I met my goal with a lap time of 1:59.58. In fact, I had a couple laps below 2 mins.

The last race of the day for my Suzuki was the Unlimited GP money race. This race was ran back to back with the HW Superbike race, so I was a little tired when it started. I got a good start and was running 3rd for the first 3 laps (of 5). On lap 4, I missed a gear and someone got by me. He held me up enough to let another guy get a drive on both of us. On the last lap, I got back by one of them and was within 1 bike length of the other for 4th place. I ended up in 5th place, my highest finish of the year in this class. I also won $90 for this finish, so I was happy! To top it off, I ran a few laps in the 1:58s!!

For the last race of the day, I was racing Tom on my RC51. To win the title in this class, I needed to finish 1st and have the class leader finish in 6th or worse. I have a good record in this class (lots of wins), but I missed a couple rounds earlier in the season and had to play catch-up. Basically, for the BS Racing lead, whomever won (Tom or I), they would beat the other guy. We had 3 points separating us coming in.

This ended up being the funnest race of the day, and maybe the year. Tom got a great start and put a couple experts and an amateur between him and I into turn 1-2. I quickly got around the other riders and attached on the back of Tom. He was running WAY better in this race than he had all day. I think that RC he has is set up perfectly for him (I can't wait until he gets his CBR set up too). I got by Tom coming onto the straight and powered around the outside of him in the 2 foot gap he left open. He got back by me on my worst corner of the track, the last blind hill, after the "Riverside" turn. There were a couple more passes back and forth in the race, but on the last lap I got back by Tom in between the first blind hill and the kink before the last wheelie bump (sorry...racers will know where this is)...it's a very short straight, and I kinda had to stuff it in there, but that's ok because it's a fast turn. I got a great drive through Riverside and to my worst corner and didn't see Tom. I figured I would pull out the win. When I came up to the last corner, I had no brakes left, but I looked back and saw that Tom was about 50 yards behind me. I took it easy braking and got a good line to the start/finish. Unfortunately, I was in the wrong gear and my RPMs were too low. Tom was able to get a good drive out of that corner and he beat me to the line by 1/2 a bike length.  A GREAT race! I've never had that much passing back and forth in a race, and it was nice to finish to close with Tom. We both ran times of 2:00 flat in that race.

In hind-sight, I wish I had taken more time to learn the shifting points, braking points, etc on the RC51. I was able to run faster times than Tom, but on the RC51 I messed up with shifting all over the place. The RC51 and the Suzuki are very different bikes. I only got the shifting coming onto the front straight 1 time the entire SuperTwins race. Oh well, that's racing and Tom won fair and square. Congrats Tom! Unfortunately, the class leader finished 5th, clinching his title. If he had finished 6th, we could have won it.

Conclusions

I learned that moving from a twin to an inline 4 cylinder bike is not that big of a deal...at least in my case and going to this bike. The biggest issue is figuring out the different shift points, both in relation to where you are on the track and what your RPMs are.

This new bike is AWESOME! It's faster (more horsepower) and lighter (by 65 lbs) than my RC51. It's also set up so well that it feels like I'm riding a couch. It's unbelievable. The guys at Vesrah really do put together a GREAT bike.

Tom wrapped up the Amateur Formula 40 Championship in the CCS Pacific AND Southwest regions last month, but this month there were a couple more titles up for grabs. We weren't able to pull out the title in the SuperTwins class (too small of a grid), but we took 2nd and 3rd in that class. In HeavyWeight Superbike, Tom should have wrapped that one up (un-official). I fell just short of winning the HeavyWeight SuperSport title, but my good friend Eric Pelley won it. Tom was doing well in GTO, but I don't know how the points ended there. We'll see soon. So far, we think Tom's wrapped up 3 titles and has 3 more he's leading up next week!

Congrats to my friend Eric Pelley who wrapped up a TON of championships, including overall amateur champion!

I want to say a special thanks to Mark Junge from Vesrah for selling me such a great bike and working so hard to make sure I got it in time to race it this weekend. He went above and beyond and earned my continuing business.

I want to thank everyone who came by and helped me set up the new bike and/or helped in the pit. Especially Matt Bollman, Tom Boge, Tom, Dale Keifer, A.J., and a few other racers I met but forget their names right now. I also want to thank Tom for doing all the driving (we got home at 3am Monday morning!). Also, Tom, Tom Boge and Matt for the food, fun and racing. Special thanks to Mike Coberly for giving up his crate ;-) Lastly, I'd like to thank our sponsors Helmet Harbor, Pipe City, Desert Truss, Motorex, LP, and VaporBlue.

Brian Kirkland #34