Brian's Race Report from Firebird East

11/14/04 Chandler, AZ

What a busy two weeks. Last weekend, Tom and I raced in Buttonwillow for the final round of the Pacific Region, and this weekend we're racing in the final round of the Southwest region here in Chandler. Because the race weekends were basically back to back, we didn't have to do much preparation between the races. All I really wanted to do on my bike was change the gearing. At Buttonwillow, I ran a 16 tooth front sprocket with a 41 tooth rear sprocket because that's how the bike was delivered to me (remember, I got it only a couple hours before leaving for the races). It was not geared right for Buttonwillow either, but I didn't want to mess with anything as I had my plate full learning to ride the new bike. For Firebird East, I wanted to add a bigger sprocket to the rear so I would get better drive out of the corners and because of how short and tight East is. On Thursday night, I went over to Pat's house and put on a new DID ERV2 chain to go with the 43 tooth rear sprocket I had. My old chain was not long enough to accommodate the larger sprocket. Once that was done, I loaded up my bikes and gear and was all set to go.

Earlier in the week, I had to visit the doctors because I had a lot of pain coming from what I thought were bug bites on my back and underarm. Turns out that I have shingles. For those that don't know what shingles are, here's the 10 second version. Basically, when you get chicken pox, they never actually go away. The virus goes dormant in your nerve center in the spine. At some point in your future, stress (or maybe other factors) can cause it to re-activate. When it does, it's called shingles. It's the same chicken pox virus, but it travels on the nerves and nerve endings. That's why it hurts so bad. My prescription includes anti-virus medicine, some sort of steroid based cream, and 500mg Vicodin pills (hehe). The good thing about shingles is that it's not as contagious as chicken pox. People who have had chicken pox are not at risk. People who've never had them are at a slight risk, but not as bas as from someone with chicken pox. That's what my doctor told me at least. I wasn't sure I'd be 100% this weekend, but I still wanted to try. This would be just another road block on this crazy season I've had.

Friday

Friday night I went over to Pat's house to hang out for a while with the guys. One of our sponsors, Jason from Section8Superbike.com, was visiting for the weekend. He was staying with Pat and was going to race Pat's newer bike, the 999R. Jason races his own 999 back in Michigan, but I was still surprised to hear that Pat had offered up his new baby for Jason to race. Turns out that Jason is a really fast expert and he did well on Pat's bike. Best thing was that he didn't crash it and he was able to even win a race on it this weekend. Jason's a cool guy, and I'd recommend his shop for any Ducati purchase.

That night, 2 of my friends from San Diego showed up. Brian Short, who also came out a month ago for Firebird Main, and Jeremy Brown were both going to stay at my house. Brian is very fast on his R6, but had not been to East before. Jeremy didn't bring his bike out, so he was going to wrench for us in the pits. Jeremy is our Cheetah bodywork contact, and he always gives us good deals on his product. I can even help you get a discount if you race and if you're really nice to me (haha). They showed up late Friday night, and it wasn't long until we all hit the sack.
 

This weekend Mike was not going to be able to join us. We missed him out there, but next season he should be 100% ready to go on his new Suzuki GSX-R 750 (same as mine!).

Saturday

Saturday morning we got to the track and got ready to race. Weather reports had predicted rain all weekend, but Saturday was a gorgeous day. We were excited. Everyone got teched and ready without incident. During the riders meeting, Randy (from CCS) informed us that we would not be running the track config we had always ran in the past. They decided to get rid of the Bus Stop turn in favor of a new section of track that cut it out. Basically, about 50 yards before the hard left at the Bus Stop, there is now a fast sweeper to the left that then hooks up to the old right. The right turn is not quite as tight as before. The new layout is about 3 seconds faster that the old layout, we think. This decision was a good one because the Bus Stop was a place where a lot of people crash (including me, back in May). The new section makes the entire track feel like it flows better, and makes the track overall a lot more fun. The only negative of this switch is that Tom, Pat and I had said at the beginning of the year that our goal for the year was to run times in the low 1:03, high 1:02 range on the old track. If we were successful, then we'd feel comfortable moving up to Expert next season. With the new layout, we would not be able to as accurately gauge our progress over the year. Still, since the fast guys were running about 3 seconds a lap faster with this configuration, we figure we made it to our goal (more to come later).

Saturday practice was normal practice. Pat had to work on some issues with clutch oil leaking on his 996. Jason had to get used to Pat's 999R. Brian Short had to learn the track. Tom, Pat and I had to learn the new config. Nothing new and nothing major. By the end of the day, we were all psyched about racing. I was experiencing a lot of front end chatter when hard on the brakes, but I believe the chatter actually originated from my rear tire skipping. I have this problem where I've never been able to blip the throttle on down shifting well. In fact, I don't do it at all...I just feather the clutch to compensate for the RPMs. On the RC51, I could get away with it surprisingly. On the new Gixxer, this is a big problem. Everyone I've talked to says that the Gixxer is notorious for this problem, and is worse than twin engine bikes (surprisingly). I really do need to learn to blip the throttle, but I just don't see how guys manage to do that while braking hard for a corner...all my body weight is on my arms, which is wrong, I know (need to use my knees more to grab the tank). Anyways, that chatter hampered me all weekend because I could not brake as hard or as consistently into the 2 hard braking corners as I wanted to. I lost a lot of time there. Another problem I had was gearing. The gearing I selected was not optimum, but again I didn't want to mess with anything at the track. I was on the rev limiter in 2 places that really caused me to loose some drive. So, I have 2 things to work on in the off season...blipping and gearing.

Saturday night the guys all went out to eat, but I was unable to join them as I had promised my wife we'd go by USA Baby to see their "huge sale" they were having on baby furniture. Our first baby is due in February, and we didn't have any furniture or bedding purchased for him yet. We ended up spending a lot of money that night, but now we can start setting up his room. Crisis averted ;-) I'm not sure I was much help that night though, as I was exhausted. After furniture shopping, I went over to Pat's house to pick up Brian and Jeremy and we all hit the hay.

Sunday

Sunday morning I am the walking dead. I walked out of my room to wake up Brian and Jeremy only to find Brian sitting on my couch, showered, bushy tailed and bright eyed, and reading Road Racing World!! Insane. We got to the track and went out to morning practice without any issues. I was entered in 5 races. I would be racing the Gixxer in the Heavyweight Superbike, Heavyweight SuperSport, Unlimited GP and GTO. I would be racing my RC51 in it's final race, SuperTwins (I'm selling it now). Once again, the rain had passed us by and we'd have a slightly colder and windier, but dry day! whoo hoo!

In the GTO, I got a decent start and was in the top 5 going through turn 1. It was a LONG but uneventful race, ending with me in 5th place. I was passed a couple times by the winner of the expert race, but I think I did a good job of staying out of their way as to not interfere with their race. They were only running laps 3-4 seconds faster than me, but with sub-minute laps and a 25 minute race, it doesn't take long for them to lap you. Unfortunately, one of them threw up a rock that punctured my brand new radiator. I don't know what my deal is with projectiles on the race track, but I'm not having good luck. To quote Jason from Section8Superbike, "I think he [Brian] needs to look into a wide receivers job on a NFL team. Obviously everything flying in his direction hits him". haha I did finish the race in 5th, but when I got to the pits my radiator basically blew up and fluid gushed out all over the place. I was totally bummed. Not something you can fix, and no-one in town stocks radiators (I called to check). CCS was nice enough to announce to the pits on the intercom that I was in need of a radiator, but since not many guys race my bike, I was out of luck. I decided to go talk to Dale Keifer, the Michelin rep from Racers Edge. Dale is AWESOME!!! He races my same bike, but wasn't able to race it this weekend. He actually let me take his bike apart and borrow his radiator for the 3 remaining races I had on my Gixxer!! Not many people would do that, and I am totally amazed Dale did. He saved my weekend and earned my business for good (even though he already had it). So, using the good mojo from Dale's radiator, I actually finished as good or better than I had all year in the remaining 3 races on the Gixxer!

In the HeavyWeight SuperSport race, I won! I had a double digit second lead over 2nd and was challenging for 3rd overall in this race when I went through the horseshoe and had the biggest rear tire slide I've ever had. I was at full lean and my rear tire started sliding out. It slide all the way from the apex to the edge of the course before I had to stand it up and ride off into the dirt. It had to have stepped out at least a foot or two, and is probably the closest I've ever been to a high side. It did feel cool to have it stepping out though, even though it was not the right place or time. After that, I decided to chill and maintain my 1st place and let the expert I was racing get ahead. I also had problems keeping my left foot on the peg that race, and I think it was from coolant on my boot. My wife Amy, my cousin Jared and his girlfriend Lindsey actually came out to the races to watch, and my cousin got to see me win the first race he ever saw. That was kinda cool. Was also the first time I won this race all year.

In the HeavyWeight Superbike race, I finished in 2nd place. Don't remember anything eventful about this race. Oh yeah, Pat tried to pull a fast one on the rest of the field and crept forward about a foot or two on the line before the flag waived. Next time you do that Pat, make sure you're not in the front row on the grid!! Doh!

In the Unlimited GP race, I got a GREAT start and actually led the first couple laps. There was some mayhem on the start, which affected how Tom and Brian Short finished, but I got a good start and was not affected by it. Unfortunately, Brian crashed out of the race and took another racer out with him. It was a legal racing incident that happened during a clean racing pass, but the other racer pulled an Aaron Yates and punched Brian twice before Brian retaliated. That kind of action is uncalled for on the race track, and I hope the other racer realizes that. Not a good way to earn respect. Toward the end, I started to fade because this race was held back to back with the HW Superbike race. On the last 3 laps, I started hearing another bike and on the 2nd to last lap I saw him show a wheel going into turn 10 (the last turn). I knew he would have a chance there on the last lap as it was one of the corners I sucked at all weekend with bad chatter. I tried to slow him up in the section before that last turn and get a good drive myself to the last turn where I would try and hold an inside, tight line. It worked, but he was still able to out break me on the outside! I didn't let him get to the apex, because I knew he'd get a good drive if I did. We went through the last corner almost side by side with him 1/2 a bike in front of me. I love my new bike, because I was able to out drive him to the line by about 1 tire or maybe 1/2 a bike length. What a great race!! I finished 2nd, which was my best finish ever in the money race. I won $125. Eric Bartlett was the other racer who finished 3rd in that race, and we had a good laugh together after it. Good fun!

One race later was my last race for 2004, my rookie season. Unfortunately for me, it was going to have to be on my old RC51, which I had only been on for about 5 laps this weekend (during practice Saturday). I got a decent start and was in 2nd place for the first couple laps. Eventually, Pat got by me and took off after Tom. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep up with them as I was 2 seconds a lap slower on this bike because I didn't have any time to practice on it. I finished in a lonely 3rd place.

My goal for the weekend was to break under the 1 minute barrier, but I was unable to do so. I ended up with a fast lap of 1:00.2, and a bunch of other 1:00 flat times. Tom is the only one of us to break under 1:00, but I still beat him in that race :-p Adding the 3 seconds for the new track config, I made it to my goal for 1:03 lap times and feel somewhat comfortable with moving up to expert next season. With well over the required 750 points to automatically move up (2 or 3 times that), I expect to get bumped up next season.

Conclusion
 

I want to extend a special thanks to Dale Keifer at Racers Edge / Michelin. That was totally unexpected and really showed what a stand up guy he is. I owe you one Dale!

I also want to thank our friends Steven and Tim who helped me replace my radiator with Dale's and then put Dale's back on his bike at the end of the day. With their help, we barely got the work done in time for my next race. I want to thank Pat and Tom for everything, including trucking my gear to the track, pushing me on the track, helping out in the pits, gas, etc etc etc. Thanks to my family for coming out to watch, and especially to my wife for supporting me in this passion.

We also had a lot of friends come out and watch, and it was good seeing you all there and meeting new friends.

As always, a special thanks to our sponsors for making this possible: Helmet Harbor, Pipe City, Motorex USA, Michelin, Desert Truss, VaporBlue, LP Team Privateer, Section 8 Superbike, Racers Edge and our new sponsor Vortex.

Thanks to the entire BSR team for a fun season! Congrats to Tom for picking up a TON of championships this year!
 

Brian Kirkland #34