Tom's Race Report from Buttonwillow - AFM

04/03/05 Buttonwillow, CA

This will be my longest report. I actually want to type it all down because years from now, I wouldn't believe it unless I read it!

First and foremost, my largest thank-you ever in racing goes out to Pat. If it wasn't for him, I definitely would not have had my first AFM weekend. How he ever talked Rian into running to Indio on a Friday night is amazing. Thank-you both!

I have to start back a few weeks. After the first CCS weekend we went the very next weekend to Arroyo Seco. The week we came back I was seriously thinking about not racing this year. Work has me so busy I was thinking I don't have the time to do it right. Instead of going to the gym at 4am I was coming right to the office, ya-da-ya-da, both were suffering.

Anyway, coming to this weekend. Since I have been so busy Rian and Pat got my bike ready in Pat's garage. We only got the bike back on Monday night. Matt Bollman (thanks Matt!) had my Data Acquisition dash and system installed for me. The new system removed the stock dash and would need to be configured Saturday, and then I would need to figure it out. Pat also located an extra set of wheels on eBay for me and got them Powder coated red. Rian mounted the tires sent in from Alex and I just needed to balance them Saturday morning. They were the new Power race pr5/pr2 which I had never run before so we (Rian & Pat) adjusted the ride height. Thursday I had Trevor install a new DVD in the truck because of all the long trips I was planning on making this year and this was the first Sally was coming on. I thought it would be neat to surprise her with the DVD and movies to watch on the boring trip. Nobody else was going to make the trip although Mike was up there with Tom and somebody else and he said he would stay the weekend and help out in the pits (thanks Mike!).

Thursday morning I did not have any heat in my truck. I called my buddy that works at Ford and he asked if I had any water in it. When I checked it, it was low so I added some. he said sometimes when you put a heavy load on the truck that the water leaks out of the over flow, just keep it full and it should be ok. Thursday night load up at Pat's, hook up the trailer and drag it to my house. Friday morning have a few meetings run all around town, truck is fine, get done around 10:30. Get to the house, hook up trailer and surprise Sally with the DVD and movies and head west with a smile around 11:30; not bad! We were both looking forward to getting away.

After going across the state line heading to Indio the radio doesn't have many stations. We were going to wait till dark and pop in a movie but said what the hell "pop one in". Now this is cool cruising down I-10 movie playing feet up doing a modest 75mph and heading to a great race weekend at Buttonwillow. 10 minutes into the movie I think I see smoke from the back of the truck. A couple of more times I step on the gas and I see smoke? I'm thinking this is not good. On the downhill into Indio the smoke is bellowing out of the pipe! Towards the end of the hill the temp starts to rise. I pull into the Loves and fill the overflow. Knowing that something is really bad I figure we can make it to the Ford dealer I remember was down the road a little on I-10. The truck does fine down there temp wise but smoke is still pouring out. I pull to the service dept. tell the guy what's up and can I rent a truck to pull my trailer to Buttonwillow? At this point I call Mike and tell him we might not make it, he better get a ride back with Tom. The rental guy says there is nobody that will rent you a truck to pull a trailer. I was thinking of putting the bike in the back of a rented pick up with just the things I needed to race but the trucks they had were too small. I ask if I could just leave the trailer there till my truck is fixed, I'll rent a car and go home. He says I can't leave the trailer but there is a U-Haull down the road. I figure we'll pull the trailer there hook up to a truck and bring my truck back to Ford and be on our way. Problem is we can't find the U-Haul place and the truck overheats again! So into a store, buy more water put it in the truck and smoke all the way back to the Ford dealer where I unhook the trailer in the new car lot and pull the truck to the service desk and that's where it stayed. The service guy was nice enough to say he had an Expedition and would bring us and the trailer to the U-Haul place 30 miles away that rented trucks and was open till 8pm. Off we go to the U-Haul in Cathedral City where he left us cause he has to pick up his son. There was no motel or rental car dealer within 15miles. We try different options at the U-Haul dealer; 1. leave trailer, rent pick up, take what we need and go to Buttonwillow=$700, 2. Rent box truck go to button with trailer return truck Monday morning=$700., 3. Rent box truck, tow trailer to Phoenix have Sally follow me back Sat and return truck $700.(all these plus gas!), 4. Rent box truck tow trailer to Phoenix, go to bed =$759. I take option 4: tow trailer to Phoenix and go to bed. The guy says go make sure the truck will hook to your trailer before we do the paper work. I hour later they get a second truck to work (the first truck kept blowing fuses when you put the lights on). While we were waiting there, Sally says "why don't we rent the truck for 1 day $19.95 plus mileage, take the trailer to a motel bring the truck back tomorrow, rent a car, call somebody tomorrow whatever, but do it from the motel. Great idea! I tell the guy we'll take the truck 1 day local. Also while he's working on the truck I decide to call Pat and ask him to call Alex and tell him I won't be there so they can give my spot to someone on the waiting list and that I would settle up with him on the tires I owed him for. Pat says why didn't you call me earlier? He says I'll bring the Tahoe, I say don't worry about it. He says I didn't work on your bike all week for you to miss the races. He told me to call him in 15 minutes.

We finally get the truck and leave the U-haul place around 8:30-9:00 pm! and head to the motel which we can't find heading east on I-10 so head west and find one by the windmill farm. I never call Pat back cause I don't want him to drive all that way and then back again and about 30 minutes later he calls and says he's on his way with Rian behind him! They get there around 1:30am and get back to Phoenix around 5:30am! Sally and I get up and are at the U-Haul place when they open at 7 am and high tail it to Buttonwillow but with LA traffic we get there around noon Saturday.
 

Ok the race stuff. There are about 250 participants! the place is packed and I am told it is a light turn out! We finally find a spot and set up pit. I get the stock wheels off the bike that have the s2/m2 on them, get the new wheels with the powers balanced, and mount them up and get a total of 11 Practice laps in on Saturday. I also find out the magnet that was mounted on my stock wheels for the new dash is not on the new wheels, so off I go to Alex and have him put new powers on the stock wheels and switch the front. Now my head is spinning, these guys are all fast, no slouches like in CCS. Out of a 77 bike grid I would be very surprised if there was anybody over 2:18's with most under 2:10's, many under 2's. Granted most of these guys only do 3 tracks but fast is FAST. Get to bed early and feel unprepared for Sunday. Between the new style tires, not having the dash sorted, all the nonsense getting there, and only 11 laps, none below 2:01 I don't feel like I should be in the Formula Pacific race which is for the fastest riders and you need to be below 2:02. Get 5 Practice laps Sunday morning to scrub in the tires.

My first race is Race 2 unlimited GP. Lots of bikes ... I'm on row 11, get a good start, pile into T1 where everybody holds their line, moves up a few into T2 then just cruise around with head in my ass. I never got braking points, shift points, turn in points the previous 16 laps so I start to figure those out for the up coming races. I think it was a 55 bike grid and I got 39th, oh well.

The next race, race 8, is the Formula Pacific...oh boy, here we go. Again 11th row with about 60 bikes and a good start, but hell I was no where near the pace of 1:48's! I followed a few for lines and even held up a few for 5 laps and decided to pull in save the tires as I was getting conformable on the track and really was looking to make my mark on the Formula 40 race, last race of the day.

My next race was unlimited Superbike. Another large grid, great start but going into T1 somebody had a shift lever broken off and the rod flew right at my front tire! I threw it into T1 wondering if the tire was ok and took the outside to T2 and "threw" (thanks Matt!) it into T2 for a very good position going into 3. Now this is more like it, I'm feeling good and riding aggressive!! There are 2 guys right in front of me and as we settle in I know I'm faster and need to get around, just then a guy that was quite a bit faster and must have gotten held up at the start blows around us and instinctively I follow him, passing the other 2. He was at such a pace when he passed that he gaped me by about 10 bikes and I got determined to get on his back wheel. For 1 and a half laps I was reeling him in, he had 3 bikes on me when I threw it down the track after Riverside coming down the hill. What pisses me off is that I don't know why I lost the front, it was like it hit ice, it should have stuck. I was neutral throttle just about ready to get on the gas. So that was the end...no F-40, hole in the radiator, bent rear break, trashed upper, tank, tail and a bunch of dirt. No damage to me. It was the 3rd to last race so they left my bike out there till the day was over so we couldn't pack up early.

When I get back to the pit Sally tells me Tommy broke his collar bone in a dirt bike crash in Phoenix (it's really bad). On the way back through Indio the wind was so bad we had to pull into a rest area where we slept for a few hours. After we got back on the road for about an hour the left rear trailer tire blew. We changed that and about an hour later (about 7am Monday morning) one of my foreman calls and says he cut his finger with the saw and is on the way to the hospital. We arrived home at 8:30 am Monday morning.

That talk about not racing at the top of this thing, forget it! Now I'm pissed. If I wanted to stop it was going to be on my terms not because of all these circumstances.

I gotta thank Sally, what a trooper to stay up beat (and quiet when I was about to blow!). Pat for bringing the Tahoe, working on the bike and letting me use his truck this week. Rian for the work on the bike and the trip to nowhere! Mike for being willing to stay at Button and help in the pit. Brian for putting all this stuff up on the site. Alex for answering all my stupid questions about AFM and my racing friends that support and encourage me.

Tom Savoca
#151