Brian's Race Report from Firebird West

11/20/05 Chandler, AZ
 

To be or not to be. That was the question. As I said before (read Arroyo report), I had pretty much already locked up the Heavyweight SuperSport championship for 2005. All I had to do was enter the race and complete a full lap. The main question for this weekend was going to be if I could win the Heavyweight Superbike title. I had a slim lead over Bryan Land coming in, and had to do very well to keep that lead.

When I showed up Saturday morning, I was amazed at the turn out. This was going to be the most racers at any event I can remember participating in. In addition, there were lots of fast guys visiting who hadn't raced with us this season. Lots of AMA pros and guys capable of winning the money race, including Mark Ladesma, Scott Jensen, Kane Lasky, Bryan Land, David Siminski, Brian Hall, Hunter Shingler, Tristan Schoenewald and more. Unfortunately, Mark was only sticking around for Saturday, but the others intended to race. It was going to be a FAST and fun weekend.

Saturday - Practice

Practice on Saturday was chaos. I missed the first practice taking my time setting up the pits. I had done a track day at this track 2 weeks ago and knew where to go. When I got on the track for the second session, I was amazed at how crowded it was. There were 1/3 too many racers out there. You couldn't get a clean line anywhere. What was worse was the combination of expert practice, meaning 1000cc motorcycles were practicing with 125cc two strokes. It was almost too dangerous. Making it worse, the track doesn't have a lot of run off in some places, so when guys went down they had to red flag the session to clear it up. I don't remember too many sessions without a red flag. I myself had a little dirt track moment when I tried to carry too much speed through the last turn onto the main straight and just ran out of track/talent. I went into the dirt and had to weave through some 3 foot tall cones in the soft dirt. That was very sketchy as I kept waiting for the front to tuck. Luckily I made it back on track without crashing.

At lunch, I decided to keep my word to myself and actually try to work on my suspension setup. I got Evan Steel, who used to work on the Emgo bikes, to set up my suspension. According to him, my front suspension was close, but the rear was WAY off. It had sag at 45 when it should be closer to 25, meaning I was 20 mm off! After he adjusted my suspension and told me to loose weight or get a stiffer rear spring (haha), I immediately felt how much taller and stiffer the suspension felt. It was night and day. Since I hadn't touched my suspension all year, I had little confidence going out after this but knew I had to just fight through it.

Before lunch I made it down to 1:03.1 range (if I remember right), which was faster than the 1:03.9 I had done at the track day 2 weeks ago. After lunch, I could not make it down below 1:03.5 again. I was just not confident with the new setup and was very hesitant pushing it. With the fast guys doing 59s and the regular guys I race with doing 1:01s, I was way off pace. I went home frustrated with myself.

Sunday - Racing

On Sunday, I came with my game face on. I was not going to let my hesitation stop me from riding well. I also wanted to try adjusting my gearing as I was getting killed out of the corners on Saturday. I'd lose 2-3 bike lengths immediately leaving a corner (i.e. on drive). I decided to add a tooth to the rear so I could get more drive. Luckily, Mike was early on Sunday and took care of mounting this up for me! Thanks Mike! In morning practice, I felt good on the bike and just didn't think about the suspension changes. The gearing change also made a big difference in the right way. I don't know what my times were, but I felt good on the bike.

Since my first race wasn't until after lunch, I had to sit for a long time. That part always sucks, so I'm gonna like next year when we race both days and practice both mornings. That actually ended up being a good thing this week.

In the morning practice session, Tom's transmission blew and he wasn't going to be able to ride his bike this weekend. That sucked for Tom. In addition, he had to enter some races that required SuperSport rules in order to win championships. Because Pat didn't have his SuperSport wheels, I let Tom ride my bike in 2 races this weekend. He took my bike out for Unlimited GP qualifying to get some practice on it. Unluckily for him, I had just set it up for my weight, so it was way too stiff for his lighter weight. As usual, Tom rode well and adjusted fairly quickly. He wasn't up to his normal pace, but this was to be expected on a new bike with too stiff a setup.

Because Tom was racing my bike in 2 races, I decided to go ahead and throw a new rear tire on the bike. I had new tires mounted for Saturday as those old tires were just too shagged to push. I thought they might last all day, but not with more races added. It was probably safer that way anyways.

My first race was Unlimited Superbike. It was just a practice for me really, as I cared more about the Heavyweight races. I also had to break in a new rear tire. I got a decent start but was hesitant pushing into turn 1 and come out of turn 1 in 4th place. I raced the rest of the race in 4th and came up on amateur lappers quickly. Unfortunately, on the last lap I made it by one lapper but got held up lapping last years #1 plate holder. Ted Rich demonstrated more balls (or insanity) and shoved his way through past me and Matt Buck. I tried to catch back up to Ted to get 4th back, but I just ran out of time. Ted might not have gotten by me without lappers, but we'll never know for sure. I finished in 5th with a best time of 1:01.9. The last two laps were 1:04 because of lappers.

I had to rush off the track to get back to the pits because Tom had to race in the next race on my bike. We got to the pits, changed transponders, threw his numbers on the bike and sent him out to race all within 1 minute. It was like being in a quick change pit during an endurance race. Kinda a rush.

My next race was the big one for the weekend for me; Heavyweight Superbike. I had a nice lead of 24 points on Bryan Land coming in, which meant I had to get 3rd if he won, 5th if he finished 2nd, etc. I got a good start on this one and went through turn 1 in 4th, but a close 4th. I usually give a little space to guys (a nasty bad habit) but this time I stuck right on their tail. At 1/2 way, I looked back and had a nice lead on #13 Jason Parker. As I went into turn 1, I tried to brake really late and the rear end just got wild on me because of the huge bumps in the braking zone. I got it settled down but went through turn 1 way too fast and felt the front pushing as I tried to trail brake too late. I left off the brakes and went wide but stayed on the track. Then, for some weird reason, my bike died!! I rolled around the track trying frantically to restart it as 4-6 amateurs and 2 experts passed me. I finally figured out that the bike on/off switch was in the off position, got that fixed, found neutral and started the bike back up. Now I was mad. I might have just given up the championship. I pushed REALLY hard, passing amateurs in crazy places. I had my eyes on getting back in front of the 2 experts in front of me. After passing back 3-4 of the amateurs, I came up to Mike and the first expert in front of me. I had to stuff Mike (sorry!) and then passed the expert in a tight pass too. I kept pushing hard trying to get back by Parker, but just ran out of time. I was making ground on him because I could see his position in the carousel on each lap, but not enough time. After the race I found out that had I not pushed back into 5th position, I would have lost the championship! I'm glad I got mad!! Bryan Land ended up finishing 2nd behind Kane Lasky.

Before the race, Bryan came up to me and asked about the championship and where we stood. He wanted to win the overall championship and didn't want to take one from me. While I'd never let him give it up to me, I totally had to respect his gesture. That was very respectable and appreciated.  Thanks Bryan! I told him to win the race because I wanted to earn what I win.

Pat should have also been in that race, which would have made it fun and more challenging for me, but he decided not to race it for some reason. I guess we'll never know who would have won that mini-race.

I came into the pits pissed with myself and my bike, but settled down when I realized I had still won the championship. Whoo hoo!! Pole position all next year in Heavyweight Superbike (new CCS SW rule)!!

After a long break, it was time for me to race again. This time, I only had to do 1 lap to clinch the Heavyweight SuperSport title. As I pulled to the grid, I saw Ted Rich and Jason Parker in this race. These are the two guys who beat me in the last 2 races and I didn't want to let them do it again. My plan to do 2 laps and come in fizzled as I put my game face on. This time I got a really good start and went into turn 1 in 3rd place, tight behind Bryan Land and Brian Hall. Those two checked out after a lap, but I kept pushing hard. I ran a really good race and never saw anyone except lappers. I was told I had a big margin on 4th place, and times seemed to confirm that. The top two were running 59.2s and I was the only one in the 1:01 range. I easily locked up this championship and I made up for earlier errors.

On the cool down lap, my bike died again!! Definitely time to move that on/off switch. Kinda weird that it happened twice in one day and never the rest of the season.

I was originally registered for the last race, Unlimited SuperSport, but Tom needed to ride my bike to get the points. I didn't mind...I was tired and didn't need the points.

All in all, it was a great day. None of the BSR team crashed and we wrapped up quite a few championships. I also won the #6 overall Southwest region number plate for 2006 if I want it, but I think I'll keep my #34 (top 10 are assigned based on how you finish the year before).

Unfortunately, lots of other people crashed. Our friend Siminski crashed and broke his foot (I think). I even saw one bike on fire. It was a crazy weekend.

I want to thank my wife for coming out and bringing my baby boy. It's always awesome having them at the track. I also want to thank my Dad for coming out Saturday to watch. On Sunday, lots of family came to watch, which is always cool. Thanks Van, Gail and Christianne.

I want to thank my teammates Mike, Pat and Tom for all their help this weekend and this year. It has been a great year and would not have been the same without them. Its gonna be a lot of fun next year with Mike moving up to expert. Should be some close and fun racing.

I also want to thank my sponsors. Motorex USA, Vesrah, Vortex, Sidi, LP Team Privateer, Chicken Hawk, SpeedyMoto, All Out Graphics, Helmet Harbor, Pipe City, Desert Truss, Savoca Construction, and VaporBlue.

Brian Kirkland #34