Tom's Report from Infineon
5/28/2006 Sonoma, CA - with AFM
I was looking forward to getting back to Infineon.
Last time here I just missed getting to the 1:44's and really thought
getting into the 43's was doable. Sally and I were bring the rig up this
weekend and leaving it here for the summer. We got a good start Thursday
afternoon and stayed near Buttonwillow Thursday night. We slept in a
little late and got to Randy's around 3 PM, loaded his bikes and headed
for the track. The wind was blowing around 40mph and it was cold! Randy
and I got the new canopy up in the wind and were finished just about
when Pat got there from the airport.
Saturday morning it was COLD! I put on a new rear tire because I really
wanted to push and get right to the 45's in the second session. Well, I
think everybody was thinking they wanted to do better than they did last
month here. The problem was that the weather was colder and it was
windy. That meant the track temp was cold. I think a lot of guys didn't
realize this because there was lot of crashing!! I mean a lot, it was
the most they ever had at and AFM event. Because of this I only got 18
laps on Saturday and only to the 1:47's. This did not look good for the
weekend. On top of that when we got there in the morning I turned to
pick up something in the trailer and my back muscles went into spasm. It
was on my left back rib cage side and it hurt. It never went away and
stills hurts now. I was able to put it out of my head on the track other
than a few turns that it let me know it was injured. Along with that,
for some reason my bike would not quick shift into 3rd? I would have to
back out of the throttle to get it into gear.
Sunday morning I put on new tires and just figured I go for it the best
I could. Practice was OK and only got into the 1:48'S. First race was
Open GP, I am gridded on the second row because I am 10th in points and
finished 7th in the last race. I have been thinking before this race
that I could get behind the fast guys like Mesa and Sarros in this race
and they could pull me along. Getting a good start from the 9th position
was a must. So I get a great start and the first 2 laps I'm in 8th
position. One problem was I partially fried the clutch on the start. My
drives were getting worse and worse and I suck on the brakes, and along
with the shifting problem I went backwards in this race finishing in the
mid teens somewhere. Not a good start. Second race was Open Superbike, I
was gridded 24th in this race. Now I am thinking not to loose points and
get thru this weekend so my future grid positions don't suffer. Pat
tells me to just get the bike off the line then give it throttle. It
works and I actually move up in this race learning to get much better on
the brakes since I know my drives will be bad. Formula 40 I am gridded
17th and I do the same thing. I wind up 11th or 12th and the guys right
in front of me I would past on the brakes and they would out drive me
out of every turn.
Considering all the problems, the weekend was OK. I definitely learned
to brake later which is what the next and last piece to the puzzle is
for me. I improved my grid positions in Open Superbike and Formula 40
quite a bit but hurt my position in Open GP. I ran 46's with ease.
Have to thank Randy for all the help in the pits (he just dug in and got
things done!), setting up the new canopy and for driving the rig and
keeping it at his house. As always thanks to Pat for the support. Thanks
to Brian for keeping the website up to date. Thanks to Alex and Michelin
tires, Moterex, LP, and Mark Ledesma at North Valley. Big thanks again
to my wife Sally for all the support, coming along on the road trips and
always being there with a smile. See you all at Miller!!!!
Tom
#151