Expect the Unexpected: CMP Round 5 at Loudon Road Race Series

LRRS Round 5 — August 15-16, 2015

I went into Round 5 with a lot of excitement and a lot to look forward to. Since Round 4, I had committed myself to getting more seat time on my dirt bike and on the flat track, I was ready for the work (and fun!) to start paying dividends. I arrived Friday around lunch time to find Chris Dove #123 and new teammate #508 Savvas Kosmidis enjoying their practice day thoroughly. Savvas’s bike had just returned from TSS Graphics and looked absolutely amazing! Seems like everything TSS touches right now turns to gold! After unloading and setting up, we all enjoyed a nice relaxing evening at Club CMP.

Saturday morning starts early for middleweight amateurs. We have first practice group so that means tire warmers on at 7:00 and an unhealthy dose of caffeine to get moving. I went out and had a good practice session, but upon pitting in, I was notified by the track marshal my bike was smoking. After getting the bike into the CMP garage, I discovered it was simply a slow drip out of my oil filter. Unfortunately, the change cost me a bit too much time and I missed second practice session.

GTO

I look forward to this race more than anything else in the weekend. The challenge of remaining consistent for 25 minutes of racing is a difficult one that not a lot of riders can achieve. I had a bad start and ended up near the back of the field; however, on the 2^nd lap there was a red flag crash that sent us back to pregrid. On my second go around, I got a very nice start and found myself towards the front of the Amateur GTO field. I battled with a lot of different riders and, with about 5 minutes left, I was in 5^th and running an excellent race.

-This is where things went south-

The Polar Plunge: Central Mass Powersports Round 1 at Loudon Road Race Series

I rolled in late Wednesday stoked to be back home at the racetrack! Duncan Wood (CMP #910) and I (Chris Dove #123) were the very first over excited racers on the scene at Loudon Raceway.

Thursday practice –
My first time on a race motorcycle since the last round of racing in October, 2014. Here’s where it gets sketchy. The weather was poor. Cold, windy and no sunshine. I did some in depth weather investigation for the weekend (weatherbug) and concluded this situation would not improve. I made the decision to focus my practice time on the smallest, easiest to handle bike I had with me so that I’d give myself the best chance for success over the weekend. Practice went great, bike and rider both shook off the cobwebs. I figured while everyone else was struggling with big hp and no traction, I’d just roll on around them with 60hp. I was wrong…

Saturday, race 3 – EX Super Singles – KTM did not start (DNS)
Head out for the sighting lap and realize halfway through the lap, my engine is losing compression. This is bad, really bad. The bike worked great all practice on Thursday. At the very last turn before the front straight (starting grids) I went left instead of right. Left goes back to the pits and means your race is done. Making that decision stinks, no way around it. Hopefully you never have to.

Saturday, race 6 – EX Motard – KTM (DNS)
Failboat, bike is dead – no hope in sight.

Back to the Races: Round 1 of the Loudon Road Race Series

What a weekend! Getting the bike ready came down to the wire and I ended up opting out of installing my new bodywork. #123 Chris Dove and I packed up his box truck and my trailer on Tuesday night and headed up to NHMS on Wednesday afternoon, we were joined at the track by #112 Clayson Baker. The original plan was to do Thursday and Friday practice to shake the dust off. I got on the bike Thursday for the afternoon session and promptly threw it down in 1A. No damage really other than replacing a foot peg and lever guard.  I felt horrible on the bike. Absolutely terrible. Super heavy on the bars, not engaging my legs, drastically exaggerating body position – none of these are good things. I decided to skip Friday practice, save the $150, as the conditions were basically the same as the day before. CMP also had 2 riders in Basic school so Chris, Clay, and I spent the day assisting them and watching them on track.

Two new CMP riders, GM Gary Pescatore and mechanic Jimmy Alessandrini, had a great day in Basic Rider School. It’s a chore for any new racer; seven 20 minute track sessions with all of your off track time occupied in the classroom. It’s a grind. There’s a lot of new information, a lot of stress, but it’s an awful lot of fun. The boys did awesome, both of them making it through the difficult conditions and passing rider school. The CMP garage pulled together and kept their bikes prepped for their track sessions and hopefully helped with good advice and positive words.

Saturday practice 1 for Group 1 was cold, I went out and just tried to work on engaging my legs and ease up on the bars. Ran a 1:39 in practice, probably should have used an hour glass for timing instead of a transponder. Not much changed in practice 2, but I started feeling a bit more comfortable.