Round four was this past weekend at Miller, this time on the west track. We'd done the east twice before, and once on the full, so this was the first time on the west track, which is fast and flowing, with a really tough hairpin (#5), the triple-apex (#7), and the very tricky final turn (#10).

This would be my first race weekend on the new bike that replaced my old friend the RC51 - a new Ducati 1098S that I found on Ebay with just 500 miles on it. It's not easy to push it hard on the track, knowing how much it costs and how horrible my wallet and I would feel if I tossed it, but hey, there are other guys out there racing on them, so why not take advantage of this incredible new hardware?

Saturday was practice day, and a chance to dial in my suspension just that much more, as I still wasn't completely satisfied. Jason from Corporate Suspension was there to help with whatever I needed, as part of the service I'd done the previous (trackday) weekend on both bikes. By Sunday morning, I felt like I finally knew what perfect suspension should feel like! The bikes did exactly what I wanted them to, with a minimum of effort to get them there, and gave me great feedback through the process. Very nice, and I highly recommend this service to anyone serious about their riding. Through the process I figured out that incorrect settings on the front end were the probable cause for my round three crash on the 600. The front end had been very stiff, and with very fast rebound. When I released the brake lever going into that turn at high speed, the forks probably bounced right out, losing traction, instead of rebounding in a more controlled manner..

The weekend was both great and frustrating all at the same time. My times keep getting better and better. I've never ridden faster, despite little concerns lingering in my thoughts from time to time about:
a) a recent tragedy involving a friend killed in a bizarre trackday accident
b) my own recent get-off at the last race weekend
c) not wanting to toss my very expensive new hardware

The frustrating part is that, despite my continuing improvement, the young, skinny, 150 pound punks I'm racing against seem to be improving faster than me! The first couple of rounds I was smoking these guys, now I'm being relegated to mid-pack, and I don't like it. So, I'm trying to adjust to just enjoying the racing for the sake of racing, and not worrying so much about trying to make the podium.

The first race of the day on Sunday was the Twins GTO, my first race on the 1098S. I had a good grid position (front row, outside). I got a great start, and wound up going into the high-speed turn one in third place. I tried to hang with the leaders, but this class is mostly experts, and they were flying! I wound up getting passed by a couple of guys through the seven-lap race, and finished in fifth. I did get down to a very respectable 1:40 lap time, which was actually 2 seconds faster than I was doing in practice, so I was very happy about that. It was so hot out there (100 degrees), that if you tried to swallow at any point during the race, you actually couldn't. Hot and very intense, but fun.

Oh yeah, and I destroyed the guy that beat me with his 1098 on my RC last race weekend. Having 150 horsepower or so doesn't suck. :)

Race two was the Amateur GTU, on the 600, against experts and novices on 600's. I thought my start was decent, until everyone started blowing by me! Suddenly I had more than a dozen people in front of me to try to get through. I'd rather be in the lead, trying to hold people off, to have a better finishing position, but man is it fun to pass people.

Turns one, two, three and four at Miller West are VERY high speed, and I just looked for opportunities to get on the gas and just blaze by all those guys that got a better start then me. At this point, I'm generally exiting turn four at over 120 MPH (a year ago it was about 95 MPH), then you go down a short straight before it's hard on the brakes into a very tight hairpin. Late-braking people here and tucking under them into that turn is a blast, too!

Passed a few, got passed by a couple, and wound up 9th out of 24. Managed to get to 1:40 on the 600 as well. Got nipped at the finish line by an expert rider. I hate when that happens!

Final race of the day was the Novice GTO. I thought about taking the Duc out for this race, since the literbike power really has an advantage on the west track over the east, but figured with a bunch of novices out there, things could get a little crazy, so I decided not to risk the new bike. The rear tire on the 600 was getting pretty worn, so I knew I'd really need to get off the bike a lot to use the available rubber that I had.

Again, I thought my start was decent until I just got swallowed up by all these literbikes (and 600's) going by me. Time to go to work again passing people. Got by a bunch in the first few turns, more on the next few laps, and settled in to a groove with the leaders all far ahead of me, with a bunch of guys on my tail. In the second-to-last lap, I noticed that I was getting very low on fuel. Oops. I thought about how embarassing it would be to run out of gas on the last lap (or even the cool-down lap), so once I saw the white flag I backed off just a touch to save fuel, hoping that I was far enough ahead of the pack behind me to hold my position. With two turns to go, guess who passed me? Yep, my nemesis on the Ducati 1098. I tried to chase him down, but he just had too much power on me. Oh well. He was lucky I was on the 600! :) Wound up 9th out 25.

My ego wants to be on the podium, badly. But, I'm realizing that I'd really have to push to extreme levels that I'm apparently not comfortable with to get there. After practice day on Saturday I found myself thinking, "Maybe I should quit racing and just do trackdays. I can't keep up with the leaders here, and if I can't win or podium, what's the point?" But I can't even begin to describe the rush that racing provides. The start, the first turn, the sheer intensity of the competition is unbelievable. The mental focus required, even just for seven laps, is incredible. Those split-second decisions you have to make on the fly - should I pass here? Seeing a competitor's wheel in your peripheral vision at various points, and trying to hold them off. Not knowing exactly how close people are behind you, trying to figure out just how hard you need to push to hold them off. Watching two guys, inches in front of you, both about to dive into the same spot, wondering what you'll do if they happen to take each other out. Your throat so dry you can't even swallow if you try. Intense, intense, intense. And very addictive...

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