Wednesday, August 24, 2011
SuperMoto Double Header Weekend Race Recap
This past weekend was a SuperMoto double header race weekend at Shannonville Motorsports Park. Saturday's races were the 2nd Provincial round and Sunday was the 3rd National round. The weather saturday was awesome but it wasnt a great day for me. Through practice I struggled with bike setup.
I couldnt seem to get my front end to feel stable and planted in the corners. A small lowside crash in practice when my front end slid out was the result. I tried numerous changes but was never able to completely feel confident. Racing the high speed Nelson circuit with sketchy front end grip wasnt a great scenario. In my heat races and finals I rode as hard as I felt comfortable witout crashing and finished 5th in Open Amateur and 4th in SM1 semi pro.
Sunday night it rained and wasnt looking good in the morning but the rain stopped and held off through practice and the heat races. The temperature change helped my bike setup and felt a lot better sunday. In the open am main i got a poor start (4th) then made a quick pas into 3rd over the dirt table top jump. I held this position for a couple laps then the rain started. Traction was deteriorating quickly. I managed to keep from crashing racing on regular slick tires. The 2nd place rider wasnt so lucky. He crashed and handed me 2nd place where I'd finish.
With the rain coming down I opted to switch over to my rain tires for the SM1 race. Riding a little tentative in the rain I got another poor start- 5th. I rode there for a lap or so before passing for 4th where I'd finish.
Overall the weekend went OK. I really wish I could have pushed harder on Saturday and Sunday went well considering the weather conditions.
The next race is Sept 11 in Montreal for the H Games event. This was a real fun event last year. It's held in the lot of a large car dealership and is a much smaller track which suites me better than the past weekend's track.