The final round of the AHRMA season came and went this past weekend at the legendary Barber Motorsports Park and I was one of the lucky people who was able to race there. Although it was just my second ever race weekend, I actually ended up with my first podium finish (thanks to a little bit of skill and a little bit of luck). Here’s a video and my thoughts from the race!
Last time around you guys seemed to appreciate my time-stamped notes, though I got some feedback asking for the full race versus an abbreviated version. With that in mind, if you just want to watch the Sunday round of Sound of Singles 1 (unlimited displacement single-cylinder bikes), here’s the video! My notes are below:
My Notes:
The competition was a bit stiffer than my last round at Laguna, which makes sense as it was the last race of the season and there were people from all around the country who had raced in earlier rounds. I actually placed 6th in the Sound of Singles 1 race the day before (Saturday) and that made me think I wouldn’t be anywhere near the podium on Sunday. Thankfully, I was wrong!
The starts were crazy. Here’s one from Sound of Thunder 2 – I’m hugging the inside line in the black suit.
0:00: I started directly behind Eli Block, a MotoAmerica racer in the Junior Cup. He was on the very cool Ducati “Hypermono” built by Chris Cosentino. Unfortunately for Eli, I was able to get around him at the start fairly easily, I don’t know if it was a bad launch or if his motor is underpowered compared to the Kramers that make up the majority of the SoS1 grid. But the bike is definitely worth a closer look if you have some time.
Photo by Michael Gougis for RoadRacing World
0:20: My buddy Troy Siahaan of Motorcycle.com makes a brief appearance on the Krämer APX-350 MA (the spec bike for the upcoming MotoAmerica Talent Cup). He passes me around Turn 2 but I have a bigger motor and I’m able to keep him behind for the rest of the race. Coming into Turn 5 (Charlotte’s Web), I was so focused on trying to pass 2-3 folks on the outside that I didn’t care enough about who was on the inside. I got picked off on a great inside pass by Eli, but it seems like his Cosentino bike doesn’t have enough motor to compete with the Kramers as Nic de Sena and I were able to motor around him on the straight.
0:48: That’s right – yet again I find myself settled in behind my buddy Nic de Sena of Ultimate Motorcycling. As I mentioned in my last race report, Nic has been a wonderful resource as I’ve been spending more time on the track. More importantly, he’s a good friend who makes my motorcycling life better (we even stayed in the same AirBnB for this race weekend). He also beat me in Saturday’s race so I was hoping to return the favor!
2:15: Nic makes a solid inside pass on someone else but said rider has a big bore kit and quickly regains his place on the straight. I had flashbacks to when I got pipped for 3rd place at Laguna Seca (different rider/bike but it was still a orange Kramer with a big bore). Despite the power gap, Nic is able to go through the first set of esses at much higher speed and get enough drive to make a pass that sticks. I start to worry: the longer I take to pass the same person, the more Nic will be able to build up a lead on me. I can’t outpower the big bore kit bike on the straight but I’m able to sneak around on the outside approaching the first corner and I keep the momentum going to make an inside pass on Nic into Charlotte’s Web.
4:40: Turns out Nic isn’t just faster than the guy with the big bore kit through the first set of esses…he’s faster than me through there as well. He passes me on the outside and then does what all buddies do – he flicks me off. My first reaction was to chuckle but I needed to figure out how to get around Nic again.
5:40 – Nic understandably takes a more defensive line through Charlotte’s seeing as I passed him that way previously, but that allows me to go wide and get a better drive on him out of the corner. I make sure to repay him with a middle finger of my own as I slide by, though I feel pretty dumb about it when he once again passess me coming out of the first “S”. He’s definitely got that corner dialed in better than I do.
6:40: Crossed white and green flags at the start line mean we’re halfway through the race! I decide I’m going to just stay behind Nic and see if I can learn how he’s going through the first S section so much faster than I am.
8:20: I spend a lap trying to see where I’m faster and where Nic is faster. It seems I have an advantage coming out of the final corner as I have more drive onto the straightaway so I think about making an inside pass coming into Turn 1. But it didn’t seem like a safe thing to do and at the end of the day it’s recreational racing, I’m not going to win a sponsorship deal and I don’t want to punt someone (especially a buddy) off the track. I then try to see if there’s any way around Nic in Turn 3, but I don’t have the speed to pull it off.
Trying (and failing) to get around Nic in Turn 3
9:58: Jensen Beeler (the CEO of Krämer Motorcycles USA) cheers us on. He’s trackside in the bright blue t-shirt.
Jensen signing my bike back at Laguna Seca
10:28: for a brief moment I thought I might have Nic on the inside of Charlotte’s Web again but I didn’t think I was far enough ahead for a safe pass so I back off. I’m starting to get concerned about how much of the race I have left to make a final move.
11:39: The white flag is out – there’s one lap left!
11:50: The last two laps have shown me that I’m not going to be able to pass on the outside, so I stay behind Nic and see if there’s another option. The nice thing about loud bikes is you can tell when the person in front of you is getting on the throttle, and I realize that I was able to start accelerating before he did. So I move towards the inside and I’m able to sneak past right before the blind Turn #4. I breathe a huge sigh of relief, but I ended up being SO defensive with my position coming into Turn 5 that Nic simply went right around me. Shit.
Where can I pass, where can I pass? I’m running out of time so I try to use what I learned from following Nic through the first S corner and I just try to be brave and stick it on the outside…miraculously, it works! Once that happened I was feeling pretty good because I know I’m quick enough through the rest of the course, so I just tried to make sure it wouldn’t be easy to pass me and finished up the last few corners to get through the checkered flag, just .5 seconds ahead of Nic.
Nic congratulates me during the cool down lap. Photo by eTech Photo.
The thing is, I had no idea what place I ended up in. I was thinking fifth place, maybe fourth? But Nic waved me down after we went through the final tech inspection and said he thought I might have ended up in third. I didn’t believe it as there were several people who were faster than me in Saturday’s race. But Nic told me that Kyle Ohnsorg (a MotoAmerica racer who won Saturday’s Sound of Singles 1 race and ended up placing sixth in the AHRMA Pro race) sat the Sunday race out due to injury and I guess that opened up a potential spot on the podium which I felt very fortunate to snag.
So there you go – I ended up in third place with my first ever podium finish!
Just like in the last post, I need to give a special thank you to Olly for helping me out all throughout the race weekend. But he also deserves some congratulations for his performance: he placed 2nd and 3rd in his Sound of Singles 3 races and he placed 1st and 2nd in Open Two-Stroke! He’s had a career of supporting some amazing racers at Attack and Yoshimura so it was exciting to see him have his moment in the sun as well. I had multiple people reach out to me to mention that Olly was featured in RoadRacing World!
Now I call him “Champion” at the shop.
P.S. I know I owe you some updates about the little CB race bike as well, that will come soon!
Trying to hit top speed on the CB175 at Barber!