Tyler Linders First Race on the SV 650: Pole Position, 2 Wins at CVMA 5/28

[FONT=verdana,arial,helvetica]Written by Tyler Linders

We arrived at Chuckwalla Valley Raceway for Round 3 of the CVMA series Friday morning and set up before practice. All day Friday was a track day, run by TrackDaz, who did a great job at getting the riders lots of seat time. In the morning we had a few problems with the bike and I missed the first three sessions. Finally I got out onto the track and got some laps in. It was my second time ever riding the SV 650, so there were a few things we did to set up the bike. At the end of the day I felt good on the bike and it looked like I was competitive for Saturday's races.

On Saturday, I ran two practice sessions before qualifying. I went out onto the track for my first session and was already going faster than the day before. By the time qualifying came around some people had stepped it up. I had 20 minutes of qualifying and on the second lap I set pole with a 1:57.15, which was only .05 seconds faster than 2nd, he put down a 1:57.20. I turned two more laps in qualifying while adjusting my rear compression and found a good setting. I was happy with getting pole, but as I was getting ready for my race I knew it was going to be close.

My first race, Modern Vintage Lightweight, I started on pole, got the hole shot, and gapped 2nd place quite a bit every lap. The race was red flagged on the fourth lap and was more than halfway completed, so I finished first. The second race, Formula Twins, was the race that was more important to me and was going to be close. This race was gridded with a bunch of SV 650's and EX 650's. I was on pole and got the hole shot again. On the first lap I pushed really hard and made a gap. Just after that it was red flagged and we had to restart. This time I didn't get as good of a start, but still got the hole shot. As we came around the first turn huge gusts of wind started blowing sand around all over the track. We went for a couple of laps and the 2nd place rider and I gapped the rest of the field. As the race went on the sand got even worse, at some points you could hardly see the track and had to just use your reference points and hope you wouldn't run off. When that started happening I still kept pushing because I didn't want 2nd place to pass me. The 2nd place rider started backing off because it was so windy and dusty and I was able to win that race. I was not able to race on Sunday because we planned a family day, but Sunday's races ended up getting canceled due to the high wind. Overall my first race weekend on the SV 650 went really well.

Thank you to my current sponsors:

Concept Five
Fastrack Riders
Next Moto Champion
CM Motorsports
Race Tech
Mid Cities Honda
ProSpeed
Power Stands Racing
TrackDaz
NEXX Helmets
Outlaw Racing
Falco
California Superbike School
BARF Racing
Shorai Power
CT Racing
Motul Lubricants
Zero Gravity
Galfer [/FONT]

 

I love these race reports Rob/Tyler. Congratulations.....again