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My First WERA race weekend

Discussion in 'Race Reports' started by Jon Wilkens, Jul 3, 2017.

  1. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    What a weekend! First of all, thanks for all the assistance from Mongo to get my paperwork sorted and answering all my stupid questions leading up to this weekend. Thanks also to the WERA officials at the track that helped guide me though the weekend. I had at least done a few trackdays at Barber so I knew where the track went, very helpful. This was my third race weekend with my first two with AHRMA (Thruxton)at CMP and Gingerman (SV), so it was going to be nice riding a still new to me bike on a track I at least knew the layout. I had never ridden CMP or Gingerman before.

    Now on to the fun stuff! Signed up for the SOLO 16 Lightweight class for Saturday. Not sure what I was thinking when I did this, but hey...if yer gonna swim might as well jump off in the deep end. haha I was gridded on row 10 I think...way in the back out of harms way. Got a good start and was 10th going into turn one and worked my way up to 6th by middle of lap two and was a very boring race all by myself the rest of the laps...whole lot of laps with no one to play with except lappers near the end which did help drop my lap times a bit seeing them in front of me and tracking them down. I managed to maintain consistent lap times mostly 1.46s and best of 1.43. Since I had never done this many laps in race conditions before, I didn't push too hard just tried to be calm and make it though the entire race distance. It was tough, but not as bad as I thought it was going to be. So ended up 6th overall and 1st novice, very happy with the result!!

    Sunday I signed up for LWT SB and was gridded on row 8. Another good start had me 9th into turn one and after picking off 3 more I was in 6th following rider #41 K. Buras. I would close up on him in a couple of spots then he'd gap me a bit in others so maintained a consistent gap. He would periodically check to see where I was and even gave me a wave of "come on" to encourage me to close the gap....I was trying!!! LOL I did learn a few things as he towed me around the track was very happy how the race went. I was lapping 1.42s and 43s the entire race due to being able to chase someone and go to school a little bit. Went and spoke to him in the pits afterwards to thank him. MUCH APPRECIATED KEITH! Ended up 6th overall and 1 st novice, super stoked with result and how I rode.

    Second race of the day was LWT SS and was gridded on row 10. A great start had me in 6th going into turn one and quickly got by another by turn 5. Rode around till the checkered with lap times mostly 1.45s with best lap of 1.43 early on. That was pretty much the race as I never saw anyone after that and another lonely race, I did make a few mental mistakes in later laps due to just being plain worn out and only having one race inbetween to this one. I almost think the SOLO race was easier to do than these two with only a short break in between. I ended up 5th overall and 1st novice. Just glad to get through this race and was a great learning weekend for me.

    What I learned from this weekend is that this 49 year ol man needs to work on several things to trim that gap to the speedy boys up front, but do think I am capable of getting there. I have lots of muscle memory and mental things to rewire with over 35 years of road riding...so I will work on those things one at a time and then get better at them so I can close that gap a bit....those boys are hauling the mail!!! Congrats to D. Crooks, K. Tucker and the Adams brothers on tearing up the track and the podiums!!

    I did manage a personal best lap of 1.41.7 in practice Saturday but just never found that pace the rest of the weekend. So I will go back and review the video to see how I managed that lap and go from there.

    Next round will be Roebling Rd in a couple of weeks at a track I've never ridden before. So will take in the practice track day on Friday to learn the layout. Looking forward to it!!
    Jon
    #962 Novice
     
  2. TLR67

    TLR67 Well-Known Member

    Awesome!!!
     
    Jon Wilkens likes this.
  3. Gino230

    Gino230 Well-Known Member

    Congrats! Welcome to the addiction. Now give us your wallet. :beer:
     
    Big Sherm, Jon Wilkens and HellrazoRR like this.
  4. flygirl

    flygirl Well-Known Member

    An excellent first Wera weekend. Congrats
     
    Jon Wilkens likes this.
  5. Uncle Snake

    Uncle Snake Well-Known Member

    Nice work Jon!!
     
    Jon Wilkens likes this.
  6. Gino230

    Gino230 Well-Known Member

    What were you on, an SV? It took me three days to get down to 1:41 at Barber on my VERY FAST Ducati LW bike.
     
    Jon Wilkens likes this.
  7. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    Thanks! No lie about the wallet...lol
     
  8. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    Thanks!
     
  9. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    Tha
    Thanks, I was pretty happy with it for sure. I know now my place and just how much I still have to learn. But that is half the fun of it!!
     
  10. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    Thanks! Is this Jake by chance?
     
  11. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member


    Yes, SV650. Bike is set up pretty well, but I still need to get with a suspension expert to get it set up for me. This was my second race weekend on the bike and we are still trying to gel a bit...lol
     
  12. Lazy Destroyer

    Lazy Destroyer Well-Known Member

    Dude you did awesome out there! Great starts and killer times.
    Glad I didn't goof ya up on the grid for that one race, thought I had lined up in front of ya! Great meeting you briefly by the way. I'll catch up w/ ya at Roebling, it's a fun track!
    -Blake #52 Nov
     
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  13. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    Thanks! You were just fine where you were. Appreciate you taking the time to look me up to make sure all was well. For sure we'll catch up at Roebling, looking forward to learning it.
    Here's that start btw. I hope it posts up....you were not in my line of fire so all was good.
    [​IMG]
     
    Lazy Destroyer likes this.
  14. Uncle Snake

    Uncle Snake Well-Known Member

    Hey Jon. Yeah, it's Jake. Hey, I got to ride with Craig on your old, red bike a month ago in N. Georgia. Nicely done! Hopefully have my race license next year and start getting busy!
     
    Jon Wilkens likes this.
  15. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    MOST EXCELLENT!
     
  16. Bobby_Evans

    Bobby_Evans Well-Known Member

    I loved seeing that grin on your face the whole weekend!!!

    Sent from my SM-G930T using Tapatalk
     
  17. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member

    Thanks Bobby! Was great meeting you and appreciated the info and help throughout the weekend.
     
    Bobby_Evans likes this.
  18. No Brakes

    No Brakes Well-Known Member

    Great racing with you Jon. Maybe next time you can tow me around
     
    Jon Wilkens likes this.
  19. Jon Wilkens

    Jon Wilkens Well-Known Member


    Thanks! I'll take you up on that. Hope to see you at Roebling in a couple weeks.
     

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