PRESSROOM

PRESS ROOM
Pat's Report from AFM - Infineon Raceway
08/12/05 - 08/14/05 Sonoma, CA

Tom has been telling me how good the AFM races are for months. He went to the last rounds at Thunder Hill and Infineon. At our local CCS races we are lucky to have 10 racers on the grid. AFM has as many as 70. This would be a tough weekend to go away, August 14th is my 12th wedding anniversary. Yes, I am married. Michele and I spent the previous weekend in Las Vegas just gambling and having fun. Rian took Tom's truck and trailer to northern California in mid June for the races at Thunder Hill. Tom and Sally flew there and back. After the races, Rian drove up to Portland and stayed at his parents house until we were done with the Infineon round. Since our bikes were already in the Northwest, Tom flew to Seattle for a charity track day at the end of July. Tom, Sally and I flew to Oakland on Thursday and met Rian at the hotel.

Tom talked me into racing in the AFM 4 hour endurance race. We had a choice of riding the 749r or Tom's CBR1000rr. I am not too fond of Tom's bike. I think it's too big and heavy. Tom seems to be able to ride any bike and be fast, so we decided on riding the 749r in the 4 hour race. A lot of people thought we were stupid for racing a Ducati for four hours. Rian spent a lot of time with the safety wire and orange silicone to make the sure the bike stayed together. We enlisted the help of Alex Florea (Northern Cal Michelin Rep) for our third rider. We have never done an endurance race before. The only thing close has been the Team Sprints at Arroyo Seco. Those races are 20 minutes with a rider change at the halfway mark .

We get to the track at 6:45 AM on Friday morning. The track gates open at 7 AM . This would be our longest wait of the whole weekend. AFM has been around 50 years and you can tell why. They run a first class operation. It took us about 90 seconds to register and 5 minutes to go through tech inspection. It's much harder to go through tech than CCS. Just about everything needs to be wired. Rian used the time between rounds to get the 749r ready for this event. The only thing CCS does better than AFM is at CCS to go through registration and tech once and you're done for the weekend. At AFM, you register and go through tech every day. AFM also has much stricter rules. If you crash at an AFM event, you are done for the weekend. At CCS, we had a guy crash three times in one day!

I have never been to this track before. In the Southwest, all our tracks are flat. Infineon has a lot of elevation changes. This has been hard to learn. It had been the same at Streets of Willow and Barber. We had a full day of practice on Friday. AFM groups their practice sessions by lap times. I tried to get in the same session as Tom, but they put him in group 3 and me in group 2. I went out at the back to learn the track. It took me all day to get most of it down. My best time was only a 1:56 , much slower than Tom's best of 1:49 from the May round. Last year I used to be able to race with Tom. This year, if I can get within two seconds, I'm doing good.

We loaned Rian to Alex to help change tires and Tom, Sally and I were off to Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack. I'd like to come back soon with Michele and the kids for a weekend in San Francisco .

The original plan for the endurance race was for each rider to do two 40 minute sessions on the bike. That went out the window when I let Tom start the race. You just can't get that guy off the bike. There were 47 teams entered in the race. Tom started the race and rode until the low fuel light came on. He rode for an hour with his lap times around 1:50 and 1:51. His best lap time was a 1:49.2 and his worst was a 1:53 after being held up by traffic. He came into the pits, we refueled the bike and I was off. I did not ride in the practice sessions in the morning. I let Tom and Alex get used to the bike. I was already sore from the previous days riding, so it took me a lap or two to get warmed up. I was lapping in the 1:57 range. They had a big clock at start/finish so the rider could see how much of the race was left. At about the twenty minute mark I started getting tired. I couldn't let Tom get the best of me. I tried to conserve as much energy as I could. I would hang off less and rest on the straights. At the 40 minute mark , I was still feeling pretty good. Rian had the pit board out and I could see I was still doing 1:57s . I started to think, If I go an hour and then Alex does an hour, we can finish this with only 2 stops and maybe a podium finish. I rode until the low fuel light came on, ONE HOUR!!!, same as Tom. I couldn't let Tom get the best of me. He did say that he could ride two hours at the speed I was riding. I have never rode more than 30 minutes before. When I got off the bike, it was hard to stand up and my hands were tingling pretty good. I thought my right ankle was healed from my Arroyo crash. At about the 40 minute mark , I had to ride flat footed and not weight the peg. I thought I would ride long enough so I would not have to get on that DAMN bike again! Alex was next and he was able to knock off consistent laps in the 1:50 to 1:52 range. We were not able to completely fill the fuel tank for his session, so he was only able to do 45 minutes before the fuel light came on. Tom got on the bike again with an hour and ten minutes to go. He was again very consistent with his laps. Even his last laps were within a second or two of his best times of the day. He rode an hour and four minutes until the fuel light came on. He did 2.5 laps with the light on and came in for fuel with 90 seconds to go!!! I have the larger 749r fuel tank at home in the garage. I took it off for safe keeping and put a dented 749 Dark tank on the bike. We sure could have used the extra fuel capacity. With the larger tank, we'd be able to finish a four hour race with only two stops. We put some fuel in and sent him off. We finished sixth in class and 15th overall. For our first attempt at a four hour and a lousy plan, I think we did pretty good. I have to make sure we use my bike next year or Tom and Alex may want to get a faster teammate. The only casualty was a broken exhaust spring on the 749r. The 16.5” Michelin slicks worked flawlessly, with only the rear getting a little greasy towards the end. I used the same front during my race on Sunday.

After the race, we went back to the hotel, got something to eat and went straight to bed. I know I was pretty beat and I hope Tom was beat also. The old guy ran over half the 4 hour race. On Sunday, I only entered one race, Open Twins. During Sunday morning practice, I was easily able to knock off some 1:55s . I felt like I knew the track well, but was still extremely stiff from the two previous days. Since AFM grids by points and this is round 6, I was dead last on the grid. I was on row 11 in 50th spot. The Open Production class was gridded in front of us, leaving 31 racers in the Open Twins class with not a single SV650 on the grid. I got a good start and I railed on the outside of turn one passing about 15 bikes. Unfortunately, having never started a race here, it put me in bad position for turn two and about five bikes passed me in turn two. I was nose to tail with about 10 bikes during the first two laps at 1:58 and 1:56 . I finally got around the slower riders and my last two laps were at 1:53 and 1:52 . I finished 18th out of 31 riders. I feel that with some more aggressive passing I could have been in the top twelve. Racing with AFM will definitely get you the experience needed to race in large groups. I never felt like there was anyone out there that did not belong. CCS has some guys that just circulate the track and our a danger to themselves and everybody else on the track.

We had a great weekend and I'd like to come back again and do another AFM event. They put on a good event. There is a reason we went 14 hours away for a race. I started feeling comfortable on the bike for the first time since Barber in early May. My 999r is currently with Mark Sutton at Duc Shop in Atlanta to get the motor freshened up and the transmission fixed. I plan to have it back, in time for the ROGUE track day at Thunder Hill on September 4th and 5th.

I'd like to thank Tom and Sally, Rian, Alex Florea for all the help before, during and after the races.

The biggest thanks to Michele for allowing me to miss our anniversary. (happy 12th).

Thank you to the sponsors: Section 8 Superbike, Duc Shop, Michelin Tires, Moto Wheels, Vesrah Brake pads, Motorex, Sidi, Desert Truss, Savoca Construction, Speedy Moto, Universal Forest Products, Vortex, Lockhart Phillips, Suomy, All Out Graphics and VaporBlue.

Pat Bushell
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