Race report

[Clay]

So, some have mentioned they'd like to see our race reports over here...so I guess I'll post 'em. This is the email I send out to our sponsors.

For those that don't know us... I'm a former Cycleforums reject and an "old schooler" that goes back to the sportbikes.net days. We're from eastern NC. I used to race and passed the buck off to my son once he begged me to let him go racing too. He did a year with SEMRA on a mini KTM 65 (yes, road racing), then a year with WERA in the "mini 85" class on a well sorted CR85. Now he rides an RS125 at 10 years old and is the current WERA SE class (125GP) points leader. We "should" have the championship wrapped up. So that's us. Most of you have seen the vid I posted last week. Here's the race report to go along with it.


This is one of those reports where you hate to even mention some things, but are elated to write others. Even in my racing, I never had 2 race weekends that were so different. One, wrong from the moment the wheels hit the pavement; and the next right from the moment we showed up to the track.

VIR was the big round we were waiting for all year. Everything should have gone well. I spent weeks preparing the bike. I jumped in for the first time in my life and did a complete engine rebuild. We got a full ceramic engine bearing kit from one of our sponsors, World Wide Bearings, along with a VHM head I was anxious to try out. I put in my last "old style" HRC piston I had and just had one of my spare cylinders replated...plus it was ported. (For those that don't know, the new HRC pistons are not only double in price, but have more than their share of quality issues.) I spent days ensuring everything was right and working well. I put in some miles on the back roads around our house breaking it all in ensuring it would be ready for Caleb from the start. VIR would be the largest weekend we would attend...Cycle Jam. 4 days of riding.

We showed up Wed night and got unloaded, pitting with the Gerloff family. Caleb and Grayson spent all of last year battling it out, so it was nice to be next to friends. Th morning came and we signed up for practice and the races (regional and national). I was one of the first in line and first through tech. We were ready. Caleb had done one practice day at VIR before, so he knew the track. First session out and the track was still wet from the previous night's rain. (Flood is more like it.) Caleb did ok for the track being damp. After that, the problems seemed to mount. For the low, low price of only 150 dollars, we got a whopping four practice sessions. Every time out Caleb didn't go any faster. I watched intensely, looked over the data and was doing all I could. He was braking too early and just wouldn't lean the bike. He kept saying the bike just wouldn't turn, he couldn't go any faster. I felt it was all in his head. Sadly, I think he was more right then I was. We both ended the day unhappy. He wanted to do better, but just couldn't seem to. Friday was little different. This was endurance day, and he got only one practice session. Nothing changed.

That's when I started thinking about everything it could be. It couldn't just be purely mental. He mentioned at Roebling how the bike was hard to turn and it just wouldn't seem to lean any further. He was faster earlier in the year. Nothing had really changed on the bike though. But, if the problem was getting worse... what if it was the tires? Ok, I'll admit, he's been on the same set of tires all year. I'm not one of those families that gets to put a new set of tires on each weekend. We try to stretch everything as best we can. The tires looked like there was still rubber left. But, I remembered how at times I had tires that "looked" good, but were total junk (I always ran take offs after other guys threw them away!) So, I went and talked to Stick (the nick name for the Bridgestone dealer) and let him give me some advice. I told him the problem Caleb was having, the bike wouldn't lean and would run wide the moment he got on the gas. He said that's exactly what tires start to do after they've been heat cycled. I had just sold our spare 85 engine so I gave in and said let's try some new tires. Stick felt the tires and showed me how to tell if they've just been heat cycled out. Sure enough, they felt like an eraser.

Caleb was happy. It was nice to see him excited to try something new, and happy that I was believing it might be more than just his head. It's a hard line to walk as dad and "coach". You know your child, you know how he rides and you've seen him impress the world. Sometimes you've just got to believe them though.

Sat morning came and this would be the regional race event. We were both excited, ready to see improvement. Caleb only got 5 laps in...but each lap was faster. You could see it. He was going deeper on the brakes, leaning more, exiting harder. Caleb is a careful kid, so he's never gone like a bullet from the start. He's very consistent, very smooth, and works his way each lap to faster times. That's why practice is so important for us. He needs those laps. He went out the next session and this is where a bad weekend became worse. He had suddenly slowed way down. Just when I thought things were coming along well, they turn right back around and ruin your day. He made it back to the pits, but it was obvious something was wrong. He said the bike was running horribly. I couldn't get it started, and could already tell that it had lost serious compression just by pushing it. I got to work and got the top end off see what looked like a small grenade had been set off in the top end. WONDERFUL! The short story is that it appears I missed one thing in my whole engine rebuild. I didn't set the ring gap. The ring took out a piece of the intake port. It destroyed my new cylinder, piston and VHM head. Thankfully, it stayed all above the piston. The bottom end was still in fine condition. I got all the spares swapped over and had everything ready to go by the race.

Sadly, for Caleb, his confidence was destroyed. He didn't trust himself or the bike. He rode the race and put in his laps, we got the points for our region which has him squarely in first place. The race was a bust though. He didn't push himself and I understood. At that point we simply called it a weekend. He didn't have the confidence to ride the national race on Sunday. We needed to just put this weekend behind us and move forward.

This is one of those weekends that happens to every racer. He said he badly wanted to go to Barber, so I told him we had some work to do. His confidence had taken a major blow and he needed to get back to his old self. We'd go to Talladega 2 weeks later and WORK hard. He needed to get back to his roots, and he ran Talladega more than any other track last year. He knows it well. I told him if he put in the work and showed me his old self, we'd do Barber.

Fast forward 2 weeks and we head to Talladega. Caleb doesn't love the track much as he's gotten used to bigger and better. However, he'd been pumping himself up and was ready to do some real work. This was the weekend where I saw my son shine. It wasn't about his finishes or how fast he went. It was how hard he worked. I haven't seen him this determined since we first started racing and practicing almost 3 years ago.

We showed up to the gates Th night just 9 minutes too late to get in! That was a little disappointing as it meant more work for me in the morning. Thankfully they opened the gates at a little after 6am, so I had plenty of time to get everything done. Friday would be the most important day for us, as it was Caleb's day to work and get the feel for the bike again. We had new tires and the bike was running well. They gave us a ton of track time and split us into only 2 groups, plus the Ed Bargy school. They would go back to back for 15 to 20 mins at a time until the school came out for a few laps. He was ready to get going and he did just that. He looked very rusty to start with, but I knew he would. He had to build his confidence again and true to his nature, he felt things out. Also true to his old self, each lap was faster and faster. Each session he would drop a half a second. He was working so hard. He didn't miss a session all day (except for when we thought it was lunch time and they ended up running another session!) He stayed out from start till checkered flag. He had that smile back. He was excited again. He was having fun! I knew it was in him and it was showing again. He wanted to get out there every chance he could. By the end of the day he had dropped 5 seconds and was faster than his previous best time of a 1:10.9 when he raced in Feb. He was so happy, in such contrast to VIR. We slept good that night. )

Saturday was just 2 practice sessions, but it would be more interesting than even Friday was. There were so many Ninja 250s that showed up for the races this weekend. I couldn't believe how many there were. The cheap and affordable class is becoming VERY popular. They put them in the LW practice group. Caleb was growing in such confidence, and something finally happened... the light switch flipped on passing. He was a freakin' monster! He was passing people left and right, up the inside, on the brakes, around the outside...nothing was getting in his way. To top it all off, he went even faster each session out in traffic! He ended the day with a 1:10.2, another 6 tenths faster than the previous day. We enjoyed the rest of the day watching the races and friends race. Again, we had another good night of sleep!

Sunday came and another beautiful day, with Caleb ready and pumped to race. There was only one other class competitor there, Parker Steele, the rider on the Moriwaki that beat him at CMP. We'd been watching Parker and he has some dang good corner speed on that bike. Caleb had the power advantage and he didn't back down on corner speed. We all knew Parker would destroy Caleb off the start with the 4-stroke torque and smaller first gear. But, I also knew Caleb was a good bit faster. Not only that, there was a sizable Clubman grid. There were 12 bikes total in the race. To top it off, in practice Caleb had dropped even more time, now down to a 1:09.6. He was finally in the single digits!!!

They grided the youngsters on the front this time. The flag dropped and Parker left Caleb pretty harshly. Caleb is still trying to figure out the clutch. In the video I posted earlier, you'll see him pulling the clutch back in, slipping it back out, in and out. He says keeping the clutch in scares him. He'll get it though, just like he finally started to pass this weekend. After the start, the gloves were off! Caleb gave Parker one lap, then dropped the hammer. Caleb blew by him on the back straight then on the brakes and never looked back. Caleb led most of the race. 2 riders from the clubman class finally caught Caleb (both expert). One passed him and Caleb let the other by. You could actually see Caleb catch them back on the brakes. I watched closely and the only place they were faster was 2 corners, where Caleb had been struggling all weekend long. At the exit of turn 2 Caleb would run wide and get off the optimal line, and then all of turn 3 he suffered. We worked on it and he did get faster, but those 2 corners are the sole reason he wasn't in the 6's. Regardless, he rode GREAT! He won the 125 race and finished 3rd overall out of 12. He also ran the 3rd fastest lap time with a 1:08.8...again, faster every time out!

Caleb was so happy. He happily got his first place trophy and went home happy. He knows he's ready for Barber and he's excited now that he's got confidence. Barber is a national so we know he's still going to be one of the slower racers there. More than anything, this is my reward to him for riding so hard. I hope we get good weather at Barber and he gets some good track time. He's really looking forward to it, and so am I!

Clay and Caleb