Team Barker O’ Donoghue and Chuck Sorensen Round 6 Race Report
That was long two months of no riding. It would be nice to do some more tests or a race elsewhere but I try to have a personal life and a job to help support my passions…
At the beginning of the year I wanted to have a party to celebrate getting the Moto2 bike, sadly it showed up a week late to my plan for the party. I decided a couple of months ago that I would have this party and the Sears Point AFM race and make it a Champagne and Oysters Soiree. I am big fan of bubbles and I thought I could get some people that would normally not come to a race to check it out?
I tried to get all the party logistics taken care of before the event so I could concentrate on riding the whole weekend. Much thanks to my wife Barbi, she did a ton of work in the days before and the day of. Picking up ice, oysters, our awesome oyster shucker and good friend Poncho from Café Meuse. My old friend Eric Meuse also made a beautiful cheese and charcutier plate for the guests.
Crispin and would load up on Thursday night to do the track day on Friday before the race weekend. Usually these events are sold out over crowded and getting a clean lap can be difficult. Gladly this wasn’t the case. The day was well run, Crispin and I tried at least 3 different gearing combinations, at the end of the of the day got down to 1:44 lap times and I was starting to get back into the groove of things. Sears Point has always been my home track, I took New Riders School in 1989 there the day after my Senior Prom. I believe that a track like Sears will teach a rider how to deal with technical circuits, its not super fast but has a bit of everything for a rider to tackle.
Saturday we woke to more beautiful weather. I got down to business on the track from the first practice, I felt like I had hit a wall at the 1:44 lap time, told myself to relax and let the time come to me, The last practice of the morning got into the 1:43’s I was also one of two riders that went over the 103 dba sound limit. Yeah, I guess it’s a little loud, it’s a Moto2 bike. We will have to look into a longer silencer for running at Sears Point. I would skip the next two practices and save myself for Formula 1 qualifying. I got a couple of clean laps and turned a 1:43.6 which would put me on the outside of row 1 for the race on Sunday. Next up would be F40 middleweight, points put me on the outside of row 1. I got a good start and went up the inside of my good friend Tom Montano into turn 2. I put my sights on leader Steven Rue and made the pass on him into turn 7. I had my head down and was just trying to put in clean laps, we were into the Heavyweight novices by lap 2 and I was methodical about passing them to create a gap to my pursuers. I looked back with 2 laps to go and could feel I had a gap. It felt good to win again even if it’s old man middleweight. Sadly while I was making my break early in the race I passed one of those back markers on a yellow flag, I was disqualified from the race.
Sunday was a cold morning warm up, we scrubbed a new tire and were ready for first race that would be Open GP. I started from the outside second row. Going into to this race I had the idea that at tight track like Sears I should have an advantage on the smaller lighter bike against the 1000’s? Not really so, the bigger bikes squirted off the corners better and I was not able to mount much of a challenge, I would finish in 7th position with a best time of 1:43.9 . I was excited for next race Formula 1, a lot of my rivals in F40 are the same for F1. As we headed out for the warm up lap, the dash on my bike was already on, then it went blank, the bike would not fire…. Damn it!!! Crispin and Joe changed the battery as quick as possible and by the time I got to the grid the 1 was sideways for the first wave I was supposed to be in. I decided I would start from the back of Novice grid. I quickly got thru the novices and started to pick through the experts, I would finish 13th with a best time of 1:42.9. Disappointing. Now I know not to leave the dash on after each session.
I was now ready to start the party!!! I had 300 oysters and a couple of cases of Champagne. I had several customers from the wine business show up, my core crew of friends, and all my racing buddies, what more could I ask for? Crispin’s brother Jamie would be our DJ with a killer sound system. Everyone had a great time and we were one of the last to leave the paddock. This will be an annual event now….. next year maybe caviar?
I like to thank all of our sponsors: Team BOD, SPS Suspension, Barf Racing, Z2 Track Days, Authentic Wine Selections, Hotel Biron, Tech Spec, Shoei, Max at Oxymoron. We look forward to seeing you all at the last round in October.
That was long two months of no riding. It would be nice to do some more tests or a race elsewhere but I try to have a personal life and a job to help support my passions…
At the beginning of the year I wanted to have a party to celebrate getting the Moto2 bike, sadly it showed up a week late to my plan for the party. I decided a couple of months ago that I would have this party and the Sears Point AFM race and make it a Champagne and Oysters Soiree. I am big fan of bubbles and I thought I could get some people that would normally not come to a race to check it out?
I tried to get all the party logistics taken care of before the event so I could concentrate on riding the whole weekend. Much thanks to my wife Barbi, she did a ton of work in the days before and the day of. Picking up ice, oysters, our awesome oyster shucker and good friend Poncho from Café Meuse. My old friend Eric Meuse also made a beautiful cheese and charcutier plate for the guests.
Crispin and would load up on Thursday night to do the track day on Friday before the race weekend. Usually these events are sold out over crowded and getting a clean lap can be difficult. Gladly this wasn’t the case. The day was well run, Crispin and I tried at least 3 different gearing combinations, at the end of the of the day got down to 1:44 lap times and I was starting to get back into the groove of things. Sears Point has always been my home track, I took New Riders School in 1989 there the day after my Senior Prom. I believe that a track like Sears will teach a rider how to deal with technical circuits, its not super fast but has a bit of everything for a rider to tackle.
Saturday we woke to more beautiful weather. I got down to business on the track from the first practice, I felt like I had hit a wall at the 1:44 lap time, told myself to relax and let the time come to me, The last practice of the morning got into the 1:43’s I was also one of two riders that went over the 103 dba sound limit. Yeah, I guess it’s a little loud, it’s a Moto2 bike. We will have to look into a longer silencer for running at Sears Point. I would skip the next two practices and save myself for Formula 1 qualifying. I got a couple of clean laps and turned a 1:43.6 which would put me on the outside of row 1 for the race on Sunday. Next up would be F40 middleweight, points put me on the outside of row 1. I got a good start and went up the inside of my good friend Tom Montano into turn 2. I put my sights on leader Steven Rue and made the pass on him into turn 7. I had my head down and was just trying to put in clean laps, we were into the Heavyweight novices by lap 2 and I was methodical about passing them to create a gap to my pursuers. I looked back with 2 laps to go and could feel I had a gap. It felt good to win again even if it’s old man middleweight. Sadly while I was making my break early in the race I passed one of those back markers on a yellow flag, I was disqualified from the race.
Sunday was a cold morning warm up, we scrubbed a new tire and were ready for first race that would be Open GP. I started from the outside second row. Going into to this race I had the idea that at tight track like Sears I should have an advantage on the smaller lighter bike against the 1000’s? Not really so, the bigger bikes squirted off the corners better and I was not able to mount much of a challenge, I would finish in 7th position with a best time of 1:43.9 . I was excited for next race Formula 1, a lot of my rivals in F40 are the same for F1. As we headed out for the warm up lap, the dash on my bike was already on, then it went blank, the bike would not fire…. Damn it!!! Crispin and Joe changed the battery as quick as possible and by the time I got to the grid the 1 was sideways for the first wave I was supposed to be in. I decided I would start from the back of Novice grid. I quickly got thru the novices and started to pick through the experts, I would finish 13th with a best time of 1:42.9. Disappointing. Now I know not to leave the dash on after each session.
I was now ready to start the party!!! I had 300 oysters and a couple of cases of Champagne. I had several customers from the wine business show up, my core crew of friends, and all my racing buddies, what more could I ask for? Crispin’s brother Jamie would be our DJ with a killer sound system. Everyone had a great time and we were one of the last to leave the paddock. This will be an annual event now….. next year maybe caviar?
I like to thank all of our sponsors: Team BOD, SPS Suspension, Barf Racing, Z2 Track Days, Authentic Wine Selections, Hotel Biron, Tech Spec, Shoei, Max at Oxymoron. We look forward to seeing you all at the last round in October.
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