Team Barker O’ Donoghue Chuck Sorensen- So long 2018….
After being off the bike for the last month I was looking forward to getting back in the saddle. I had a really busy work week leading up to the race weekend. October is the month we get in all the last ride-withs( rep. of winery is in your car all day, you see appointments and sell wine). None the less, work is great and Authentic Wine Selections is killing it…
The bike was ready to go, we did a oil change, James Siddall of Superplush Suspension installed some fork bushings, and we serviced the brakes. Crispin loaded up on Thurs afternoon and we would meet up at the track to do the Z2 track day on Friday morning. During the riders meeting my buddy Steve Rue asked me if I had seen the AFM Program? I hadn’t seen it yet. Max from Oxymoron did some nice artwork and superimposed Chucky the killer doll’s head on a pick of me. I will be grateful for any program I make the cover of, happy Halloween !!!! Thanks Max.. We wanted to test some gearing and confirm our set up since the last time we were at Thill in June. I got up to speed fairly quickly and at the end of the day we within a second of our previous times at this circuit. I am starting to learn to work with the software for the AIM data logging system. I download the data at the end of the day, put it into a google drive folder and then James Siddall and I debrief at night. We have been making it a habit of going to Orland on Friday night for dinner to mix it up from the culinary specialties of Willows, CA. We had a nice dinner, my teammate Steven Lucker brought his Dad, Heiko for the weekend. Heiko and I worked together at Dublin Kawasaki over 25 years ago and that was the last time I saw him!!!
Saturday we woke to more perfect weather. My team principal Crispin had friends visiting from England over the weekend so he went back to pick them up and would return for Sunday morning. Jamie Barker, Crispin’s brother would be so kind to be my assistant for all of Saturday’s festivities. Practice was uneventful and we were ready for our Formula One qualifying. The qualifying session is mixed with Formula 4, so you need to try and get some clear track to bust out a quick qualifying lap, Luckily I was with a good bunch of riders and turned a 1:53.4 for 3rd place on the grid , a couple of 10ths over my quickest lap here. One of our main rivals Berto( President ) has been on fire all season and would get pole at 1:51.6… good job Berto. Next up we would have Formula 40 middleweight race. My teammate Tom Montano and I were listening for the calls for the race, we got 1st call, 2nd call then silence… then we see the marshals waving out the riders entering hot pit, by the time we got there they were telling us and more than half the grid to go straight to the grid, no warmup lap??? Not a great confidence builder… I got an ok start, coming out of turn one the rear let loose and told me the tires were not up to temperature. Berto and Steve Rue were quickly away and there was no chance of me catching them. I had lap times in the 53-54 range and would get 3rd place. The team was happy with the finish, I definitely question the actions of race control sending more than half the grid without a warm up lap, it was dangerous. Saturday night we would fit new tires for Sunday and Tom and Jamie did a bang up job of fitting a front fender bracket that was broken with some steel plate and rivets. Going over the data with James we saw the bike was working very similar to back in June and the improvements that could be made would be about me trusting the chassis and letting out of the brakes sooner and carrying more corner speed…
Sunday’s first race would be Open GP, me against the big bikes. In the past Thill was been good facing off with open bikes compared to my Moto2 machine. If you could get in front of the big bikes before turn 4 you can gap them enough they can’t get you back down the front straight. This race I would get a poor start and get stuck behind several riders. I kept my head down and tried to make some clean laps and watch my times. I would end up 9th place. The Formula One race would be 1st after lunch. This is the class I would like to do well in and get results. My start was marginal, I was in 7th or so, on the 3rd lap the two riders I was battling with came together at the exit of turn 9, it was ugly, colliding over the top of that hill and crashing at over 100mph, not fun… a few corners later red flag. On the restart I got a better start and was 5th into turn 2, after a couple of laps worked my way to 4th place. Brandon Crawford’s bike would break giving me 3rd place. Great way to finish the season!!!
I would like to welcome questions, banter, and suggestions to my posts, some of my BARF teammates get a lot more feedback on reports and I would love to chat with ya’ll.
This season has been challenging with learning a new bike, very gratifying in the sense our bike was reliable and us as a team are starting to gel.. I would like to thank my Team Principal Crispin. Last season we had fun, some good results, but also heart break for the non-finishes and late nights in the garage. The dream of getting a real Moto2 bike for the 2018 season became a quick reality because both Crispin and I like to make dreams come true…. I would like to thank my sponsors for their support this season:
Barker O’ Donoghue Master Builders
Superplush Suspension- James Siddall
Barf Racing – The Budman
Z2 Trackdays- David Benjamin – Shawn Reilly
Shoei Helmets
Racer Gloves- Lee Block
Tech Spec
Authentic Wine Selections- Robert Morrison
Hotel Biron- Chris Fuqua
My wife Barbi, that supports and accepts that I still have passion for this sport...
A special thanks to all the AFM workers, its truly a pleasure being a part of this club. Jason at Dunlop tires, Max at Oxymoron for all the great pics. I look forward to seeing you all next year, we will be back with a vengeance.
After being off the bike for the last month I was looking forward to getting back in the saddle. I had a really busy work week leading up to the race weekend. October is the month we get in all the last ride-withs( rep. of winery is in your car all day, you see appointments and sell wine). None the less, work is great and Authentic Wine Selections is killing it…
The bike was ready to go, we did a oil change, James Siddall of Superplush Suspension installed some fork bushings, and we serviced the brakes. Crispin loaded up on Thurs afternoon and we would meet up at the track to do the Z2 track day on Friday morning. During the riders meeting my buddy Steve Rue asked me if I had seen the AFM Program? I hadn’t seen it yet. Max from Oxymoron did some nice artwork and superimposed Chucky the killer doll’s head on a pick of me. I will be grateful for any program I make the cover of, happy Halloween !!!! Thanks Max.. We wanted to test some gearing and confirm our set up since the last time we were at Thill in June. I got up to speed fairly quickly and at the end of the day we within a second of our previous times at this circuit. I am starting to learn to work with the software for the AIM data logging system. I download the data at the end of the day, put it into a google drive folder and then James Siddall and I debrief at night. We have been making it a habit of going to Orland on Friday night for dinner to mix it up from the culinary specialties of Willows, CA. We had a nice dinner, my teammate Steven Lucker brought his Dad, Heiko for the weekend. Heiko and I worked together at Dublin Kawasaki over 25 years ago and that was the last time I saw him!!!
Saturday we woke to more perfect weather. My team principal Crispin had friends visiting from England over the weekend so he went back to pick them up and would return for Sunday morning. Jamie Barker, Crispin’s brother would be so kind to be my assistant for all of Saturday’s festivities. Practice was uneventful and we were ready for our Formula One qualifying. The qualifying session is mixed with Formula 4, so you need to try and get some clear track to bust out a quick qualifying lap, Luckily I was with a good bunch of riders and turned a 1:53.4 for 3rd place on the grid , a couple of 10ths over my quickest lap here. One of our main rivals Berto( President ) has been on fire all season and would get pole at 1:51.6… good job Berto. Next up we would have Formula 40 middleweight race. My teammate Tom Montano and I were listening for the calls for the race, we got 1st call, 2nd call then silence… then we see the marshals waving out the riders entering hot pit, by the time we got there they were telling us and more than half the grid to go straight to the grid, no warmup lap??? Not a great confidence builder… I got an ok start, coming out of turn one the rear let loose and told me the tires were not up to temperature. Berto and Steve Rue were quickly away and there was no chance of me catching them. I had lap times in the 53-54 range and would get 3rd place. The team was happy with the finish, I definitely question the actions of race control sending more than half the grid without a warm up lap, it was dangerous. Saturday night we would fit new tires for Sunday and Tom and Jamie did a bang up job of fitting a front fender bracket that was broken with some steel plate and rivets. Going over the data with James we saw the bike was working very similar to back in June and the improvements that could be made would be about me trusting the chassis and letting out of the brakes sooner and carrying more corner speed…
Sunday’s first race would be Open GP, me against the big bikes. In the past Thill was been good facing off with open bikes compared to my Moto2 machine. If you could get in front of the big bikes before turn 4 you can gap them enough they can’t get you back down the front straight. This race I would get a poor start and get stuck behind several riders. I kept my head down and tried to make some clean laps and watch my times. I would end up 9th place. The Formula One race would be 1st after lunch. This is the class I would like to do well in and get results. My start was marginal, I was in 7th or so, on the 3rd lap the two riders I was battling with came together at the exit of turn 9, it was ugly, colliding over the top of that hill and crashing at over 100mph, not fun… a few corners later red flag. On the restart I got a better start and was 5th into turn 2, after a couple of laps worked my way to 4th place. Brandon Crawford’s bike would break giving me 3rd place. Great way to finish the season!!!
I would like to welcome questions, banter, and suggestions to my posts, some of my BARF teammates get a lot more feedback on reports and I would love to chat with ya’ll.
This season has been challenging with learning a new bike, very gratifying in the sense our bike was reliable and us as a team are starting to gel.. I would like to thank my Team Principal Crispin. Last season we had fun, some good results, but also heart break for the non-finishes and late nights in the garage. The dream of getting a real Moto2 bike for the 2018 season became a quick reality because both Crispin and I like to make dreams come true…. I would like to thank my sponsors for their support this season:
Barker O’ Donoghue Master Builders
Superplush Suspension- James Siddall
Barf Racing – The Budman
Z2 Trackdays- David Benjamin – Shawn Reilly
Shoei Helmets
Racer Gloves- Lee Block
Tech Spec
Authentic Wine Selections- Robert Morrison
Hotel Biron- Chris Fuqua
My wife Barbi, that supports and accepts that I still have passion for this sport...
A special thanks to all the AFM workers, its truly a pleasure being a part of this club. Jason at Dunlop tires, Max at Oxymoron for all the great pics. I look forward to seeing you all next year, we will be back with a vengeance.
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