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Moto West GP May 17th-18th

1K views 15 replies 5 participants last post by  SDsting 
#1 ·
Is anyone racing at Big Willow with MWGP next month? I will be there, it would be cool meet anyone who is headed out there. Let me know.
 
#5 ·
Ha, yes, that was me. Rode off in turn 9 and hit the hay bails, bike and I flipped but both of us are pretty much ok. Minor damage to the bike, no damage to me.

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#6 ·
Although later in the day, another guy on a gen 2 crashed and destroyed his bike. He is ok as well. There were LOTS of crashes, the conditions were not good. I will post more later with pictures and stuff.
 
#7 ·
Full report:

My race weekend did not go as I had hoped. I drove up friday the 15th at about 6 and got there about 9:30. I was just there to practice so I did 4 sessions. The conditions were not good, wind constant at 20mph with blasts up to 30. My best lap time was 1:32'7. I have previously done 1:30's. I was pleased with the day, considering the conditions. It got worse after that. Thru a big scheduling misunderstanding, I wasted a day off work and the cost of the friday track day. Turns out that MWGP does practice, also acts as open qualifying, on saturday from 9am to 3:30pm. So I had no reason to be there friday. Live and learn. (I know, I look like an @$$ hat complaining about too much track time)



Anyway, I went to my friend's house in Ridgecrest for the night. I had dinner at a place called "Schooners", it was really good and cheap sports bar. Def worth a stop, not that there is any reason to be in Ridgecrest really tho.

Back to the track. As I had done 4 sessions friday, I slept in and drove back to the track about 11. I did 2 different sessions and my best qualifying time was 1:33'1. Not bad, as it got me 4th starting position, which is front row. The race was awesome. My start was decent, first turn is left, and I was on the inside, but the outside guys could carry more speed. Going into turn 2 I was in 6th. I passed 2 guys easily and was in 4th. On the 3rd of 6 laps I caught up to 3rd place, he is on a RSV4. He and I had a great battle, I wish my gopro had been on. Anyway, at the end of lap 4, I out braked him into turn 1. He followed me all the way to turn 7 and passed me there. I chased him down the straight (cause we all know the zx10 is faster than the RSV4) and this time I drove hard around him and passed him mid way thru turn 2. This was the beginning of lap 5 (of 6). Again, he passed me in turn 7. I decided to let him stay ahead, I planned to follow him to turn 8 and 9 and try to beat him down the straight to the finishline (again, the zx being faster) unfortunately I was a little too inside of 9 and didnt have the best exit and he beat my by .018. It was CLOSE!!!!

I attached the track map for reference.



After the race, there was a bbq, everybody chilled and had a great time. I slept at the track that night.

On sunday, I woke up and they had practice from 8 to 10. I only planned on doing one session. I got everything ready and headed out when my time came. I went out with the guy who had taken 2nd in the race on saturday. I followed him for 2 laps and then he put his hand up to get off track. That was in turn 7. I was still running race pace so I simply passed him underneath going thru 8. I didnt think anything of it, but that caused my line going into 9 to be wide. I was turning into 9 at about 110-120 and I quickly realized that I could not make the turn. I decided to stand the bike up and brake as much as possible. This wasnt much before I was in the dirt. I continued braking in the dirt, all while turning right, trying to get towards the pit. I was still doing about 40 and turning in the dirt when I hit the hay bails. The front wheel dug in and both me and the bike flipped over the bails. I tumbled, came down on my head/should and then slammed down on my right hip. I am not injured at all, my neck is a tiny stiff and my hip has a small bruise. I will post pics of my suit later. The bike flipped and landed on the tail, then the nose. The tail is totally destroyed.





The front fender is also destroyed. The front and side fairing is pretty beat up. The shift lever broke off my vortex rearsets and I broke the tip of the clutch lever off. The worst damage is the intake tube. It is cracked all the way around. I have yet to strip the bike. When I do this I will go thru it much more carefully. It runs and rides fine. I road it back to the pits after the crash. The bars are straight, forks too, wheels too. Luckily the tank only has some scratched, no dents. No check engine lights.

Overall the bike is pretty much ok. Nothing a few hundred dollars wont fix. I learned a lesson. KNOW YOUR LINE. Especially in corners like 8 and 9 at big willow. Things happen REALLY fast at 140+.
 
#8 ·
Sorry to see that man. I was out there as well Fri and raced on Sat. By race time on Sat the wind was blowing so hard across turns 8 & 9 that I just backed it down about 5 sec. off my normal pace, just wasn’t worth it. I watched a guy get blown off in turn 8 in front of me and just wadded his bike, might have been the gen 2 you were talking about, I don’t know. Sat morning practice was good though, could really smoke through 8 & 9 with little interference from the wind.

Hope you get you bike back together soon.
 
#9 ·
Thanks man, yea, I will be up and running shortly. A guy got pretty wadded on an R6 in 8 as well. The wind was bad. I felt it in my race, but was able to work with it. My best lap in the race was a 1:31.6
 
#14 ·
was the R6 grey in color? if so then that's the one I saw go down in 8 in front of me.
BTW you're smokin' with those lap times, that's good enough to win.
 
#11 ·
Hahahaha, well, you only live once.
 
#13 ·
Yes, I guess its all about calculated risk, right? My calculator wasnt quite up to speed.
 
#15 ·
Yes, it was a grey R6. I felt great the whole time, I learned a lot from some of the guys that live at that track. Very happy about that

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#16 ·
then I have GoPro footage of the R6 kicking up the dust as it wadded, I was about 4 sec behind him when he went off
 
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