Before I get into my life, I feel it is necessary to recognize someone else’s: Jose “Joe” Lopez, from Los Angeles, died this Sunday from injuries sustained in a terrible crash on the back straight during his 600cc Novice race. He was a very promising racer and apparently was spearheading an effort to build an AMA team with Magic Johnson. This is a sad reminder that regardless of all the safety measures and ritual precautions we take, motorcycling is an extremely dangrous sport, with extremely powerful consequences. Whether you ride on the track or on the street, please be careful out there, and remember Jose and those close to him in your prayers.
As for me, I took a fourth place and a tenth place, and then didn’t run my last two races due to waning light. At Fontana (Auto Club Speedway), WERA only runs races on Sunday, and Fastrack Riders runs a track day on Saturday for practice. This weekend was the first time I’ve been to this track, so during the week prior I’d studied about ten cumulative hours of race footage from various other riders. The study time along with tips from Corey and others who’d been there before ended up helping immensely. By the end of the day I was very comfortable on the racecourse and running a consistent race-worthy laptime.
On Sunday morning, as I was finishing up after a brief practice session spent scrubbing in some new super-sticky Bridgestone BT-003R tires, Corey came in with some interesting news… I was gridded in pole position for C (600cc) Superbike! A bit unbelieving, I went to check for myself, and there I was: C Superbike Expert, Row 1, Position 1. Drilling into the back of my head would be the eyes of Michael Beck, Jimmy Wood, Shane McGoey and the rest of the 40-odd racers on the grid.
No pressure.
Chris Sarbora @ Auto Club Speedway, 2009
C (600cc) Superbike
Heading out to warmup I did a couple practice starts to reassure myself. My goal for the start was pretty much just to hold the lead into turn 3, the first real corner. I knew I’d get passed, but I was going to do anything I could to minimize the damage. We took to the grid, the board went up… … … and after what seemed like forever, the green flag waved. Thunder erupted behind me as I shot forward trying to outrun the horde, getting a stellar launch and then using the power from my Fuzimoto-built engine to make sure I got the holeshot. Michael Beck, however, flew past me just a few seconds later, as if I were standing still! (I suppose you don’t get picked for a World Superbike ride for nothing!) A few moments later Jimmy Wood came by, hot on Beck’s tail, leaving me to lead the pack into the infield in third place.
I broke late and hard for turn 3, trying to apex early and run a defensive line for the immediately following right-hand turn 4. Powering out of the chicane, I charged left through turn 5, a sweeping left-hander that opens up into a short straight before turns 6 and 7, a tight 180-degree horseshoe. Braking for six, my rear tire damn near tried to start leading, and I blew the entry completely. I was dead sure I’d just opened the door for half the grid to go through, but I managed to get back in and through turn 7 before anyone passed me. My mistake would cost me, however, as shortly thereafter in turn 9, a very sharp, decreasing-radius hairpin, I could hear local fast guy Kyle Dulcich on his Matsushima-built GSX-R600 breathing hot down my neck. Turn 9 opens up onto the infamous back straight, where I had hoped to outrun him, but I would have no such luck: The Fuzzy Advantage(R) I usually enjoy was nullified by Matsushima, enabling Kyle to keep pace and stay in my draft, leaving no recourse to me. He made his move entering turn 12, the first half of the ninety-degree chicane that ends the back straight. Through turns 12 all the way to 19 on to the front straight and banking he gapped me, but once on the straight I managed to stop the bleeding and keep pace. I made back some ground on him through turns 1 and 2, a very fast, very intimidating knee-on-the-ground, top-of-fifth-gear left/right combination that virtually requires you to get fully back on the throttle exactly where your brain tells you to brake, in order to prevent your suspension from bottoming out and shooting you off the course due to the banking. Coming into turn 3 on the brakes I got back on to his rear tire, and kept up through the coming chicane and left-hander up to the horseshoe. Unfortunately my rear tire tried to swap ends again on the brakes, causing me to blow the entry and, by the time I recovered, also any hopes of catching him.
Having conceded the podium, I went back to running defensive lines and making sure I wouldn’t do the same for a Top 5 finish. There were only two laps left in the short four-lap sprint, so there was little point in playing it safe and trying to catch Kyle by tenths of a second – preventing another pass in the next few minutes became my highest priority. I could hear a pack of bikes behind me but didn’t know how many nor how close, so I simply did my best to put the hammer down and make myself as wide as possible. The next few laps went by with little incident, and I crossed the finish line in fourth place, apparently just tenths of a second ahead of the pack chasing me.
Onboard video brought to you by V-holdR Cameras. (Bear with it, the camera was damaged in a previous crash!)
B (750cc) Superbike
My grid position for B Superbike was a less-advantageous but still-kickass 9th, on the right side of the third row. For this race I had switched to pump gas, as I only had a gallon left of my R-tech Pro V.1 rocket fuel and I wanted to save it for C Superstock later in the day. I got a good start and was part of a big pack entering turn 3, so ended up entering wide and then cutting off about half of the riders ahead of me into turn 4. Ticked them off I’m sure, but hey, I got ahead of ‘em! I held my position only briefly, however, as I blew the entry into the horseshoe (again!) and allowed several riders to go past under me. I took one position back immediately after into the turn 8 chicane, and another braking for turn 12 at the end of the back straight. For the next three laps I battled back and forth with those two riders, edging them out in certain sections but inevitably giving the positions back in the last few left-handers before the front straight, where I wasn’t able to keep from running wide during this race. I ended up finishing 10th, with the best time of my weekend, a 1:36.384.
C Superstock
After B Superbike, I had quite a while to wait before C Superstock came up, and due to the delays incurred by Jose’s injury (most of the racers did not know he’d passed at this point), it was up in the air as to whether the race would actually run at all. It ended up just barely making the cut, and was started just as the sun was setting below the bleachers of the racetrack. There was still enough light to see, but it was dark enough to make it quite cold and quite challenging, especially with a dark smoke visor. I started the race on the inside of the third row, and got a great start but ended up lowsiding in third place after a very aggressive passing move. My first thought was to get the hell away from my bike, as there was a massive grid behind me and I was right where anyone following me would be heading. As soon as the grid went by, however, I was immediately back at my bike, picking it back up and praying that it’d start. (WERA allows you to re-join the race after a crash if you can get your bike started and moving.) By the time I got it running, however, the red flag had been thrown for a highside that happened a few corners further down the track from where I crashed. As I headed around the track to re-grid, the adrenaline from the race start and my crash started to wear off, and my hand began to hurt where I jammed my fingers on the pavement. By the time I got back to the grid, it hurt enough and the conditions were dark enough that I decided to simply head back to the pits rather than try to re-start in the race.
In the pits, I inspected the damage to my bike and myself – minimal on both counts, just some lightly scraped fairings and a couple bruised fingers – and then began to help pack up, as race control had just announced that my last race, B Superstock, would be cancelled due to the darkness.
Overall, it’s hard for me to classify the weekend. I personally had a spectacular time, but that was before I heard of Jose’s death, and with that knowledge now it’s hard to think of the weekend as anything resembling “good”. The weekend was certainly productive for me. I learned a new track, tuned the map on my R6, improved my riding skills and earned 19 valuable points toward the requirement of 300 for an AMA Pro Racing license. For those accomplishments I owe thanks to my sponsors: Studio819 Photography, RaceTech Suspension, Pennell Powersports and Bridgestone, PowerStands, V-holdR Cameras, Adrenaline Freaks Trackdays, Vortex, RideStream, and as always… PNWRiders.com, the best motorcycle community anywhere.
Tags: Auto Club Speedway, WERA