Heatland Park, Topeka round cancelled

Heartland Park Topeka track personnel have confirmed with CCS officials that their race event scheduled for Sept. 4-5, 2010, has been cancelled for economic reasons.

UPDATE (Aug 25)
CCS Announces Venue and Date Change
for Final Great Plains Event

Fort Worth, TX – The Championship Cup Series would like to announce the the final points race for the Great Plains Championship Series will be moved to the September 25-26 event at Blackhawk Farms Raceway as a result of the cancellation of the final round at Heartland Park-Topeka.

"We hope that by making the decision quickly and getting the announcement out there that it will enable all our racers in the Great Plains Championship to alter their plans accordingly." stated Kevin Elliott, Director of Operations for ASRA/CCS. "As soon as we got the word from Heartland Park management, we were in contact with the racers who had planned to be at that event to see what they wanted to do. The riders we contacted overwhelmingly requested the chance to have their final race of the season. even if it meant sharing the spotlight with the CCS Mid-West Championships at Blackhawk Farms Raceway."

Blackhawk 9/25-26 will be Double Points for both Great Plains and Mid West riders.

Blackhawk Farms, August round

Blackhawk Farms Race Report
Vol. 5, #4
Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, IL. - August 22, 2010

As the August round approached CCS was going through some serious changes. This year has been marred with low bike turnout due to several factors and in an effort to combat dwindling resources CCS decided to switch the last two Blackhawk Farms rounds to one day race formats.
Having raced in the Great Plains region, I was used to this style format but due to the schedule with very little rest time in between races I made the decision to drop my Lightweight Formula 40 race. I hate to do this but right now I'm doing much better in points in Thunderbike and Lightweight SuperSport. I could pick up another race further down in the schedule to get more track time but I decided this late in the date to concentrate on just these two classes.

With Troy and Craig out with damaged bikes and Mike not quite ready with his, Janet and I took off for the races at 4:00am on Sunday. With heavy fog all the way from Waterloo to the track it was already a pretty intense start!
Tech and practice went well as I was armed with new tires and brake pads for this raceday. I'd had a real breakthrough in lower laptimes at the last round so I was very confident in what I could accomplish.

Right around lunchtime, Troy and Sheila, Jeff Elenz, Duane and Delores rode up on their bikes. I knew they were planning on coming but with the heavy fog earlier I was a little surprised to see them. Of course, it's always fun to have a cheering section!!

Thunderbike - 2nd!!
Thunderbike turned out to be a single wave start which really helped me as I got right in behind a couple of Experts right away and they towed me around for the first few laps. After lap three I actually tried to get around each of them. I never got that done but I was definitely clicking off some good laps and felt great running with them. On lap 7 I had a run on the guy just in front of me going into turn 7 and as I stuck my nose on the inside I ended up doing a pretty serious stoppie! I recovered alright but I DID find the limit of my late braking skills!!
I was very happy to take 2nd in this race and found out later that I'd improved on last month's best lap times in the process!!

Lightweight SuperSport
This race was one I was really looking forward to as my confidence level was up and I was currently in 2nd place in the region in this class.
I went out on the sighting lap getting settled in when one of the experts came by. I thought I would see where he tipped in on turn 4 so instead of watching my line, I watched him and you guessed it, I target fixated on him and the next thing I knew off the track I went!!! Now I know better than to do this but it caught me out and this time turn 4 bit me. Right into the Air Fence I went! Fortunately for me I was uninjured and so was the bike except for a bunch of grass jammed into it all over the left side and a broken oil cooler scoop so that race was over before it even started.

The weekend didn't end like I'd hoped but I had accomplished faster lap times and a 2nd place plaque and a hard lesson learned. Since Hearland Park's round has been cancelled that just leaves the September Blackhawk round before the season ends so I've got some time to get my head screwed on straight and finish the season strong!

Blackhawk Farms, July round

Blackhawk Farms Race Report
Vol. 5, #3
Blackhawk Farms Raceway, South Beloit, IL. - July 24-25, 2010

After the successes at Road America earlier in the month I was really looking forward to my first trip back to Blackhawk Farms this season. Teammate, Craig Davis and I headed east for the weekend of racing driving through rain and looking at a forecast that didn't look to good for racing.

Saturday morning brought showers and a very WET track! The weatherman said that it would clear up by noon but I really wanted to get out on the track since I hadn't been there since last year but when the first practice session was called, you could have heard a pin drop! No one else went out either, probably figuring like me that it wasn't worth wadding up the bike on a very wet track, especially since it was supposed to get nicer. By 11:00 the sun peeked through and the track immediately started drying out. I got a few practice laps in during the open practice and decided I was ready for action!

Lightweight Formula 40 - 4th
I came around after the warm-up lap to see the 3 board up which caused me to hurry to get situated on the line. When the green flag dropped was in neutral! I slammed the bike into gear and put my head down, it was GO time! I tried some different gear choices and lines that I'd watch on video of the fast guys over the winter and I was definitely on the march. As I came through for lap one I was already second but saw the meatball flag flying and as I was slowing into turn one to see if a corner worker was pointing at me I lost a position. I decided the heck with it I'm going!

Well it turned out the meatball flag was for me as I was moving on the line just before the start. Had I come into the hot pit for the stop and go penalty that would have been it but since I stayed out I was penalized a full lap. Fortunately for me I had lapped some of the slower guys so I ended up 4th. I did get a visit from the Race Marshall in my pit though! And as I told him, I hadn't seen a meatball flag since I went to licensing school and actually forgot what to do! Lesson learned!!

Thunderbike - 3rd
Finally, I got a really good start! I found myself right behind one of the really quick Amateurs and he towed me around for two laps. I got into turn 7 a little too hot and lost a position while I was getting back on the gas. I gave chase but he was a little too strong. I ended up 3rd but shattered my previous best lap time so now I knew I could go as fast as some of the front guys. The race was a great confidence booster!!

Lightweight SuperSport - 5th
This was a very strange race as there were no Experts signed up so four of us Amateurs got to line up on row 1. It was really fun to be on the front row! It's a lot different from starting on row 6 or 7 as turn one comes up a lot quicker!

I got a good start but going into turn one I was on the inside and all of a sudden I was 4th! So I put my head down and closed up the gap, out braking my buddy Mike Stone into turn 1. Now in 3rd with 2nd in sight I cooked into turn 4 too hot and off the track I went, just missing the tire barrier and air fence. O.K. now I'm in 7th as I got back on track. I put my head down and started clicking off some good laps from what I'd learned in my earlier racers, running my best lap time on lap #7 of the 8 lap race.

All in all I'm glad I didn't crash in turn 4 and I learned how much harder I could push.
Unfortunately Craig's weekend didn't end well as he lowsided into turn 4 and really tore up his bike. When it was all over he just walked away which was amazing! I'm very thankful he was uninjuried but his rookie race season may be over.