Soup :: From the Hip: I'll Take The Blame

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From the Hip: I'll Take The Blame
by roger lee hayden
Friday, May 25, 2007

It's been a while since I've written a column here on Soup, so I'll start with Barber. In the past Barber has been a good track for me. I like it. It's got some elevation changes, a little up and down, which makes the track fun. However the weekend overall didn't really go all that well for me. The very first lap of Supersport practice I had a big crash and hit my head pretty hard. I never really got back into it the rest of the weekend. I was kind of in a daze all weekend. I still rode that Friday, which was probably a mistake on my part, because I definitely wasn't all there. That just wasn't the way you want to start the weekend. It was a bit of a weird crash. I was behind a lapper, and the rear end broke loose and sent me over the high side, and I landed right on my head. Not the way I like to start the weekend out, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

After that, it was just kind of the way the whole weekend went. I never really got going after that and I'm not sure why. The Supersport race was going okay, but I was just having a lot of problems with my front tire. I just couldn't drag my knee on the right-hand side. I almost came in to change it, but I didn't, and I got fifth. That's still some pretty good points, but not really where I wanted to finish. But after those few issues I had there, not too bad of a result.

As far as Superbike went, it was kind of a disappointing weekend for me. My results were just barely inside the top ten both days. I struggled with it the whole weekend, which is kind of weird, because last year it was one of my better races on the Superbike. But all in all, I finished both races and learned a little. Definitely Sunday was better than Saturday, so as long as I'm improving, that's the only thing that really matters to me.

When you have a bad weekend, it's really nice when the next race is so close, and that was definitely the case with Fontana. We went straight to Fontana, which is a little different track than we're used to—it's kind of like a parking lot with cones set up. It's got a really fast chicane. If you get your bike working well it's not too bad, but when you're struggling in getting your bike to change directions, that chicane feels a lot worse than it really is. I got up to speed pretty good on the Superbike, and things were going okay. On the 600, I got up to speed pretty fast too. Friday everything went good. We just kind of fine-tuned everything and got ready for race day. <

I ended up on the second row for the Superbike races, which, lately, is kind of good for me, because I've been on the third row like I was at Barber. That isn't where you want to be starting, because you have a lot more stuff to deal with in the first laps.

I got an okay start in Saturday's Superbike race, and finished eighth. My position wasn't that good, but my lap times were okay for a lot longer than they have been in the previous races. I wasn't falling back at the halfway point. There was a group in front of me of about three or four guys, and it seemed like I was catching them in the middle of the race. The same thing happened at Birmingham. I thought to myself, "If I can just get going a little bit faster, instead of piddling around in the beginning of the race, maybe I could race with those guys."

Sunday I went a little faster in the beginning. It was kind of the same thing. I got seventh place, but I was making ground on the guys in front of me. I just tapered off at the end. I was frustrated with that, because I feel like I had the speed to run with the guys a little bit ahead of me, but I've just got to get going better at the beginning of the race, and quit wasting time. It's one of those things I'm learning. I'm definitely better than last year. Last year I couldn't even finish a race, so I'm improving and actually got to race with a few guys in the Superbike race. That was kind of fun.

The Supersport race was kind of a crazy event there because it got red-flagged a couple of times. Supersport went off after the Superbike race but that didn't really affect me too much, because a race is a race, it doesn't matter when you ride. But maybe I was more fatigued than I would have been in the beginning of the race when it's before Superbike. But not too bad. That track's not too hard physically on a 600. I got an okay start and got shuffled back to fourth. There was a big pack of us. I felt I was faster than the guys in front of me, and I was getting a bit annoyed, because every time I tried to do my normal line, somebody would stuff it up the inside of me and just park it. Almost at the halfway, I kind of got into it with a guy. I actually made a gesture toward him that was caught on TV. I wish I wouldn't have made that gesture, because it's not something that's that cool to do, and I was definitely in the wrong for shooting the guy the bird like that. My parents raised me a lot better than that. But I'm just like everybody else—I'm human. Sometimes my emotions get the better of me. I'll learn from that and try to keep it under control a little bit better. But I was definitely annoyed. I lost some positions after that, dealing with that mess, and just fought my way back. I got in my rhythm and ended up third, which wasn't too terrible for what happened. I was pretty much off the track there.

So at the end of the Fontana weekend I was definitely frustrated with the way things were going. We had a good test at Salt Lake City headed into Sears Point, which Sears Point in the past has been by far my worst track. I'm always hurt there and don't get to race, or I'm riding there hurt. It's not that I don't like the track, because I try not to hate any track. I think it screws you up mentally when you go there. I really wanted to get the monkey off my back at Sears Point. It's just weird—it's not that I don't like it, I just stink there. I'm slow, I feel awkward riding. I watched a lot of tapes from the previous races out there, Superbike and a few other classes, and I felt like I picked up some stuff, maybe some lines that other people were using that I wasn't. Even from the very beginning on Friday, things went a lot better than they had at the previous race. Everything was looking good. I qualified on the front row for Supersport, which is nice. Superbike I was back on row three again, which is not where I want to be. I find it a little frustrating whenever I qualify like that. It seems like I'm always in that 6th, 7th, 8th position, and some guys can always find a little bit—I don't know if they push a little harder for one lap, but somebody can always edge me out. That's something I've got to work on. Because starting on row three is just too big of a deficit to overcome.

Superbike race one went pretty good. I got an okay start and passed a few guys. I moved my way into 6th, and chased down Jake the whole race. I actually passed him once. Once I passed him I thought I had it, and I took the next corner kind of lazy and he got me right back. Definitely my mistake there. That's the way it goes sometimes. But it was one of my better rides, and I felt good, because I charged at the end. I got sixth place. I haven't got top five yet. I was pretty close to that. I just felt really comfortable.

I charged from the very beginning until the end. Just a little problem with the motor, which in all honesty, to be fair, could probably be a little my fault, because there was one spot in the track where I was really in the rev limiter really bad.

Then on Sunday, the Superbike race was by far my best Superbike ride I've ever had. I didn't get a very good start, I was like 11th the first lap. But I felt really good and I put my head down, and started to charge hard. I started picking a few guys off here and there. I got into fifth, and I really wanted to catch the guy in fourth. I caught him, and I could tell that Jake was in front of me and he was coming back a little. It was kind of weird. Lap 20 of the second Superbike race was my fastest lap of the weekend. I started doing some :36s and started catching up to Jake. I'd get into traffic and he'd pull away, then he'd come back. We'd kind of seesawd. I actually had the gap down to a second, ... and with five laps to go my bike blew up.

It started to make some noise, then "boom." They didn't have any cornerworkers up there, just the guy waving the yellow flag. I was on a little hill.

He's going, "Just dump your bike."

I said, "I can't just dump my bike."

He said, "No, just dump it on its side. I can't come down there and help you push it." After riding it that long, I was in no condition to be pushing a bike uphill. But I did.

That was pretty unfortunate. Everybody on the team felt bad, because it we were that close to a podium. That would've been great for the team, and even if I didn't get on the podium, fourth would've been my best finish. That's the way it goes sometimes. Stuff happens. I've crashed out of races and let those guys down. Nobody hates it worse than the team. We were all wanting a good result, and we're just going to have to wait another week. But it was a fun race for me because I feel like I learned a lot. I charged from the very beginning until the end. Just a little problem with the motor, which in all honesty, to be fair, could probably be a little my fault, because there was one spot in the track where I was really in the rev limiter really bad. The team told me that Saturday night that I should probably shift there. But it was a lot more work shifting and then having to backshift before Turn 2. I didn't really think about it once they threw the green flag. I was just wringing its neck to death. So I could probably take a little bit of the blame for blowing up the motor. But that's the way it goes—you leave it all out there when they throw the green flag.

ENDS

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