CTS488
BARF Racing
The AFM season is well underway and we’re approaching the half way point, championships are starting to take form with jockeying for the top spots. After round 2 BARF Racing/Pawnmoto found themselves in the mix of several championships. I found myself battling in the top spots of Open Twins and Formula Pacific classes; Berto with his run in the top spots of 600 Superbike/Production and Formula 1. So at the almost halfway point we are all pleased with our performances and know that we are going to have to work hard and be consistent for the rest of the year in order to win championships.
This report may be a little bit longer than usual, but I really need to tell the story of our effort leading up to round 3 because it is a great example of the team effort and support I have this year.
After our performance in round 2, I knew that myself and our Ducati’s were going to need a little bit more testing in order to get closer to the top step in Formula Pacific and Open Twins. Randolph has proved that he can get a bike that was an unknown and thought to be uncompetitive to be very competitive so we were going to have to work hard. The AMA races were the weekend before our AFM round 3, so I took advantage of the promoter practice on that Thursday before the event as well as a 3J’s event on the Wednesday of that same week. Two back to back days were going to be awesome for testing some new things and to simply get more time on the bike at the track which is beneficial. Our plan for testing had a wrench thrown in it when I ran into some trouble with one of my bikes, but thanks to the fantastic support of Boulder Motorsports and Fastline, Brian Sharp and Alex Torres were able to take care of our issue and make sure we had an Open Twins bike for the following weekend. Our motor ran into an issue early in the day on Wednesday. I left the track at 2 in the afternoon, headed to Fastline where Alex Torres and I took the rest of the afternoon and early evening to remove the motor. Brian Sharp, from Boulder Motorsports, was on a plane that evening headed to San Jose from Denver. I picked up Brian at 11 that evening and headed to back to Fastline to disassemble the motor and see what we needed. Brian methodically tore the motor down and inspected every inch of the internals. Brian had a list together by 3 in the morning and made some calls to Italy to make sure the parts were boxed up and shipped immediately. We wrapped up and packed a few of the major items that he wanted to take back with him to his shop in Boulder, Co to reassemble the motor at his shop when the parts came in. Once we were done at Fastline, I drove to SFO so he could make his 6 AM flight back to Denver, and then after that, I went home, sleept for about an hour and a half and then got up to go back to Infineon to go ride my other bike for the promoter practice day. Those 2 days were intense and action packed no doubt! I really didn’t accomplish much during the promoter practice other than working on some lines and a made a fork spring change that I seemed to like a bit better.
Our motor for our Open Twins bike was ready by Wednesday morning and shipped out via cargo to SFO. We picked the motor up in evening and then headed to Oakland to pick up JP Wallace, from Boulder Motorsports, who flew out to help install the motor and break it in. We once again headed to Fastline in Fremont where Alex Torres and JP spent the next few hours getting the motor into the chassis. We called it a night by 11 and headed home for some sleep as Thursday was going to be a busy day to finish up the motor install and also take care of a bunch of other little things that we needed to do on both the bikes. Alex, JP, and I spent hours on the bikes on Thursday and by the late evening the bikes were ready to be put onto the dyno for a little tuning action. JP spent a bunch of time on the dyno getting the numbers that he wanted and it paid off, big time! He was a machine and wouldn’t quit till he saw what he wanted. The 3 of us ended up leaving Fastline at around 3 in the morning, tired and deprived of sleep but we had a big day ahead of us on Friday with practice at Infineon with Zoom Zoom. Once again I was on very little sleep by the time we arrived at Infineon for practice but I got through the day and made some forward progress in terms of feel with the bike which is what I’ve been looking for.
Saturday practice was short as usual, 2 sessions in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. I had been keeping my eye on the other guys to see where they were lap time wise, I knew we were going to be in for a battle in both the races by watching where the others were at. The weather was awful but everyone had to deal the same and we just kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t be as bad for race day.
Sunday rolled around and I was caught up on sleep and ready to rock! The morning warm up went well and we had some good speed which I was pleased about. The schedule has us racing in races #6 and #8. Almost back to back races which sometimes isn’t the best but sometimes works out pretty good because you’re still pumped and in the racing frame of mind. We sat around and chilled for the first races of the day and watched my teammate Berto go out and have a strong finish in his 600 race in the morning, then had some lunch. I put my game face on right after lunch and prepared myself for the Open Twins race. Randolph and I have been going back in forth in the championship and in the races so it was going to be tough. He ran really strong last month and got the best of me in the Open Twins race but I was determined not to let that happen again. I pulled up to my P2 spot on the front row and waited for the flag to drop. I got a killer launch and led all the way to the entry of turn 4 where Randolph put the hurt on me and made the pass. The guy has the bike working really well through that whole section. I slid in behind him and shadowed him the best I could. He pulled away a little bit but then I sucked him back in. I was watching and waiting for the right time to sneak by him. I knew I had an advantage in a few areas of the track so I maximized one of the areas and made a pass. I took the lead and never looked back. Lappers started to make their appearance so I used them to my advantage to build up the gap. I took the win with a decent gap on Randolph. Felt really good to get a win and take the championship lead in the class. We set a new personal best lap time with the Ducati during the race and I knew it had a more in it and so did I.
Formula Pacific has not disappointed one bit in terms of excitement. There was a lot of hype before the season started and I think it was well deserved. No sure if FP has ever been this tight in points for the top 5, but every single rider wants to be in that top spot and the racing is proving that. I lined up in P4, outside of row 1, and waited for Phil to drop the green. I thought I got a good jump off the line but so did everyone else. We were 4 wide going into turn one with me being on the outside. Earnest was forced wide I’m sure and ended up running into my clutch hand, bending my clutch lever up about 45 degrees. At this point I freaked out a bit because I wasn’t sure if my clutch master cylinder was messed up or not so I was feeling it out all while battling to get into line with the rest of the pack. I was shuffled back into 7th or 8th place I think but after about a lap of riding and figuring out how to backshift the bike with the way the lever was bent I started my charge. I put my head down and started making passes and clicking off the lap times. I worked my way up to 3rd and saw that Randolph was in front of me, I knew I had beat him earlier so I knew I could do it again. Tigert was in the lead and a ways up in front so I needed to get by Randolph in order to see if I could chase down Tigert. Randolph was riding really well and I was right on him for a few laps and just had a hard time getting by him. I got a really great drive off 11 and was able get side by side with him as we crossed the finish line on the brakes. Neither one of us wanted to give as we tipped into 1, but I wanted to make a statement and get by him so I just held my ground and he ended up giving in. I made the pass and set sail for Tigert. The Pirelli tires were holding up really well at this point with a ton of rear end grip still available which played into may favor. I made up ground on Tigert but in the end it was just too big of a gap to make up. I crossed the line in 2nd place, was a great feeling knowing that was able to work my way back up to the front after the issues off the line. We also had the fastest time of the race which was cool to have as well, our bike has the speed to beat these guys.
The championship has got even tighter now between the top 3 in FP. Thunderhill is next where we might have some new contenders and have some fall back, never know. Should be a lot of fun to see how everything pans out.
So my tale of a crazy past 2 weeks has come to an end only to have a new tale start today while on our way to Miller Motorsports park to race in the GTO support race during the WSBK races this coming weekend.
Without my sponsors and supporters, climbing to the top would not be possible and I’m so appreciative of everything they all do for BARF Racing/Pawnmoto. The past 2 weeks was a great team effort by everyone and I’m really proud to be involved with such a great group of people. Brian Sharp, JP Wallace, Alex Torres, Chris Mcguire, Corey Neuer, TJ & Jen Grossi, Ed Milhausen, Berto, Bill, Budman…..the list could go on! Thanks to all of you!
BARF Racing
Pawnmoto
CT Racing Pirelli Tires
Boulder Motorsports
Fastline
Leo Vince Exhaust
Helimot Leathers
Zoom Zoom Trackdays
Team Graphics LLC _ The new pit setup is awesome! Thanks Ed!
Ken Coaching
Choulos, Choulos, and Wyle
Fred’s Place
Motul Lubricants
Metal Tech
Safermoto.com
Factory Bodyworks
Motion Pro – Thanks for the awesome new Grips Chris!
The AFM and Corner workers!
See you all in a few weeks at T-Hill!
Siggy
This report may be a little bit longer than usual, but I really need to tell the story of our effort leading up to round 3 because it is a great example of the team effort and support I have this year.
After our performance in round 2, I knew that myself and our Ducati’s were going to need a little bit more testing in order to get closer to the top step in Formula Pacific and Open Twins. Randolph has proved that he can get a bike that was an unknown and thought to be uncompetitive to be very competitive so we were going to have to work hard. The AMA races were the weekend before our AFM round 3, so I took advantage of the promoter practice on that Thursday before the event as well as a 3J’s event on the Wednesday of that same week. Two back to back days were going to be awesome for testing some new things and to simply get more time on the bike at the track which is beneficial. Our plan for testing had a wrench thrown in it when I ran into some trouble with one of my bikes, but thanks to the fantastic support of Boulder Motorsports and Fastline, Brian Sharp and Alex Torres were able to take care of our issue and make sure we had an Open Twins bike for the following weekend. Our motor ran into an issue early in the day on Wednesday. I left the track at 2 in the afternoon, headed to Fastline where Alex Torres and I took the rest of the afternoon and early evening to remove the motor. Brian Sharp, from Boulder Motorsports, was on a plane that evening headed to San Jose from Denver. I picked up Brian at 11 that evening and headed to back to Fastline to disassemble the motor and see what we needed. Brian methodically tore the motor down and inspected every inch of the internals. Brian had a list together by 3 in the morning and made some calls to Italy to make sure the parts were boxed up and shipped immediately. We wrapped up and packed a few of the major items that he wanted to take back with him to his shop in Boulder, Co to reassemble the motor at his shop when the parts came in. Once we were done at Fastline, I drove to SFO so he could make his 6 AM flight back to Denver, and then after that, I went home, sleept for about an hour and a half and then got up to go back to Infineon to go ride my other bike for the promoter practice day. Those 2 days were intense and action packed no doubt! I really didn’t accomplish much during the promoter practice other than working on some lines and a made a fork spring change that I seemed to like a bit better.
Our motor for our Open Twins bike was ready by Wednesday morning and shipped out via cargo to SFO. We picked the motor up in evening and then headed to Oakland to pick up JP Wallace, from Boulder Motorsports, who flew out to help install the motor and break it in. We once again headed to Fastline in Fremont where Alex Torres and JP spent the next few hours getting the motor into the chassis. We called it a night by 11 and headed home for some sleep as Thursday was going to be a busy day to finish up the motor install and also take care of a bunch of other little things that we needed to do on both the bikes. Alex, JP, and I spent hours on the bikes on Thursday and by the late evening the bikes were ready to be put onto the dyno for a little tuning action. JP spent a bunch of time on the dyno getting the numbers that he wanted and it paid off, big time! He was a machine and wouldn’t quit till he saw what he wanted. The 3 of us ended up leaving Fastline at around 3 in the morning, tired and deprived of sleep but we had a big day ahead of us on Friday with practice at Infineon with Zoom Zoom. Once again I was on very little sleep by the time we arrived at Infineon for practice but I got through the day and made some forward progress in terms of feel with the bike which is what I’ve been looking for.
Saturday practice was short as usual, 2 sessions in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. I had been keeping my eye on the other guys to see where they were lap time wise, I knew we were going to be in for a battle in both the races by watching where the others were at. The weather was awful but everyone had to deal the same and we just kept our fingers crossed that it wouldn’t be as bad for race day.
Sunday rolled around and I was caught up on sleep and ready to rock! The morning warm up went well and we had some good speed which I was pleased about. The schedule has us racing in races #6 and #8. Almost back to back races which sometimes isn’t the best but sometimes works out pretty good because you’re still pumped and in the racing frame of mind. We sat around and chilled for the first races of the day and watched my teammate Berto go out and have a strong finish in his 600 race in the morning, then had some lunch. I put my game face on right after lunch and prepared myself for the Open Twins race. Randolph and I have been going back in forth in the championship and in the races so it was going to be tough. He ran really strong last month and got the best of me in the Open Twins race but I was determined not to let that happen again. I pulled up to my P2 spot on the front row and waited for the flag to drop. I got a killer launch and led all the way to the entry of turn 4 where Randolph put the hurt on me and made the pass. The guy has the bike working really well through that whole section. I slid in behind him and shadowed him the best I could. He pulled away a little bit but then I sucked him back in. I was watching and waiting for the right time to sneak by him. I knew I had an advantage in a few areas of the track so I maximized one of the areas and made a pass. I took the lead and never looked back. Lappers started to make their appearance so I used them to my advantage to build up the gap. I took the win with a decent gap on Randolph. Felt really good to get a win and take the championship lead in the class. We set a new personal best lap time with the Ducati during the race and I knew it had a more in it and so did I.
Formula Pacific has not disappointed one bit in terms of excitement. There was a lot of hype before the season started and I think it was well deserved. No sure if FP has ever been this tight in points for the top 5, but every single rider wants to be in that top spot and the racing is proving that. I lined up in P4, outside of row 1, and waited for Phil to drop the green. I thought I got a good jump off the line but so did everyone else. We were 4 wide going into turn one with me being on the outside. Earnest was forced wide I’m sure and ended up running into my clutch hand, bending my clutch lever up about 45 degrees. At this point I freaked out a bit because I wasn’t sure if my clutch master cylinder was messed up or not so I was feeling it out all while battling to get into line with the rest of the pack. I was shuffled back into 7th or 8th place I think but after about a lap of riding and figuring out how to backshift the bike with the way the lever was bent I started my charge. I put my head down and started making passes and clicking off the lap times. I worked my way up to 3rd and saw that Randolph was in front of me, I knew I had beat him earlier so I knew I could do it again. Tigert was in the lead and a ways up in front so I needed to get by Randolph in order to see if I could chase down Tigert. Randolph was riding really well and I was right on him for a few laps and just had a hard time getting by him. I got a really great drive off 11 and was able get side by side with him as we crossed the finish line on the brakes. Neither one of us wanted to give as we tipped into 1, but I wanted to make a statement and get by him so I just held my ground and he ended up giving in. I made the pass and set sail for Tigert. The Pirelli tires were holding up really well at this point with a ton of rear end grip still available which played into may favor. I made up ground on Tigert but in the end it was just too big of a gap to make up. I crossed the line in 2nd place, was a great feeling knowing that was able to work my way back up to the front after the issues off the line. We also had the fastest time of the race which was cool to have as well, our bike has the speed to beat these guys.
The championship has got even tighter now between the top 3 in FP. Thunderhill is next where we might have some new contenders and have some fall back, never know. Should be a lot of fun to see how everything pans out.
So my tale of a crazy past 2 weeks has come to an end only to have a new tale start today while on our way to Miller Motorsports park to race in the GTO support race during the WSBK races this coming weekend.
Without my sponsors and supporters, climbing to the top would not be possible and I’m so appreciative of everything they all do for BARF Racing/Pawnmoto. The past 2 weeks was a great team effort by everyone and I’m really proud to be involved with such a great group of people. Brian Sharp, JP Wallace, Alex Torres, Chris Mcguire, Corey Neuer, TJ & Jen Grossi, Ed Milhausen, Berto, Bill, Budman…..the list could go on! Thanks to all of you!
BARF Racing
Pawnmoto
CT Racing Pirelli Tires
Boulder Motorsports
Fastline
Leo Vince Exhaust
Helimot Leathers
Zoom Zoom Trackdays
Team Graphics LLC _ The new pit setup is awesome! Thanks Ed!
Ken Coaching
Choulos, Choulos, and Wyle
Fred’s Place
Motul Lubricants
Metal Tech
Safermoto.com
Factory Bodyworks
Motion Pro – Thanks for the awesome new Grips Chris!
The AFM and Corner workers!
See you all in a few weeks at T-Hill!
Siggy
Terrific write up Chris. Good luck at Miller.
Fantastic job, Siggy
I can't speak to that, but the racing was awesome. Having FP right before my races gives me the chance to look to you guys for inspiration. Looks like the entire 650 grid did too, because we were all going about a half second a lap faster than last round. You guys put on a hell of a show.
