Friday was not part of the AMA weekend but
there was an opportunity for limited sessions to learn the track. It did not
start out as planned when the front end tucked at turn four on the second lap.
Fortunately there were no injuries while the OCM Racing/FTR/ Honda Canada
CBR600RR required some minor repairs. With only two sessions remaining Stacey
finished with a lap time of 1m35s. Then rider and crew had to learn the AMA
ropes and get the bike through tech. The AMA staff was very friendly and helpful
so it was fairly straight forward in the end. There was a mandatory rider and
crew meeting at 4pm
Qualifying:
Realistically the goal for the weekend was
to qualify and gain as much experience as possible. Qualifying 1 was Saturday
morning at 8am with all 56 riders out on the cold track. Even so Stacey managed
to go a second quicker than Friday but was still just outside the 110% cut off.
Qualifying 2 was split into two groups with Stacey’s group up first. The track
temperature was warmer in the afternoon and Stacey improved again by slightly
under two seconds faster than Q1 with a time of 1m32.878. She now had to wait
until the second group finished to see what the cut off time would be. The pole
time was faster by 1.4 seconds but Stacey had done enough to legitimately qualify
within the 110% cut off by 0.024s. It was a long way back on row 16 in
48th position but it meant three more track sessions to gain more
experience.
Race 1:
Saturday afternoon saw the skies get
darker and as it started to rain the officials declared it a wet race. The
racers were allowed two laps to check the conditions and return to the pits. The
track was now wet however the decision was made to stay with the spec Dunlop
D211 GPA Pro DOT tires as it was not wet enough for rain tires. It then stopped
raining and the officials reversed the earlier decision and declared a dry
race. There were another two warm up laps and then a grid and go start. Stacey
gained three positions from the start but got bulked in turn one dropping her to
the back. She worked her way forward and as the rain started again the red flag
was shown just after half distance as a result of a few crashes. The race was
declared a result with Stacey ending up 41st.
Race 2:
The sun returned on Sunday. There was a
roll out formation for race 2 which meant the crew had a long trek from the pit
to the end of the grid and back. Stacey made a great start, jumping five
positions by the first turn. She continued to progress up the field and improved
her lap time by over two seconds from qualifying. Stacey found the blue flags a
little confusing in the race (AMA rules say the lapped rider must move off line)
but she crossed the finish line in 36th place having gained 12
positions.
Overall it was a successful weekend.
Stacey knew going into it that her CSBK AM Sportbike spec CBR600RR Honda could
be as much as 20hp down on the competitors, so the focus was to match them on
braking and corner speed where possible. Her confidence grew as the weekend
progressed and it was a respectable result in her first Pro race in the
USA.
Stacey would like to thank Honda Canada,
Pat Milligan, Jon Cornwell, Arai Helmet Americas, Pro 6 Cycle-Dunlop, Roland
Riedmann, the AMA staff and the anonymous sponsor of a set of tires for making
it possible to race in the AMA round. Also thanks to Joe and Tom for repairing
the trailer and getting us back on the road on the journey
home.
Stacey competes with support from OCM
Racing, Honda Canada Inc., FTR, Jon Cornwell, Arai Helmet Americas, Fast
Company, Pro 6 Cycle Inc., R&M Electrical, Powersports Canada, Bluestreak
Racing, Hindle Exhaust, Mikeymoto, International Supershow, Club Ouest Gym,
Lucky Stripe and Ville St-Lazare. Follow Stacey on www.statoniracing.com or facebook (Statoni Racing Team). |
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