Team No Excuses Racing sets personal best times with impressive results at Thunderhill Raceway, Round 5 of the AFM Schedule

The following is from Team No Excuses Racing…

Photos courtesy of Joe @ 4theriders.com.

The weekend started out early, with Team No Excuses Racing heading to Thunderhill Raceway Park on Thursday night, to be greeted by fantastic weather in Willows, CA in what would become an exciting weekend for Jason, Hollis and Scott.  Mid 90 degree weather is unheard of during this time of the year, as the air temperature is usually north of 100 degrees in the area making for a brutal weekend of riding and torture test for race tires.

 

Friday Practice

After a warm up session CRS Dave Moss and Hollis went to work improving the bike from last round.  By the end of the day Friday Hollis had made a lot of progress with getting the front settled in the faster sections and began working on getting more grip from the rear.  Scott was focusing on his lines and pushing to get into the high 50's on the lap times.  After struggling with rear end oscillations coming out turns 6 and 8 while hard on the throttle, he went to Dave Moss for suspension guidance and was able to make significant improvements dropping his times consistently to low 1:59’s.

 

Saturday Practice

Saturday was another perfect day of practice for the team and by early afternoon Hollis felt like the bike was solid and spent the remainder of the day working on his problem areas of the track.   Having struggled with mid-corner feel all year on his 1098, Jay came to the track with a pair of Ducshop 30mm offset triples installed on his bike, in the hopes of bettering his laptimes.

By the end of the day the team was confident in their equipment and ready to go racing on Sunday!

Sunday, Race 10 Open GP 

Hollis was a little anxious but knew what he had to do.  The start was key. If Hollis was going to hang with the front runners he needed to get a solid start and stake his claim going into turn 1.  Hollis was gridded 6th on the second row, and when the flag dropped he got a ripping start.



He closed the door Jessie Carter and pushed his way into 3rd position right behind Martin Swarc.  On the second lap, Hollis was passed by Brian Parriot and later by Gabe Coloma after a back on the back side of the track going into turn one, pushing into 5^th place. “I really put my head down to try and stay with the front guys.  I beat my previous best time by 1 second achieving a 1:52.0.”  This would bring me home in a solid 5^th place, putting 4^th in the Open GP championship with 171 points, trailing Gabe Santa Coloma by 20 points with 191.

Race 12 Open Twins and Open Production 

The next race was Open Twins and Open Production.  Jason was gridded on the second row in 8^th, with Scott on the third row in 9^th place starting next to Pat Blackburn.  Jason got a good start and was able to hold his position in the first lap.  Scott’s start left a little to be desired, but he made up for it in turn one, and tried to stay with Bud Anderson as he sliced his way through the pack.  “I saw Bud and really tried to tuck in behind him to get a tow and stay with the front of the pack, but I couldn’t get through as quickly.”  Scott got by Chase McFarland on lap 4 and set his personal best lap time of 1:58.7 while trying to catch Jay, who has upped his game significantly as well, turning a personal best 1:58.4.  By lap 5, Bud Anderson and Stuart Logan had pulled a significant gap, and Jay and Scott would have to settle for 8^th and 9^th respectively.

 

In Open Production, Hollis was excited to try the new Pirelli DOT, as he had been hearing about it all weekend and was gridded in 7th on the second row.   He got another killer start!  Chris Siglin dove underneath Hollis into turn one, which put him in 4th place as the lead pack headed into turn two.   In turn 3 Hollis made a mistake and missed a downshift, which opened the door for Gabe Santa Coloma who slid by.  For the remainder of the race  Hollis would battle CT Racing's Brant Wiwi and could real him in through the first 5 turns in the track.  The challenge was the horsepower sections of the track, where Wiwi had an advantage and was able to pull away on the back section and down the straights.  By lap 2 Hollis and Wiwi were battling through the lapped riders in back half of the Open Twins grid.  Unfortunately, these riders were encountered in sections of the track that never seemed helped Hollis’ cause.  On the final lap, Brant went wide into turn 3.  Hollis capitalized on the opportunity, going underneath him to take the position, but the victory was short lived.  As they passed a lapped rider in turn 7 which caused Hollis to miss his turn in for 8 and run wide and Brant got by.  Hollis’ only chance was to block Wiwi into 14 but the lapped traffic worked to Wiwi’s advantage and Hollis would finish 6th.  After the race, Hollis would inherit a position officially finishing 5^th place as another rider was apparently DQ’d.  He summed up his lap best time of a 152:3 by saying “The new Pirelli DOT rocked!  I am almost always 1-1.5sec faster on my 16.5's.  This new tire was great.”

The team learned a lot this weekend.  Hollis knows the places he needs to work on out on track to get his times just a little faster, and that he can’t afford to make even a small mistake if he wants to run up front.  Jay regained the confidence in his front end to break through his personal best time at the track.   Finally, Scott having also broken through his personal best time by a significant amount, realized how much more potential still lies ahead and has set new goals for his next trip to Thunderhill.

No Excuses Racing will be back at Infineon Raceway for Round 6 of the AFM Race Schedule.  Until next time, keep the rear wheel spinning and the throttle on the stop.

Team No Excu$e$Racing would like thank all of those who make our racing possible:  Pirelli Tires, Keigwins @ the Track, Catalyst Reaction Suspension and Dave Moss,  Motogenex, 2Wheeltimes.com, 4TheRiders.com, Suomy Helmets, Honda Peninsula Ducati, Lockhart Phillips, Ducshop, Sidi Boots, Gilroy Screen Printing and our families.