Sea Otter Race Report (Crit)

Mark Foster's Sea Otter Race Report
Race date:4-14-11
Race location: Laguna Seca
Class: Masters 45+ Cat 4 Criterium
Distance: 40 minutes

I’ve ridden and raced at Laguna Seca many times over the years, but in full leathers at the AMA superbike nationals. The track seems much bigger without 180 horsepower at the rear wheel. I always had bad luck at Laguna, but I felt my luck changing. I chose to ride the criterium there because it looked fun and it was on Thursday giving me two days to recover before the Santa Cruz crit. The crit goes back and forth between turns 11 and 2 running the track backwards and then through the hotpit(the correct direction), over turn one(still in the hotpit lane), down to turn 2 via the downhill left turn “hotpit exit” on to the track, then a sharp right back up through turn 2 over the gradual right(running it backwards) turn climb at turn 1, cresting the hill, then back down to a 90 degree right hand(again backwards) turn 11, then twenty yards to a 180 degree right setting you up for a 90 degree left on to the hotpit lane to the bicycle crit start/finish.

They combined the cat 4 and 5 riders and the grid was still maybe only 20 riders; not a big turnout probably because most racers wouldn’t want to miss a work day for an event like this. We lined up for the start and when the whistle blew, I found myself floundering to get into my new carbon Dura-ace pedals. Note to self, “Don’t change equipment right before a race”. By the time I got clipped in, I had already fallen about a hundred yards off of the back of the pack and it looked to me that a couple of guys were already trying a break…bummer. I sprinted hard to catch back up and was on the rev limiter when I came to the technical little downhill chicane leading onto the track. I caught up to the leaders by the time we finished the first lap but was panting much harder than all of the guys I was riding with…Oops. I followed about five guys through the downhill chicane I keep talking about, and noticed that they were very timid through there and then we’d accelerate around the right hander(turn 2) all the way to the top of the hill and then we’d all soft pedal down to turn 11. Next lap, being in third or so, I passed the leaders going into the chicane and carried a ton of speed into and through the downhill left hander. When I turned the bike back to the right onto the racetrack, I looked over my shoulder and had a ten bike gap on second place. Note to self, “They are slow through the fast technical section”. This time I soft pedaled up and over the hill and the guys caught and passed me on the downhill. I finally recovered from my crappy start and tucked behind a guy into 3rd or 4th place and carried that position through the less technical turns back onto the hotpit and followed them up and over the hill. Then again passed them all and gapped them in the fast downhill “chicane” and had the same 10 bike gap. So this went on lap after lap. It was nice to have a section of track where I could make up ten bike lengths and rest a bit. The next thing I knew there was 1 lap to go.

I was in second place with one lap to go and two guys go blowing by me on the far left side of the hot pit. I missed that break, but then a third came by in hot pursuit. I grabbed his wheel and told my self not to panic and used him to close the gap up and over the hill in the hotpit. He closed it a bit, but those guys had twenty bike lengths or so as we crested the hill. I passed the third place rider as we crested the hotpit hill for the last time and kept good power on, upshifting into the downhill left hander. I carried massive speed into the turn and told my self “dude, you can definitely crash going this fast into the corner”, but managed to keep it on two wheels and reeled those guys back in as we made the right back onto the racetrack. Nice. They sprinted up the hill and I had no problem hanging on, though my pulse was near redline. I looked over my shoulder and we had a big gap back to 4th place. Then our leader decided to not keep the hammer down to the final corners…bummer. I thought we were going to get caught by the final turns, but I wasn’t willing to stick my nose out into the wind, preferring to save it all for the final three hundred yards from the final turn to the finish. They caught us(I think), but didn’t try to pass as we entered the final corners. The guy in second and I immediately blew by the leader coming off of the last turn and now it was game on! I slowly was passing him into the finish..inch by miserable inch. I was within a half a wheel length from passing him when we crossed the finish line. Oh well, second is good. I should have followed him for a hundred yards or so instead of trying to make the pass immediately out of the last corner. But I must admit, I had a blast! -Mark