AFM 2016 Round 2, Sonoma

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Saturday practice started out a little rough. Miles was still getting used to the new bike and hadn’t had a chance to practice on it since the previous AFM round. Sonoma is a very technical track, and it seemed to amplify any discomfort he had on the bike. By the end of the day, Miles was feeling much more comfortable, but was still about 5 seconds off the pace he was hoping to run in the races.

Unfortunately, Sunday morning started out with a shock. Someone stole Texas Devil Racing’s generator in the middle of the night, and that led to a lot of distraction in the morning. It’s unfortunate that this has become such a problem over the last year—this is only one of a few big thefts there have been at the track lately. Enough about that—on to the racing!

Miles had all three of his races spaced closely together after lunch: races 8, 10 and 13. His first race was Formula IV, which was over before it started on the second lap. Coming over the top of the hill on the exit to turn 8, Miles had a huge tank-slapper. The tank-slapper was bad enough that it spread his front brake pads, so when he went for the brakes going into the chicane the lever went to the bar. He pumped the brakes back up quickly, but it was too late to make the turn, so he stood it up and went off course. Then to add insult to injury, he had a mis-shift going into the final corner and ran off course again. That put him way back, but he was able to catch up to and pass a few riders to get some points for the race.

Formula IV didn’t quite go the way Miles had hoped, but 450 Superbike was up next, and he was ready to give it another go. Miles got a decent start, slotting into position about where he started on the grid. He picked up a position on the second lap, but was unaware of the angry pack of riders that was hot on his heels. On the second-to-last lap, Miles successfully defended a pass through the final corner, but then got passed on the brakes into the chicane. It was the final lap, and he was sticking close, looking for a chance to get his position back—and he got it when the other rider had a tank-slapper in the same place Miles had in the last race. The other rider recovered a little more quickly than Miles had expected, and they ended up side-by-side through the chicane, but Miles got the pass to stick and crossed the finish line in a hard-earned 7th position.

450 Production was the last race of the day for Miles. He got a good start, but got caught out in the wrong gear through turn 2 and lost a position. He made it back before the end of the first lap and picked up another on the second lap. Miles settled into 6th position, and from there it was an uneventful race with no more position changes.

It was a fun weekend with some of the best battling Miles has had in a while, and Sonoma was challenging, as always. Looking forward to Thunderhill!