AFM 2012 Round 6, Sonoma

Sep 022012
 

Another great weekend at Sonoma raceway. Special thanks to CT Racing / Pirelli for Texas Devil Racing’s first ever contingency earned tire. They really took care of Miles this year!

Clubman Lightweight was the first race of the weekend, and probably the most fun. Miles kept in touch with the front pack and swapped positions a few times, running his personal best lap time at Sonoma of 1:53.422 and crossing the line a close 5th. Big thanks to Chris and Marissa for helping Miles with a very inopportune wardrobe malfunction right before the race. Bad time for the main zipper on his leathers to break!

Novice 650 Twins was the first race of the day on Sunday. It started out a little rough with Miles getting out late and missing his warm up lap—still some trouble with that zipper. It ended up being another good race with Miles sticking with the front pack, getting a chance to dice a little. He ended up finishing just off of the podium in 4th.

The final race of the weekend was Novice 650 Production. The grid was small with only one other rider in the novice group, but Miles was able to latch on to some of the experts to make things interesting, and there was also a red flag to keep him on his toes. He ended up with a first place and a new personal best lap time of 1:53.342.

AFM 2012 Round 5, Thunderhill

Aug 052012
 

Miles had another fun weekend at Thunderhill for AFM Round 5. With the typical Thunderhill heat, this was going to be the real test of whether or not the bike’s cooling system was back up to snuff. Thank goodness it was—all weekend without a single problem.

Practice went off without a hitch and the Clubman Lightweight race on Saturday didn’t really have any surprises. Miles got settled into position after a few laps and ended up with a 5th place finish. He was running a second or two off his usual pace, so he obviously wanted to get that figured out for Sunday.

Novice 650 Twins was the first race for Miles on Sunday. He didn’t get the best start with a little wheelie off the line. Again, Miles settled into his position (4th) early on in the race without much battling for position, but at least today his lap times were back down to where they had been.

Novice 650 Production was next with only a single race in between. This is the main class for Miles, but unfortunately he was the only one on the Novice grid this round! At least he got to start along with the experts for this race, and it ended up being quite interesting watching them bump into each other during the first few turns! Eventually, Miles dropped behind a bit since he just wasn’t running at expert pace, and without anyone else in the Novice race he had a nice ride and brought it home without event.

Minimoto USA 2012 Round 5, Atwater

Jul 222012
 

Evan was excited to race at the Atwater track again because he knows it so well. Then the Minimoto USA guys threw him a curve ball and ran it backwards for the weekend! Evan was a little tentative at first, but after a day of practice he had it down pretty well. His biggest problem was still getting up the confidence to pass and race in close proximity to other riders. He qualified on the front row, so Mom had some expert advise—get out in front and you don’t need to worry about passing anyone! That lit a fire under Evan and he got the hole shot in his first race. He was in third place after the first lap, and held on to pull off his first ever podium finish!!!

Evan got the holeshot again at the start of his second race, but the race was red flagged due to a pileup in the first corner. After everything got sorted out and everyone got back to the grid they had a restart—and Evan got the holeshot once again! This time he led the race for two laps, but went wide coming into turn 1 and went down. Chris Ventura got him back up and at it in short order. The crash put Evan in fourth place, which was where he finished.

It was a great weekend. Evan really improved his starts and got to stand on the podium for the first time. He also got right back on the horse after his crash in race 2 and continues to gain more confidence while on the track with other riders.

AFM 2012 Round 4, Sonoma

Jul 012012
 

This was Miles’s first race weekend at Sonoma Raceway (or Infineon, or Sears Point, or Golden State, or whatever you want to call it). He was a little concerned since he had very little experience there, especially compared to Thunderhill. But nonetheless, it was a great weekend.

Miles was gridded on the third row for the Clubman Lightweight race. He got a pretty good start, but was too tentative in traffic through the first few turns and lost a few places. He slowly clawed his way from 10th on the first lap to 6th by lap 4. And then he had a battle on his hands. Nick (#733), wasn’t giving up 5th place without a fight. On the last lap, Miles passed him on the brakes into turn 9 only to be passed back immediately in turn 10. But then Nick went a little wide in 11, and Miles was able to make the pass on the inside and take the checker in 5th. Awesome race—some of the best dicing Miles has ever been a part of!

Novice 650 Twins was the first race of the day on Sunday. Miles didn’t get a great start, but ran some of his fastest laps of the weekend to put him in 4th place. Then right after he got the checkered flag, Miles saw the yellow flag come up in turn 1 and had to ride around fellow Novice 650 Production racer, Tim (#832), as he layed on the ground. Then the red flag came out—dang. Hope you heal up quick, Tim! Even though there ended up being a bit of chaos during that red flag, big thanks go out to the corner workers for all their efforts at keeping us safe.

Novice 650 Production was the next race. Miles got a decent start and didn’t get balked in traffic this time. He stayed with the expert wave as long as he could, but they slowly pulled away. On the third lap, Miles saw someone off track at the entrance to the carousel, and the red flag came out just as he was turning into 7. Everyone went back to the pits and gridded up after they had a chance to care for the downed rider. Miles got another decent start, but again, the experts slowly walked away. In the end, Miles was the first Novice to cross the finish line. That got him some good points, and put him back in the lead for the Novice 650 Production championship.

AFM 2012 Round 3, Thunderhill

Jun 032012
 

This was a tough round. First of all, we want to wish Mike Galvan a speedy recovery. This was his first AFM race weekend and unfortunately it ended with a flight to Enloe Medical Center. Miles was really looking forward to racing with Mike, and he hopes to get the chance to do so in the near future! Get well, Mike!

The Clubman Lightweight race started out well. Miles started from the back row thanks to his DNF the previous weekend, but got a monster start and jumped into second place by the first turn. Things were going reasonably well, staying in touch with the leaders when a little red light came on between turns 9 and 10 around lap 3. It went away a little later, then came back around the same place the next lap, but this time stayed on. Miles took a close look and saw that it was accompanied by a temperature warning and that the coolant temp was getting to be on the hot side. Even so, he was able to keep a decent pace to finish 5th. Unfortunately, back in the pits Miles found there was some coolant in his belly pan that had boiled over. Not good.

Miles did what he could to patch things up that evening, and decided to forgo his Novice 650 Twins race Saturday morning to maximize his chances of getting some points in his later Novice 650 Production race. The bike got a little warm during practice, but didn’t boil over. Miles didn’t get as good of a start on this one, and once again the high temperature light came on 2 laps in. This time it was on solid, and Miles had to back off substantially to keep the temperature down. He ended up with a distant 4th place finish, but most importantly, he finished with enough points to stay in the running for the championship.

And thanks, Patryk for snapping some photos of Miles on track.

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