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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!

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Miles decided to switch classes for the 2016 AFM season. The structure of his old 650 Production class was changing considerably with the addition of 700cc twins to the class and the removal of the 450 “disabled cylinder” production bikes. A 450 disabled cylinder motorcycle is a 600cc four-cylinder bike with one cylinder disabled to make the effective displacement 450cc. Miles had enjoyed racing with the 450s in 2015 and decided he would like to ride one in 2016 if possible. The idea of having a modern race chassis with power output similar to the SV650 sounded like just the ticket. Miles was on the lookout and found the perfect candidate in late January: a salvage 2012 Yamaha R6 with absolutely no bodywork, but otherwise in pretty good shape. It was time to get to work!

Round 1 in Buttonwillow was upon him before he knew it. It took major effort and a lot of late nights to get the bike ready, but he was able to pull it off with some help. Big thanks go out to Woodcraft/Armour Bodies/Hindle Exhaust, Catalyst Reaction Suspension Tuning and Fastline Performance. He wouldn’t have made it without their support!

Miles was excited but a little apprehensive going into the weekend—he was only going to have a handful of practices before racing a new, untested bike. Even so, all ended up well—he came up to speed quickly and the bike was running strong. One of the biggest adjustments was learning to ride with good brakes—the stock R6 components were a major improvement over the stock SV brakes, and Miles was braking earlier than he needed to all weekend!

After a good, but short day of practice, Miles was race 1 on Sunday for 450 Production. Even though he was on a new bike, everything felt familiar as he gridded up and waited for the green flag to fly. Miles got a good start and pushed hard, trying to remember to keep the motor screaming—the RPM band was much higher on the high-revving R6 motor. In the end he was able to finish in the top ten and get within 2 seconds of his best lap time at Buttonwillow. His next race came up quick, and Miles was able to improve slightly in the 450 Superbike race, knocking a tenth off his earlier lap time and finishing in ninth. Formula IV was his last race of the day, and with almost 30 bikes on the grid, also the biggest. It was a fun race with quite a few position changes, and Miles finished with another top ten position. All-in-all it was a great weekend, and Miles is loving the new 450!

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It was the last round of the season at Thunderhill and Miles was ready to race! He had some of the best launches off the line he’s ever had, but was struggling with front-end chatter as he picked up the pace and things got hot. He just couldn’t hold on to his position in the later laps. Miles finished 7th in 650 Production and 16th in Formula 4. His most exciting race of the day was 650 Twins where he got rid of some of the chatter with a suspension adjustment and had a very close battle with a pack of 4 riders, finishing 9th. Not a bad weekend, but Miles has some work to do to get the bike where he wants it for the final round.