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 2007 AFM Round 2: Infineon Raceway
The Clubman races were actually held on Sunday morning due to a couple crashes in Saturday that took the races past the 5:00pm closing time. Saturday's race for Hodaka was interesting as he launched his bike pretty aggressively going from the hot pits onto the track for the sighting lap. As he came around the grid, the grid manager told them they were going to do another sighting lap. Hodaka launched the bike aggressively again, which overheated his clutch. By the time he came around to grid for the second time, his clutch plates were slightly warped, making it catch unexpectedly during the start. He went from 9th to last in a matter of seconds, while he sat there with elbows and knees tucked in tightly going about 3mph! He was able to catch up to the middle of the pack by T4 at which point he came upon a 650 spinning on the track between T4 and T5, with the rider tumbling along next to it going left and right. Luckily, Hodaka was able to avoid both bike and rider; the race was red-flagged and rescheduled for the next day.
Special thanks to our sponsors once again, and especially to our newest one -- Network Gear Exchange (www.ngix.com) -- because we weren't able to produce decals in time, but again, next month will be different!
Notes -- Paul Yoshimune was still out with injuries but is expected to be participating at the next round when we return to Infineon Raceway in May! |
April 29, 2007 - Sonoma, CA -- This round didn't go quite as planned, with both Hodaka and Elaine's bikes suffering mechanical difficulties just before race day. Luckily, both bikes were running by Sunday and Hodaka was able to finish 16th in Lightweight Clubman after starting in the 2nd row in 9th position. The 125 was the only one on the 26 bike grid and had difficulty competing against the torquey 650's come green flag.
In FIII, Hodaka and Elaine finished 8th and 10th respectively. The race was pretty uneventful for both as the top 7 were about 6 - 8 seconds faster. Hopefully, next round will be a bit better.