C.R. Gittere at Infineon Raceway
Infineon Raceway is the place C.R. likes to leave more than any other track in the country. “There are a lot of places a rider can get into serious trouble here. This is the only track in country that I do not walk before the race.” Infineon holds many little secrets that allow a rider to go fast there. “You can over ride this track if you are not careful. It seems like every year I come here I try so hard and I get no where. The locals can really get around this place well and they are smart enough to pull over and not let you follow them.” Infineon raceway is the most physically demanding track the team visits all year. The larger riders have a distinct advantage at Infineon. “The larger riders can really flick the 1000’s through the turns so well here. It makes me sick to see how fast the larger guys can transition through the esses. I can’t wait until we get to Road America.”
Formula Extreme - Coming into this event the team was 18th in points despite having a DNF in round one at Daytona. The team made the decision to focus their efforts on Thursday towards the FX class. As temperatures hovered around 110 degrees on Thursday the team tried to limit their on track activities and find solutions to problems right away. “When temperatures climb this high you really need to find gearing and suspension solutions right away. If you waist too much time on track you run the risk of dehydration.” By the end of the day on Thursday the team was with in 8 tenths of a second of their 2007 qualifying time of 1:45. “Today went well to be this close on a track that is probably a second slower than what we raced on last year is really promising.”
Friday practice ended well, the team was ½ second slower than Friday practice from 2007 at a time of 1:45.3. The head wind up the middle straight was so strong that most of the teams were over ¾ of a second slower than Friday practice from 2007. Qualifying came around later in the day and C.R. qualified 23rd this year compared to 31st in 2007. The team was 2 tenths faster this year at a time of 1:44.8 in qualifying and that allowed us to move up several rows. “Twenty fourth marks the best qualifying position I have ever had here. It feels good to be on the outside of row six. We are only 8 tenths out of the top 18. I feel like if I can get a good start tomorrow I can move forward.” Well CR’s prediction would come true on Saturday. When the green flagged dropped CR got an incredible launch and cleared the all the riders in row 6 and row 5. “I got a great jump on the green flag and everything looked really good through turn one. I cleared all the 850cc Ducatis on row 5 right away the problem was when I got into turn two. I had the right line going into turn two and some one missed a shift and I almost hit him!” That one little bobble allowed the three Ducatis from row five to pass him and put a small gap on the team.
Infineon raceway has four really slow turns that really hurt the Suzuki 600. “Second gear on this bike is too tall and first is too short. Every time I try to get a run on the Ducatis in the faster sections of the track they gap me by 8-10 bike lengths coming of the slower turns. They just have so much low end torque and ability to accelerate.” CR’s first two laps of the race were in the low 1:45’s. “I had to get past about four riders that slipped in front of me in the turn two debacle. Once I got around them I took aim at the Ducatis in front of me.” The Ducatis were over 10 seconds in front of CR by lap 4. CR put his head down and started dropping at least 3 tenths of a second every lap. “I really don’t know what happened I sort of settled into a rhythm and looked down at my lap timer and thought is this thing broken? I kept getting faster and faster.” CR would turn his fastest lap of the weekend on lap 12 at a time of 1:43.5 a full 1.3 seconds faster than his qualifying time. This would see him catch up to the two Ducatis running in 16th and 17th. On lap 15 CR would pass Matt Green in the last bus stop for 17th place and begin to reel in Tom Montano for 16th. “Once I passed Matt going into the last bus stop on the brakes I noticed that Tom had about 2 seconds on me. The Ducatis are so fast in the first half of the track I knew I had to ride as hard as I could to try and catch up to him by the last bus stop to try and make the pass.” CR managed to catch up to the rear tire of Tom a little too early in the lap and had to slow down to get a run on him through the esses. “I took a little wider line than I should have going into the double right to try and get a run on Tom. As soon as I did that Matt got back around me and blocked me through the first half of the esses.” Once CR got blocked in the esses there was not enough time to make a pass on either Matt or Tom. CR would ultimately finish the race 18th and complete the race distance 22 seconds faster than in 2007. “We made some really good progress this year over last year. We were so much faster in the race this year it is amazing how much of a difference one year of development on a bike can make. Eighteenth marks the best finish for CR at Infineon raceway. “Even though we finished and raced well today I feel like I left 2 places on the table. I made a mistake trying to pass Tom in the double right and that cost me 16th place.” This marks the second top 20 finish in a row for the team and moves the team into 15th position overall.
Superstock - For CR racing a 1000cc motorcycle at Infineon is like trying to wrestle the Rock. “I can push and shove that bike all I want but it just does not move.” Since the team put most of their effort on Thursday into the FX bike they ended practice in 23rd position. “We seem to be off the mark again on this bike. We are missing one really important thing on this bike and I cannot quite figure it out.” During qualifying on Saturday CR ended in the 25th position about one second slower than in 2006. “I really do not understand what is missing on this bike. I am over 1.5 seconds faster every where I go this year on the 600 but I seem to be about one second slower on the 1000 everywhere than I was in 2006.” CR went out in Superbike practice to try and find a little time and managed to cut a few hundredths of a second off his lap time. “We tried a few things in the Superbike practice session and they worked but they were not the magic bullet I was hoping for.”
During qualifying on Saturday the team decided to run a few laps and see if any of the overnight changes made a significant difference in the chassis. “Nothing we tried last night made any difference in my comfort level on this bike. So I decided to just turn a few laps get in the show and save my energy for the FX race later today.” CR would end the session 25th about two seconds out of the top 20. “When I looked at the times the other riders we doing in that session I did not think I could bridge the gap to them. I figured I had better just cut my losses here and save my energy for the FX race.”
When the Superstock race started on Sunday the temperatures had come back to a more reasonable level around 85 degree’s. “I kept thinking the whole time I was on the pre grid that it was time to get ready for the pain.” When the green flag dropped CR got a reasonable start and battled for 22nd for the first 8 laps of the race. “I was able to fight with Johnny and Scotty for while but I just made too many mistakes today. I am happy to be leaving here with all my equipment in one piece. Miller is the next race on the schedule and I have done well there in the past.” CR finished the race in 24th moving the team into 20th overall position for the season.
The team heads to Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele UT for the next race.
|
