philthy
What can I say?
You are using the bike for what it was designed for and are to be applauded 😄
Most of us can only dream about what you are doing. Thank you for the posts, and congratulations on the trophy win 😁
bmitch996
AFM Round 8, Buttonwillow
October 18-19th the AFM season finale was held at Buttonwillow Raceway right where the season began. The last race of the season is typically a pretty low turn out for a variety of reasons. It's a long drive, a crappy bumpy track, most people have long since blown their racing budget, and unless their is a class championship to be won or lost in the last race most people stay home.
For me I had an outside chance of taking third in the "Super Dinosaur" class so I was going. Besides the weather forecast was perfect for a weekend at the track. Sunny with temperatures in the mid 80's.
We got to the track Friday around 6pm and set up along side a couple of my fellow Open Twins racers, Jason Ross #708 and Scott Miles #798. After getting everything unloaded we ate dinner and just hung out enjoying the beautiful weather.
Saturday was the usual routine Tech, riders meeting, and straight into practice. Being such a light turn out and not much crashing, we got two extra practice sessions. I had a good day with my lap times equal to what I had done in the opening race of the season.
Both of my races on Sunday were after lunch. Open Twins was race #5 right after lunch and Super Dino race #9.
The Open Twins class seems to have grown in popularity throughout the season. We had 25 pre entries this round versus 15 for the same race last season. This time around the Open Production guys started before us in the first wave. The Open Twins class championship would be decided at this last race. Matt Green had about a six point lead over Brian Parriott going into the race. Matt has been racing a Ducati 749R, punched out to 848cc's. Brian on the other hand is a BMW factory supported rider racing a HP2 Sport tuned by Chris Hodgeson of San Jose BMW. A couple of years ago Brian contested the BMW Boxer Cup series that ran at many of the MotoGP rounds. I believe he finished second overall in the series, not sure. In any case he is a world class rider. When all was said and done Brian Parriott won handily followed by Matt Green and Thomas Montano. In doing so Brian won the class championship by one point over Matt, 391 to 390. I finished the race 17th of 20 starters just behind my friends Scott and Jason, respectively.
Race #9 650 Production, 500 Twins, Super Dino, and Formula Singles.
The final race of the season for us was a little anti climactic. Only four of us Super Dino competitors remained at this final race of the 2008 AFM season.
Michael Boyer #446
Guy Hyder #862
Ed Haazer #45
Me,Brian Mitchell #851
That's the way we lined up on the grid. After the start I was running in third for a while, but eventually Ed passed me. In the end it was just as we started, and that's just the way the Super Dino class championship ended. The good news for me was knocking off another four seconds from my lap times.
All in all it was a fun year racing the old 851. We did 14 races over the course of the season, 7 Super Dino, 6 Open Twins, and 1 Formula 40.
Except for the one time it stalled out during the race at round #6(It restarted and I finished the race) the bike never let me down. I never let it down either, no crashes!
In Super Dino I finished the year 4th out of 14 total contestants. In Open Twins I finished 24th out of 43 total contestants.
I can't wait until next year already. A couple of my other racing pals are coming into the Super Dino class for next season. Craig Grantham will be running his 1992 Ducati 851 as well as Andy Clay on his 1995 Ducati 916.
I'm going to have a few options, The 851 for sure. But I will also have my 1997 Ducati 916SPS that I raced Open Twins with in 2006 and 2007 which will be legal for Super Dino in 2009. Also my 2003 Ducati 999R for Open Twins.
Ciao,
Brian Mitchell
AFM#851
griff851
Thanks again Brian. A great read. Congrat's on a good seasons racing, and thanks for sharing it. I hope you can spare the time next year, I for one look forward to it.
Griff
bmitch996
It's been a long time since I've had anything to add to this thread. After missing the first four rounds of racing with AFM this year(for a number af different reasons) I finally made it out to round five Thunderhill Park. Sadly though the 851 has been relegated to the role of backup bike, as my all time favorite 1997 916SPS is now legal for the Super Dinosaur class.
I was lucky enough to be invited to a private track day(Thanks Tom Wilbert) at Thunderhill on Thursday followed by an open test day on Friday. I decided to skip Saturday AFM practice and do the Formula 40 race at the end of the day to at least get that race feeling back before Sundays races.
Sunday I was in race #3 Super Dino and race #11 Open Twins.
Happily when I checked my grid position a couple of others had entered which made six of us in all. In addition to myself my friend Andy Clay was entered on his new to him, 1995 916. I was gridded on the outside of the first row. When the green flag waved I got a terrible start wheelieing in first and second gears. At 131 rear wheel hp it's a little different than the 851! We all road around in a pack for the first lap with me running wide in turn six and getting pushed back to last place. Andy managed to run off in turn 11 letting myself and the fifth place rider through. When we hit the long start/finish straight I moved into fourth. In front of me was Peter Gabrovsky on a seriously fast Yamaha YZF 750. I chased him around for a couple of laps trying to pass him in the straight but his bike was just as fast as mine. On the next to last lap I was able to block pass him into turn four. After that I just put my head down and tried to keep him behind me. I turned my fastest lap ever at Thunderhill on the last lap a
2:01.7 bettering my previous best by five seconds to finish third.
Open Twins at the end of the day was pretty uneventfull except for the couple of crashes I was witness to. I was gridded on the last row in the last position 22 of 22. In the end I finished 17th.
Here are a couple of photos of the race bikes.
