Race #5 Borlänge 17th and 18th september 2016

So after Skövde we only had Borlänge left, this was to be the last race meet of the year - on Friday afternoon - We got picked up from school by dad in Grandad Kent´s Karmann gypsy, we loaned a trailer from our super nice friends at Minicars and dad had the whole lot packed - so we were off!

            All packed and ready for the weekend, the weather looked good!

The points now stood in the Junior A series with Travis in 2nd place with 161 points - and now in first place was now William with 170 points.


This meant for Travis to win the championship he would need to come first in both of the last races netting the full 50 points on offer.
This was a quite a tall order as we were heading to the home track of the leader of the series, It didn't faze us too much, as despite this being our 1st year racing at any of the tracks, Travis been the fastest rider, winning everyone of the first 6 races.
We just hoped for good weather and no problems for the last 2 races.

We got to the track on Friday night - Most of the regulars were already there, Dad soon found a place to park and while he set up the camper and bikes, we went to take a look and check out the track.

marking new lines on the start line...?

 Saturday arrived and it was to be our first try around the Borlänge track. It was different set up to the programs we had been used to - now we would have 3 practice sessions of 15 minutes and then a qualifying and then a first race. Up until now we had been able to practice on some Friday evenings, always all day Saturday practicing and then Sunday was normally more practice, followed by qualifying and then two races.

So for some reason the schedule was different at Borlange - which meant we had less time to get to know the track. This was not so good for us, but played into the hands of the series leader who Travis was up against for the championship title.

Saturday

First practice got off to a bad start, Travis missed the entire session due to us having a bad mix of acrylate and two stroke oil, the bike didn't start? was this the problem we had back in Skövde?
Lars Åke and Thomas Westman came to our aid and helped us out with the diagnosis - split fuel and oil! so dad drained both bikes and borrowed some fuel (thanks Thomas !) we got it all cleaned up and we both managed to join the 2nd practice just in the nick of time.

look at the state of that fuel!

Practice 2 and Boom - straight off the bat Travis quickly found fast pace and posted the fastest lap of all Junior A´s as 58.399 making him fastest -Awesome stuff for his first ever 8 laps around the track.

Practice 3 we went with the same set up, running a 62 rear sprocket, This time William went slightly quicker with a 56.875 - Travis made his quickest with a 57.308. Lewis´s bike snapped the pull starter as he was about to go out! So dad was busy, flying about trying to get it fixed and managed to fix it pretty quick which meant Lewis got a few laps in that session. William´s bike noticeably blasted down the straights and Travis was getting left behind as soon as a straight came - so he was left making all his time up through the twisty section and making up a lot in the corners - it was very cool to see the determination and racing spirit.

During this session Travis came down the main straight, got caught up with 3 weaving slower riders and had to take diverting action, on to the grass at full chat and crashing on the wet grass, He was very close to hitting the tires, Thank god he didn't! it would have been a fast impact, luckily he had no injuries, the bike suffered just bent clip-on´s and we soon had it all straitened out. No need to point any fingers but sometimes I wish race control would guide the younger riders more during the practice sessions, these things happen however and Travis did an extremely good job at avoiding a much worse out come for the other riders.

So after that we were still feeling like we were on the back foot and needed to try and get a better match of speed with Williams bike,  despite others telling us that there was no point in trying to match the performance of the fastest bike as his father is "awesome at tuning" well we don't give a toss about that, we are here to do what we can, so we brought some new sprockets from Åke Rydergren - we took a 61 and a 63 not knowing which way we should go?
we had a couple of hours now until the race, so we decided to bung in the 63 for qualification after taking some advice from Thomas in regards to minimotos and types of tracks - he explained that in a track like this acceleration out of the corners was probably our best hope and to forget about the top speed down the long straights.

So we tried this new sprocket in qualifying 1 on Saturday afternoon and Travis liked the change and posted his quickest lap of 57.156 during his last lap, William posted a 56.032 in the same session putting him on pole and Travis in 2nd - It was going to be an exciting 1st race of the weekend.

Lewis doing what lewis does - always happy regardless of position and having a fun weekend with his mates.

Travis lucky #7 Barry sheen colors

Me and dad talked about the bike and we both decided after qualifying to try a jump up again and so we were soon knocking at the door of Rydergren racing and buying a 65 sprocket. we banged it in for the race and hoped that we would go the way we needed.

So
 Race one went off!

Lewis and Ian having some fun pre-race.

The race started - William left everyone of the line, Travis was off the line and in second place but definitely in hot pursuit, he was followed by Alicia, by the 2nd lap Travis had caught up and was hot on his tail through the twisty sections and looking for a place to overtake, but on every straight William just took off, Travis kept coming back and by about lap 5 he found a place and did a nice pass, then the straight came and William blasted by then Travis took him again at the next corner and made it stick a little longer until William came back along side him down the back straight but Travis held the speed late into the corner and kept the lead all the way around the final corner, he came out onto the straight ran the bike wide out to keep the speed and momentum and then straightened up into the middle of the track and just held the lead to the checkered flag and took the win by 0.179 !!! William took 2nd and Alicia took 3rd - Lewis came home in 8th.

what a race !!!!!

  Dad was jumping with joy and was congratulating me as I came in after the slow down lap - it was Awesome. we couldn't believe it, despite the quicker bike Travis did the impossible and got the win.

We were all very happy, now we could look at the final race, He was still right there in the fight to take the championship - Lewis came in and was grinning form ear to ear and the first thing he asked was if Travis had won, he was so happy to hear his big bro did it.

But as we parked up the bikes, an announcement came over the speakers - something along the lines of " could junior A riders Travis Rooker and William Tagtlund come to race control" ?

So we went up to find out what was going on ?

It turned out that Williams dad though that Travis had deliberately got in front of William and slowed him down out of the last corner and into the final straight or not let him pass or weaved in front of him or something like that. So he complained to race control directly after the race and we had to all go and see them. Race control looked to be a little embarrassed about dragging us up there so they told us about the amount of changes you can do out of a corner. We asked what was going to happen and they said that they didn't think there was a problem with how Travis rode and nothing would be done. Of course being called up to race control made Travis feel like he had done something wrong and it did take away the happiness of the win in the process. we took note of the situation, we understood what was going on.

 Travis on the top

We packed up the Karmann gypsy and took a ride into town and had some Pizza

SUNDAY

After a crazy night in the camper, with Lewis falling out of the bunk bed in the middle of the night we got preparing for the Sunday and Last race of the season !

Qualifying went really well - Travis took the fastest time and put his bike on Pole position for the last race - Result ! Lewis was at the back but in fine form - So then it was some waiting around until the final....

Nerves ! getting ready for race 2.

The warm up lap went well for all, Travis put his bike on pole and all the junior A racers were excitedly revving their bikes, meanwhile Lewis's bike had stopped! but with a little help he soon had it running again and then the flag dropped.
The race was on, everyone was cheering and watching - William sped off the line just like the first race, Travis followed in 2nd despite the pole position, just like the first race Travis took chunks out in the corners and William blasted away in the straights and because of the issues in race 1 we had talked and decided that it might be a good idea if he tried to over take earlier in the final race to avoid a repeat protest, So Travis was on it hunting down and many times he was on Williams back wheel during the first 3 laps waiting for a place to pass, then on lap 4 he made his move and tried a difficult tight line up the inside on a left handed hairpin bend, he went in to hot, had to hit the brakes to avoid collision and stood the bike up but crashed as the bike became all crossed up, he slid down and was up fast and remained in 2nd place with Alicia now right behind him,  but too much time was lost to come back again and despite racing the wheels of his bike and closing down on William again it was now all over - William took the win and his father and family were very happy.  Travis came in and was devastated, he had tried so hard and just missed out on the championship, it took a good hour until dad could remove his helmet. After another hour he was OK and moving on. we had to keep telling him that he had done amazingly well ! 

Awesome racing form Alicia 3rd Travis 2nd and William with the Win and overall total points champion

Jonna, Ian and lewis - Junior A racers

Heading home - an awesome win and a second for Travis 

So that was that, Travis was 2nd in the Swedish championship! what a result in his first season and  our Lewis had gone from strength to strength during the year - Rooker racing was heading home and we all had smiles on our faces. It was such a great season, we loved it all, the ups and downs and we all learned so much, we have a huge collection of Trophies at home now and with each one is a whole bunch of great memories, we have been bitten and now we cant wait for 2017 for more .