Alex 'The Claw' Ricci

Round 4 recap! I know it's a little late 🤷

It was another race round with the ZX-6R on the dyno again Friday afternoon. Is it really a race weekend if it's not last minute tuning on the bike? Lol

Saturday Qualifying, with a refreshed motor after the troubles at Laguna, the bike felt back to where it should be power wise! Qualified 6th for FP, and on pole for Formula 3.

Formula 3 sprint was pretty uneventful after the red flag restart. Walked away with 🥇
Formula Pacific sprint was a fight to get secure 5th.

And then, the 400ish GP! Everyone talked me into riding old glory again, even tho it's nowhere near what my bike used to be. But gave me a decent bike to be able to ride to the end of the race and finish second on a bike in a class I haven't raced in 3 years. 🥈

Sunday,
Formula 3... I went out on track to make a statement. Lap as many people as I can, and finish with the biggest gap to 2nd place that I can. Most of the race I was living in the 1:58s even getting around lap traffic. Finished 🥇 with a 36 second gap and 15 people lapped 😬

Formula Pacific.
I had a terrible start with a massive wheelie that set me back a little. Had to fight to get back up with and . After that it was on. Managed to make a gap halfway through the race, but lost all grip towards the end of the race and couldn't fight off Grant. Finished 5th

Middleweight Superbike I didn't get the best start again. Had to battle my way through the pack. Made a strong move on Tom Montano into turn 9 on the brakes, then I made a crazy move on Greg and Grant into turn 3 that had and going crazy. Managed to finish 🥉

Huge thanks to the crew coming out and wrenching all weekend so the bike was in tip top shape!

Well, this weekend hasn't gone to plan at all unfortunately. But we are fighting through it!

Huge thanks to AND for lending me his bike to do a motor swap on mine Friday night. A small crash during race one ended my day on lap one, but we are ready to go and fight during race 2 today! Big thanks to the team for getting me back and ready to go!

AFM Round 1 Race Report: 🤘

First and foremost, HUGE THANK YOU TO and John Ryti!!! They saved the weekend when they loaned me a spare transmission after I blew mine up a couple laps into the endurance race. They've helped so much the past year with little things, it's a blessing to have them in the paddock!

Started Friday testing out the fresh new suspension that refreshed for the team. The first lap out, I knew it was spot on! Then I got to test the "Cripple Triple" kit and the ZX-477RR, and wow is that fun!

Saturday: Signed up for qualifying, set a quick time in Q2 after fighting traffic all of Q1.
Then the 75 minute endurance race at the end of the day. The (running the ZX-477RR) started on pole, and we finished where we started, up front! 🥇 Jeff started the race with the plan to do 20 laps, or 30ish minutes. Well, he came in early and I went out and did 22 laps. After about 5 laps, 4th gear was completed gone, so I was running the whole track in 2nd and 3rd, not fun.... But we won with a pretty good margin of victory still!

Saturday night we pulled and swapped a "good" transmission in, with a little bit of a struggle.

Sunday: Get the bike back together and running by the time race 1 starts! First race up for me, 600 Superbike. I somehow managed to get the hole shot from the second row of the grid, but lost it quickly as I was running the same rear tire from the endurance, no grip left. Finished 5th 🤷
Second race, Formula Pacific. My main race this year to defend my #4 plate. I battled from 6th up to 4th against a S1000RR and a ZX-10R. The new sticky SC1 F & SCX R from helped with that a lot!
Third race, Formula 3. Started on pole, first time racing and launching the cripple. My starts are usually some of the best, but on the same gearing as the 636, that didn't happen.... But quickly got to the front going into Turn 3 (coincidence 😉) and checked out laying down a 1:55.9 lap time. Apparently very close to the cripple lap record 😬

Also that "new" transmission didn't have 2nd gear engaging properly, so I raced all of Sunday without using 2nd gear. So watch out for round 2! 🤘