Race Weekend #4 - Sprint Races

If the 4 hr Team Endurance race on Saturday was the highlight of my weekend, my solo/sprint effort was definitely the low point.

Work has kept me so busy this summer that instead of spending the Fridays before the races out on the track practicing, I have been spending them working on the Ninja.  This time around I resolved myself to that position earlier than the previous races, and in so doing my acceptance led to somewhat of a  'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' day, and I was at peace with it.  Perhaps a little too peaceful, because it also led to me getting out to the track a little late on Saturday, missing all but the last practice session, which is also a qualifying session for the 500 Production Cup class.  The bike was feeling good - stable yet maneuverable, which reminded me that this was my first outing at High Plains Raceway with my upgraded suspension.  The Ohlins cartridge fork and rear shock that I got from Spears Racing, and had installed by Rocky Mountain Kawasaki - two of my sponsors - have made enormous improvements in my comfort and precision on the track.  My only regret is running the stock suspension for as long as I did.  (While it is completely adequate for street use, it is underwhelming on the track.)

There were few enough bikes out on the track that I didn't have anyone in sight for the entire session - good if you are already in the zone, but I had been hoping for someone to help me gauge my pace relative to.  I kept encountering the eternal 'I could have taken that corner faster' thought, and determined to try and hold more speed through the corners. (For the little bikes, the truism that 'corner exit speed is the most relevant factor for top speed on the following straight' is magnified by their relative lack of acceleration.)

I was therefore leaned waaay over in turn one, at the end of the second longest straight, when the front tire lost grip. (The 'nice' thing about such a low-side crash, is that you are already so close to the ground that there really isn't much 'falling' involved, just a transition to sliding.)  Sliding across the track on my back, my mantra was 'KeepYourHeadUpKeepYourHeadUp!', which worked until i got into the dirt, caught a heel and rolled, striking my helmet on the ground and turning it into a $400 used-up bit. Grrr.

Saturday's Production Cup race is the second race of the morning, and there was enough damage to the bike that I would not be able to make it to the grid.  The only positive, (and I am digging for it here), was that the amount of time spent in 'woe is me, why am I wasting my time and money' mode, before getting into 'how are we going to fix this' mode, was much shorter than after previous crashes.  Improvement! It turned out that the bike was damaged enough, and with preparations for the 4 Hour Endurance race at the end of the day, I missed all three of my sprint races for Saturday.   Furthermore, once I did get down to working on it, I came to the realization that I was going to have to head home to my workshop in order to accomplish sufficient repairs.  Once again this led me to getting back to the track late Sunday morning, this time missing all of my practices.  Production Cup was in the afternoon, and I had an opportunity to start one of my morning races to shake down my repairs.  This was a good thing, because while entering turn eight near the end of the race, I found that I had no shifter!  While fixing bent and broken bits I had neglected to check how securely other bits were still attached, and had lost a critical component due to a loose bolt.  Double Grrr, and my second ride of shame on the crash cart for the weekend. 

This time it was a scramble in the pits, (even having the lunch break at hand), canvassing my neighbors for anything that could be used to substitute for the critical bushing that had been lost.  A slow panic crept in, with a couple of almost give up moments, but with Rod Mattison's ample spares kit we got it sussed out and back together in time to roll out to last place on the grid in Production Cup, the first race after lunch. I got a reasonable start, but had the entire field ahead of me.  I methodically picked off the slower riders, and by the halfway mark had only two people in front of me.  Cameron Lee, riding a Yamaha R3, was completely out of sight, but also out of contention because he is in fact in a smaller displacement class (!!).  Jason Madsen, the 500 Production Cup points leader, (on another Kawasaki 400 Ninja) was in sight and I was reeling him in.  He must have felt it too, because he was turning around on the back straight to keep an eye on me.  Good - let me rent some room in your brain: a-hahahahaha!  Hitting the back straight with only a couple of laps to go, right after his rear view check, and just as I was feeling confident that I would be able to challenge him for the win, my engine shut off.  Completely.  Hand up, I pulled over to the inside of the track and coasted to a stop, frustration seething out of every pore.  Running through my bike repairs and preparation, it didn't make sense.  I had gas, and everything that I needed was still connected to the bike.  Once in neutral I hit the starter and it fired right up!  Jason was long gone by this point, but I determined to salvage as many points as I could.  The track was clear behind me so I re-entered, put my head down, and whacked the throttle wide open.  The little bikes don't attain enough speed on the back straight to require a lot of braking for turn four, but there is a short downhill two turns later that does, entering a very slow, very challenging decreasing radius turn at the bottom of the hill.  I had been experiencing some slight chatter in the front wheel since returning from Saturday's crash, and this time it was so severe that it felt like the front wheel was coming off of the bike.  Discretion being the better part of valor and all of that, I put my hand up again, pulled off, parked the bike and called it a day, watching the rest of the race from my new vantage point while I waited for my third ('Yeah, I know where you are pitted') and final ride of shame for the weekend on the crash cart.  Triple Grrr!!!

Weekend #4 / 4 Hr Endurance

Race Weekend #4 was an, um, character building weekend.

First, the good news.

I have picked up another race sponsor, Spears Racing, out of Manteca, California!  Spears has been the preeminent source for parts and service for the small twins racebikes for decades, and I am excited to have their expertise and catalog available to my race program.  I have had many conversations with the proprietor Greg Spears, and his quiet manner and wealth of knowledge leave me feeling better about my race program every time. They have goodies for both race and street bikes - take a look!

The second piece of good news is the performance of team Zip Ties & Duct Tape in the MRA's 4 Hour Endurance Race for 2019.  This annual event has grown into quite a production.   Team captain Rod Mattison competed in the solo event three years ago, finishing just out of the trophies, and convinced me to join him for the True Endurance category two years ago.  He spent the entire winter getting my old Suzuki 600 GSX-R ready to compete.  I then promptly crashed it on the third lap, forcing us to retire with 3 hrs, 50 minutes left in the race!  It turned out that last place was still good enough for a 5th place trophy, and we were hooked.  We gave up on the Gixxer, and last year competed on Rod's Suzuki SV 650.  This time the field was a little larger, and we ended up out of the trophies in 6th place, just one lap down from 5th place.  Looking for a way forward, Rod ended up purchasing the bike that beat us last year, and we successfully recruited Stephen Husbands to join us.This year, with Rod's meticulous preparation, and a last minute clutch change by Stephen at the track the night before the race, we were able to keep both our heads and the rubber side down, and bring the 12 year old Yamaha R6 home in 2nd place!

Three weekends down, four to go

My season has been off to a reasonably good start.  The first weekend at High Plains Raceway (HPR) the bike was mostly in the same trim as last year.  It worked okay, and I was performing okay, but unfortunately the competition was doing a little better than okay!  I entered nine races, and (since i am generally competing against bigger bikes) was competitive in only three of them, getting two third places and one fourth place finish.

The second weekend was at Pikes Peak International Raceway (PPIR), the weekend of June 1st and 2nd.  I got there on Friday in time to practice a small amount, which allowed me to try out the new Ohlins suspension that I had purchased from Spears Racing, (my newest sponsor), and had gotten installed on the bike along with some minor engine performance parts by Rocky Mountain Kawasaki, one of my sponsors.  The suspension was definitely more stable that the stock units, but I still felt that I wasn't getting into the corners with as much ease as I would have liked.  I was also able to get out on the new (for us) Yamaha R6 that Rod Mattison (#26) has purchased for this year's team 4-hr endurance race. The quick evaluation is that compared to the 400 Ninja the 600 cc R6 is incredibly fast.  This is the actual bike that beat us by one lap last year, so if nothing else we have eliminated some of the competition for this year!

Itching to adjust the suspension on Friday, I ultimately decided to leave it alone through Saturday and just continue my evaluation. As I said it was stable, but didn't provide the feel, or ability to pick or change my line that I had anticipated.  I did find that I was finally able to do some trail braking into the corners - applying the front brake while turning in - which I had noticed a complete lack of comfort with when riding the stock suspension, so this was a distinct improvement. Saturday evening I pulled the fork tubes up in the triple clamps, the tiniest amount - 1 mm - which has the effect of lowering the front of the bike that same amount and also making the forks a tiny amount steeper.  This immediately resulted in the steering effect that I had been looking for - ease of turning in, and the flexibility to change my line mid corner.  I was also able to more easily move around on the bike.  I registered for 10 races that weekend, but ultimately only ran in eight of them.  I did improve the two third places to seconds, and the fourth to a third, so my performance was moving in the right direction. 

The third race weekend was at Pueblo Motorsports Park (PMP), the weekend of June 22-23.  I missed Friday practice, getting down to the track early Saturday morning.  I registered for my now normal 10 races, four on Saturday and six on Sunday.  Saturday went well, and I was finally able to try out Pirelli's road race slick tires, a brand new option for my bike.  Up until now I had been racing on their D.O.T. racing tires - street legal tires with tread - but with rubber soft enough that they would be ridiculously short lived if actually used on the street.  New tires are always nice, but I initially didn't notice any significant improvement in my lap times after Sol Performance, another of my sponsors, mounted them for me. 

Now, the road race course at PMP shares its front straight with a drag strip. This gives us a very long front straight, but also has us leaned over while going through the drag staging area.  Those guys put down crazy chemicals that help make their tires as sticky as possible, but oddly these same chemicals become lubricants with the addition of the slightest amount of water.  We were on the second lap of my final race on Saturday, Ultra Lightweight Endurance, when the race was red-flagged due to rain.  We waited while the rain picked up, then quit, and then started up again.  After an hour or so the remaining races were finally cancelled and I got busy working on my front suspension - I had decided that I wanted more corner entry flexibility, and was going to pull the fork tubes up another mm.  I was half done when the sky broke open with the heaviest rain of the day, drenching me as I abandoned my chore until after some dinner.

Sunday morning we had a headwind down the big straight that was taking 10 mph off of my top speed.  I had anticipated this after watching some flags in the pits, and then promptly forgot about it once out on the track, thinking that either I or the bike had gotten slower over night!  I didn't notice as much of a change from the previous suspension adjustment, but was feeling good about moving around on the bike.  I found myself touching my leathers down in a couple of corners and committed myself to moving even more, and hanging off more on the inside of the corners,(and moving my knee pucks as close to the point of contact as possible).  This started feeling much more natural than it ever had on this bike, and I recollected that my Pirelli sponsor had said that the slicks would give better traction and feel at the edges of the tires.   Game on!  

500 Cup is the class with the best competition for me, and if there are enough bikes on the grid Kawasaki will pay contingency money on Sunday - $500 for first place, $250 for second, and $100 for third.  The first race weekend we didn't have a big enough grid, but I did earn $250 for my second place at PPIR.  Saturday I took too long to get around another bike, and by the time I did was too far back to get better than third place.  No money lost, just a little pride bruisin'.  On Sunday I was determined to fight for first.  I was gridded in the middle of the first row, due to having the second best qualifying time.  The best qualifying time went to a smaller bike that is in the 350 cup class, and he wouldn't be able to hang with the 500 Cup bikes in the long run to the first corner, leaving me with the two guys that had beaten me in Saturday's race.  I was pretty confident that if I could get in front of them that I could hold them off if not pull away from them.    I am running stock gearing (still!),  and was disappointed to find that do what I may, I was losing the drag race to the first corner to Jason Madsen.  I tucked in behind him and started studying his line.  I felt that I was faster every where but on the front straight, but his line was close enough to mine that I wasn't seeing any great opportunities to pass.  I started playing around with my line to see if I could fabricate a path around him.  On the back half of the track there is medium length downhill straight that leads into a blind uphill sweeper to the right that culminates with a flat double apex right.  Jason was staying to the inside on the double apex, so I decided to see how much more speed I could carry if I used the whole track.  The  track doubles back on itself to the left immediately after the double apex right-hander, and in order to keep traffic separated, there is a four foot dirt berm separating the two sections of track, with quite a bit of loose, sandy dirt leading up to the berm.  I have run wide on that turn at least a couple of times before, and the last thing anybody wants to do is to blow it while leaned waaay over.  (I got enough air on one of those previous runs years ago to bend BOTH of my expensive magnesium wheels!  I've probably led up to this with enough foreshadowing for you to figure out that I went off the track in this corner yet once again, all the while hoping that my rear brake would get me stopped before the berm.  It did, and I kept the bike up, and was able to re-enter the race dead last, with just over four laps to go.  I had mostly clear track in front of me, so after a few conservative turns to make sure that my bike and my head were still in it, I put my head down and got busy.  The first bike I came up on was in the 350 cup class, and I went by without a problem within a lap or so.  The next bike was in my class and it took another lap to get around him.  The last two laps saw me slowly catching the final three bikes, but there just wasn't enough time left to pull it off, leaving me with another third in the class, and in second place overall.  My consolation is that after reviewing the race results for both Saturday and Sunday, I realized that while I had come in third both days, I had gotten the fastest laps of both of the races.  

Sunday turned out to be a wonderful day of racing, with each successive race being more fun than the one before. As I got more comfortable with the Pirelli slicks I was able to push the bike harder and harder, and to move around on it much more. The bike and i are coming along very nicely, and the anticipation is building for the next race weekend.