Round 5 - HPR West Course, Sunday

Saturday night I got very little sleep - too much time spent with non-productive thought. ('roof brain chatter', to borrow a quote from a college roommate.) The best that I got out of it was a plan for evaluating the bike's track worthiness.

The engine gremlin seemed to be associated with a hot engine.  Because of this I decided to skip my three morning races on Sunday, take it as easy as I could in practice, and not push it too hard until the 500 Production Cup race - the first race after lunch.  I had finally decided to acquiesce to Mike Lukachy's imploring, and raised the front of the bike one milimeter - not as much as he was suggesting, but something.  I also backed out half of the compression damping increase that I had added on Saturday.

I would use the first practice primarily to evaluate the suspension change, but also to see how willing the engine gremlin was to rear its ugly head.  For the first time in a long time, I started at a fairly sedate pace, and slowly picked it up.  This gave me a good overall feel for the chassis setup, which I felt was definitely not optimal, but also not scary - just a reminder that I still had some tuning ahead of me.  In any event, I find that I liked the gradual progression, and will make use of it in the future.

The second (and last) Sunday practice is also qualifying for the Production Cup races.  While slightly off of Saturday's lap record(!) 1:39.300 pace, I was still fast enough to grab pole position.  With Luke Sanzone gone, I had started to wonder whether I would have a chance to pull off a flag to flag leading win; ah, hubris.  With no morning races, it seemed to take forever for lunch to arrive and be done with, but eventually we were out on the track gridded for Production Cup.  I got a reasonably good start, but this time it was points leader Jason Madsen who beat me to turn one.  Game on!

Jason had a clear acceleration advantage over me, which beyond getting him the hole shot also enabled him to walk away from me  exiting every corner.  I seemed to have a comparable advantage on the brakes which put me right back on his tail again in each succeeding corner.  I was able to show him a wheel a handful of times each lap, but he was undeterred and kept to his line - not conceding me an inch (or the lead).  It quickly became apparent that this was going to be a good challenge (queue AWB), and that if I was going to get around him on my terms, (rather than wait for him to make a mistake), it would have to be on an unconventional line.  This put my turn 6 fiasco from Round 3 at Pueblo into the back of my mind - going off track was not an option if I was going to pull off a win here. While patience and discretion were keeping me on the track, they were not getting me any material results.  By the half way point I was starting to get concerned, and got a little more aggressive with my experimenting.  Going deep into turn 2 to see if I could get around the outside, I realized that I had held too much speed for the amount of track before me, and as soon as I backed off Colton Wulf overtook me for second - apparently there were a few of us stacked up behind Jason! 

Coming out of turn 3 Colton patted his tail section, signalling me to tuck into his draft and follow.  I did so, and quickly caught up to and then drafted by him, back onto Jason's trail.  Once again by turn 4 I was right on him, and able to carry a little more speed coming out of turn 5.  I swung wide for the n-th time on the downhill to the decreasing radius turn 6, but he was once again able to quickly match my speed and keep control of the racing line.  Certainly I could dive under him in 6, but that would put me on such a tight line that I would have no exit speed at all and he would surely regain it immediately. I backed off and took my preferred ultra-wide entry line.  I had already tried getting to the outside of him climbing the hill on the the sweeping turn 7, but to no avail given his acceleration advantage. This time he seemed to be covering the outside and I saw an opening, deciding to hold a tighter line and see if I could find my way through on the inside.  I was able to eke out the slightest advantage, take the line, and pull ahead.  The big question would be whether Jason would be able to overtake me by turn 8 at the top of the hill.  Yes?, yes??,..., No! 

Each turn that I entered without encountering a challenge let me relax ever so slightly, and after completing a lap I saw Rod Mattison on pit row signalling the I had a good lead.  This allowed me to switch my attention from 'fastest lap' to 'coolest engine', easing my pace ever so slightly and short shifting wherever possible.  This strategy found me taking the white flag, and one lap later, the checkered - my second win of the weekend, and only the third of my career! 

The 500 Production Cup race on Sunday marks my last truely competive race of the weekend.  The two remaining races, Supertwins GTU and Formula Colorado, both feature bikes with a significant power advantage over my ultra-lightweight 400 Ninja, so they are really just track time (and Clubman points) for me.  I would use them to see if I could coax the engine gremlin out and hopefully improve my understanging of its triggers.  The Ninja had about an hour to cool down before Supertwins GTU, which is run as a second wave behind Modern Vintage GTO. I was able to catch  the slower Modern Vintage bikes by the end of the race, and finished as the last bike to be lapped - all in all a satisfying finish.  I was thrashing the engine but the gremlin was silent. 

There is but a 15 minute break before the Formula Colorado race, and this time I would be starting with a noticably hotter engine.  I was able to work my way up to third place, but could see that James Wilkerson (in second place) was ahead of me by the length of the long back straight and pulling away.  Nothing much to do but push and see if I could finish without being lapped.  Crossing the line on the front straight for the white flag, it hit just after I shifted to fourth gear - dead engine!  I pulled in the clutch and tried to start it while rolling; no dice.  At this point I decided that it was time to put a pin in the weekend, pull off in turn 1, and wait for the crash cart.

To recap, I registered for ten races over the weekend, started seven of them, and completed four. A little disappointing on one hand, but on the other hand the four completions included two wins, and I managed to set two track records for the West Course, with a 500 Production Cup qualifying time of 1:39.300 on Saturday and a 500 Production Cup race time of 1:38.590 on Sunday.  These achievements would not have been possible without all of the support that my sponsors has provided to me, and I am grateful for each and every one of them.  Woodcraft, by supplying the nearly indestructable clipon mounts, rearsets, and Armour Bodies bodywork, provides a superb bike/rider interface, which in turn allows me to focus more of my attention on what I want to do, rather than what I can do or how I have to do it; in short, on track peace of mind.  Rocky Mountain Kawasaki, after first selling me the bike,  has provided excellent follow on support.  Marv Rosencrans, the head of their service department, has performed all of the significant mechanical service on my bike, and even took the time to answer two phone calls on Saturday in order to give me troubleshooting advice on both the front end chatter and the overheating gremlin.  Mike Lukachy, of Sol Performance / Pirelli Tires, kept an eye on my tire temperature and is working with me to try and address the front end chatter.  Last but certainly not least, Gregg Spears of Spears Racing has provided me not only with all of the suspension and engine upgrade parts (which Marv has installed), but has also served as an objective sounding board and advisor between races.  These guys rock, and I would encourage you to avail yourself of their services and products, whether you are a racer or a street rider.  Tell 'em that I sent you.

Round 5 - HPR West Course, Saturday

High Plains Raceway (HPR), an hour east of Denver, is unique among the tracks that the MRA races at, in two ways.  For one, it was built and is owned by CAMA, the Colorado Amateur Motorsports Association, a group of four local automobile clubs plus the MRA.  Which leads to its second unique quality: it was designed from the beginning with two cut-offs that allow it to be run in four configurations - Full, North, West, and Short.  The MRA hasn't competed on the short course, but we will use all of the other configurations this year.  Round 5 was on the West course, one which I hadn't been on yet. 

Arriving Friday evening gave me time to set up my pit, have a new Pirelli rear slick installed by my tire sponsor, Sol Performance, and get the bike through tech inspection. All of my sponsors came through with replacement or upgraded components in the three weeks since my crash in Round 4, support for which I am extremely grateful. Spears Racing provided a BrakeTech front rotor with Ferodo pads, a lightweight racing chain and sprockets, and two electrical eliminators.  Woodcraft supplied me with a replacement clip-on handlebar and footpeg, the wayward shift bushing, and a spare shift rod.  Their rearsets, CNC machined from 6061-T6 billet aluminum, had barely bent in the crash, in fact holding up much better that the stock steel bracket to which they mount - a testament to their extreme durability. Rocky Mountain Kawasaki replaced that stock bracket and a worn chain guide.

I got the bike out for the first practice on Saturday, anxious to evaluate both the repairs and the new track configuration.  The cut-off for the West course takes left hand turn 8, the tightest turn on the track,  and opens up its exit with a blind right hand downhill sweeper to the base of the front straight.  It makes for a very nice alternative!  Unfortunately I found that in spite of all of my attempts to banish it, the front end chatter was still with me.  Boo!  It wasn't as bad as it had been at the end of Round 4, and I wasn't as surprised by it, but I was disappointed nonetheless.  I pulled into the pits and went to visit with Mike Lukachy, my Pirelli tire sponsor.  We discussed how the bike was set up, and what I was experiencing, and his first suggestion was to raise the front of the bike to get some weight off of it.  I had been slowly lowering the front, in a search for better feel in the corners, and was loathe to reverse that process.  He then suggested an increase in compression damping with the goal of slowing down the action at the front.  I took it back out for the next session and felt that it wasn't noticeably different.  I realized that I had entered the realm of significant suspension set up, tuning the bike to me and my riding personality, with trade offs instead of absolutes and all of that adult stuff.  Dagnabit!

Mike's next suggestion (after another unsuccessful attempt at getting me to raise the front of the bike), was to gently increase the front tire pressure.  I did this a couple of times and started to feel that the biggest change might just be that I was starting to get used to the chatter - here a little, there a little, over there a bit more, and way over there, none.  Out of time to play with it, 500 Production Cup, my first race of the day rolled around.  While practicing the course, and evaluating the suspension, I had managed to qualify for pole position for 500 Production Cup, a good second a lap faster than the next bike.  I was feeling pretty good about my prospects for the race, until Luke Sanzone, a new first time racer, on a brand new 400 Ninja got the hole shot from the back row and led into turn 1! I got around him going into turn 2 and put my head down.  Leading is nice in that you don't have anybody potentially holding you up, but you also don't have anybody against whom to gauge your pace, and you are always waiting for someone to come up and challenge you.  'Be smooth, but be fast' was going through my head, and the race seemed to drag on for an eternity.  The white flag came up without and challenge, and then the checkered - my first race win of the season!

I was entered in the next race, Formula 40 (for the forty year 'old' guys!!), but with the excitement of my win I forgot to exit the track after my cool down lap.  D'Oh! They let me grid up for the next race and let the rest of the grid fill in around me after their warm up lap - no harm, no foul but a little embarrassing all the same.  This race is actually two combined races, with a first wave of mostly 1000 cc bikes, and a second wave of mostly 600 cc bikes, among which I was gridded.  My bike and I are both hopelessly over our competitive heads here, but since I can hold a predictable line I am at ease with it in order to pack as much fun as I can into my weekend.  All was going well  until about the time that the leaders from the first wave started passing me.  I was riding well and the bike was running well - if maybe a little hot - when the engine cut-out gremlin struck.  What?! No!

Now that I was in the thick of the first pack, and since I was already guaranteed the single point which was all that I could expect, I pulled off of the track rather than continue and now act as a wildcard / track hazard to the racers that were in contention for race results.  Once the race finished, I  dejectedly headed back to the pits to let people know that the bike wasn't fixed.

After lunch I had two more races, Lightweight GP (LWGP) and Ultra Lightweight Endurance.  LWGP is a sprint race with a fairly large grid, and I got only an average start. It took a few laps to get away from my starting group, when I saw that I was starting to gain on Jason Madsen, the 500 Production Cup points leader.  I determined to give him a run for his money, and when we crossed the finish line we were within inches of each other.  He came out ahead, but I had great fun all the same.  Most importantly, I had been pushing the bike and it never quit, a good thing!

 Ultra Lightweight Endurance would be my last race of the day, and I was ready to play.  It would be a second wave start for me, behind the Lightweight Endurance racers.  I was able to clear out from all of the other Ultra Lightweights within a couple of laps, and then started overtaking the slower Lightweight bikes.  I was getting used to the front end chatter, and the bike was running well.  Just over halfway though, the now heat correlated gremlin struck for the second time for the day.  As always, I was able to restart the engine almost immediately, but with the expectation of more of the same, I retired at my first convenience.

Back in the pits at the end of the day Rod Mattison and Stephen Husbands, my teammates from the 4 Hr endurance, came over for some moral and physical support.  They are each very knowledgeable mechanic/engineers, certainly with much greater understanding of the workings of a modern race bike than I.  We poked and prodded, and ultimately found some issues to be addressed, but no smoking gun with respect to the engine cut-out.

This sent me to bed for the night with way too much to think about, and way too little possibility for figuring any of it out.

Round 5: Prep

My over-exuberance from Round 4 left me with quite a bit of stuff to repair and replace.  Time to avail myself of some discounted products from my sponsors – Rocky Mountain Kawasaki for the damaged stock parts and a new helmet, Woodcraft for the lost shift bushing, a spare shift rod, and a foot peg, and after talking with Gregg Spears, a couple of disable/lockout plugs – one to allow removal of the side stand lockout switch, and one to eliminate the left handlebar controls. 

Gregg also reiterated what I had now heard several times, that after even a minor crash it is important to relax and tighten all of the fasteners on the front end of the bike in order to allow any stressed suspension parts to realign themselves. He further opined that it was very possible that I had managed to warp my front brake rotor, either from the crash or simply from heavy use, and that this could be the source of the front-end chatter that I was experiencing. He strongly encouraged me to determine whether or not I had damaged the rotor, and I took this to heart.   

By the Saturday after the race, the first round of parts from both Woodcraft and Spears were in my hot little hands and I got out to the shed to get busy.  The electrical eliminator plugs were short work after following Gregg’s installation hints.  I made a crude evaluation of my brake rotor and decided that it would be good to replace it.  I took this opportunity to order an aftermarket BrakeTech rotor from Spears, and it is a thing of beauty indeed.  I realized that I was lacking necessary lubricants and adhesives to finish the job, and had to go back to Amazon for another round of purchases for shop supplies.  Long story short, I got everything installed by Thursday night before the race weekend, but had enough loose ends that while I got to the track Friday, I didn’t get there early enough for any practice.