LOUDON, NH (May 3, 1998) - A wet and rainy race weekend greeted Team
Daemon Racing, what a way to start the year!

The short version

After much last minute work, and a lot of help from Patrick Burns of
Factory, Paul manages to get the F2 running well, and comes away from
the weekend with 2 6th place finishes, a 5th, and a 4th (trophy!)
running his first weekend as a junior.  Kevin also comes away from this
first weekend with a 4th place trophy.  Not bad for the first weekend of
the year, in the rain, no less!


The long version

Quick recap, over the winter the F2 went through some modifications.
The stock rear shock got yanked and replaced with a Fox, a new
steering damper was installed, the engine was pulled, the cylinders
were honed and new rings installed, the head was sent out to get a
valve job, and was milled .008" to fix a slight warping. The stock
exhaust was replaced with a Hindle with a 20" can, and the carbs were
jetted accordingly (eventually, read on).

Thursday: Adam, Rob and Paul headed up to Loudon to get in a day of
practice before the races.  The sky was blue, and the weather was fine,
things were looking good. The bikes were unloaded the sag set on the Fox
shock on the F2.  Once the sag was set, Paul headed out to see how the
bike felt after a long winter off.  The carbs were still set at the
stock settings, to get a baseline for further changes.

Paul's first lap out was a slow one, just trying to get a feel for the
bike and track after a long winter off.  So far so good. The second lap,
he started to pick up the pace a bit and revved the engine up.  As the
revs started approaching the 9k mark, the engine started to stumble. Ok,
the jetting is off.  The third lap, Paul started revving the engine even
more.  At 10K rpm, the engine would die and the bike would buck. The
engine would not pull past 10.5K rpm.

Paul pulled back into the pits and started pulling bodywork and the gas
tank to get to the carbs.  Factory recommended running 138 mains with an
aftermarket exhaust and a Uni foam air filter, but failed to provide
them in the kit. So instead, the new needles were installed and shimmed
up, hoping to richen up the carbs everywhere and maybe help at the top
end. Everything was buttoned up, and Paul headed back out.  After about
two laps, it was obvious that the changes had made no difference. Paul
pulled in, and packed it up for the day.

Rob was having a good day, running very smoothly, and looking good on
the RD. Adam's day was worse than Paul's.  After taking a few laps on
the EX, the bike died coming out of turn 10.  Adam coasted back in to
the pits, where he tried to start it.  The starter was spinning, but the
engine wasn't turning over.  The engine cover came off, and bolts were
checked.  A loose flywheel bolt was identified as the culprit.  After
tightening, the engine spun just fine, but now it wouldn't fire.  Off
comes the cover again.  Timing marks were located, and aligned. 
Everything was buttoned up again, and the engine fired.  This time it
fired right up, but a strange, clunking noise accompanied it.  Rob
yelled to shut it off as a piece of the engine case came flying off!
Further investigation yielded a rod poking through the case
(http://www.clarity.net/~adam/images/bike/deadex/deadex.jpg).  Adam was
done for the day as well.  : (  Not to mention the weekend.

Adam and Paul then headed over to NE Performance to put the bike up on
the dyno, to try and figure things out.  They made about 12 runs
making all kinds of changes to the bike, drilled out the main air
jets, moved up to 138 mains, moved the clips all over the place.  Each
change made an improvement, but there was a huge flat spot at 9K rpm
(see http://www.clarity.net/~adam/images/bike/pauldyno.gif).  They
packed things up, and headed home.

On Friday, Paul e-mailed Patrick Burns at Factory with all the
information about the bike, and how it was running, as well as the dyno
scans.  From all that, Patrick surmised that the bike was running too
rich, and smaller mains should be used, completely the opposite of what
Paul and Adam though was wrong.  So Friday night, Tim and Paul swapped
out the 138's with 130's, and moved the needle clips to the #3 slot. 
Put everything back together, loaded up the car and the trailer, and
went to bed.

Meanwhile, in NYC, even with leaving work at 2:30pm, Kevin doesn't get
on the road until 10:30pm! He arrived at Loudon at 6am to find lots of
rain and no canopy (the rest of TDR arrived at 7am). Kevin decides he
has too much work to get done to race on Saturday, not to mention the
pouring rain.

Saturday morning, Adam shows up at Paul's place at the ungodly hour of
5am. They pack up the final equipment and head out in cold, wet
conditions.  Arriving at the track at 7am, Paul runs to register for his
usual 4 races and heads off to set up the pit and get the bike teched.
Setting up in the rain is not fun.  Adam helps to get the canopy set up
and then runs off to cornerwork, having blown his engine up 2 days
earlier. Paul gets set up and gets the bike teched.  

Kevin gets up around 9:00am, to the wonderful sound of motorcycles. He
still had a lot of things that needed doing: tires, grind down the
fender bolts on the EX so that the ME33 120 would fit, rebuild a water
pump, align a front end, finish racewiring, fit a steering damper and
new number plates and replace a masterlink.

Paul misses his first practice, but makes it out for the second.  It is
pouring rain, and the bike is sliding all over the place. Not fun, but
the bike seems to be running *much* better.  After practice, Paul
decides that the 364's on the bike were toast.  There is about 1.5 hours
before Paul's first race so he and Kevin yank of the wheels and get a
set of 207's mounted.  Get them back on the bike, and Paul is ready to
go for his first race.


Paul's first race is a GT 30-minute race.  The rain seems to be letting
up, so he opts to go out without rain gear.  Mistake.  About 10 minutes
into the race, it starts to pour again.  Not only that, but his glasses
and faceshield are fogging up so badly, Paul can't see.  He decides
early that his only goal is to finish, period.  The experts pass Paul
like he's standing still; Eric Wood is even dragging his knee in the
rain. That's what rain tires will get you.  

But Paul manages to get through his first race as a junior on 2 wheels,
and gets a 6th place finish (dead last but he finished and got 7 points,
better than the other 2 in the class who DNFed). Paul's best lap time,
1:44.37, 20 seconds off his best time, but the best time for the winner
in the class was only a 1:42.

Paul's second race of the day was MW Superbike.  Still raining, but this
time he put on the rain gear.  Paul went out with one goal, finish, and
I did, in 5th place (out of 13 in my class) even!  Best time: 1:43.01!

Throughout the evening, Kevin continues to work on the EX, and come
11:30, everything seems to be done.  Running on only 3 hours sleep,
Kevin calls it quits until the morning.  Everyone retires to their
respective tents, and calls it a night.

Sunday dawned with overcast skies and drizzle.  Kevin ran over to
registration to sign up for his races, and everyone got ready to go you
for their practices.

Paul lucks out for both practices and get a fairly dry track.  He's not
pushing it, but the bike feels good, and his lap time are dropping. 
Kevin goes out for his first practice in the wet, with new tires, and
new brake pads.  Not a fun combination.  Still he manages to keep the
bike upright, and takes advantage of all the track time he can get. 
Second practice for Kevin greets him with a dry line, and things go much
better.

Race time.  First out was Paul for MW Grand Prix.  He botched the start,
pulling a massive wheelie off the line, and then missed 2nd gear so he
went into turn 1 dead last.  On the first or second lap, two bikes got
tangled and went down right in front of Paul in turn 3. He managed to
get by them without incident.  Within about 4 laps, the experts (1st
wave, Paul was 3rd) were blowing past him.  When all was said and done,
Paul was able to pull out a 4th place finish (out of 12) for 9 points,
with my best time being a 1:30.72.

Next, Kevin goes out for race 5: LW Supertwins.  The track was still
wet, and Kevin wasn't having the best race of his career, but he did get
a good start, and managed to come in 7th out of a 14-bike field.

The last race of the weekend for Paul was MW Sportbike.  Once again, he
lucked out and the track was dry for the race, even though it had been
sprinkling on and off all day.  Paul got a decent start and jockeyed for
position going into turn one, but after that he was pretty much on his
own for the rest of the race.  Paul came away with another 6th place
finish for another 7 points, with a best lap of 1:31.51. Overall, a
great weekend for Paul considering it was his first as a junior, and the
weather conditions.

Last race of the weekend for TDR, was Kevin's, Race 9, LW Superbike.
There are 27 entries, and Kevin is in the last row. The green flag drops
and Kevin is off.  He gets a good start, and going into turn 1, he is in
9th place. Kevin maintains 9th place for a few laps, and then makes a
pass on the inside of turn 3 to capture 8th.  A lap later and he catches
the 7th place rider and passes him in the same spot.  Kevin likes
passing in 3. Laps 4,5, and 6 see Kevin sitting on the tail of the 6th
place bike. He's just a bit slower than Kevin in the corners but he
can't get around him. 

Lap 6 and Kevin is coming over the hill and into the bowl, right on the
tail of the 5th place rider and a lapper.  The 5th and 6th place bikes
get help up by the lapper and leave Kevin a wonderful line around the
outside of all three. Kevin easily passes all of them and pulls out a
huge gap by turn 10. He spent lap 7 and all by himself.

Kevin sees the 4th place rider towards the end of the lap but though he
was too far ahead to catch. Out come the white flag and Kevin realizes
that he will catch the 4th place bike going into turn 1. He holds Kevin
off through turns 1 and 1a but Kevin is right on his tail coming out of
turn 2.  Time for another turn 3 pass.  This one was actually the
easiest. Kevin makes the pass in turn 3 with ease, then kept his head
down for the rest of the lap and took the checker about 8 seconds behind
the lead 3.  Kevin was running 1'32.9s, still 1.4 seconds off his best
but not bad for his third, ever, race weekend at Loudon. 

This was a fantastic weekend for both Paul and Kevin, and both expressed
their appreciation to everyone who came out to turn a wrench and help
out in the pits.  This would be the only weekend Paul could race for
another 11 weeks, due to weddings and other unavoidable engagements, but
the rest of the team will be back in June, to see if they can improve
even more.