Daytona Beach, FL (November 1, 1998) - Paul and Adam represented Team
Daemon Racing at the 15th annual CCS Race of Champions at Daytona
International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. While the team didn't
come away with any trophies, they did learn a lot, and had a very
impressive showing against the best amateur riders from across the country.
In a very short time, Paul was able to drop his lap times by almost 10
seconds! Not bad for his first time at Daytona! Wait until next year!


The short(er) version...

Paul and Adam left the cold NE for sunny Florida late Friday night. The
trip down was mostly uneventful; with the only exception being a trailer
tire blowout somewhere in North Carolina. Once in Florida, our heroes hung
out in Orlando for a few days before heading to the track. Tuesday was
spent cornerworking the Suzuki School, Wednesday morning saw the mad dash
for garage space, and then practice began.

The first several practices were cut short, due to F2 bodywork not wanting
to stay attached to the bike at the sustained 150+mph speeds, but some
creative zip-tie work took care of that. Thursday was the first race day,
GT2.  Paul was a little nervous, this being his first race at Daytona, and
the first time his parents were watching -- YIKES!  Before the race, Paul,
Adam, and Paul's parents all "oooh'ed" and "ahhh'ed' as they watched the
space shuttle launch from the Daytona infield. Race time! At the start,
Paul overshot turn 1, which put him at the very back of the first wave. He
put his head down trying to make up the lost time, but coming out of the
east banking at the end of the 5th lap, the top bolt of the left foot peg
sheared off, allowing the whole assembly to swing down. Race over. Paul
pulled into the pits, where Adam confirmed that the bolt had sheared off,
and would need to be drilled out.  Nothing could be done in time to finish
the race, so they headed back into the paddock.

Friday, Paul went out for his only practice in the morning, then the team
took the rest of the day off to relax, hitting the beach, and sampling the
local go-cart tracks.

Saturday was Pauls final race, MW supersport. Paul got an OK start, but
found himself behind a pack of 4-5 slower riders. On the second lap, Paul
went for an outside pass of the slower pack coming into turn 1. Two of the
bikes he was passing made contact with each other, causing them to stand
up, which in turn forced Paul wide and into the grass.  Paul came to a
stop, got the bike turned around, and re-entered, but he lost too much
time.  He managed to pick off a few bikes in the infield, but only managed
to finish mid-pack.  But he finished!  His first complete race at Daytona
-- not too shabby considering it was the Race of Champions.


The long version... (REALLY long)

Paul and Adam left the Boston area late Friday night (10/23/98), planning
on driving through the night, and arriving at Paul's parent's house in
Orlando Saturday evening. They had a scheduled stop just south of NYC to
pick up another bike for a fellow racer, and between a wrong turn, and
loading up the new bike, about 1.5 hours was wasted.

Back on the road, our heroes made good time, until North Carolina.  Buzzing
along at a sedate 80mph, a little trailer tire decided enough was enough.
Paul was driving and felt a slight wiggle, figuring it was just a gust of
wind, he continued. As the car passed under an overpass, Paul and Adam were
treated to a horrible screeching sound through the open sunroof.  Adam
looked back and noticed that the trailer was no longer sitting level.  Paul
quickly pulled the car over into the breakdown lane to see what was up.
"Hey Adam, isn't there supposed to be some rubber on the rim?"  The first
order of business was to take pictures (take a look at the Gallery
section), then the tire was changed.  Our heroes were back on their way
within 10 minutes.

Around midnight Saturday night, Paul and Adam pulled into Paul's parents'
driveway, almost exactly 24 hours after leaving Boston. Things were
unloaded quickly, and Paul and Adam headed for some shuteye.

Sunday and Monday were spent relaxing and goofing around Orlando. Monday
evening, the car and trailer were loaded up, and Paul and Adam headed back
to Daytona. Paul's mom had come through like a champ, hooking the team up
with a beachside condo for the week. Talk about living it up!

Tuesday morning, Paul and Adam are up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am and
meet the rest of the cornerworking crew at the local Shoney's. They get a
little food and their credentials, and head over to the track. They get to
the track around 7:30am, and wait and wait. Adam takes the bicycle for a
little ride, and gets chased off the track by the Daytona security weenies.
Do you believe bicycles are prohibited from the infield?  Motorized pit
bikes are OK, but not bicycles.  Crazy!  Finally, at around 10:30am, there
are some bikes on course.  Paul works turn 3 while Adam works turn 5. The
day goes by with few incidents, but it did give Paul and Adam a firsthand
look at the Team Suzuki Endurance school, and they both come to the
conclusion that it is the worst school they have ever seen. It looks like
it is just an opportunity for the "instructors" to get track time. They
witnessed instructors racing each other, cutting off students, spooking
students, crashing, etc. Their impression of the school was confirmed when
Paul later talked to a friend who took the school, as it turned out, one of
the "instructors" had never been on a track!

During the TSE school lunch break, Paul ran off to register, got his
paperwork, then tried to snag a garage. Now, several weeks before, Paul had
called to see what the deal was with the garages and was told it was on a
first come, first served basis. Fine, TDR was there early, so it should be
no problem. The security weenies had other ideas.  After registering, Paul
and Adam head back into the infield, where they are stopped at the tunnel
entrance.

Security weenie: "Where do you think you are going?"
Paul:	"Uh, into the infield?"
SW:	"I can't let you in."
P:	"Huh?  We're cornerworkers, we've been working all morning!"
SW:	"Well, I'll let you in, but if anyone asks, I never saw you."
P:	"Uh, OK."  (?!)

So in through the tunnel they went, scratching their heads.  What's up with
these security people!??  Oh, god, here come more of them.

SW:	"How did you get in here?"
P:	"Uh, I drove."  (Duh)
SW:	"You're not allowed in until tomorrow morning.  You have to leave."
P:	(Here we go again)  "We're cornerworkers, we have to be in here, or
         it's really hard to work the corners.  We just want to grab a
         garage so we can dump all out gear."
SW:	"Did you reserve one?  All the garages are reserved.  Otherwise you
         need to come back in the morning to try and get one of the outside
         garages."
P: 	"I was told the garages are first come first served."
SW:	"Nope, they are all reserved, if you ain't on my list, you don't get
in."
P:	"Fine, thank you."

So they parked the car and trailer, and went back out to work the rest of
the afternoon. Afterwards, they head over to Shoney's for dinner where they
hook up with Joey, the other racer who's bike they had brought down. They
are informed that in order to get one of the outside garages, people start
lining up the day before!  What?  So after dinner, they head back to the
track to scope out the situation. Sure enough, there are about 50-60 cars,
trucks and trailers lined up, staged for the next morning.  They quickly go
over their options.  It was decided to leave Joey's rental car in line, to
hold a spot, and they would drop him off in the morning.  Hopefully, one of
them would get a garage.  They dropped Joey off at his hotel, went back to
the condo, and grabbed some shut-eye.

Wednesday: Paul and Adam pick up Joey at his hotel and run him back over to
the track, where he continues to wait in line.  They then head into the
track with their cornerworking credentials, and wait for the garages to
open up. Right at 7am, they run over to the garages, and snag one of the
outside bays.  Score!  Shortly afterwards, Joey shows up, and all is well.
Bikes are unloaded and banners are set up.  The team makes itself at home.

Before heading down, Paul had ordered some new gearing, but it had not come
in, so he went out for his first practice with Loudon gearing. Paul took
the first several laps at a very sedate speed, just trying to learn the
track layout. But as the laps clicked off, it soon became obvious that the
Loudon gearing just will not do. Halfway around either the east or west
banking, he was hitting redline, 6th gear, and had to hold it there until
the nest turn, a good 10 - 15 seconds away.  By the end of the practice,
Paul had dropped his times from a 2:26, to 2:20's

Paul pulled into the pits and he and Adam went to work getting the bike
ready for the next practice. A quick trip to Street and Comp yielded new
gears: stock front, and stock rear. The gears were changed and the bike
checked over, everything looked good. A quick lunch break was taken, the
guys ran across the street to sample some of the local ... cooking ... at
Hooters.  Yum!

Paul went out for the second practice of the day. The new gearing worked
much better, and he was running in the low 2:20's right away.
Unfortunately, the practice was cut short when the lower fairings on the F2
separated from the bike coming off the west banking. They didn't come all
the way off the bike, but several mounting points got ripped off, and they
would have ripped off entirely had Paul not come in.  When he did, he and
Adam went to work re-securing everything.  Wind had pushed the plastic into
the header pipes, melting deep grooves into them, and the sheer force of
the wind had actually ripped off some of the plastic's mounting tabs.  A
number of zip-ties were added, and once again the plastic was secured.
Adam also sealed the underside of the F2's tail section (see picture in the
gallery), hoping to smooth out the lines of the bike, and pick up a few
mph.

Paul went out for the third practice, and was immediately running in the
high teens, but once again, the practice was cut short due to the fairings
not wanting to stay on the bike.  This time, Paul and Adam got serious,
making sure there was no way the fairing was going to come off again,
adding zip-ties anywhere the fairing might come loose.  Satisfied that the
fairings wouldn't move at all, they called it a day and packed up for the
night.  The trip back to the condo was uneventful, and some much-needed
sleep was had.

Thursday: Paul and Adam get to the track right at 7am.  A decision is made
to play with the gearing a little, since with the stock gearing, Paul is
never quit hitting redline in 6th gear, so they go up 2 teeth in the rear.
Paul goes out for practice, and all goes well, but it's obvious that the
new gearing is too low, so after practice, they go back to the stock rear.

Paul's parents show up, and everyone heads out to the infield to watch some
of the early races. Between races, everyone takes a timeout to watch the
shuttle launch, which can be seen easily, with the naked eye, and even
better with a set of binoculars.  With only a few races to go until Paul's
race, he and Adam head back to the pits to get ready, while Paul's parents
stay out in turn 5 to watch the races.

Paul's race is up, GT2.  Paul goes out and take the warm-up lap, and takes
his grid position. It's a little weird, because they get gridded on the pit
row, and go right out to turn 1, something Paul hadn't done yet.  Paul was
gridded on the outside, and when the green flag dropped, he was off.  He
got an OK start, but having never entered turn 1 from this angle, he got
all confused, and overshot it.  He quickly turned around and re-entered,
but was way in the back.  Paul put his head down to make up for the lost
time.  Each lap, his times dropped, from 2:20, 2:18, 2:17, 2:16, then
disaster.  At the end of the 5th lap, coming out of the east banking onto
the front straight, the top bolt of the left foot bracket sheared off,
leaving Paul with no foot peg, and no way to shift.  He immediately pulled
off and into pit row, where Adam confirmed there was nothing they could do
at the pit wall, so back into the pits they went.  The drill came out, the
bolt was removed, and new one was located and installed.  The job was
completed in about 10 minutes, just as the race was ending.  Major bummer.

Everything was packed up for the night, pictures were taken, and the whole
crew headed out for dinner. Afterwards Paul and Adam headed back to the
condo to catch as much shut-eye as they could before another long day.

Friday: Paul only had one practice and no races, so this was going to be a
nice short day.  The practice went off without any problems.  One thing the
guys did note, though, was that the bike was using a LOT of gas on this
track.  Paul has a fuel stick that he uses at NHIS and at Bridgehampton. It
has 10 hash marks, each measuring a quart. During the practices and races,
they were trying to figure out just how much gas was needed for the GT and
sprint races.  It was determined that the bike needs around 11 quarts for
the GT's, and 5 quarts for the sprint races.  After the practice was over,
they filled the tank to 5 quarts for the next day's sprint race.

Then, Paul and Adam headed out to enjoy a day of vacation.  First, they hit
the beach for a few hours.  Luckily, having grown up in nearby Orlando,
Paul knew which beaches the chickies tended to visit.  And, whoa, lordy,
were there some cute chickies.  After spending a while tanning and ...
sightseeing ... at the beach, they did a quick tour of the local go-cart
tracks, discovering that "Speed World" (across from the track) had the best
stuff.  Despite the karts saying "No Bumping!" prominently, Adam and Paul
were hitting each other hard enough to spin each others' karts around.
Some of the go-kart attendants hopped in karts to join in the fun, but they
couldn't keep up with Adam and Paul, and retired disappointed.  The last
stop on the go-kart-track-tour also had a batting cage, and Paul and Adam
each hit around a hundred balls.  Much fun, and very tiring.  So ended a
fantastic day.

Saturday: The last day in Daytona. Paul goes out for his last practice and
runs his fastest times of the weekend, running some 2:14's.  The fairing
and footpegs are still holding steady.  After the practice, the bike is
given a once over to make sure it is ready for the race.  The gas is
checked, and it is decided a few more quarts should be added, just in case
of a red flag restart.  One of Paul's friends from high school shows up, as
well as one of his cousins, to cheer him on.  Tire warmers are thrown on.
Race time.  Once again, Paul is gridded on the outside, but this time he
knows where the turning for turn 1 is! Paul gets an OK start, and finds
himself mid pack entering the infield. At the end of the first lap, Paul
goes to pass a group of 4 or 5 slower bikes under braking going into turn
1. Paul takes the outside line, and gets past 3 of the bikes, but the last
two make contact with each other, and stand their bikes up slightly,
forcing Paul wide, into the grass.  He gets the bike stopped, turned
around, and re-enters, beginning the chase once again.  Paul is able to
make up time in the infield, with no problem, and making a lot of time in
the chicane, but the aging F2 is just down on power, and power is what
Daytona is all about.  On top of that, the tires on the F2 are toasted,
sliding almost every time coming out of turns 3, 5 and 6. Paul just keeps
his head down, and manages to finish solidly mid-pack.  Not bad for a
5-year-old bike, the first time on the track!  Once back in the pits, the
gas in the F2 was checked, and no fuel shows up on the stick.  In fact,
only the very tip of the fuel stick was showing gas.  The bike would have
run out of gas within the next half-lap.  Phew!

After the race, the pit was packed up, and our heroes headed back to
Orlando to spend their last night in Florida.  On the way, however, trailer
tire #2 met its maker. Apparently the little 8" tires just aren't rated for
sustained 80mph speeds.  When they pulled over, Adam and Paul found what
remained of the tire (still kinda sorta mounted on the rim) absolutely
*pouring* out tire smoke.  Even though they'd already stopped.  Whoa.
Photos were taken, the tire was changed, and the trip back to Orlando
continued.

Sunday, Paul said goodbye to his parents and he and Adam (and Cooch!) set
off on the 24-hour trip back to Boston. The trip back went off without any
problem, no flats, no tickets, and only a little traffic around NYC.

Overall, this was a fantastic trip. Now that Paul has had a chance to learn
the track, we're sure that next year, he will have no problem running in
the low 2:00's.  TDR would like to thank all of their sponsors, who
without, trips like this could not happen.  We would also like to thank Mr.
and Mrs. Luevano for all their help and hospitality over the course of the
week as well as the Carletons for use of their condo.

That wraps up TDR's 1998 season, but keep checking back for the latest news
and information over the winter months.