Race Report for Week 1: April 27-28, 2001
The first race weekend of the 2001 season! Fantastic weather and a great
time had by all. Bruce kicked butt and showed off his new Ducati
748. There is no doubt he is going to be one to watch this year.
Paul took it easy and only ran one race, but did well. Scott took
the opportunity to work on the racebike this weekend, away from the distractions
of home, while Kevin, Rob, and Dane sat this weekend out (not by choice
for Dane, who re-injured his shoulder).
Find all of the weekends race results at the LRRS website here.
Woo hoo, let the games begin! An excellent season opener with
a second and fourth on the MuZ and I didn't crash or completely embarrass
myself on the Ducati. Thanks to all who came to watch and help out,
especially
our official team photographer John Falvey! He can make any
of us look good out there.
Isn't it funny how the season sneaks up on you? :-)
I was up late the entire week getting the MuZ and myself ready for the
weekend. On Wednesday night, with a few things left to do, I decided
to devote
Thursday practice to learning the Ducati and use Friday's open
practice to break in the MuZ's new 720 motor that Galen (BikeWorx) built
and see what effect Peter Kates' (GMD
Computrack) changes had on the handling.
On Thursday morning I went up to BCM Motorsports in Laconia to pick
up my new (to me) '99 Ducati 748. Bruce and the gang had the bike
ready to go and had even washed it! In my mind Ducatis are always
red. That's
just the way it is. But I have to say that Ducati yellow
isn't too shabby either! After going over a few things with me, we
loaded the bike and I headed down to the track.
As I pulled up to the gate I saw Tim signing in with his EX in tow.
We unloaded bikes and set up in the garage. Rob soon showed up to
play with his RD. I headed over to Street
'n Comp to pick up some numbers for
the Ducati and then went looking for Jack to find some PowerMist.
Jack hadn't showed up yet but it looked like I had enough gas in the tank
for at least one session and could always run pump gas as the motor is
still stock.
At this point my seat time on a 748 was about 200 gentle break-in
miles on the street. With new Michelin Pilots mounted I tip-toed
around the track for the first session, just scuffing in the tires a bit.
Even so,
no doubt because of my ham-fisted riding, the back end was slithering
around going in to T3 and T6 and I wasn't even using the rear brake!
I came in from the session and dropped the tire pressures a bit and
wondered what I had gotten myself into.
As I became more comfortable on the bike and my speed increased the bike started feeling much better. By the end of the day, though I was still well off the pace, I felt pretty good. I packed up and headed home and then over to BikeWorx to pick up the Skorpion.
With some work stuff to take care in the morning, by the time I loaded everything and got to the track, open practice was just getting started. I missed the first session getting signed up and tech'ed but was ready to go for the next one. With new tires to scuff and an engine to break in I took it easy. Because of the large number of riders they were rotating through about 6 practice groups. By the time my next one came up it was going to be the last session. I pit out and as I accelerate out of T2 the bike dies, restarts, dies, restarts and finally quits for good. I put up my hand and coast to the T3 opening. Nothing doing. When the session ends I push out the T10 gate and back to the garage. I was not a happy camper.
A big thanks to Paul and Scott for their persistence in tracing the problem to a short in the kill switch. After the late nights leading up to the weekend I was out of energy and ready to park the bike and just run the Ducati. Luckily I had a spare switch pod and Paul had a spare fuse (we used up my spare finding the problem) and I was back in business.
Saturday morning and I'm about to find out what it's like to go back and forth between two different bikes. I'm fairly sure that having to learn the Ducati this weekend affected my performance on the MuZ. I also think that it soon won't be a problem.
Practices were pretty uneventful. I felt comfortable on the
MuZ and was getting there on the Ducati. My best time on the 748
was a 1:30 which is pretty pathetic but given that it was so new to me
I wasn't worried. The Skorpion felt good and Peter's geometry changes
made a noticeable difference. I'm not sure how much that perception
was skewed by also riding the Ducati but it certainly felt like it was
turning quicker and could hold a tighter line. I was still riding
it like the old chassis the whole weekend and really need to change that
next time. I don't know what kind of lap times I was pulling in practice
as I forgot to swap my transponder back and forth.
Race
9: LW Sportsman (MuZ) - 4/12 entries (9 pts, trophy)
I get a decent start and soon find myself in third. Jack
is in the lead followed by a YZ426. I'm keeping the YZ in sight and
possibly gaining on him. We soon run into backmarkers from the first
wave, LW Supersport, and the YZ makes it past a lot better than I do.
I'm held up for a lap or so and by then the YZ is too far ahead.
I don't know how close he was early on but this also allowed Bart C. to
get in position to pass me going into T11 on about the 4th lap. I'm
able to motor past before T1 and hold him off until T11 again. Lather,
rinse, repeat. On the last lap he outbrakes me into T6 and manages
to hold me off by a few feet at the line. We shake hands on the cool
down lap and briefly introduce ourselves after pit-in. Good race!
I make a note to work on my T11 technique.
Race
13: MW Supersport (Ducati) - 19/26 entries (0 pts)
With a best lap of 1:30 so far this weekend and guys like Scott
Greenwood turning 1:14s, I fully expect to get lapped before this race
is over. Pauls tells me he intends to lap me. Twice.
I hope he's kidding about the twice part. :) I'm gridded on
the last row, just to the left of Paul. Being my first race on the
Ducati, my start leaves a little to be desired and just as I think I might
catch Paul he squirts ahead and I'm dead last going through T1. I
manage to keep him in sight for a couple laps but he steadily pulls away
and soon disappears into the distance. About half way and the first
of the Juniors start coming by. I'm pleasantly surprised that it
took so long and by the end of the race only five had gotten past.
As I come onto the front straight for my last lap I see the starter getting
ready to throw the checkered. Scott G. was right behind me and, talking
with him later, could have passed me before the start/finish line but had
such a gap back to second that he let me start my last lap. Thanks
Scott! Checking my times later I see that I dropped a full 5 seconds
from practice and was turning 1:25s and 1:26s. Still well off the
pace but for the first time out I'll take it!
I'm exhausted but can't wipe the grin off my face. Man, I
love racing! After dinner I change the oil in the MuZ and then pitch
my tent and fall asleep almost instantly.
Sunday morning practice goes well. I'm running the MuZ in
red practice and the Ducati in yellow, red being the slower one.
I thought about swapping the two but decided this was best. I'm getting
a lot of practice passing during the red session which is a good thing.
Every lap on the Ducati brings me more confidence and comfort with the
bike. It really likes to be ridden hard. I have to keep reminding
myself to ride the MuZ harder but keep falling back to my old, comfortable
ways. Definitely have to work on that next time. The Ducati won't
be as new to me and won't demand so much of my attention to ride.
Race
4a: SuperTwins (Ducati) - 12/16 entries (0 pts)
I'm gridded toward the back but get a decent start. Tom E.
comes under me in T2 and I'm determined to stay with him as long as possible.
Tommy was a huge help this weekend as I struggled to learn the 748.
He's been racing one for a couple years and is about my size. I often
felt like my outer foot was barely maintaining contact with the footpeg,
especially through T6, and asked him about it. Oh yeah, he said,
sometimes it's off the peg and I just tuck it under the exhaust.
I'm sure my eyes bugged out when he said that. :) I haven't
tried that technique yet.
I'm able to keep him in sight for about the first two laps.
Corien comes by at the start of the third lap and I watch them steadily
pull away. Coming out of T2 on lap 4 I about run into the back of
another rider. This completely kills my drive and I'm a gear lower
than I usually am heading into T3. Unfortunately I grab my usual
two downshifts and the back end locks up and is hopping all over the place
while the engine bangs into the rev limiter repeatedly. This is known as
an "Oh Sh@t" moment. :) I gather it up but now Tommy and Corien are
really gone. I neither gain nor lose position and by the end of the
race no Juniors have come by and I don't get lapped by the leaders.
I manage to turn a 1:24.6 during the race. I'm a happy camper.
Race
9: SuperSingles (MuZ) - 2/7 entries (13 pts, trophy)
This should be interesting. Jeff Wood is on his YZ426 and
is supposedly into the teens for lap times. Jack is riding his bike
well. I figure I *should* be able to stay ahead of the rest of the
field. An OK start and I'm roughly mid pack. Jeff and Jack
pull away and I'm able to motor into third down the front straight.
On about the 3rd or 4th lap I see Jeff off in the bowl trying to kick start
his YZ after a minor get off. I tell myself to just ride consistently and
don't make any mistakes. I soon catch up to backmarkers from the
MW Sportsman wave. This slows me up and the next thing I know Brian
outbrakes me into the bowl (another thing to work on). I stay on
his tail and think about passing in a few spots but don't. This was
probably a mistake as, looking at my lap times later, I went from turning
24s to 26s. I shadow him, figuring I can beat him to the line on
the last lap. Unfortunately Doug is right with us and on the last
lap takes me in T11. No problem. I pull the trigger coming
out of T12 and get by them both before the finish line. That made all the
effort of the past week worth it. :)
A great weekend but I know it will only get harder from here. Next race weekend I'll have to step it up a notch. I can't wait!
This was a good weekend.
Like usual, I didn't do anything to get the racebike ready for the season until the last minute. Well, that's not entirely true a few weeks back I did check the valves and degree the cams (Thanks Patrick!), but that was about it for off season prep work. So, with a week to go before the first races, I decided it was time to make sure the bike was good to go. I goto check on the state of the battery. Dead. Damn. Oh well, that's what I get for leaving it in the bike all winter and not so much as hooking it up to a trickle charger.
So, I throw it on the charger and head off to do other things. Next day, still no charge. Hmmm. Well, the charger was completely submerged in the flood of 2001, maybe it kicked it then, even though I made sure it was dried out completely before using it? Anyway, I borrow a friends charger and tried again. Hmmm. Still no charge. I remove the "Do Not Remove" cover on the sealed, maintenance free battery. Bone dry. Double damn. How did that happen? I fill it up with distilled water, and put it back on the charger, to see if I can resurrect it.
Next day I check on the state of the charge. Showing 12V, but when I put it in the bike, nothing. The voltage drops to zero. It's dead. I call NRHK, they have a batter in stock, cool.
So it is now Thursday morning. The original plan was to head up to the track for open practice, to get rid of all the winter cobwebs. Guess that's not going to happen! I head out and pick up the new battery, active it, and throw it on the charger. Once up to charge, I installed it into the bike, it was now time to make sure the bike was good to go. I check the oil and water levels, give the bike a good once over and fire her up. It takes a few tries to get the fuel into the float bowls, but she fires right up on the 2nd or 3rd try!
I let the bike warm up, and then hook up the cab sticks to sync the carbs. Set the idle, and, like whoa. Looky there, almost perfect! Gotta love Hondas! Once the carbs were all set I rolled the bike out into the driveway and washed her down really well without any of the bodywork on, to get rid of all the grim on the engine and swingarm. I clean, adjust and lube the chain, Throw on all the body work, and then take her for a quick test ride up and down my street to make sure everything is good. I'm not able to get going very fast, but I am able to put full load on the engine and feel her out. Everything seems great!
I spend the rest of the afternoon bringing the streetbike back to life and getting her all set for a track day I was scheduled to instruct at on the following Monday (turns out it got canceled at the last minute because NASCAR decided they wanted to work on the oval. Sheesh). Then I clean up, take inventory of everything I'll need for the weekend, and pack up for the night.
Friday
I get a good nights sleep and pack up for the track. I wanted
to get there early to set up and then instruct with the Penguin school,
but it took me much longer to get ready than I thought, so I didn't get
to the track until about 12:30pm. I unpack, get all set up, make
sure I good to go, and then go work a corner for a while.
First practice
I suit up and head out. Bike feels great. Lots of power.
Front wheel wants to come up just by rolling on the throttle in first (THANKS
PATRICK!). I take it easy and just get the feel of the bike and
the track again. It's been a long winter. On the last lap of the
first practice I see the checker, and the black flag! WTF?
Me? But I ride a Honda! I put my hand up, pull off line, and
putt around to turn 3. I ask whatup? I'm smoking. I look
down. You're right. Out the 10 gate and into the garage.
I rip off the lowers. The smoke is from oil on the headers. The lower had done it's job and kept the oil contained, nothing got on the track. I radio to race control to let them know they have a dry track. I trace it up. Looks like it is coming from the oil pan seam. No, there is more oil a bit higher up. Maybe the water pump seal? Maybe I didn't tighten the drain plug? I check the oil level and see I'm a bit high. Maybe I over filled it, and now it puking it out? I drain about a 1/4 of a quart of oil out to bring the oil level to where it should be, install a new crush washer, and tighten the drain plug.
About this time Bruce shows up and starts unpacking. He is in kinda of a rush, since he got there late, and wanted to get out for practice on the MuZ, since he had spent all day Thursday on his new 748.
I look and look, have others take a look to see if they can see where the oil os coming from, and basically just scratch my head. I decide the prudent thing to do is to remove everything, so I can get a good look. I pull the upper and the tank off. Hmmm, there is some oil on top of the engine too, but it is dry around the valve cover. Poke, poke, poke. Whoa! The cam chain tensioner is about 1/2" out from the head!! Oil has just been gushing out of there and making it's way down from the right top of the engine, to the lower left!
Now, quick flashback. Patrick helped me degree the cams on the F4 a few weeks back. The next day I get a message from him telling me he doesn't think he tightened the cam chain tensioner bolt. Now, I though he meant the one in the middle, the one you take off to release tension off the cam chain when removing the cams, not realizing he had removed the whole tensioner assembly. I checked the bolt I thought he was referring to, was nice and tight, and went on my way. Apparently, he meant the two mounting bolts. He had removed the whole thing, as can be seen in the top right of this picture. I didn't check those two! Ooops. That's what happens when you have two people working on the same bike, never sure who did what! My fault, totally, I should have double checked all the bolts, especially after Patrick's warning.
Luckily, the tensioner never came all the way off, it was still held in place, but there was a gap of about 1/2" between the tensioner and the head, allowing oil to pour out. The tensioner was out to it's fully extended state, still applying tension to the chain thank god! No chain slippage and no piston meeting valves! Things could have gotten ugly!
I buttoned it up, cleaned all the oil, and made it out for the last practice. No more oil, and the bike ran like a top!
During the afternoon, Scott had arrived and unloaded, planning on spending the weekend working on his bike, helping around the pits, and maybe working a corner or two.
During the last practice, the MuZ quite on Bruce. This made for a very unhappy Bruce. We immediately dove in to try and figure out why the bike sputtered, then quite, and now would not start at all, not even a click or anything from the starter. I would like it stated for the record, my first suggestion was to check the fuses, by that suggestion was ignored, since the bike was missing first before it finally quit.
Anyway, we get out the muti-meter, and start tracing wires. Trace this one, looks good. Trace this one, looks good. Rinse, repeat. After about 30 minutes of poking around, tracing wires, unplugging connectors, checking continuity, someone decided to check the fuses. Well, what do you know? One of them was blown. We replace the fuse, and try to start the bike. Turn on the main ignition switch, then the flip the stock engine cut-off switch, and we hear a "pop". Pull the fuse we just replaced. Yup, blown again. Bruce just happened to have another switch gear pod, so we once again replaced the fuse, and plugged in the new switch gear. Flip all the switched. No "pop". Hit the start button. Wa--wa--wa--chugga-chugga-chugga. Bike starts! Looks like a short in the stock kill switch. We buttoned everything up, and called it a night.
Saturday
Sleep in a little, and wake up to a bright, sunny, if not chilly,
morning. I hit the showers, then go over the bike, to make sure everything
is all set, and wait for my first practice. It's cold out, so I head
out wearing a jacket over my leathers and my "winter" gloves. Practice
goes well, and I'm feeling good. I take it easy, reminding myself
that it's cold out, the track is cold, the tires are cold, and my brain
is cold.
Second practice goes much the same as the first. When I check my times, I'm running pretty much all 1:24's. Way off my pace, but on par for the first practice of the year.
Kit and Dane "highside" Walther show up. Neither were racing, but just came by to hang out and help out.
After practice, I rip the wheels off the F4 and run them over to Street and Comp to get some new DOT's mounted. I have decided to run MWSS this year, so made the switch from Michelin slicks, to Metzler DOT's. While the wheel were off, I made the some geometry changes to the bike, to match the new profiles of the tires. Once I got the wheels back, I made sure the bike was good to go, then headed out to a corner to work for a while.
MWSS
- Race #13 (6B)- 16/26 entries (0 pts)
The last race of the day saturday, and my only race of the weekend.
Gridded on the second to last row, with only my team mate Bruce behind
me in the last row on his 748. We joked beforehand how many times
I would lap him during the race. It turned out that boy is fast,
and didn't even get lapped by the winner!
The flag drops and we head into turn 1. I managed to get past several bikes through turns 1-1a-2 and soon find myself a few bikes behind Pete Douvris, a guy who is usually just a little faster than me. I'm in a group of 4 bikes as the field starts to spread out. I was being held up a bit in the turns, but was not getting a good enough drive to make a nice clean pass. Pete started to pull away, as I got held up a bit in traffic. I managed to make a few passes on the brakes going into turn 3, and made another nice pass going into turn 6. On lap 6, I started getting into traffic. Comming out of turn 2, I got stuck behind a slow rider, and that let #85 get by me. Damn. He got enough of a lead on me that I was not able to close up on him by the end of the race.
When all was said and done, I finished 16th out of 26. Not bad, but definitly not great. But the most important thing is that I had a blast!
We packed up got some food, then I crawled into my tent and promptly fell asleep.
Sunday
No races for me, so I slept in, went out for my two practices to
just get in the tract time, then started packing up. I spent the
afternoon working a corner, and helping Bruce out for his races.
Overall, a fantastic weekend. I had a great time, really enjoyed seeing a lot of the faces I hadn't seen over the winter, and genuinely enjoyed being around the LRRS family again. I can't wait for the next race weekend to get here!
Did not race this weekend
Scott did not race this weekend, but instead played pit tootsie! :)
Did not race this weekend.
Did not race this weekend. (Re-injured shoulder, flipping a mattress
no less!)
