Race Report: June 16 - 17, 2001
78th AMA Loudon Classic
Team Daemon Racing survives racing with the big boys of the AMA in the
78th Loudon Classic at NHIS! Paul finished 21st out of 34 in the
750SS race, but a crash on the first lap of qualifying for the 600SS race
put him out of that one, which was unfortunate, since looking at the times,
Paul would have finished about 5th! Bruce was looking great all weekend,
but missed the Pro Thunder race when rain put a stop to the action on Sunday,
and the race was moved to Monday. Some of us have day jobs, you know?
Check out all the info on the AMA
site!
Well, another Loudon AMA event has come and gone with just as much
controversy as last year. For me the plus side was that I stayed
on two wheels and didn't have any mechanical problems with the bike.
On the down side I wasn't present on the starting grid for my Pro Thunder
race because the weather forced the race to Monday and I had to be back
at work. I was running well off the pace in any case and, looking
at the results, probably wouldn't have placed higher than 16th or 17th.
Thursday
The weekend started on Thursday as I arrived at the track around
2p. My 748 was waiting in our garage after being dropped off by BCM
that morning. After my crash
in SuperTwins on Sunday I left my bike at BCM for the good folks there
to work on and have it ready for this weekend. They delivered as
promised! I unloaded the rest of my stuff and eventually made my
way over to tech inspection. Inspection went smoothly and I was set
to go for the weekend! Scott's brother Steve/Todd was in town to
race on his 748R and I spent some time talking with him. Not that
I had much choice! :-) Todd knows quite a bit about the 748
and was more than happy to share his knowledge. I was more than happy
to listen.
Friday
Hot. Humid. As simple as that. Pro Thunder had
first practice at 8:30a and at 8a my thermometer in the garage was already
well into the 80's. I had new tires to scrub so I took it easy for
a couple laps and then tried to pick up the pace. After about 6 laps
my left arm was really pumped up. I pulled into the hot pit to try
to shake it out a bit and went back out. It was still pumped up and
after 2 laps I pulled in. My right hand was still bothering me slightly
and I believe I was favoring it and overcompensated with my left and hence
the arm pump.
The thing about an AMA weekend is that there's a short burst of serious riding followed by long periods of hanging out. 9a and I had about 4 hours to my next practice and then I'd be done for the day. I wandered around the pits a bit but it was so hot and humid that I really didn't feel like exerting any energy to do much of anything.
Second practice was better in that I ignored any discomfort in my right hand and didn't get my left arm pumped. I was still feeling pretty slow. Probably because I was! There were very few bikes on track for Pro Thunder practice and when I'm just riding around by myself I tend to be a lot slower than when I have someone to chase. I think I turned some 1:23s but that's a second off my pace and a full 9 seconds off what Eric was running.
At the riders' meeting they mentioned two things that caught my attention. We wouldn't race in the rain and if you were going to be lapped twice in the race they would black flag you off the track. Given the weather forecast and the difference in lap times, both were likely to happen. I wouldn't be able to stick around for racing on Monday so I was hoping the rain forecast wouldn't come true.
After practice I wandered over to see if I could find Bruce at the Bruce Transportation Group garage. I know Bruce from the local dirt track racing crowd and I'm buying one of his old ATKs from him. He was there and introduced me to his crew chief and showed me around the inside of their race transport. Ah, air conditioning! :-) Unfortunately I couldn't enjoy the A/C for long as 750SS practice was up and I was going to get some lap times for Paul.
I get out to pit road about 5 minutes into the session and catch
Paul for a couple laps. It's hard to hear announcements when on the
hot pit and when he doesn't come by for a little bit I wonder if he pulled
in. He already had 600 practice 2 sessions ago and it was still very
hot and humid. I head back to the garage and he's not there.
OK, time to go looking. I find him at the 3-10 station. He's
fine but the bike is seriously tweaked. After the session I give
him my bicycle to get back to the garage and take his bike from the corner
worker. He warns me that it doesn't have a front brake but that it
probably doesn't matter. I'll say! The front end is so bent
that it may as well have the brakes applied. Dane hurries back to
the garage on his bike and walks back out to help me push it in.
Whew! That's my workout for the day!
Saturday
Another hot day at the track. I felt pretty good during morning
practice but still slower than I wanted. Todd, unfortunately, had
a crash in T1 and ended up doing a number on his shoulder and collar bone.
He was done for the weekend.
The Pro Thunder heat races were scheduled for late morning and I was gridded in the second heat, toward the back. I saw Bart's name on the grid as well as Bill's and a few others I knew from LRRS. At least I'd some folks to race with!
Final call came around 11:30. I felt relaxed on the grid because I knew I wasn't going to win this and felt pretty good about not coming in last. :) My start was so-so and I was about 11th into T1. The field spread out fairly quickly and I really didn't have much "racing" going on. On the 4th lap Bart came around me in T11 and I managed to keep him in sight until the checkered flag on the 5th lap. I finished 12th.
I was done for the day and it wasn't even noon yet! I decided to put fresh tires on for the race tomorrow and started the task of pulling my wheels. I didn't get far before it was time for Paul to go out for 600SS qualifying.
Dane and I headed out to pit road with the board and stopwatch. Paul came by once and then... no Paul. Once again it was hard to hear any announcements while on pit road and after another minute we started back to the garage. I saw Kevin K. on the way back and he told me that Paul was down in T2. It was actually T1 but that got us headed in the right direction. If Dane and I had bothered to turn and watch Paul after he went by we probably would have seen him go down in T1.
While we waited by the T1a gate Rob D. told us that the bike took a pretty good tumble. I thought for sure that Paul was done for the weekend. And that he was going to owe Peter for trashing his front-end! Well, the bike was pretty bent but Paul was able to ride it back to the garage once the session was over.
The flurry of activity that followed was unreal. With only one hour before 750 qualifying there was no time to waste. There were so many people working on the bike that I hung back and finished pulling the wheels off my 748 and lent a hand as needed on Paul's bike.
By this time Scott had returned from the hospital with Todd who had his arm in a sling. All things considered he was doing well but definitely in a bit of pain and discomfort. I was glad to have him and his tools around as I pulled my wheels as this was the first time for me. Although I had the big socket for the rear, my little 1/2" handle was not going to cut it. With Todd's 3/4" handle and breaker bar, Kevin was able to break the nut loose as I made sure the socket didn't slip off the thin nut. (The 748 Eric rode to the Pro Thunder win had a heftier nut on it so I'll have to talk to BCM about getting one of those.)
Well the awesome TDR crew had Paul's bike ready to go by the time his qualifying session was up so Dane and I headed for pit road again. Paul kept it on two wheels, clicked off a 17, and called it a session.
All that remained for the day (as far as we were concerned) was the 750 final around 4:30 or so. Patrick had an open spot on the Factory dyno so we took the opportunity to run the MuZ. Running a better grade of PowerMist (I still had "practice" gas in the tank for last year's run) and a change in displacement from 686cc to 720cc resulted in a 5hp gain up top (to 58) and a nice even gain over the entire range. Other than running a tad on the rich side it was pretty close to perfect as far as I was concerned.
Finished out the day by putting my wheels with fresh rubber back
on the bike and running the pit board for Paul's 750 race (see his report).
Sunday
Pro Thunder practice was moved to the last practice session of
the morning and as the morning wore on it looked more and more likely that
it was going to rain. I had new tires to scrub in so all I wanted
was a few dry laps. I got them in and the rain wasn't far behind.
The rest of the day was spent waiting for the rain to go away and the track to dry. It happened long enough for Scott G. to run away with the 600SS win and then the remaining races were postponed to Monday.
Well, I couldn't stick around for Monday and so my AMA weekend came
to a very uneventful end. It's doubtful that there'll even be a Pro
Thunder class next year and even if there is, I'm not sure I'll bother
to take part. The AMA at Loudon just doesn't have a very good track
record.
I'm going to warn you now, this is going to be a long report, I was at the track for 6 days, so a lot happened. Grab your favorite beverage, get comfortable, sit back, and enjoy!
Where to start? Maybe at the beginning!
Tuesday
I arrived at the track at around 7:20am with the XX in tow.
I had left the F4 and all my stuff at the track after the last race
weekend. I said hi to Kit who was staying the whole week at the track,
unloaded, and then made my way over to the Penguin
garage to see what I could do to help out. I was there to help instruct
their two day track day/pro school. I did my best to help get people
registered, teched, etc., and then joined in on the track walk with Eric,
since I can never hear his advice too many times.
In the afternoon, we hit the track. I spent most of my time on the XX, just having a blast throwing that big old bike around the tight, technical course of Loudon. Much fun! At one point, I needed gas, so, being on my street bike, I just rode to the gas station. Halfway there I realized my headlight, tail light, and turn signals were taped up! Ooops! Also, it it not a good idea to ride straight from a race track onto public roads. Before I knew it, I was in the triple digits!
Wednesday
Wednesday was much like the day before, except this time I spent
most of my time on the F4, to get ready for the races coming up over the
weekend. Also, like Wednesday, it was hot, really hot. In the
wee hours of the morning Mr. Burns had shown up. He spent the day
setting up the Factory Dyno and doing his best to work on his sunburn.
During the afternoon, Scott and his brother Steve, I mean Todd, no Steve.
Whatever the hell his name is showed up and unloaded. :) Steve was running
his 748R in Pro Thunder over the weekend, direct competition with Bruce.
That night we all went out to dinner and ended up sitting across for Jamie Hacking in the steakhouse! Then came back did last minute setup stuff, and crawled into bed.
Thursday
Did I mention that it was hot? Another really hot day.
I think at one point we saw 99ºF at the weather station at the Factory
dyno! Thursday was just promoters practice. I signed
up to just run the morning half, since it was so hot, and my tires were
starting to get a bit ragged. Steve also signed up for the just the
morning session, which got me in a little bit of trouble, since we really
weren't supposed to do that. :)
While wheeling the F4 over to the dyno to do a test fit, Patrick noticed that the front end wasn't "quite right". Somehow I had failed to notice that the front end had been tweaked in the crash on last Friday. :) I took the bike over to Peter Kates, to let him work his magic on it.
After practice, Patrick ran the XX on the dyno, just to see how everything was. The bike ran fine, but was running a bit rich. He took great pride in pointing out that Fizzer made more power. He wanted me to pull the carbs so we could make a jetting change, so back to the garage I went. Patrick caught up to me a bit later with a worried look on his face. He had thought that the XX was a bit down on power, so he brought up some other XX's dyno charts to compare it to. Sure enough I was down about 20 hp!! He asked if the cams had ever been out? I though back and said yes, about 16k miles and 2.5 years ago, for the first valve adjustment, why? He said pull them.
So, I got to the job, with Scott's help, of pulling all the plastics off, the tank, the carbs, and got down to the valve cover. We pulled it and checked the cam timing. Sure enough, the intake cam was on tooth retarded! I'd been riding for 2.5 years with the intake cam off a tooth! We fixed the problem, put everything back together, and ran it back over to the dyno. Presto! Another 20hp at 7k!! Whoa.
Bruce showed up mid afternoon and unloaded, but didn't practice. Reto also showed up on the RSV Mille, and was over at the factory Dyno all afternoon while Marc burned a new chip for him.
At about 4pm, we all went out to sign in with the AMA. Reto had convinced me to ride the 750SS race, so I signed up for that as well. Damn you Reto.
We all went out for dinner again, and when we got back, I picked up the F4 from Peter and put it back together. It had had a twisted triple clamp, which he had been able to fix.
Friday
OK, now the fun really started! I went out for 600SS practice!
Quite something racing around with the likes of Bostrom, Duhamel, Yates!
I felt good, didn't push it, and just enjoyed myself! I then had
a short break, then I got to go out for the 750SS practice. Coming
into T12, Jimmy Moore passed me on the inside, then held a really tight
line coming out onto the front straight, leaving me no where to go, so
I tagged his rear tire with my front. He gave me a dirty look, don't
know why, it was his fault.
In the afternoon, it was the same practice schedule as the morning. First 600SS, then 750SS. My tires were pretty trashed from the weekend before, the two days of Penguin, and Thursday practice. Also, for some reason, I was having a hell of a time keeping the rear end planted through turn 3, it was hopping everywhere. On the lap that I decided to come in on, I went through T3, started up the hill, and promptly found myself on my ass. I had lost the rear end. Pickup up the bike and surveyed the damage. Front end was fucked. Big time. Pardon my french. Back to the pits, and then back over to Peter.
Peter looked at the bike and just shook his head. He measured it, and determined the frame and the swingarm were bent, but not too badly, the bike was rideable. The front end was toast. Not only that, but the front rim was badly bent, as were the rotors. In the end, Peter just put his spare front end on it and sent me on my way. I can't thank Peter enough for all his help this weekend. He also gave me a 950# spring for the rear shock, to swap with the 800# one that was in there. This is probably why I was having so much trouble keeping the rear end planted in turn 3. With the help of everyone in the garage, I got the spring swapped out, and the bike back together, using my spare front wheel, which was also bent, just not as bad.
Saturday
Oh, how I wish I had this day to do over again. It started
out just fine. We had one round of practice, so I went out for both
the 600SS and then the 750SS practices. Everything felt good.
The rear end felt much better going through turn 3. After practice came
qualifying. First, 600SS! We put new tires on the bike, opting
for soft front and rear. I wen tout for the first lap taking things
easy, getting heat into the tires, and scrubbing them in. Going into
turn 1 for the first time, I hit my usual 2 downshifts, leaned the bike
in and, poink. The bike jumps out of gear. Shit. I look
over my right shoulder to see if I can shoot the bowl. Nope, bike
right there. I keep the bike leaned over, and just hope I can keep
her up. Next thing I know, I'm on the ground and tumbling.
I come to a stop, get up, and help the cornerworkers get my bike and all
it's bits, and spend the rest of the qualifying session watching from the
oval. I'm not sure if the bike passing me clipped my front wheel,
or if the fact the bike was free wheeling caused the crash. Whichever
it was, it sucked.
After the qualifying session was done, I rode the broken bike back to the garage. Dane and Bruce were waiting for me at the turn 1A gate, but I was able to just ride all the way back to the pits. When I got there, TDR went to work. It was a sight to see. Everyone jumped in and took to getting the bike back in shape for me to go back out for the 750SS qualifying session, but an hour away. Kit ran to get parts from Street and Comp, Dane, Reto, and Kevin went to work on straightening the rear sub frame and re-inforcing it. Patrick went to work making sure the front end was all set. I'm sure other were in there helping as well, and I apologize if I didn't mention your name and you helped out, I'm just super thankful to EVERYONE who helped out!
In about 50 minutes, the bike was ready to go, just in time for 3rd call on the 750SS qualifying. I went out, and was determined to make up for the earlier crash. I went out and did maybe 10 laps, then came into check my times. Dane and Bruce were there timing me and told me I had a best time of a 17.9. Cool. I went out for one more lap, but decided that it was getting near the end of the session, so I pulled in, to leave the last 5 minutes or so for the really fast national riders to have a clear track.
Back in the garage, I opted to put a new front tire on for the race. So we pulled it off and ran it over to Street and Comp. Then, I just tried to relax before the 750SS race, the last race of the day.
750SS
Race
I was gridded on the 7th row, on the outside. Good.
I like starting on the outside. We went out for our warm-up lap and
then came to the grid. I was determined to get a good start.
I made sure I had a clear line of sight to the lights and waited.
The "2" went up, bring the RPM's to about 10K, the "1", let clutch out
to just where it starts to engage, "green"! Feed the clutch out and
go! I got an "ok" start, but turn 1 was a mess. I got caught
in traffic, and lost my drive. I tried to make up some ground in
1a and 2, but was still held up by the traffic. Going into turn 3
I was determind to make up some positions. I took an inside line,
but got caught behind a really slow bike, and had no choice but to sit
there while I was being passed on the left and the right. I
think I cam out of turn 3 dead last. Sheesh.
Up the hill the first time and I started picking off the slower riders. I'm much faster than a lot of them through the back stretch of turns 6-10, but a lot of the bikes have motor on me on the front straight. I get into a little battle with about 5 or 6 bikes, and start making my way through them, past #249, #146, #72, and I'm rapidly closing in on the next bike, #696, Scott Desmond! Every lap I get a second or two closer, and I see the gap behind me growing. I'm on a mission! Then going into turn 1, I miss my shift. This time I managed to keep the bike upright and head around the bowl. For whatever reason, even though there was a HUGE gap for me to safely re-enter, without gaining any kind of advantage, the corner worker <cough>Bigalow<cough> held me there for 12 seconds!!!! And then sent me out in traffic! Letting at least 6 bikes by. Shit!
So now I had to go about re-passing everyone I had just passed. By this time the heat was starting to get to me. I was able to get by several of the bike I had passed earlier, but I was starting to fade. On the front straight, I looked at my pit board to see how many laps were left. I couldn't make it out. Once more lap I told myself, althought I was seriously thinking about pulling in. The leaders started coming by. I did everything I could to hold my line and not get in the way. Back by my pit board, this time I could read it, 6 laps to go. I can do that. I did my best to relax, and just ride smooth. At this point, it was just me and #72 fighting back and forth. I'm a faster rider, but I had a hard time getting around him. Since I knew we only had a few laps left, I just sat on his tail, and waited for an opportunity. On the last lap, heading into turn 11, I easily got by him on the outside, and made a run for the checker. I finished 21st out of a field of 34. Not bad, but not great. I knew that if I had got a good start, and hadn't blown turn 1, I could have finished about 17th. Next year!!
After the races, we all packed up, cleaned up, and went out for dinner. Later that night, Peter Kates came over to the garage with his son Alex to shoot the shit. People were joking that I was going to put Alex through Harvard, at the rate I was going! Peter had Alex thank me, which he did. :)
Sunday
Since my racing for the weekend was done, I took the opportunity
to relax, and enjoy the races. I started breaking down some of my
gear, then helped Bruce get ready for his practices, then worked on the
XX for a while. Patrick took the F4 over to the dyno, to see what the cam
timing we had done over the winter had done. From the very start,
the skies looked a bit ominous. Sure enough, just as practices were
ending, the skies opened up, big time. Everyone ran for cover, we
even had to close the garage door to stop the rain from blowing in!
I took the opportunity to swap out the tires on the XX, while Patrick worked
on the F4's carbs. After running it on the dyno, Patrick determined
there were some jetting changes that need to be made.
We took a break for lunch, and then it was announced that they were going to send the sidecars out for a race, so we made out way out to the track to check that out. The rain finally let up, and NHIS send out it's trucks and jet dryers to get the track dry and ready for racing. I put the F4 back together and ran it back over to the dyno to see how the jetting changes Patrick had made did. I ran into Paul Gilbert and Adam Vella there as well, who wanted to get their bikes up on the dyno to see how they were doing.
The front straight was finally dry enough for the track to send out the Las Vegas Extreme guys. It was amusing for about 5 minutes. Then the first call for the 600SS race came. Finally. The track had been dry for about an hour. I decided that since I couldn't race, I was going to watch from a good spot! I made my way up to turn 4, and waited for the race to start. And waited. And waited. They finally sent the bikes out, but there were only 12 bikes in the parade lap. Non of the factory riders went out. Then the warm-up lap. Still no factory riders. Then they did another warm-up lap, this time Tom Kipp was out there, but he pitted.
Finally, the race started with no Factory riders, just the locals. Scott Greenwood ran away with the race, which went 18 laps until it was red flagged because it did start to rain again. Congrats Scott!
With the racing done for the day, I packed up, and was on the road by about 7:30pm. Overall, I had a great time during my 6 days up at the track. Could it have been better? Hell yeah! I could have not crashed. Twice. If I had run the 600SS race, based on where the other riders finished, I would have finished in something like 5th or 6th place! But, you got to play by the rules. I crashed in qualifying, nothing more to it. I'm glad I did run the 750SS race, so I did get to rae over the weekend. It was fun, and I know I'll do better next year. Yep, I'll definitely be there next year.
I would like to thanks EVERYONE who helped me out this weekend, getting my bike back together after my get offs, and those who showed up just to offer moral support and cheer me on. Kit, Dane, Bruce, Reto, Rob, Chris, Bob, Karen, Angela, and anyone else I missed. Big, big, thanks to Peter Kates, for putting my poor bike back together more times than I car to admit. Peter is a machine! And super big thanks to Patrick for all his tireless work on the F4 and for finding me 20hp on the XX!