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Race Report: August 31-September 1, 2002

Find all of the weekends race results at the LRRS web site here.

Friday - 08/30/2002
Got to work early so I could hit the road at a decent time. Got to the track ~1:30, unloaded, then prepped the bike for the weekend. Upon registration, I got a surprise - I was bumped up to blue practice!! Cool.

Saturday - 08/31/2002
I just put in a new set of brake pads. In order to bed them in, I decided to go out in Yellow practice. Two easy laps and one lap of regular braking and I was back in the pits to let the brakes cool off. Second practice I run 1:29s. My last lap of practice, I get a clear track and run a 1:26.8. I feel good, and the bike is running great. I am REALLY looking forward to GP singles.

Race #1: GP-Singles - 3/9 entries (11 points)
Due to the endurance race on Sunday, the GP singles race had been bumped up to race 1. I was feeling REALLY good from morning practice and wanted to do well in this race. I got a good start this time (finally!) and was in the mix with everyone else in turn 1. I got a few positions in turns 2 and 3, then put my head down to make time. I ran in second place for ~2/3 of the race and was right behind Paul Conley when I got passed trying to set up a pass on Paul. ARGH!!! Paul and James Lovejoy got some time on me while I was re-grouping. I put my head down again. We all caught up to Joe Melchionda and I run a 1:24.080 trying to get close enough to pass him. One more lap and I would have had him!! I got third place and enough points to move to Junior next weekend. What a great race. Next time I will not lose my position!

I met my personal goals for the weekend in this race - I ran a 1:24 and I gained enough points to move to Junior.

Sunday - 09/01/2002
This is the day of the three hour endurance race. I am running with Joe Melchionda (on Joe's RS125), Craig Derosa, and Steve Scott - Team Chefboyardee!! I take out Joe's bike in morning practice to get a feel for it. His bike revs a little faster than mine, and the battle shifter makes shifting FAST. Not too dissmilar from my bike.

I take Joe's bike out again for ~6 or 7 laps during the endurance practice. I am getting more comfortable and am looking forward to the race.

Endurance Race: GTL
Three hours of unadultered fun.

We decide to match our riding stints to our lap times. This means that Steve goes first, then Craig, then myself, then Joe. Steve gets a good start to the race and begins to cut some fast laps (a 1:18 this session!!!) to get us up in the positions. After ~20 minutes we signal Steve with the 2 lap board and pull him in. The inside of the cockpit is full of pre-mix!!! The gas cap apparently was a little loose and sprayed Steve with fuel. We wipe it down and Craig hops on the bike and tears off. We are running close with Team Incomplete right now and I think we decide to pit ourselves against them ;-). Craig is out for ~20 minutes then comes in for my first turn at the helm. This is also our first gas fill - we are just swapping tanks, using Crag's as our spare. The process goes smoothly and I am out on the track quickly. With warm tires I just go out full steam and push for the full 20 minutes I am out there. I am getting more and more used to Joe's bike and I think I was running 1:24s and 1:25s in this session. But Team Incomplete passed me - no!!! I come in after my turn, and Joe goes out for his first turn at the wheel. To make some more time, Crew Chief Tim Courts (thank you!!!) makes the suggestion that Steve stay out for 30-35 minutes in the next session. Steve is up for it and goes out when Joe comes in. Steve is running strong against Team Incomplete and runs a 1:17.8 chasing them down - and passing them!!! We are all having a blast!!! Steve comes in and Craig goes out for his second run. He goes around for a few laps and then we don't see him! Much scrambling ensues until we find out he threw the chain and is in the crash truck en route to us. I suit up as the next rider and there is a flurry of activity as the chain is repaired. I tear out of the pits, but we lost many laps during the down time. I take the first lap a little easy due to dirt on the tires but then get into a groove. I was running 1:24's and 1:25's, dicing with an SV650. When the SV blew turn 1, I got a clear track for a lap and ran a personal best of 1:23.550!! I saw my board to pit in and came in to give the bike to Joe for his final turn and to take the checker.

This was one of the funnest times I have ever had racing. I am looking forward to doing it next year!!! A big thanks to all my team mates for riding a great race. A huge thanks to Joe for letting us all ride his bike. A big thanks to Tim Courts who was our crew chief after having separated his shoulder (third degree separation - an injury I know all about...) on Saturday in the GP singles race.

I cannot wait to do this again next year (hmmm...I wonder if there is an endurance race at Willow I can run over the winter...).

Next weekend's goals: Ride a good first race as a junior. Run a 1:22.

Short Version:

Another successful weekend, and my first podium finish since advancing to Junior Expert, with a third place in Lightweight Sportsman, despite a badly over heating bike that caused my lap times to increase nearly 10 seconds a lap for the final two laps.

With no time to investigate the over heating, I put more water in the radiator and went back out 1 race later and almost did it again, just missing the podium this time, bagging a 4th in Production Twins.

What a great weekend. I hooked up with Galen Miller again to run the 3 hour endurance race. After our success at the National, we figured we could not, not run this race! We figured the "more the merrier", so we invited Peter Kates to join us as well. I had hooked up with Peter for this race last year on Peter's F4 along with Shandra!, and we had come in 3rd, so between the 3 of us, we had some great experience at this endurance thing. <g> We also enlisted the help if Jack Askel once again to run out pits.

Friday
Head up to the track like normal to help out with the Penguin School. Spent the day tooling around on the F4, making sure everything was good to go for the race on Sunday. During the afternoon practice I sent Peter out for some seat time on the bike. When he came in, he made some observations on the bike. Saying it was close "but". Eeep. First, he noted the clutch was going. He said it was slipping on up-shifts. Weird. I never noticed that. Also, he wanted to rebuild the rear shock, and the forks. Also, wanted to change the jetting a little, it wasn't pulling out of the corners.

So, with a shopping list of stuff to do to the bike, I set to work with the help of the team. First, clutch. Pulled the clutch apart and checked everything. Plates looked ok, friction plates were in spec, but the clutch springs were indeed out of spec. Quick trip to Street and Comp (God, we love those guys!) and a set of new clutch springs later, the clutch was good to go.

Next, jetting. Pulled the tank and carbs and dropped the needles a notch per the recommendations of everyone I asked. The bike was jetting to run on pump gas. Halfway through the season, I started running PowerMist, but never re jetted, that was my downfall.

Finally, pulled the shock, and ran it over to Pete to rebuild.

Saturday
Went out for practice. Bike felt great, at least to me. Peter had raised the ride height a bit, which let the bike just drop into the turns. The clutch felt great, a little more lever effort due to the stiffer springs, but the clutch feel was good. As for the carburation, I couldn't tell. It felt OK to me, but I'm the world worst feedback rider.

Sunday
Raceday. We had a one hour practice, complete with pit lane setup in addition to the regular practices. Galen showed up in the am, so we sent him out on the bike to get some seat time. He noted the change in the ride height, and also noted that the carburation was still off. So off came the tank and carbs again for another change. We got everything back together just in time for the one hour practice. We sent Peter out first. After about 4 laps, he came back in, saying that the carburation was even worse. Eeep. Back to the garage.

We frantically pulled the carbs off and set everything back to where they started and would just go back to running on either pump gas (a known quantity) or TWS. It soon became apparent that we were not going to get done in time to get back out for the practice, so we set around getting everything right and just crossed our fingers that the switch back to the pump gas, or the TWS as it turned out, would get us back in the game.

As the start of the race came around, we started getting set up on pit road. The track had set up electronic scoring and also a wireless network, so I had brought my lap top with me with the wireless card. Sure enough, we were getting signal! Cool, real time scoring.

More to come...

Did not race this weekend.