Road America - Day One

 We left northern Virginia Wednesday, June 4, at 8PM, about two hours
later than planned, due to weather and unrelated personal emergencies
that took time to resolve.

Finally, George, Justin, Mike, and I rolled west on the Dulles toll
road, to Route15 north, to I-70 west, through the night, towing
Justin's 24-foot race trailer with George's 7.4l turbodiesel Excursion
for the first time.  We soon
discovered that we had a major problem, Houston.   The tail was
wagging the dog; and the dog (the Excursion) was none too happy about
the situation.

After a couple of near death experiences that were saved only by
George's driving prowess and the grace of a benevolent Lord, we pulled
over and repacked the trailer following hurried cell phone discussions
with more experienced towing friends.  The repacking helped, the
swaying was reduced, but only so long as we kept our road speed down
to 65 mph or under.  That, coupled with recalcitrant and downright
ornery GPS driving aids and poor directions combined to make our
planned 13 hour drive into an 18 hour marathon, putting us at the
racetrack at 2pm instead of the planned 7-9 am arrival time.

It was, of course, raining when we arrived.  After setting up the pit,
everyone fell to the task of getting the bike ready to go out in the
rain.   Three of my four scheduled track day sessions were already
over, and we worked hard to get ready for the fourth and final Moto-ST
(combined, all three classes) session of the day.

So, at 4pm, I rolled out onto an unfamiliar track, on rain tires, with
45 minutes to learn a 14-turn race track.   Needless to say, it didn't
happen.  I rode almost the entire session, and I got a general idea of
which way the track turned, but that was about it.

After the on-track session, we worked like beavers to get the bike set
up for Moto-ST tech, and shortly before they closed for the day, the
bike passed and we were able to pack up the pits and head out.

We are now decamped at a friend's palatial home in Menomonee Falls,
about an hour south of the track, where last night we were royally
wined and dined before we all drifted off to a well earned and much
needed night's sleep.

Today we've got two hours of Moto-ST practice and qualifying.

Oh, and our two guest  riders for Saturday's race?   None other than
Scott Jensen and Eric Haugo...  thanks to our newest team member,
Chris Cooke, for arranging that for us!

Tim

 
How expensive is this to do? You know, getting a race bike, keeping it
race ready. Just curious. We have several guys in our vehicle services
dept who have banded together to create, race, and maintain a drag
racer (car). Supposedly, this guy is the one everybody else is chasing
at tracks in and around Richmond.

Greg

 On Friday, we worked on the bike, waited through passing
thundershowers,  rescued our EZ-up from suffering the same untimely
fate as many around us in the high, gusting winds that accompanied the
showers, and met and discussed plans with Scott and Eric.   Two nicer
guys you couldn't hope to meet.

We finally got a chance to dyno the bike, found that we were under the
class horsepower limit; made a few changes, went back and dynoed the
bike again, and were better, but still under the line, so we left well
enough alone.  Meanwhile, during the long wait between the rider's
meeting at 9AM and the Moto-ST practice at 4:20 PM, George and Justin
went out in the Excursion and bought a load distributing hitch that
should make the trip back home much safer, if utimately less exciting.

At 4:20, I went out on a dry Elkhart Lake race track for the first
time, and within a couple of laps felt MUCH more comfortable than at
any time on the brief Thursday outing in the wet.   After 35 minutes I
came in and handed the bike over to Scott Jensen.   He went out for a
couple of laps and came in to have the suspension adjusted, then went
right back out and demonstrated what our racebike is capable of in the
hands of a top ranked AMA Superbike rider.  He went 22 seconds faster
than my bast lap.  Came in, had us make a couple of more changes to
the bike, went back out for a few more laps, and came in and was
happy.   Eric Haugo was up next, and he liked the bike just the way
Scott had it set up, and was lapping withon five seconds of Scott's
best lap.

The practice session ended, and the timer started on the 20 minute
qualifying session.  I went out to qualify the bike since I'll be
riding the first leg off the race, and with changes Scott had made to
the bike, actually felt more comfortable on it than I had with the
setup that Donnie and Jeff and I had developed at Daytona and VIR.  I
was actually able to shave six seconds off my best lap time;
qualifying us somewhere near the back of the grid; which is fine with
me since I'm not really excited about first lap charges into turn one
in a crowd at an unfamiliar racetrack, especially in a three hour
race!


Mark Olsen wandered by during the practice, and hung out with us the
rest of the day, and into the evening when we went into town for beer
and pizza, the food that makes racebike riders of us all.   It was
great to see Mark again, and I hope to see some other online
personalities on race day.

We brought the bike back in, mounted new tires, changed the oil, did a
few adjustments, cleaned it all up, and left the racetrack at about
8:30 for dinnner, drinks, and the ride south to our host's home in
Menomonee Falls, where I am writing this at 6am local time on
Saturday, June 7... race day.


-- Tim

 On Sat, 7 Jun 2008 04:19:05 -0700 (PDT), "tomorrow@erols.com"


Good luck to you and the team Tim. Have fun and bring everyone home
safe.
  

--
See Ya On The Road


2000 Yamaha Venture Millennium
2004 HD Road King

 Elkhart Lake Race Report – Day 3, Saturday, June 7, 2008

After a calm and restful night’s sleep as guests of friends Dale and
Beth in Menomonee Falls, the team was up bright and early and at
6:30am headed back to the track.  We arrived in time to roll out the
racebike which Justin and Mike had completely prepped on Friday after
practice and qualifying, including the minor control adjustments that
guest riders Scott Jensen  and Eric Haugo had requested after their
laps on the bike.   Brand new Pirelli DOT race tires were mounted,
waiting scrubbing in during the 15 minute Moto-ST warm-up session,
first on-track activity of the day at 8:00am.

I got into my leathers while the crew cranked up the tire warmers and
set up our pit.  It was a bright, sunny, mild morning.   Third call
came, and the Moto-ST field lined up behind the pace car, which
shortly led us out to take a single parade lap.  Five laps later, the
warm-up session was over and our tires were scrubbed in for the race,
which was the LAST scheduled on-track activity of the day, at 3:25 pm!

Justin and George installed the load distributing hitch on the trailer
and Excursion,  Mike Collins tweaked various bits and fiddled with the
bike, and I visited with friends who dropped by, including Steve
Mackay, Andy, Chuck Rhodes, and Mark Olsen from rec.motorcycles and
alt.motorcycle.sportbikes.  We watched AMA Superbike qualifying and
the start of the AMA Superbike race, before returning to our pits to
pack up and prepare our equipment for the hot pits, pending the
conclusion of the final AMA event of the day, Formula Extreme.

Except.  FX was red-flagged twice for lightning strikes before being
put in “pending hold” status as thunderstorms and heavy rain and high
wind moved into the area.   After close to an hour, the lightning
abated, the rain slowed to scattered sprinkles and localized showers,
and AMA declared FX a rain race, shortened it to eight laps, and
flagged off the field.

While the race went on, Justin and Mike changed the DOT race (dry)
Pirellis to the new Pirelli rain tires we had bought and mounted on
our rain wheels on Friday.  Shortly after I lined up on the grid and
the field was green flagged to action after the pace car lap, Moto-ST
announced that the 3 hour race had been shortened to one hour and 40
minutes!

Well, that meant that our planned three stop strategy, with a rider
rotation of Tim/Scott/Eric/Scott was immediately out the window.
Instead, I radioed in at the 1:20 mark that I should come in and let
Scott and Eric each have a 40 minute session.  With the track
alternating between  development of a narrow dry line and obliteration
of that line by fresh showers, it seemed prudent to leave the rain
tires on and just fuel up and switch riders.   I was called into the
pits at 1:05 and the team refueled the bike and Scott jumped aboard
and roared off, very quickly getting up to speed and started catching
and passing riders in front of us.

By the 25 minute mark, he had gotten us to ninth place, when we began
to become concerned that the low fuel light might not be working on
the dash of the bike, since Scott hadn’t signaled that he was coming
into the pits.   We showed him the  “DUC IN” pit board sign for the
next three laps, but without having had time to practice pit board
display during the single practice session we had on Friday, Scott
never saw the board!   Fortunately, the low fuel light did come on,
and at the 13 minute mark, Scott signaled that we was coming in on the
next lap.  We decided not to change riders with so little time left in
the race, since Scott was familiar with the way the bike was handling,
the track conditions, and was up to speed.

When Scott came in, the crew put a splash of gas in the tank and sent
him right back out.  We had lost two places on track during our brief
refueling stop.

Scott went to work to catch the tenth place rider, and did so on the
white flag lap, planning to draft him and pass him at the finish
line.  However, Scott came out of turn 14 carrying so much speed than
the 10th place rider that he was forced to pass him at the exit of
turn 14, and the other rider tucked in behind Scott and drafted past
HIM at the start/finish line to take tenth place by .02 seconds!

Scott came back to the pits with a couple of completely wasted rain
tires, to report that he had been sliding the rear end in every corner
for the last half hour of the race, including a hairy outside pass of
three riders in the carousel with the rear end about 8 inches out of
line the whole way around the turn, just flat tracking the bike and
sliding and weaving the whole way.  “Fun!” reported brightly,
confirming what we all suspected – those AMA Superbike guys are CRAZY!

Eric came over and thanked Scott for “hogging the bike,” and we
apologized to Eric for the loss of his turn on the bike, and invited
both of them to ride with us again if they are so inclined.  Both of
them were gracious and accommodating and complimentary towards the Duc
Pond MotoSports prepared Ducati 800 Super Sport, with Scott reporting
that once the rain tires got good and greasy towards the end of the
race on a drying track, it was just like riding a Superbike – spinning
up the rear tire exiting turns, sliding and stepping out at turn in,
sliding through the corners – except all in slow motion!

After the normal post race adrenalin burn-off and packing the trailer,
we headed home around 9:00 pm in heavy rain and thunder and lightning.