Witchkraft Racing: The Search for Speed

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2002 GLRRA aka MGP :: Round 3 – 6/14-16

GREAT FINISHES, BAD CRASHES AND BIKE PROBLEMS

Friday Practice:

I was pretty stoked about getting to round three. I had finished round two with consistent top ten finishes and an improvement from round one, so naturally I was hoping to continue the trend throughout the weekend.

My dad and I arrived at the track a little later than usual – a little after 11:00, so I didn’t plan on getting out until after lunch. After unpacking everything, I ended up just sitting around and decided that I’d get out for a quick session before the lunch break and work out the kinks since I hadn’t been on the Hawk since last round.

As the day progressed, the re-occuring problem of the bike not running well came back again. After replacing the seals on the carbs from where gas was leaking last round, the bike sounded like it was flooded coming out of turns in 3rd gear throughout the low to mid RPM range. We took out the fuel pump and that didn’t work, so we (actually my dad) put it back on and we just decided to wing it and hope for the best.

Saturday:

On Saturday, before the races started, Dave Smith would usually have my dad or someone from the Witchkraft team take a lap around the track with the flag for the National Anthem. This time, I was able to do the flag lap, which was really cool. Not to sound repetitive, but with everything that has happened within the past year, it felt that much more important to me and a lot of people at the track. Good way to start off the weekend.

Race #2 – Lightweight Supertwins

First race of the weekend – a little nervous as usual. The plan was the same – get a good start, stay relaxed and try to finish in the top 5. Just saying to myself, “finish in the top 5,” was such a weird feeling. It was only last summer that finishing in the top ten was something I was never able to do.

I’m not sure who all was on the front row, but fellow Witchkraft member Bob (Watson, #54) was lined up on 9A (pole position) and I was over on 9C. We lined up, the green flag dropped and we were off. Somehow Bob and I ended up side by side going down the straight. He was pulling a wheelie off the line and I was right next to him. Usually, the 1,2 gearing on the Hawk gives me a slight advantage on the starts over the SV’s, but Bob and I were dead even. So we’re going down the straight and I’m trying to figure out where I’m going to brake. I’m on the outside of Bob and I know that if he gets into turn 1 ahead of me, I’ll probably never see him again. I had new brake pads on and figured I might as well break ‘em in, so I braked well past my normal braking point and noticed that Bob wasn’t right next to me anymore! A bit surprised, I stomped down twice into third gear (if you don’t STOMP down, you hit a false neutral – it’s not fun), grabbed a handful of brake and turned into 1. I pushed pretty hard on the first lap, but not past the point where I felt I was riding above my head.

Still on the first lap, we came up on an expert rider (I use ‘we’ because my lead would be temporary) going up the hill and onto the straight away. I hadn’t planned on this happening already, so I came up onto the straight away right behind the expert rider, ready to make a pass. However, Bob popped up to the right of me and was thinking the same thing. So he was on the outside and I had to take the inside (left side of the track) to make the pass. As the three of us were going down the straight, I’m thinking to myself, “Okay, this isn’t good – I’m now on the outside of three bikes going into 1 – not where I want to be). I actually thought of chopping the throttle, so I could move over to the inside for turn 1 – but in the split second I had to think about that decision – it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, so I threw it out the window. Bob and I actually both made it past the expert rider before turn 1 though and made it in cleanly – although, Bob having the inside line easily took the lead.

So I followed Bob around on the 2nd lap and was pretty close, when stupidity struck. Coming out of turn 4 and going up to the jump, I went to shift from 3rd to 4th gear, when I missed the shift. I went to upshift again – missed it again. I went for the upshift yet a third time – missed it a third time. I finally grabbed the clutch and wedged my foot up, where I finally got into 4th gear. By this time, I was just about to crest the jump and Chip (Kraus, #191) blew by me. I cursed in my helmet a bunch of times and set out to try and catch back up to Chip. We both came up to the hairpin, when I saw Bob riding off the track and into the grass. I wasn’t sure what happened, but he was on two wheels, so I assumed he was okay. At this point, I got pretty excited about the fact that Chip and I were now running #1 and #2 in the race – somewhere I had never been in LWST.

I was behind Chip for a couple laps – not sure how many to be exact. It’s hard to remember where I passed Chip back, but I’m pretty sure Chip had a tight line going into 1, while I kept a wider line. He ran wide coming out, and I ducked under him and passed him going into turn 2. After that, I put a couple of the fastest laps I’ve done yet together and was able to stay ahead of him. I saw the white flag, made sure not to do anything stupid, and when I saw my dad on top of the straight away showing me that I had a clear lead on Chip, I threw my hand up in the air and crossed the finish line screaming in my helmet. My first win in Lightweight Supertwins! I couldn’t believe it – what a rush – it’s what racing is all about. Even if I did have to take it at the expense of Bob having mechanical problems, it was still an awesome feeling.

Race #4 – Lightweight GP – Leg 1

Bob had some serious engine problems, which he wasn’t able to fix – so he was done for the day, which was really unfortunate. He was leading the points in every class he raced in and this was definitely going to make it challenging to secure a class championship.

I started on the 2nd row for this race. This had the 125′s involved, which I am never thrilled about (even though I have a feeling that I could be fairly quick on one). The green flag dropped and Adam (Sylvester, #20) on his FZR jumped out in front, with me behind. Before we even got to turn 1, the red flag was waving and the race was stopped. It turned out that Sorrano’s (not sure his first name) bike stalled on the start and another bike ran into him, messing up his leg pretty good. Something like that never puts a pretty picture in my mind and makes me think of the accident at Daytona last year with Scott Russell. I later heard that his leg was banged up, although it wasn’t broken. Hope all is going well with him.

On the restart of the race, I was in about the same boat. I was in 2nd midway through the first lap, with Adam leading when Nick (#64, Cummings) passed me and then Taylor (#144, Knapp) got by me. I knew Nick was fast, but I didn’t know how much quicker Taylor has gotten as of late. Anyway, I ran in 4th for about the entire race. Nick and Taylor were #1 and #2 and I could see Adam quite a bit ahead of me. I had a big gap behind me and felt like I was in the middle of nowhere.

As the white flag came up, I saw Adam going into 1 – a bit closer to me than he had been the entire race. I didn’t think I had a chance to catch him, but I made sure not to slack off on the last lap. As he was going into turn 3, I was just apexing turn 2 and I could see him look behind him to see if anyone was there. There was an expert behind him, but it didn’t look like he saw me. I got past the expert and kept getting closer to him – and he never looked back again. Coming around the sweeper I saw that I actually had a chance to catch him – I had the throttle pinned and closed up on him going into the hairpin. Still trusting my brakes, I braked late and was able to just get inside of him just as he was starting to make his turn in. I got through the hairpin, cleanly and ran up the hill and to the finish line for 3rd place.

On the cool down lap, we each gave each other a thumbs up and I made sure that I hadn’t made a bad pass on him. He said no problem – and that he didn’t know that I was that close to him. Plus, he’s put his fair share of tight passes on me before. :)

Race #6 – Sportsman

I was pretty tired going into this race. Not sure if was a lack of sleep or just pushing pretty hard in the first two races. It’s pathetic – The #1 disadvantage of having a desk job – sitting down all day. In any case, my plan in this race was to take it easy and make sure I didn’t do anything to jeopardize the lead I had managed to build in the overall points for Sportsman. After Adam had crashed out of this race last round, I didn’t have to worry about him beating me as much as I did Allan (#2, Burley), who was only 10 points behind me, and Chad (#107, Tefft) who was right behind him.

As we did the hot lap and made it to the grids, I saw that there were only two experts gridded for the race – one of which was fellow Witchkraft racer Chuck (#508, Seilnacht) and another guy that had been pitted across from us. Since this was a one wave start, I tried to make it a goal to catch Chuck and the other expert as quickly as possible, so as to make it a clear racetrack and possibly a bit more difficult for the guys behind me. I knew Chuck was at a disadvantage on his Hawk because it was a bit older and slower than mine, but I wasn’t sure how fast the other guy was.

After dropping down the face shield and clicking into 1st gear, Scott at the scoring tower moved the “1″ board sideways and we were about to get started. The green flag dropped and the race was on. I had a great start – I was up through 2nd and 3rd gear and didn’t see anyone next to me. I was closing in on Chuck and the other expert going into turn 1, and passed them both somewhere on the first lap – I don’t remember where. :) As I later found out, Ted (#87, Wheeler) had a really good start and was right behind me, when he got stuffed on the inside from Adam, who came from the 2nd row. Ted was forced to run wide and was somewhere like 5th or 6th going into turn 2, which was too bad. Adam ended up running out of gas midway through the race and wasn’t able to finish.

As the race progressed, I kept the lead and looked back once coming out of the “bowl” and saw the red bike of Allan’s Aprilia there. That wasn’t too surprising, as I figured he’d be right there with me. As a couple more laps went by, I was suddenly passed by #166, this guy on an FZR 400. This was one of Chad’s friends that I had previously met, but I had no idea he was running in this race, or that he was this quick. I decided that I’d follow him around for a lap and see if I could pick where I might have had an advantage on him. He was pretty late on the brakes, but I thought that I had an edge on him in corner speed through most of the turns. If I remember correctly, I passed him going up the hill (10A) and then put my head down and tried to put together a couple of good laps to end the race, which worked out quite well.

I was able to win the race, but it sure felt like a sloppy win. I blew a bunch of turns and didn’t feel that great about the race itself, but I was happy with how the race plan went. I had the lead and when I was passed, I was able to make the pass back without having to push the bike so hard as to risk crashing out of the race. Allan ended up passing the #166 bike to finish 2nd, where he’s still putting the pressure on me – with 3 races to go in the season.

All in all, the Sportsman class has gotten so much faster since last year. I was able to win a race last year, while doing 1:36 lap times, and after looking at my times from this race, all the lead guys were doing 1:29′s and 1:30′s. Talk about a drastic change. There are more Hawks and FZR 400′s in the class now – and I wasn’t sure if that #166 would have been under the 65 hp limit, but it was still a great race that was anything but easy (and for the record, my bike dyno’d at 63 hp :) ).

Race #8b – Amateur GTP

For some reason, nobody in our pits heard Dave’s, “final call” to signal that the bikes were about to go out on their hot lap. I all of a sudden heard bikes and hurried up to get out there. However, upon getting to the straight away, I saw that everyone was already taking their hot lap. In a rush, I cut through the orange cones and was just going to hop out onto the track, since all the bikes were out already, so that I could make it out onto the grid. That’s when I heard Eric go, “hey!” I looked over at him and I actually thought he was just going to wave my through and let me scoot out there, but Kathy (Eric’s sister) said something and someone up top on hot pit lane yelled down too, so that plan wasn’t going to happen. I went back around the cones and headed up to hot pit lane for the start. As I sat up there, I wasn’t as upset as I thought I’d be. I had to wait for ALL the other bikes to start and then I could get out there. I took this now as more of a challenge – one of those “coming from behind” scenarios that you would see in a movie. :)

So the green flag dropped – and I sat there. Still. Waiting .. and waiting .. and then more waiting. I finally got the go ahead and took off. All the tiredness I had felt before the race was gone now and I totally focused on trying to work my way up in this race. On the first lap, I passed 3 or 4 bikes and was making my way up on some more. As the 2nd and 3rd laps progressed, I was slowed somewhat by the other bikes because I didn’t want to make a pass and risk crashing or doing something stupid. I eventually caught up to Aaron (#77, Bagwell) and Chad, along with passing Jovie (#316) and the guy on the FZR who was in the Sportsman race (#166). It felt really good that I was able to pass and stay ahead of those two guys, Jovie who beat me in Heavyweight Supertwins last round and the #166 who I went back and forth with earlier in the day.

I didn’t even notice the halfway flag and at about 2/3 into the race, I saw that I was gaining ever so slightly on the bike ahead of me (which I later found out was Allan on his black Aprilia), but it didn’t matter. As I was on the straight, he was going into turn 1 and I wasn’t gaining on him much. There was no way I’d make up enough ground to get close enough to him before the race ended. I looked behind me and didn’t see anyone near me, so I just settled in where I was and finished the race – man, those last few laps took forever. I was dead tired and couldn’t wait to see the white flag. I had no idea where I finished, but as it turned out, I finished 10th place out of 25 bikes. I really couldn’t have been happier with that finish. As I looked at the final score sheet, I guessed that I could have possibly finished anywhere from 3rd to 10th place anyway, had everything gone well, but I definitely preferred the way this race went. Kinda made me feel like Anthony Gobert in the rain at Road America last year. :) However, I’ll probably look back and curse myself for those few extra points I coulda had. Ah well – that’s racing.

Sunday:

Race #1 – Lightweight GP – Leg 2

On the start of this race, Adam led into turn one on his FZR, with me following in 2nd. Nick passed me on the first lap (over the jump if I remember), but I was able to pass him back going into the hairpin. On the next lap, Nick and Taylor passed me, but again, I made a pass in the hairpin that put me back ahead of Taylor.

Down the straight we went. Nick now had the lead with Adam 2nd, I in 3rd and Taylor 4th. Adam out braked Nick into 1, but ran wide, so I saw Nick duck under him to get the lead back. I was really close to Adam and was following him through the “esses”, when we were going up through the right hander, which led to the bowl. There, just coming out of the right, Adam’s rear end stepped out and looked to high side him off the bike. Now, I was RIGHT behind him and had to make a quick decision. I grabbed some brake and darted over to the left and hoped that Adam, along with his bike didn’t slide down there to meet with me. Luckily, Adam and his bike just slid straight towards the grass and I was BARELY able to avoid making contact with either of them. Taylor wasn’t as fortunate however. I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but he rode off into the grass, crashed and broke his collarbone, from what I thought to be trying to avoid Adam, or even myself, but I’m not sure.

So this left Nick in the lead with me in 2nd. As we came around on the next lap, the ambulance flag was out. As Nick and I came over the jump, I saw that the ambulance was out on the track! It was making it’s way through the esses and towards the bowl where Adam crashed. I wasn’t really sure what to do – I had never been in a race with the ambulance out before and I wasn’t sure if the race was going to be red flagged. As I started to check up on the throttle, Nick was actually passing the ambulance on the outside of the right hander (before the bowl). A bit surprised that he was doing that, I decided I had to do the same if I was going to try and stick with him. So I passed the ambulance just as it was going onto the grass where Adam crashed. It was really no big deal, but the whole idea of racing while an ambulance is on the track is pretty intense.

So the race continued and I was trying to keep up with Nick. There were certain spots where he was faster than me, but there were also spots that I seemed to be gaining on him. All in all, I stayed about the same distance for most of the race. He kept looking back between turns 1 and 2 and I think he was a little surprised to still see me still there. This was the first time I was consistently running in the mid-low 28′s.

The last 4 laps of the race were horrible. The bike started dying. No throttle response in the low rpm range of 3rd gear. Not only was this causing me to ride more cautious, I was scraping body work because I was “off the gas” at every apex, which made the bike dive and change the feeling of the suspension all around. The last 2 laps were the worst – the bike was sputtering in every gear. It wouldn’t even pull past 8000 rpm down the straight away! I just sat there – with nothing. I couldn’t believe it – my first chance at possibly catching Nick and I was losing ground every lap. To make matters worse, a guy on a 125 passed me, now putting me in 3rd. At this point, I was just hoping the bike would make it the duration of the race. I was having visions of being in mid turn, the bike suddenly dying, and spitting me off the bike without warning.

I get to the white flag and am thinking, “one more lap – one more lap.” Little did I know that Allan was quickly catching up to me. He passed me coming out of the bowl and I tried to put something together to get 3rd place back. I don’t know what it was – maybe it was me yelling in my helmet at the Hawk, but 4th gear pulled through the sweeper and I was able to pass Allan back at the hairpin. I went up the hill and I could tell “Trinity” still wasn’t running right. Coming onto the straight away, Allan pulled up to the right of me and it was a drag race to the finish. Once we were both completely vertical, both bikes seemed identical in speed and I was able to edge out Allan by no more half a wheel. It was the closest finish I’ve ever had. If the bike had sputtered at all there at the very end, Allan would have beaten me.

Overall, it was a great race. 3rd was my best finish in this class to date and I knew I had 2nd locked up if I wouldn’t have run into problems. Hell, I might have even had a chance to challenge for 1st had everything gone as planned. This was the first weekend I was running consistent 1:28 lap times and I know the bike is capable of getting well into the 27′s. I was glad the race wasn’t red flagged. I think everyone, including the riders, corner workers and ambulance staff did a great job ensuring the safest possible conditions under that particular situation.

Conclusion:

As it turns out, I’m not so sure that the problem with the bike is carburetor related. From thinking back to last year, I was having similar problems that were electrical related, so that may have again been the culprit. I’m hoping we’ll have the problem taken care of by round four. I’ve definitely had my share of problems this year. Overheating issues, gas overflow issues with the carbs, a fried clutch, along with some other minor things. It’s still quite a shock that I’ve been able to improve as much as I have so far. I completely owe it to my dad – without him around to help fix all these problems, I would have probably had half the track time with twice the number of problems. He really is a wizard when it comes to helping me get out on the track with a bike that works. And having my aunt, cousin and girlfriend there for good luck probably helped a little too ..

More stories at Round Four ..

Tuesday, January 1st, 2002 | POSTED AT: 12:03 PM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports