Witchkraft Racing: The Search for Speed

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2002 GLRRA aka MGP :: Round 4 – 7/12-14

DAD SAVES THE DAY – BUT WITH 9 LESS HORSEPOWER THAN USUAL ON SATURDAY

Friday Practice:

The streak continued. The last three rounds, I’ve had some sort of problem with the bike that’s caused me not to be able to run in Friday’s practice. This Friday was no different. We had worked on the bike prior to this round and in the garage, everything sounded great. However, once getting out on the track, the Hawk wouldn’t pull past 5 grand – anywhere in any gear. I pulled the carbs and everything looked normal there. I had checked the battery after having some prior electrical problems – everything seemed fine there. After a lot of head scratching, Chuck, Chad, Aaron and I were still left without an answer. With my ace in the hole not arriving until Saturday morning (dad), I was starting to get a little stressed out, since I was now #5 in the overall Amateur points and could see my season slipping away.

In any event, I tried to make the best out of the day. So I took everyone else’s bike out. I took Mikey’s F3 out for a session, which was different to say the least. That bike’s a rocket – felt like I was going twice as fast down the straight as I normally do. I also took out Chad’s FZR 400. His bike was surprisingly easy to ride, although it was definitely an adjustment switching from the twin to the four. Lastly, I tried Aaron’s SV, which was really nice. The suspension setup was a lot different than what I’m used to, but the engine just seems to put out power so smooth and easily. It’s not hard to see why so many people have SV’s.

Saturday:

Lots of pacing on Saturday morning. Still with no idea what to do, I was left waiting for my dad to get there to assess the situation. Both he, my mom and my girlfriend showed up just before our Lightweight practice was to go out. I filled him in on everything and he set out to do his thing. After messing with a couple electrical issues, I went out on the track to see if he had fixed the problem. As soon as I passed the scoring tower, I could tell the bike was doing the same thing. It was odd that it only seemed to be happening under a load, but nonetheless, I exited the track at turn 3 and came in shaking my head. My dad suggested I go out on Chuck’s Hawk just to get some practice laps in. Also to get familiar with his bike, since he wasn’t extremely confident that he’d fix the problem in time.

So I went out on Chuck’s Hawk and it felt pretty good actually. I thought I put in some fairly decent laps and was preparing to run that for most of the day. I still would be stuck for the Sportsman race. Since Chuck’s Hawk is his “B” bike, that’s what he rides in Sportsman, I was planning on just riding around on my bike for that race and trying pick up as many points as possible, without completely throwing my championship chances away.

After practice, my dad and I were still working on the bike. He had taken apart the carbs and thought they looked fine (little did we know at the time – they weren’t), but we were still having the problem. So he just decided to switch carbs with the other set we had to see if that fixed the problem. After rushing to get that done, I threw on my leathers to go and try it out on the warm up lap of the first race. It was do or die now – if it didn’t work now, I was riding Chuck’s bike for the day.

Pulling out onto the track, I was in second gear at 6000 rpm’s. A good sign I thought. Clicking up to third, fourth and then fifth, the bike sounded normal! Needless to say, I was pretty stoked. Things were back on track. Even though I didn’t have any practice on my bike, I was content just to be able to race it in all the races.

A little disclaimer before starting – after putting the Hawk on the dyno after Saturday’s races, I came to find out I was only running at 57hp. Six horses down from where I was last round. More to come ..

Race #2 – Lightweight Supertwins

As the green flag dropped for this one, I got a bad start. I missed a shift going from 2nd to 3rd gear and a couple bikes passed me.

I’m not sure where I was after the first lap, but Loren (Black, #127) and Allan were gone before long. I don’t know where this #127 came from, but he was flying right out of the gate. Allan was cooking too – he apparently had some “special” dyno work done and somehow found 14 “extra” horses laying in his Aprilia to bump him up to 71 or so. :) So the two of them were gone. Chip was running in 3rd for most of the race I think. All I knew was that the three of them kept stretching away from me as the race wore on. I finished 4th, but was pretty disappointed with the way the race finished. After checking the lap times, I barely got into the 29′s – not what I was looking for.

Race #4 – Lightweight GP – Leg 1

The start of this race wasn’t good either. I wheelied off the line and found myself somewhere like 3rd going into turn 1. Last round, I had great starts and was in first pretty much every time going into 1. I wasn’t sure what the deal was.

Anyway, the bike was running even worse this time. Like last round, anytime I was trying to get out of a turn, the throttle response was delayed the bike would lurch forward and I’d have to wait before I’d get any throttle response. I figured the hotter weather wasn’t helping the problem and it really seemed like it had to be a carburetion problem. I finished 5th in this race and ran every single lap in the 31′s except for one, where I did a 29.7. Horrible!

The only good thing about that race was a move I made going into the hairpin. I was following Chip early in the race and we were coming up on 2 expert riders. They both were positioned towards the outside of the hairpin (but not too much because there was oil dry all along the outside of it) and Chip was hugging the inside. I was able to slide in on the inside of both experts and on the outside of Chip to pass all 3 of them at once. It was a great pass, although I think Chip got me right back down the straight away. Oh well ..

Race #6 – Sportsman

This time, this race was going to be tough. I wasn’t running fast laps – I had no idea why. And after talking with Allan, he had his “B” bike on the dyno too and had picked up some extra ponies apparently.

As the race started, I got another fair start. I was really at a loss. I think I must have been blipping the clutch lever before the flag dropped or something because I had been bogging on the starts all weekend. Anyway, the start of the race went fairly well. By this time, I was starting to notice that the Hawk didn’t seem right. It wasn’t making as much power – my normal braking markers were causing me to enter turns slower than I was used to and I wasn’t having to brake as hard as I was accustomed to either. I also just seemed to be running out of power down the straight a couple times during the race. (thus, I later found out about the 57 hp :)

In any event, I had led every lap thus far and would take a glance back coming out of the hairpin to see Allan right there. You’d think by now, after the number of times we’ve gone back and forth, I’d know that he likes to wait until the end of the race to make a move. Well – I didn’t.

I passed the scoring tower with 2 laps to go – As I went into turn 1, Allan passed me on the inside. For some reason, this totally caught my by surprise. I think I just got too comfortable and braked a little early. He ran a tad wide coming out of 1 and I pinned the throttle coming out of 1 to pass him back going into 2. I remember being pretty much side by side going into 2, but with me having the advantage on the inside, I was able to get back by him. As we went into 3, I knew I had totally blown the turn – I went in a little hot and it hurt my drive coming out. As I was coming around 4, Allan came around me on the outside and we went up towards the jump side by side. I’m sure we were both waiting for the other one to close the throttle first, but that didn’t really happen. As we crested the jump, I think I may have held a little more speed because I just got ahead of Allan into the right hander.

We were just coming up to a lapper and I knew I had to make a pass now or I wouldn’t get by him until the bowl. So I made – what I thought to be a really good pass on the inside of the left handed part of the esses, where I didn’t think Allan would be able to get him until after the bowl. I raced down the straight and onto the last lap. I didn’t hear Allan around me, but then again, I never do. :) Anyway, as I came out of the hairpin for the last time, I glanced over my shoulder and didn’t see Allan there. Well, I looked to my right and he was off on the outside, to my left. My brain apparently wasn’t running on all cylinders because I ran tight into 10A and crawled through 10B and onto the straight, where I had the unfortunate surprise of Allan buzzing alongside me. By that time, I knew it was too late. I upshifted into 5th gear (which looking back, I probably didn’t need to do – Allan didn’t and I might have been better off doing the same), but it wasn’t enough – as Allan beat me. I think the final times had me losing by .015 seconds.

So let’s go back and look at this. I didn’t run a single lap in the 29′s that race. Everything was a 1:30 or a 1:31. If I had gotten just one lap in the 29′s (which would have still been almost a second slower than where I was last round), I probably would have won. But that’s racing – Allan ran a great race and set me up perfectly coming out of the hairpin on that last lap, so there wasn’t much I could do.

Race #8b – Amateur GTP

The only plan for this race was to pace myself. After 3 races in the heat, I was dead tired and didn’t know how I was going to make it through all 15 laps of this one. I felt like I had been working my tail off so far trying to get the bike around the track as fast as I could. In fact, I had probably been trying too hard – I thought hopefully slowing down and relaxing a little would help.

I’m not sure exactly where I was going into turn 1, but I was leading the race after the first lap, which I thought was a bit surprising. As a matter of fact, I continued to lead the race for the next 7 laps. In GTP, I’ve never been in this position and I couldn’t believe that no one had passed me yet. I caught up to a few expert riders pretty quickly – within the first one or two laps actually. I was able to get by all 3 of them cleanly and I think that helped put a bit of a gap between me and the rest of the guys. As I passed the halfway flag, there wasn’t anyone really near me. I had been focusing more on lines rather than speed and that seemed to help. However, as lap 9 and 10 came around I was just running out of gas (not the bike, but me) and couldn’t push as hard as I had been. On the next lap, Loren caught me coming onto the straight and gave me a little “let’s go and make a break from these other guys” gesture, but I just couldn’t follow. On the next lap, Chip passed me going into 1, although I passed him back into 2, but it didn’t stick as he got back by me. After that, it’s a bit blurry – I was struggling just to finish the race and I know a couple other bikes had passed me. I just wanted to see the checkered flag.

When all was said and done, I finished 5th. I couldn’t really complain – I was definitely not pushing as hard as I thought I was earlier in the day and it turned out to help me – I was at least doing laps in the 29′s now. My best lap of the race was a 1:29.0, so I was pretty pleased with that considering the horsepower I was had to deal with all day. And I even led some laps too, which made things seem a little better.

After coming in from that race, I knew something was wrong. So my dad and I (along with Bob and Chuck and Chad and Aaron – everyone seemed interested as to what was the cause was for this ensuing problem) took the bike up the dyno and let Chad (the other Chad) take a look at it. Sure enough, the bike dyno’d at 57 hp, down from last rounds number of 63 hp. Chad made some suggestions as to what to do and my dad and I went to work. I was able to get some bigger jets from Dave Phelps (thanks Dave) and we moved the clip too, trying to make the bike a little leaner. After messing with the carbs and going back up to the dyno, the bike wasn’t pulling past 5000 rpm again. The same problem that we had on Friday. So Chad, my dad and I are up on the dyno ripping apart the carbs trying to figure out what the hell is going on. Upon further review, the diaphragm of the carbs weren’t completely sealed and the “vacuum” wasn’t being created – thus, the bike wouldn’t run essentially. After throwing a little grease on the diaphragms to make them stick, we put everything back together and made another couple runs on the dyno – getting back to where I had been last round (a tad better actually). What a relief ..

The rest of the evening consisted of the MWCF pig roast. Free food and beer made for a good evening, along with getting one of those “Fast Guy” pitchers from Eric. Who would have guessed I’d be getting one of those this year. Before leaving the track, I was able to get out for a track walk with Jeff Chen, Mark Gonyou and Taylor Knapp. Jeff and Mark gave Taylor and I some good tips that I hadn’t been fully aware of before, even though they are on 125′s. :) It was good to get some advice from two of the fastest guys around Grattan.

Sunday:

Race #1 – Lightweight GP – Leg 2

First race of the day on Sunday. I had just done the flag lap with this guy and gal on a cruiser, which was cool (even though it was a “cruiser”). I came off the flag lap, handed the flag to my dad and quickly went out for the warmup lap. As we lined up for the second leg of LWGP, I was alongside Adam (Sylvester), Taylor and Allan I believe. As the flag dropped, Adam got the hole shot (another bad start for me) and I was following him through turn 1. I’m not sure where Taylor and Allan were, but I was sure they weren’t far behind. I could definitely tell the Hawk was running much better today and I wanted to take advantage of it.

I followed Adam for the first 4 laps or so. I would really close in on him through the back part of the track. It seemed that he was a little slower in the places where he recently crashed (turn 3 and the bowl) and I almost ran into the back of him twice because I wasn’t ready for the change of speed. Just like most of the other lightweight bikes though, he would stretch out the lead up through 10A-10B and onto the straight away. On lap 4 or 5, I passed him on the inside of the hairpin for the lead and flew up the hill towards the straight. The pass didn’t give me the ideal drive up the hill because Adam passed me back coming out of 10B and onto the straight. I’m not sure if it was that lap or the next, but I passed him again – this time going into turn 1. After that, I put my head down for the next lap thinking I could definitely stretch out the distance between us – especially in the off-camber and in the bowl.

It turned out that the plan worked. Each lap, I had a little bit more of a lead than I had the prior lap. My dad was giving me signals that I had a pretty big lead. This was the first time I had never led the race in this class, so I was pretty fired up. With about 2 or 3 laps to go, I checked behind me coming out of the bowl and saw that Taylor was now in 2nd place. I still had a solid lead and just cruised through the final lap, getting my first win in the class! I, along with my parents and Gina (girlfriend) couldn’t believe it. Quite a turnaround from yesterday.

As I was about the come off the track on the cool down lap, I saw one of the corner workers flailing his arms and pointing me to take a victory lap. I totally forgot about that happening on the Sunday races, so I went around one more time and waived to the corner workers. I wouldn’t mind doing more of these kinda laps in the future .. As it turned out, I set a new personal best lap time in the race with a 1:27.8. I had done a couple 27′s that race, which I was stoked about. My plan all weekend long was to get into the 27′s and I finally made it happen. On the flip side, I still was doing some 29′s that race, so I need to work on putting together more consistent fast laps during the race.

Race #5 – Heavyweight Supertwins

Lining up for this one, I knew it was going to be ugly. This race is of course against all the Duc’s and RC51′s, so there wasn’t much hope in this one. I wasn’t sure exactly how many actual “heavyweight” bikes were in this race, but I thought if I could sneak away with a 3rd or 4th place finish, I’d be content.

As I stood on the grid waiting to start, I looked around and saw a lot of big bikes around me. Jovi (#316, Barnes) was next to me on his SV, but aside from that, everyone else on the front two rows appeared to have a Ducati. As Scott threw the green flag, I took off and had a halfway decent start, but it didn’t matter. All the Duc’s roared ahead – even the ones in the rows behind me just had a rocket of a start. As we went through the first couple turns, it seemed a bit slow because the race was a one-wave race – so the expert and amateurs had started at the same time. I actually was able to stay relatively close to Koets (#21 I think) for the first couple laps on his Ducati, but as the race wore on, I lost site of him.

This race was still a blast though. Given the one-wave start, I caught up to fellow Witchkraft racer Wes (#17, Swain) in the first couple laps and was able to pass him, which was a first. I knew I had to be running pretty well to catch and pass him. Things got even more interesting because as soon as I passed Wes, I saw Damian (#10, Dobosz) ahead of me and set out to try and catch him too. The rest of the race was great. I caught up to Damian and put a pass on him in the hairpin, to which he repassed me coming onto the straight. I followed him for the next 4-5 laps and could just not get around him. He’s a demon on the brakes going into 1, so I had no place to pass him there. He would gain on me through turns 1, 2, 10A, 10B and on the straight, although I was really able to latch onto him over the jump and up to the hairpin. Going through the sweeper, I was virtually on his back tire trying to setup a pass into the hairpin, but he was always running a tight line in there, I didn’t have much room. Although on one of the next laps, I tried to make another pass in the hairpin, which did work – although I missed downshifting into 2nd gear, which caused me to run wide and yell, “bonehead!” in my helmet. After that, I knew I had probably made Damian stand his bike up so he didn’t turn into me, which I felt bad about. I threw up a quick hand to apologize as we ran up the hill and he came alongside me into 10A and passed me back easily enough after I had botched that turn. After that, I wasn’t going to push anymore in the hairpin – there was no need for both of us to go down, especially since we’re technically not even racing each other (being an amateur and an expert). Looking back though, I should have tried a line on the outside of the sweeper. I had enough speed where I could have possibly made a pass, but with all the oil-dry residue that had been there all weekend, I had seen enough people crash there where I didn’t feel it was worth it.

As we had about 3 or 4 laps to go, Damian was leading me into turn 1 when he suddenly lost the front end. I was right behind him and just looked through the turn to make sure I didn’t follow him there. I continued on and he waived on the next lap to signal that he was okay from the crash. I waived back – glad that he was alright. I finished the last 3 laps without anyone near me, so it was a pretty boring finish. On the cool down lap, I rolled over to the gravel trap in turn 1 to double check and make sure everything with Damian was alright. He later said he was fine, but the bike took a little bit of damage. He apparently had been trail braking a little too much and the front end washed out.

For me, I ended up with a 4th place finish, which I couldn’t complain about. I turned in a new personal best lap time of a 1:27.7, while doing a bunch of low 28′s and a couple 27′s. Not bad at all for me. My only future hope in this class would be to somehow get ahead of some of these Ducati’s on the very first lap and try to put some distance between them in traffic, so they have a tough time catching me. Fat chance …

Conclusion:

Overall, it turned out to be a good weekend. I had some fairly disappointing results on Saturday, but was able to turn things around on Sunday. If I had looked at these results before the season began, I wouldn’t have believed that a top 5 finish would now be considered disappointing. So all in all, things went well. I’m looking forward to getting some solid seat time next round, not having any problems, and further improving from where I left off here.

The only lightweight rider I haven’t beaten legitimately so far has been Bob, who’s been out with bike problems as of late. We’ll see if I can hang with him come Round Five … :)

Tuesday, January 1st, 2002 | POSTED AT: 12:04 PM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports