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Wednesday evening my newly built motor was installed and running. I took the bike home from Kevin's place late Wednesday evening and got some sleep.
Thursday morning I packed and set off for Nashua, NH. RJ's motorsports had agreed to do the break-in and mapping thursday evening and friday morning. I dropped the bike off there and went up to the track to help set up.
Friday morning I went back to RJ's and picked the bike up. The bike made 110.5hp on the dyno with a basic quick setup. Roger, the owner of RJ's said that I should bring the bike back to him after the race weekend and he would set it up on the dyno properly for me. When I asked him what I owed him, he handed me a bunch of decals and said "put these on the bike and we are all set". Thanks Roger
Friday afternoon I paid my money and entered Penguin practice. Kevin had driven up to the track to help me with setting the bike up and checking on the new motor. I changed the oil and Kevin bled the brakes (I soon started to realise that Kevin's idea of relaxing is to bleed a set of brakes. Every time he has a spare moment to think about something he automatically starts to bleed a set of brakes).
Anyway, I went out for practice friday afternoon and was quite happy with the bike. The new dynojet shifter cut-out was working well, although we had a problem getting the bike into neutral. Kevin waited in the pit area for me to come in throughout the session and made some slight suspension adjustments as needed. I was running in the 1:21 range at this time I think.
Next practice session I decided to change the rear sprocket to a 43 (down from 44) as I felt I could carry more corner speed and I was running out of revs in 2nd gear coming out of the bowl and entering turn 1. I went out and got in a couple of 1:19's. The suspension felt better and the gearing change was well worth it. I came into the pits and said to Kevin "Do you hear that ticking sound"
Ok, from that moment on until 9pm was spent searching for the ticking noise that was coming from the top end. Kevin and I pulled the bike apart (with lot's of help from John (needforspeed)and we couldn't find the problem. We decided to go to dinner and think about the situation and come back to the bike with a clear mind on the problem. I brought Ed back a take-out meal (you owe me $10 Ed!!!). As soon as we got back, Keving checked the intake valve clearances and found one that was way out of spec and sure enough the new cams I had ground had worn away flat spot on one lobe and damaged a bucket.
We decided at that point to bring the bike down to Kevin's place (it was almost midnight now) and replace the intake camshaft with a stocker. John, Kevin and I went down to Walpole to kevin's place and while kevin worked through the night on the bike, john and I got some sleep.
6:30 am Saturday Kevin called me to tell me the motor was all set. John and I went over to kevin's and picked up the bike and brought it up to Loudon, arriving at about 10am, late for practice. The bike seemed to be running beautifully.
First race Saturday, GTO. I got a bad start (not used to this clutch) but got my head down and finished the race in 5th place behind 4 twins (2 998's and 2 aprilia 1000's). 5 points, not bad. Gerard was about 2 seconds behind me. I slowed down towards the end as I was tired and knew Gerard was about 5 seconds behins me, having started a few seconds behind me in the second wave. When I realised he was going to catch me I threw in a 1:19 last lap to make sure he didn't catch me (bragging rights are a bitch). 5th place gets me a $25 check from VP fuels (woohoo, enough to buy about 1.4 gallons of their race fuel that I was using)
Second race saturday, HW superbike. Pretty much the same story as far as the start goes (I never got a good start all weekend). I ended up coming in 20th out of 22 with tires squirming all over the place. No points and a best lap of 1:20.3, yeuch. At least none of the Collision Ho's team passed me.
Third race Saturday, Unlimited Superbike.
Again, crappy start. I had switched to Dunlop tires (my old faves) and the dufference was incredible. Came in 8th (out of ...erm, 8) but I did pull a 1:18.012 so I was wicked happy with that, and the 5 points it got me.
Saturday night, par-tay at Collision Ho's garage, thanks guys awesome spread.
Sunday, didn't practice, track was like an olympic swimming pool.
1st race Sunday. Middleweight Superbike.
Finally, I'm ruinning against the same size bikes as mine. Finished 8th (out of 9) Bad start (again). Most happy with the 5 points though and even happier at who I beat into last place (no names, but go to http://www.lrrsracing.com/2004/resul...1604/Sun10.PDF
to see.
Sunday, last race of the weekend. Unlimited GP.
Again, bad start (keep freaking wheelieing off the line). Came in 8th (out of 8) but did pull a 1:17.681 which is my personal best lap. I got a 1:18 in every other lap, so my laps are only fluctuating by .5 of a second which I am very pleased about. I was running out of revs again so I now need to switch to a 42 rear sprocket. I feel I can get into the 16's next race weekend. Kip pulled a 1:16.9999999999999999999999999 out of his ass (bastard, how's Karen?) but I still got him beat in average lap time in that race and I can always fall back on the excuse that he has 150 extra cc's than me. Seriously, well done Kipster, how you arrive for one day and pump out 17's is beyond me.
Huge props to Jay and Cheryl for letting me stay at their place, to Tovah for eating Ice-cream and Kelsey for giving up her bedroom and to Gordon and Rye for their diligent pit crewing. Thanks also to John for moral support through the camshaft woes, Bob M for loans of tools and drinking water and special thanks to Kevin for working on my bike for 24hours straight to make sure it worked for me the way it should.
A great weekend, looking forward to next month.
Well done all the NESR racers.
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