VIR AMA FX **SPOILER**

[hammadown]

I'm not going to get a chance to watch this anytime soon so I checked the results.


Jeff Wood takes 7th running an average of just over a second slower behind the leader Josh Hayes. I heard he was having motor problems on the A bike so I dont know which he ran this on, but fuckin sweet. Good luck tomorrow in SS!! Eric finished 25, but ran the 11th fastest lap time, just a tick over 129. Congrats Jeff and Eric!!Love seeing the local guys doing well.

Can't wait to watch the races tomorrow.

[The Snowman]

Awesome job, Jeff!

[lrrs313]

Awesome job, Jeff!

+1

Amazing on a privateer, underpowered, ASRA Supersport-spec bike.......
Scary what could happen if Jeff, Eric, or Shane ended up on a factory-level bike.

[CEO]

+1

Amazing on a privateer, underpowered, ASRA Supersport-spec bike.......
Scary what could happen if Jeff, Eric, or Shane ended up on a factory-level bike.

Seriously.... wonder why one of the bigger teams hasn't picked them up yet...?

Then again I know very little about the business/politics of motorcycle racing...

[lrrs313]

Seriously.... wonder why one of the bigger teams hasn't picked them up yet...?

Then again I know very little about the business/politics of motorcycle racing...

My only guess is age (Jeff/Eric). The teams seem to prefer to sign riders when they're 18-20. As for Shane, it's a mystery to me. Roadracing World has named him to their list of "young guns" for a few years now. Hopefully for him it will happen soon.

[CEO]

My only guess is age (Jeff/Eric). The teams seem to prefer to sign riders when they're 18-20. As for Shane, it's a mystery to me. Roadracing World has named him to their list of "young guns" for a few years now. Hopefully for him it will happen soon.

Right... I know age is a big factor and they like them to be bred into the sport early...

However... wasn't it colin edwards who didn't start racing until he was my age-ish... like 24?

Seems like someone making this kind of splash would get some attention, ya know?

[a13x]

So here's the story of Jeff's day, with some Eric updates throw in.

Jeff basically had a nightmare day, which is typical of a Wood Brother at the AMA Races. Good news is by the end of the day, when the dust settled, he was in good spirits all things considered.

9:00am - Day started with Supersport Practice and Jeff went from 4th fastest yesterday to 10th fastest (and half second slower) today. WTF was up. The bike was down 6-7mph on the straight and just not feeling as fast.

10:40am - FX Warmup he goes again slower, with Top Speed and laptimes both worse than Friday. Something is up but no idea what...

So during the Lunch Break Jeff takes the bike to Dynojet and turns out it's down 12HP from yesterday. Bike is now putting out 113hp.... Jeff throws his bone-stock B-bike (has pipe on it) on the dyno and that one is putting out 115hp. He decides to stay on the A-Bike since it's all dialed in and stuff and stick with it for Supersport Qualifying.

1:55pm - Supersport Qualifying comes and goes and finds Jeff way off his pace and 15th, whereas he was 4th on Friday. To add insult to injury he dumps it with 2 laps left when his Q tire broke. Yes his rear tire broke at 100+mph, the steel belts failed and he went tumbling.

Comes back into the pit and now he has to get his B-bike ready as the A-bike is piled and there is about 2 hours till FX race. His B-bike has a pipe and suspension on it.. so everyone starts getting the B-bike somewhat ready to go and during this time they pull the sparkplugs out of the A-bike to try and figure out what was up inside the motor. Well they found out all right. The bike mangled one of the plugs completely and he'd been running on 3 cylinders all morning.

4:40 FX Race - B-bike is all put together, Jeff puts wrenches down and helmet on and goes out to see what his 115hp bike can do. He's also on DOT tires. Anyway he rode like a maniac and seemed to be slowly reeling in the Gobert/Rapp/Chaz/Pegram/Martin group but was getting deeestoryed on the front straight. Gap would go from about 5 bike lengths in T5 to 20-25 by the entrance of T1. Pegram slowly started to fade backwards and Jeff got stuck behind Larry for about 6 or 7 laps at this point. Larry is tough to pass and his Duc is a missle. During this time the Gobert/Rapp/Chaz/Martin group took off and Jeff did everything he could to get by Larry. He finally set him up and took him at the apex of T3 (right in front of me) and immediately gapped out. He started reeling in Chaz (who fell back off Rapp/Gobert/Martin) but race ended.

Overall he was riding the brakes and corners like a friggin madman, you could tell he was just in the zone. If you look at the split times Jeff was 3rd fastest in the race for Split 2 (the one split that doesn't involve the front straight), only .1 second behind both Zemke and Hayes. That's remarkable.

Also when he pitted in his right rearset, swingarm, and boot were covered in some weird liquid. Turns out he was so close to Larry's Ducati that Larry's draft and exhaust (which points right into the R6's ram air) caused his bike to overheat. Red lights on the dash were flashing, 110C temp, boiled over radiator, etc! Crazy!

So anyway pretty good finish and hard riding all things considered. See how the day goes in Supersport tomorrow.


As for Eric, he was running a good race in 9th and 10th battling but with 6 laps to go his rear wheel carrier fell off. His axle fell off at 100+ mph and Eric went speeding into the grass!!!! He wasn't too stoked on that.

And that's that. Post some pics ina few.

PS: For comparison sake Larry's Ducati is putting out 150'ish HP and a very good source told me the REDBIKES are putting out 152. Yowzers.

PSS: I saw Larry at dinner and he told me his front brakes were acting weird in turn one. They would fade/grab/fade/grab, and that's why he kept overshooting it. They worked okay for the rest of the track.

PSSS: If I hear another person at the track (insert random fan, person walking by pits, etc) say "Why doesn' that guy have a real ride?" I'm going to puke.

[a13x]

Seriously.... wonder why one of the bigger teams hasn't picked them up yet...?

Then again I know very little about the business/politics of motorcycle racing...

I could name off about 6-10 reasons, and they are all fucking retarded.

[a13x]

Pics here: Picasa Web Albums - a13x - AMA VIR


Fancy setup. The ramp behind the tires stack leads to Jeff's hotel room.


Jeff resorted to palm reading to try and figure out what was wrong with A-bike


BTW it's warm here. PEACE

[brewmaster]

Great update. Thanks Alex. I always wish the Woods the best, great guys and riders.

It is amazing how expensive and difficult it is to put a competitive team together for the top racing classes. If dedication and perseverance along with talent were used for measuring a rider Eric & Jeff should be on factory rides. One can only hope a break is coming!

[lrrs313]

great update A13X. 115hp vs 150+hp hmmm...... they should let Jeff take the GSXR-1000 out. Probably make the same HP the Honda guys are making in FX. Better yet, let those boys come up to Loudon for a weekend and see how they go on a track where horsepower isn't quite as much of a factor.

[Kurlon]

Sounds like Jeff showed HP isn't as much of a factor at VIR as the FX boys thought. Nice show Jeff and Eric!

[CEO]

10th place

[OreoGaborio]

[CEO]

^ hey that camphone pic came out better than I thought it would lol

Fun ride today.

[union]

[QUOTE=a13x;562133


As for Eric, he was running a good race in 9th and 10th battling but with 6 laps to go his rear wheel carrier fell off. His axle fell off at 100+ mph and Eric went speeding into the grass!!!! He wasn't too stoked on that.

[/QUOTE]

Isnt that the second time this has happened to Eric on that Duc. Although the first time he got it in the pits and fixed. Scary.

Whats Jeff on tv today. He rode awesome!

[derrickhackman]

Something for the Wood household ... that is one great photo

[RyanNicholson]

awesome how once jeff started battling for the top 10 they featured him for a while....great race.

[a13x]

Here's Eric's comments:

I'm looking for someone who might want to come to Road Atlanta as a
wrench. Carl is going off to get married....I've already got one guy
coming, but there is more to do than just one guy. Anyone who is
interested please email me at eric@woodcraft-cfm.com

VIR: was fun...We got the chassis working well on our bike but had
some bad luck in the race, we came from 16th to 9th in he race and
then had a locknut come loose and the rear hub came 5 laps from the
end and leaving us on the side of the track (upright but unable to
continue)- a bit of a bummer.

Jeff came out of the truck blazing - top 5 quick in both classes on
Friday. His A bike then started to sound really bad, and slowed
down. We did a couple laps in FX qualifying, then got on his B bike -
which did not work well,and he then went back out on the ailing A
bike. He then put all his good stuff on the B bike and it came
around OK. He caught the 2nd group of guys (Attack, M4 & Pegram)
early in the FX race. Larry faded back to Jeff and then slowed him
down a ton with his missle of a bike and slower mid corner speed. I
was fighting a similar battle with the Stargel FX Yamaha of Taylor
Knapp. Jeff finally got around but Chaz Davies & co were long
gone...leaving a good 7th place. SS went OK, a tough start back in
14th and then moving forward to get a top 10, ahead of the Attack
Kawasakis and Roger Lee Hayden.

I'm fully convinced that if he had a factory bike he'd be up
front...we were both down 8-9 mph in FX (which surprisingly is very
similar to FX, only the top couple bike are appreciably faster than
top SS bikes)....he's riding really well - I hope someone notices.