AHRMA Round at NJMP August 2-3-4, 2013 Expert# 14R
2
Greetings,
I had an absolute Blast riding the ThunderBolt course at New Jersey Motorsports Park. I drove down with Dave Kump (Kumpy) on Thursday and rode 3 good practice sessions on Friday. Since I hadn't raced with AHRMA yet this year, I needed to have all of my riding gear inspected and they gave me a hard time about my helmet not being Snell 2010, even though it was manufactured in 9/2009 (less than 5 years old). Finally, they got the Referee to inspect my helmet & let me use it this past weekend, but want me to get a new one before Barber. With a couple practice sessions under my belt, John Doran convinced me to try 15/45 gearing , instead of the 15/44 gearing that I used 2 weeks ago at NJMP. After my last practice session on Friday, I noticed that my aluminum front fairing stay was cracked in a couple places and the bodywork was bouncing around worse than before. A phone call to MarkBilt Racing (Mark Rozema's shop) confirmed that they had someone there that could weld aluminum. I loaded my SV680 SuperBike in the van and brought along a couple pieces of 1/8' thick, 1" wide aluminum flat stock to use for reinforcement & build a bracket to mount my QStarz LT-6000 GPS lap timer. I got to MarkBilt around 5:00 and the bike was fixed by 5:45 PM.
On Saturday, we only had 1 practice session, since the track won't let them start with bikes on the course before 9 AM. Saturday was very hot & humid with overcast skies and threatening rain. I was able to get in a dry race in Race#2 Battle of Twins Formula 3 on my 2001 SV650 SuperSport bike. I finished in 6th Place of 14 Entries running DOT tires. There were some pretty fast bikes in this Formula3 class & I felt that I wasn't really competitive in this class on my "underpowered" SuperSport bike.
For Race#6 Open Two-Stroke: Tim O'Connor was battling for the lead in the early laps of the race on his TZ250, and then it started raining. After 3 or 4 laps, Tim pulled off the track - and even scored a 3rd Place Finish; since the rider in 4th place pulled off the track just a lap or two earlier.
Race#7 Battle of Twins Formula2: I went out to the starting line on my 2003 SV680 SuperBike (running slicks hot off the tire warmers) with steady rain falling on the warm up lap. Though 13 riders were originally signed up for this race, a bunch of them pulled off the track right after the warm-up lap; leaving only 8 of us to start the race. About half way through this rain race, my bike started acting funny and only running on 1 cylinder. I was thinking that the transmission was popping out of gear or some teeth broke off 3rd or 4th gear. I somehow managed to hold off 4 riders and finished in 4th place after several scary incidents with my tires slipping & sliding on the totally soaked track in the pouring rain to finish in 4th Place. Dave Kump finished in 7th place, riding my SV650 SS bike (still with DOT tires).
Race#9 Sound of Thunder: Before we left home, I made sure rain tires were mounted on my spare SV650 SuperSport wheels. Fortunately Dave Kump helped me swap wheels to get rains installed on the SS bike & got out just in time for 3rd call. With heavy rain coming down, it seems like only a few of us had the track to ourselves, with 13 riders signed up for this "Run what ya Brung", Feature Race. Pat Mooney, Bob Robbins, myself & Kerry Smith (riding a borrowed Honda 450 Motard bike) cautiously completed our warm-up laps. Only 4 of us started this race, so I hoped my chances were pretty good of getting on the Podium. I was much more comfortable riding this race in the rain with rain tires - though as I found out on the later laps, the front Michelin Rain tire was pretty old and started slipping in the turns. Kerry pulled off the track after 1 or 2 laps, but I figured I needed to just get through this race and keep charging to keep my podium position. When the race was over, I was elated to finally complete a rain race where I was pretty competitive in.
Saturday night the rain moved out and the temperatures dropped down into the low 50's. Miles let me borrow his air compressor & wheel balancer to install a new Bridgestone YCY Medium Rear Slick on my SuperBike.
Sunday morning was the most beautiful, comfortable day that I can remember at a race track with basically no humidity & bright blue skies. My plan for Sunday was to change from Formula3 (650cc limit with SuperSport rules) to Formula1 (unlimited 1000cc limits) to allow me to run my SV680 in all 3 classes on Sunday. I also had to figure out why the SV680 SuperBike was running so rough in the rain. James Brown told me to check the spark plug drain hole on the front cylinder (which was clear, but dripping water). I pulled off the radiator & removed the front spark plug that seemed to be in pretty rough shape. With a new spark plug installed & radiator re-attached; I was good to go for Practice. We got 20-minutes of Practice in a single session and everything seemed to be working pretty well.
Race#2 Battle of Twins Formula1: Now I'm entered with my 03 SV680 SuperBike and have 2D Grid position with only 8 bikes entered. I felt like I got a very good start, but it didn't take long for those 1000cc twins to stretch their legs and pass me down the front straight in the early laps. Pat Mooney was leading the race on the first lap and lost the front end on his Buell 1125 in Turn 3, causing his bike to flip violently in the grass towards the air fence. I stayed focused for this race and managed to run mostly 1:37 lap times, until the last lap when I caught some lappers to finish in 4th place.
Race#7 Battle of Twins Formula2: There were 11 entries, but only 6 started this race. Bob Robbins lead the early laps on his Ducati 750/800, followed by James Brown on his Buell 1125R (punched out to 1260cc). On the 2nd lap, Brad Phillips on his very fast Ducati passed me down the front straight and almost pushed me off the track entering Turn1. I had a front row view of the 3-way battle ahead of me with all of us catching Bob Robbins on each progressive lap. I finished in 4th Place, behind Brad Phillips, James Brown & Bob Robbins. Chris Jensen (local LRRS/USCRA Vintage racer) finished in 5th place, but was nowhere to be seen during my cool-down lap.
Race#9 Sound of Thunder: There were 9 entries, but only 6 started this race. I got an awesome Holeshot and was leading the race until we hit the back straight between Turns 5 & 6. I had a blast riding this race and finished in 4th Place, against some much faster 1000cc Twin cylinder and Triumph 675 Triple race bikes.
Looking at my GPS Lap timer, I never broke the 1:35 barrier, but my best Theoretical Lap time calculated out to be 1:34.7, so I think I can eventually get down to consistent 1:34 & 1:35 lap times. My 2nd Gen SV680 SuperBike is running great after John at Dyno-Solutions helped me re-map my Power Commander III. My next goal is to install an M4 Race Exhaust to see if the performance is better than the shorty Hindle exhaust currently installed.
Summary of AHRMA Races at New Jersey MotorSports Park - ThunderBolt Course:
Saturday: BOT F3 = 6th place on '01 SV650 SS bike (running DOT tires on dry track)
Saturday: BOT F2 = 4th place on '03 SV680 SuperBike (running slicks in pouring rain)
Saturday: Sound of Thunder = 3rd place on '01 SV650 SS bike (running rains in pouring rain)
Sunday: BOT F1 = 4th place on '03 SV680 SuperBike (running new slicks on dry track)
Sunday: BOT F2 = 4th place on '03 SV680 SuperBike (running new slicks on dry track)
Sunday: Sound of Thunder = 4th place on '03 SV680 SuperBike (running new slicks on dry track)
Thanks to Dave Kump, Tim O'Connor & all my Sponsors that help make this dream possible... Bridgestone Tires, Rising Sun Cycles, Street & Competition, Speed Demon Cycles, Boston Moto, Penguin School, Vanson Leathers, Woodcraft and Yoyodyne
Next race on the schedule is only 10 days away for LRRS Round 5 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway on August 16-17-18, 2013 when ASRA and USGPRU joins us in Loudon, NH.
Ultimate Goal for me in 2013 is to compete with AHRMA for their Vintage Celebration at Barber Motorsports Park in October, now that Tim, Kumpy & I have qualified to race there.
-Bob Poetzsch
AHRMA Expert# 14R
LRRS/CCS/USGPRU# 14
2001 Suzuki SV650 SuperSport
2003 Suzuki SV680 SuperBike
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