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LRRS Round 7 - Savvas Kosmidis CMP Racing Race Report

  1. #1

    LRRS Round 7 - Savvas Kosmidis CMP Racing Race Report

    Loudon Road Race Series – Round 7
    Savvas Kosmidis #508 Race Report

    The worst day at the track beats the best day in the real world…

    This round last year was a very special one for me. Few hours after I had arrived at the track, I got a phone call that a very close friend of mine had passed away. Atha for me was a lot of things, a friend, a supporter, a father at times. He always showed his support for me, he was so proud of everything I was accomplishing, but more importantly, he was ALWAYS there. I dedicated my last round and entire season efforts to him for last year.

    This year even prior to arriving at the track I could feel his presence, I somehow believed he was very close to me. It was a very tough week both mentally and physically. I started the season comfortably on two motorcycles. I was able to switch from one to another any time and stay on top of my game. Within a couple of rounds I was already a full second faster than I was the prior year and I was finishing almost all my races in the Top 10, sometimes even on the podium. With only 2 rounds to go in the Northeast Region my luck changed a bit. A blown motor on the Kawasaki took it out for the rest of the season and on my fastest race so far in my career I crashed and damaged my Suzuki SV650 pretty bad. I spent the last two weeks working at my day job and during the day and staying up all night working on the bike trying to sort things out. Those of you who know me, know that I am not exactly the most knowledgeable person when it comes to motorcycle mechanics… Luckily for me I have plenty of people who were there to explain a bunch of things to me, provide me with resources and tools, even drive hours to come give me a hand to get the Suzuki ready in time.
    The bike had to be ready for Daytona, but I certainly did not want to ride for the first time there after we touched a bunch of things on it, so the last round of my local race series was the perfect testing ground.
    Starting with my personal A team: Gino B. Panos S. Bill T. Keith J. we did some damage evaluation for the bike and got an action plan together of what needs to be fixed. Got a lot of work done and we were on a decent platform. Gary and Jimmy and actually the entire Central Mass PowerSports crew made sure that all the parts and gear I needed would be here in time. I had completely destroyed my suit in my crash and a new helmet would be a wise investment. A bunch of other parts also came in significantly fast!
    Gregg Spears from Spears Racing was able to provide me with a working motor in very short time. Gregg not only knows EVERYTHING about SVs (and many other bikes) but is also great to deal with. The man knows racing, he understands racing, he understands your goals and what you are trying to accomplish and he has great advice! Jimmy from Central Mass PowerSports was able to put in the new motor in within a few hours and I headed up to New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

    Friday:
    I woke up with fever and a headache. The exhaustion from the week was getting to me at this point.
    My elbow was not in the greatest shape and was still hurting, and my thigh was still in pain. After work I headed to CMP to help with the last bids of putting the motor together and take the SV to head to the track. I arrived at the track late at night with my friend Panos, way later than usual. It was cold and windy. I unloaded my bike, set up the trailer and we got to work.
    The bike had a new motor in but we still didn’t have a throttle assembly. A bunch of people popped from several directions with either parts or advice or even tools. After switching over 7 (yes seven) different cable combinations, the SV “Gods” Rick Doucette and Jonathan Burbank walked over and got me up and running. At this point we had throttle! I had a working and running bikes which I still had not ridden. Worked on few other things and put the bike back together in order to ride it Saturday and headed to bed around 3am.

    Saturday:
    I woke up around 7am. Headed to registration and signed up for Race #7, Light Weight Grand Prix. That would give me some time to get the bike 100%, clean up my work area and get ready for the race. After starting the bike I noticed it was running weird, like it was running on one cylinder… Popped the bodywork off again, the tank and we found a loose coil wire. Plugged that bad boy in and tried again. This time it seemed like the rear cylinder was running on and off. While temperature in the front header was reading 500+ the rear would go 100-200. Shut the bike off and took everything apart. After tracing down all wiring we eliminated that option. We had spark on both cylinders. Maybe bad CDI? Ted Temple came through with a spare one, we plugged in and the problem was still there. About that time Rick Doucette walked over and within seconds was able to tell that the way the throttle cables and some springs were set up the rear carb was completely shut off when the throttle was off. My good friend Michael Weyant fixed the issue Ricky pointed out and also helped me take my exhaust apart, found and fixed the leak we had. Dave Dayon provided me with his own exhaust gaskets to complete proper installation and we had a bike ready to go.

    Race #7 – Light Weight Grand Prix
    Originally I was going to be gridded in 3rd row for this, however with so many changes to the bike I requested to start last so I can keep my own pace while making sure nothing is going to fall of the bike and hurt me or anyone else. Took it easy at the start since the clutch was so heavy and my only goal was to not stall and stay out of everyone’s way. After two laps I started feeling competitive and decided to push a little bit. It was taking a lot of my mental focus to pull in the heavy clutch and the ZX10 master cylinder with the SS brake lines were not making me happy at all. I really did not like my brake system and I was missing my old reliable and full of feedback one. I did a few passes and finished my race in 13th place behind John Grush and Kris Hopkins.
    Best lap was 1:22 but I was not out there to get after lap times this time. As I was heading to the pits my left forearm was in a lot of pain from the heavy clutch and I felt a lot of stiffness and pain in my core, probably from my crash the weekend before.

    The night was going to be a long one for me. I tried 6 different master cylinders and several combinations of brake lines to find something that makes me happy and failed miserably. Most of the people were at the Halloween Party thrown by LDR, which I heard was an amazing time, but I really had to get my bike were needed to be. With the help of my amazing friends and teammates (Gino, Pano, Chris) and my sister taking the drive all the way to Worcester and BACK at the track to grab me my old brake lines from home and Todd’s generous donation/loan of an SV master cylinder I was able to complete the brake system that I am familiar with and makes me happy. Gino and Pano also took 3 old of the stock clutch springs form the old motor and put them in the new one. We tried several untraditional methods to lube the clutch cable and around 2am we had a very happy clutch as well.
    We put the final bids and pieces together and I finally showered and made it to bed around 330am.


    Sunday:
    I woke up around 7 on Sunday and headed to registration to sign up for two race, just to make sure I am happy with everything done to the bike. When that was said and done I headed back to the garage to clean up my work area and put my tools away. Went out for practice felt pretty good, although a bit tired and stiff. Went to a great riders’ meeting to hear some great stuff and the excitement about the LARRY LAP!!!
    Race #4 – Light Weight Super Bike
    I was gridded on the inside of the second row. I wanted to really check my starts on the new clutch set up and new motor. EVERYTHING went perfect and I went in T1 on the rear tire of Charles Sandoz #18 and stayed on him for a while. While everything seemed to be working great on the bike I was comfortable pushing and staying with the leaders. It wasn’t too long until Pete G and Rick Doucette went by me. I kept them in sight but slowly started to fall back since there was no benefit to chase anything. At some point Kris Hopkins came on my side in T3, we stayed side by side for a few turns (it was actually pretty cool and close racing) but I reminded myself that I really should not be risking a crash with a week to go for Daytona. I saw Kris pull away and relaxed down my pace. I saw the checkered flag and made it to the pits very happy with both the performance of the bike and myself. Within a few seconds I saw something that made me very happy:
    7th Place with a best lap of 1:18.8 – Over a second of my PB but very good performance coming back after a crash, with so many changes in such cold weather.

    Race #6 – SuperTwins
    I was gridded in second row again, I got a great start and went into T1 in 2nd place, Rick Doucette passed around T4 and I stayed behind him for a while. In the second lap I heard some serious misfiring from my bike and pulled in. It seemed to run fine and the misfiring was gone. I went back out just to finish the race and make sure nothing bad is happening.
    I finished last with a bet lap of 1:20

    The rest of my Sunday evening involved getting Cole’s trailer ready for our adventure in Daytona and Race of Champions 2015. After about 5 hours and lots of laughs we had all the bikes in the trailer among with Coles 194 set of tires…

    I learned a lot about my bike and myself this weekend. Last year I competed in over 100 races all over east coast, without a single incident. I had one bike and I could barely take my wheels on and off by myself. This season I started with two bikes and I had a blown motor and a pretty bad crash. I spent more time wrenching this past week, than I have in my entire life time combined. But I want to believe it was all worth it. I learned a lot about my bike, I still am. I also learned how important suspension and geometry are, how the tiniest thing can have such a massive impact. How the people around you really make a difference in your goals. Once again I got to appreciate how amazing our LRRS family is. How so many people rushed over to help to get me ready for racing, how many people came over and tried to cheer me up when I was down on Saturday and ready to give up and just go home, how I get loaner parts from my competitors ever, to go out in time and race THEM!
    I may be forgetting names and things now but massive thank you to all who helped one way or another not just this weekend, but my entire racing career. I am going down to Daytona with a fantastic group of people, and I am planning on giving it all I got with my loyal SV to try and bring some National Championships back home. I have a lot to do even now, even with 2-3 days to go.

    Huge thank you to all my sponsors and supporters:, Central Mass Powersports, Alexander Academy, Butler Performance Machining, TSS Graphics, Bill Tansey and ZerO SpeedWerks, Scott Mullin from SVM, Gregg Spears, DNA High Performance Filters,Eric Wood from Woodcraft and Penguin, Peter Kates for making sure the SV is straight and has suspension for Daytona, Pirelli Tires, GoPro. All the guys from Plaistow who helped out.Rick, Jon, Dave, Shawn. Michael Weyant, Ted Temple, Chris Bouchard, and everyone else!

    I end my Northeast season not where I wanted to but still in a very good place.
    Below are my overall results:
    2015 LRRS OVERALL POINTS: 508 (isn’t that funny?)
    2015 SuperTwins: 5th Place
    2015 GTL: 6th Place
    2015 Light Weight Super Bike: 7th Place
    2015 Thunderbike: 8th Place
    2015 Light Weight Grand Prix: 12th Place

    I had a goal of finishing top 5 in all my classes my first Expert year, unfortunately blown motor and crashes usually do not allow those kind of results. I will take what I got, and I am very happy with where I got my lap times.

    I was advised by my doctor to NOT race this past weekend or in Daytona due to my injuries. The concerns are more focused in case of another crash, so let’s hope that does not happen. Regardless, I will be in Daytona in 10 days ready to fight with the big Ducatis and Bimotas…
    It will take much more than few scratches and bruises to keep down and away from racing. I do however hope my luck changes going forward comparing to how bad it was this year…

    Thank you all for reading and supporting and being part of this. Rumor has it that the Race of Champions Sunday Race will be live webcasted by Fans Choice TV! So please stay tuned and continue supporting our efforts.

    Love to all,
    Sav #508

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    Re: LRRS Round 7 - Savvas Kosmidis CMP Racing Race Report



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    go faster cdovego's Avatar
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    Re: LRRS Round 7 - Savvas Kosmidis CMP Racing Race Report

    That was one sweet holeshot! Daytona right around the corner...

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    Central Mass Powersports #123

    1000rr, zx10r, rmz450, RE classic, r6, S4Rs, xr123, sv650(2), cr250 and a box truck that leaks power steering fluid.

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