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Yup, another long report but I wanted to share my experience with anyone that cares to read. Good luck on that. I also want to make sure I capture as much detail of these first events as I can so when I am older I can remember them like it was yesterday...
Cliffs: This weekend started off crappy and turned out to be amazing. I raced my brother’s Ninja 650R that was listed for sale a few short weeks ago. My brother and girlfriend are awesome for what they did to make this weekend a success. You guys are all amazing for helping me out. The Hawk’s motor is toast; spun a bearing. Best finish: 1st in my last race and best time of: 1:25.623 on my last lap of the weekend.
Week Prior: This week was the week that would never end for me. Every day leading up to the leaving for the track on Thursday was: wake up super early go to work for 10-12hrs, come home from work then proceed to work on the Hawk until it was well past midnight. Rinse and repeat. In the previous weeks to me working on the bike on Monday, I had the harness sorted thanks to the help of Erik (zx6r). We went through each and every wire to ensure it was good. We took out all the useless things such as wires for any of the lights, or useless sensors (clutch, kickstand, etc).
Monday, I went and routed the entire harness on the bike several times to figure out the best route possible, and then I went to install spark plugs; no go. I tried 4-5 different thin wall 18mm deep sockets; no go. Looked on the forum and everyone said use the OEM tool. Thanks to Stuart (Beinggodisgreat) who loaned me his OEM tool from his newly acquired Hawk, I was able to change them. Tuesday I had to fabricate some brackets for the new coil packs. Took some trial and error but I was able to configure it in a manner that was safely secured, yet easily accessible should I need to test/remove them.
Wednesday I pretty much had everything ready save for a few small things; re-install tank, tail, and test ride the bike. Somehow on Wednesday after work when I was ready to fire up the bike; I got nothing. Called up Erik once again who came to my rescue and we found the starter relay was not sending power to the starter. Crap. Tested a few more things and we ended up starting the bike with a pair of pliers across the relay. Fired right up and then we buttoned down the bike, by this time it was about 8-830PM. Erik took a short ride up the street and confirmed nothing cut off on him but he didn’t know what a Hawk was supposed to feel like. I did the same loop up and down the street but it was getting pretty dark as the street had no lights, I had no headlights, and I was on cold slicks. The bike felt okay but I wasn’t able to get on the throttle hard or go through the gears. So I made the call and deemed the bike good enough for racing. I change the oil and put the belly pan back on.
Thursday, I woke up early yet again but this time to load up the car/trailer so when Virginia could just pick up me at work and we’d go straight from there. Much to my surprise; it was raining in Vernon. I opted to have a decent breakfast instead of trying to load the Hawk and her CBR250 on a wet trailer by myself which meant I was going to be arriving at the track much later than I wanted to. I spent 90% of my day in meetings so I got out of work much later than I wanted to (left at 415ish when I had planned to leave at 230-3pm). Everything felt like it was just going in the wrong direction. Once I got home, changed and started packing the car and hitching up the trailer. One thing I had forgotten was how much time it actually takes me to load the trailer up and tie everything down that is NOT Pitbull TRS ready. We finally get on the road at 645PM which meant a 10PM or later arrival at the track. To my surprise when I got to the track, a bunch of people helped me unload; Wild Bill (Ynot), Matt (MFChop), Bill Cool (Mustang) to name a few.
After unloading the bike, both the Bill’s looked over my Hawk and dissected every little detail. One Bill said everything besides the aesthetics were in good condition and bike was solid. The other said “Why do you still have this thing? You should light it on fire!” I’ll let you decide as to which Bill said what.I proceeded to say Hi to everyone in the RSP/ECK and neighboring garages for the next half hour or so. Afterwards, we went and set up camp for the weekend by the back straight per our usual spot.
Friday: Goal – Shakedown the Hawk and make sure it’s running right. So I get up around 6AM and do my morning routine. After some breakfast, do a once over on the bike to make sure everything I touched was good. I go to start the bike up just to make sure; fires right up. YES! Small victories! Today is going to be good. Go through tech and get back to the pits. I put the warmers on, get my gear out and get myself ready for practice in group 7. After I hear the first group go out for practice, I start getting ready. I hear the call for my group, helmet on, gloves on, warmers off and I roll out for a few slow laps to make sure everything works as it should. I get on the throttle from pit out to T3, hmm… this doesn’t feel right there isn’t any kind of pull. Full throttle going up T4 and over the hill again doesn’t feel right. I figure it’s just me not being used to the riding the bike since I’ve only turned 3 laps last round. Get on the front straight. Full throttle not much happening, 3rd gear not much different, 4th gear, nothing, 5th nothing again. WTF!?! Is it running on one cylinder again?! I thought I just fixed all this crap. How could it be?! I take it easy the rest of the lap, and pit out after only 1 full lap. I look over the bike in the hot pit then turned the bike off to check it over, nothing looks off. Try to start it, but it’s having a hard time turning over. FUUUCCCKK! I walk the bike back to the garage. Someone helps me put it on the rear stand. Take off my gear, pissed as all hell that nothing I did over the past week was effective. All my efforts for naught. I drink some water and then try to start the bike up again and immediately there is a giant clunking/knocking sound coming from the motor. I immediately turn the bike off. Are you kidding me?! I didn’t hear this noise on the track because I had ear plugs in and was focusing on other aspects of the bike that I worked on so I didn’t listen to the motor that well. Ahhh….. My weekend is shot. I texted my brother and told him the motor was shot and there was nothing I could do to fix it. So much for racing, guess I’ll just hang out and help everyone else during their races.
After about a half hour of moping around and being lost in my own thoughts on what to do for the rest of the weekend. I get some choice words of encouragement from Virginia to get some sort of plan to recover the rest of the weekend as there was still plenty of time and lots of options on the table. I got a few offers from some of my G2 garage mates to race their bikes, race another friends Ninja 250 or various other options were presented to me from my fellow racers. First, I called Gino (nt650hawk) the resident Guru for this bike for his advice. He told me to take apart the bike so we could check timing and also see if the valves needed to be adjusted. Second, I know for a fact that Gino won’t be here till very late in the day or possibly during the endurance race so I went ahead and canceled my races for Friday with registration. Third, I started to take off the carbs, thermostat, and related plumbing to get to the valve covers. After spending an hour or so working on the bike to get everything off. I decided there wasn’t anything else I could do. I consulted with ‘The Beard’ himself (John aka Trouble) and he agreed that waiting for Gino would be the best bet. The rest of the day was pretty relaxing as I got to actually hang out with a bunch of people, watch some racing and help others with their bikes.
After the sprint racing was over I got myself together to help out the RSP racing team as a member of their pit crew for the 3 hour endurance race. My role was to check tire pressures for each member and set them to their liking/needs. Since we were using Adam’s (Rada) bike he went first, followed by Savas (Tsorfas), Keith (CatahoulaBuldog) and Mike (DucatiMike). This was by far one of the best things I’ve ever been involved with. It was a fantastic time, even though I did burn my hand 3 or 4 times by hitting the rotor on the first pit-in tire pressure check. I learned quickly to use gloves for the rest of the race. The planning, strategy and execution was something I had never personally been a part of in my short racing career so it was a very unique perspective. However, hanging out with the rest of the pit crew transponder/Kyle (itgbudeev), fuel 1/Mike (Linus), fire extinguisher/Josh (Kurlon), Timer/Matt, Flagger/Eric (ct1200), fuel 2/Mike R (Ducman), cameraman/Brendan (BMMCBR600RR), Pitboss/Kurtz, and head crew chief/Bill Cool. Our game plan was to keep times as consistent as possible between each rider and keep our pit-stops minimal. We ended up getting 4th in our class, regardless of the outcome; I want to be participating IN the race next year. So it’s getting added to the list of goals for 2015.
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Friday night: Here is where things get interesting… At some point in the endurance race the wind started to pick up and the sun disappeared behind the clouds and after a little while of dealing with it I decided it was enough so I went to the tent and grabbed my sweatshirt. While I was at the tent, I saw my brother’s bike behind the tent. I had a puzzled look for a few seconds but didn’t think much of it. After not having heard from him all day since my text in the morning, and seeing he had just arrived I figured he wanted to get here early instead of coming on Saturday afternoon to watch the races. No big deal, I’ll see him later. I head back to the hot pit for the remainder of the endurance race. After the race concluded, I start to carry a hand full of items back to the garage and get stopped half way by Eric get asked to take a walk with him. I replied, “Let me put all this down first” within seconds I see my brother ride his bike (2007 Ninja 650R) out of the garage with my number plate in the front. Holy crap! WTF is he doing with that on there?! Then it clicks; he’s prepping his bike for me to race. I’m in total shock. After a few minutes of shock/awe I find out both my brother and girlfriend Virginia had been conspiring together all day to make this happen. Everyone else knew, except me. Totally surprised and eternally grateful to have these two in my life. Their support and their sacrifices for my dreams as amazing and I could not do this without them.
Then it dawned on me that if I have to race this bike, I’ve got to do a lot of prep work. Drill and safety wire the bike, drain/bleed the coolant, numbers, change tires, secure a lower fairing and then pass through tech. Well…. What the hell am I waiting for?! I borrow some stands from a friends bike (Thanks Tori) and we start to lay out a plan of attack after getting some advice from a few fellow racers. With the help of Tim (Tildoren), Adam, my brother and a few others we work until 1am or so to get almost everything done. All that’s left was to bleed the coolant and pass through tech.
Saturday: I was supposed to wake up at 6AM and finish up the bike then sign up for the only race I qualified for on Saturday (Novice Rookie 2). Instead my body finally able to get more than 2 or 3 hours of sleep for the first time in a week decided nope, I’m not waking up until 7. As soon as I wake up, I take a wiz and head to registration. I didn’t even wear my glasses, brush my teeth, drink coffee, or care if the world was on fire. Nothing was getting in the way of me turning some worry free laps today. Took a little while to sort through the confusion but the staff at registration took care of me and I got registered for all 3 of the races the Ninja qualified for; one Saturday and two Sunday. Next up, coffee and burping the coolant and somehow displaying the numbers on the side of the bike.
After a few suggestions, I settled for putting them on the tank as the ninja had a banana seat and I didn’t feel like mucking it up with tape. Put some blue painters tape on first, then white duct tape over it and lastly salvaged the red numbers from the hawk. Last on the list was getting the lower fairing from the hawk and making it work on the 650. Fortunately for me, it fit pretty well and I ended up zip tying it to a few places and it was secured. Sweet, the bike is ready and I still have some time to spare. Put the bike up on stands, and put my tire warmers on. Crap, I only have 160 series warmers and they don’t fit (the ninja had a 180 rear tire conversion). Have no fear, Timmy is there! He suggested I borrow the warmers from Gino F. (his fellow Maine rider) since he had to leave for the day. After some reassurance as I felt guilty, but I relented and put them on the bike. They were tight and took some caressing but they worked and I was good to go!
Finally, two minute call came for my group. I put on my gear, take off the warmers, turn the bike on and roll out of the pits. I start to get a little nervous, having not ridden the track at speed for a little over two months. As I start to roll out into the hot pit, I realize I haven’t really ridden this bike since last September which was only in the rain on street tires. Now I have Pirelli DOT V2’s, which are also tires I’ve never ridden. Lots of different changes new to me so my goal became simple: breathe, relax, and just get comfortable with the bike. Coming out of pit-out and onto the track I start to roll on the throttle; HOLY SHIT this bike has power! Brake for T3 then start to roll on the throttle again for T4 and get to full throttle going up the hill: I forgot what it’s like to ride a bike with power! Yes, coming from a Hawk I was drunk on power.
It felt great to finally be riding at speed and not worrying or wondering if the bike is going to give out on me at any moment. Don’t get me wrong, the Hawk is an awesome machine that has taught me not to rely on power in the short period of time I have spent on it. I really had to work on my body position and getting on the throttle early and constantly pushing my braking points further and getting on the throttle earlier. Still, it felt great to just go out there and have some fun for a change. Second practice was pretty uneventful aside from one point: I decided to do a practice start since I’ve never ‘launched’ this bike. That was definitely interesting as I just became a little more confused on where to keep the RPM’s. I decided to just do it trial by fire in the race. Fastest Practice time on Saturday was 1:32.317
Shortly after practice, my dad came out to watch me race and for the rest of the festivities of the weekend. It was fun to hang out with him and watch a few of the races. We watched the vintage side car races and it was great to see his reaction as the monkey’s were almost dragging helmet’s or nearly rolling over with the third wheel hanging several feet off the ground through T1. After a few laps, I headed back to get ready for my race.
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As we pit out, I opt to again continue my tradition for the weekend of doing a practice start. I also like being the last one out of the pits as I like to get a real sense of the track at my own pace and checking for anything unusual out on the track. Get out to the grids and wait for the wave in front of us to start the race. Green flag goes up for them, and I see them all head into turn 1, alright it’s our turn now. A couple seconds go by and the red flag goes up. Great now we have to wait for the wave in front of us to do a restart while our tires are getting colder and I’m sweating like a little furry mammoth during the end of the ice age era. 
Originally Posted by csmutty
