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RSP Racing #29 Race Report – LRRS Rd1
April 26-26, 2014
Pre-Race
I arrived at the track Thursday night after a very interesting time towing a 22’ trailer up with an SUV in 50mph gusting winds =). Apart from that I was actually fairly stress free, if extremely tired.
No matter, I was back at the track and determined to make the best of a very chilly weekend.
Friday Practice went reasonably well although I was unprepared for many of the changes that were made to my GSXR over the winter break.
The biggest change, by far, was done by RSP Racing sponsor Peter Kates of GMD Computrack – Boston. I left my bike with Pete in October of 2013, complaining about lack of rear traction and an inability to finish turns. Every time I would get on the throttle the bike would want to push very wide, causing me to continue to give bar input to complete the turn. This, in turn, was the cause for some loss of rear traction as well as an inability to get on the gas as early as I would like.
Pete waved his magic chassis wand and after correcting my horribly shallow rear swingarm angle and general geometry woes, the bike was a completely different animal.
I was totally unprepared for the way this bike would now handle, so much so that I nearly binned it in my very first lap of my first practice session. I was taking it easy since I had been off the bike for 7 months and making my way cautiously around the track. I tipped in for my usual turn 6 which carries the same arc into turn 7 except that the bike actually held its line…and I promptly hit the inside curb of turn 7 causing me to go completely airborne. Somehow I managed to land on 2 wheels and get back onto the track. I pit in, checked my wheels for bends, changed my shorts, and made a mental note about improved handling characteristics.
The rest of the day was spent feeling out the bike except that I discovered that my slipper clutch was not doing its job.
I was too exhausted to deal with it Friday night and instead helped some of my teammates unload and got to an early bed.
Saturday Practice
This was utterly miserable. The rain was coming down steadily and temperatures were in the very low 40’s. I spent the morning huddled up, trying to get feeling back in my extremities and debating if I wanted to do my very first race back this season, which was to be a 25 minute endurance race, in the cold and wet. No practice for me.
GTU
The desire to race overcame my trepidation about being cold and wet for the rest of the weekend so I gridded up. At least race control shortened these races to 15 minutes. I got a decent start and slotted into 2nd place behind ultra-fast-guy Scott Greenwood (#4) who very quickly showed me why he is the legend that he is, and disappeared into the grey distance.
I held 2nd place for a bit until Christian Cronin (#58) made a move on me. I followed him on his rear wheel for a few laps, planning my overtake in T6 where I knew I was faster in the wet however on the last lap, a rider from the GTO crew shot past me in T3 and promptly binned it right in front of me. The rider stood up right in my line forcing me to take very evasive maneuvers to avoid running into him which allowed Kristopher Knopf (#31) to tuck under me and drive up the hill.
By the time I got myself back into the race I only had half a lap to make up two positions and opted instead to not push in the very slippery conditions and dejectedly rolled across the line to take 4th place.
Something to note: there is a 10’ wide stretch of paint on the start/finish line. Something about granite state nascar blah blah stuff. At 120+mph while hard on the throttle in these conditions, the rear wheel spins up when you are going over that paint. Not exactly confidence inspiring!
Outlap: 1:42.982 (wet)
Best Lap: 1:37.135 (wet)
Finish: 4th
Middleweight Grand Prix
GTU was the first race of the day, MWGP was the last. In the hour before this race the temperature dropped substantially. I was chilled to the bone and decided that since I wasn’t realistically in a points race for this bracket that I was going to sit it out. Glad that I did, the race was crash-ridden.
Sunday Practice
Again, I opted to skip both practices as it was still wet and very, very cold. Racing was supposed to be dry so rolling around on rains wasn’t going to offer me anything.
Middleweight SuperBike a.k.a. the race from hell
I was excited to get some dry track, even though it was still very cold. Since they grid based off of last year’s points I was in the fourth row back in 4b (14th place), not an ideal spot to say the least.
The green flag flew and I got a killer start, moving into 5th place by turn one. Unfortunately my good luck was short lived as the race leader, Scott Greenwood (#4) crashed out in turn 1A causing red flag #1.
We rolled back into hot pit for re-gridding and all I could think of was how much heat I was losing from my tires by sitting on the cold pavement. Race control got us all back out fairly quickly though and we went to start #2 which was ok and I think I was in 7th. Again someone crashed and the red flag #2 flew before we could complete one lap.
3rd restart was miserable as the riders on both sides of me 12 o’clocked their bikes and I was not interested in being in the middle of that so I rolled off a bit to let them sort it out. I got railroaded into the back of the pack and went into T1 somewhere near the rear of the grid but making up a few spots due to some aggressive riding on the outside of T1 and T1A.
I put my head down, made some moves and picked up some positions over the whopping 3 laps that we had before Riley Rodgers (#48) had an unfortunate highside going up the hill into T4. 3rd red flag while the ambulance rolled.
Since we had now been sitting more than racing, race control felt that our tires were cold and they put us back in the garage to run the next race, and they would bring us back out after to finish this mess.
We did that, and to shorten this up a bit, we had 3 more restarts without completing a single lap. Control scrubbed the race which means that despite me running in 5th place for every restart, we were scored according to where we were at during our last completed lap which means I got stuck with 10th place. To say I was unhappy would be a pretty large understatement.
My best lap was a pitiful 1:19 but considering the conditions I am ok with it, that and the fact that the front runners were all 4+ seconds off their pace made me feel a lot better.
Outlap: 1:26.559
Best Lap: 1:19.543
Finish: 10th (AAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!)
Middleweight SuperSport
30 minutes before this race was to run it began to rain again. I was so pissed off after missing out on so much dry track in race #1 I decided that I wasn’t going to roll around in the wet again and I scrubbed this race.
Conclusion
Overall this was a terribly ungratifying weekend for me. After spending a lot of time, money, and effort preparing for this event only to end up with one wet race, one race that we couldn’t even complete 5 laps, and two scrubbed races was a serious disappointment.
I am trying to focus on the positive in that I did not crash and that I was making progress in the few dry laps that I did manage to get. I came out of it with renewed confidence in my GSXR, a working slipper clutch, and a desire to come back in May and kick some ass.
As always I want to thank my friends, family, fans, and sponsors for all that they do to help me make this crazy hobby a reality. A specific mention needs to go out to John of Dyno Solutions (www.dyno-solutions.com) for tuning my bike over the winter and helping me to find some much needed power, and to Pete Kates of GMD Computrack – Boston for allowing me to finally realize what race bike geometry and suspension are supposed to feel like. You two fellas have completely transformed Lindsay into a lean, mean racing machine!
Another mention needs to go out to Gregg Spears of Spears Racing (www.spearsenterprises.com). Gregg was an avid supporter and sponsor of my earlier lightweight campaign and even though I am no longer in brackets that he can support he still serves as a tireless supporter of the LRRS series. I placed a call to Gregg in an effort to help troubleshoot someone elses SV650 to get him up and running for the race weekend (apparently I am still a go-to guy for working on SVs) and as always, Gregg was able to provide insight that eventually led us to the fix. With Greggs help, Savvas (AM#508) was able to get out and win three podiums this weekend which would not have been possible otherwise. Thank you Gregg!
Also a shout out to my teammates of RSP racing who had some killer racing this last weekend. Several podiums were won! Congratulations to Mike Kurtz (#86) on taking a podium in his first ever race in the new 300cc class. RSP Rookie Eric Reiter (Nov#409) earned his numbers this weekend and also managed a podium on a borrowed bike! Impressive! Also this round saw the triumphant (and somewhat creepy) return of Bill Coolahan (#46) who was out for most of 2013 with injury. Finally, watching my teammates Brian Kelly (#90) and Keith Draghi (#76) battle it out in the lightweight brackets was the highlight of my weekend! I will leave it to them both to tell this tale but those who missed this race missed out on quite a spectacle…and a bent brake lever. Poor Adam Butler (#820) had an equally crappy weekend so you have my sympathy :-p
I would like to offer a heartfelt “well done!” to all of the rookies that earned their numbers this past weekend in very difficult conditions. I think I heard that there were 45 newcomers which is nothing short of amazing. Congratulations to those who toughed it out, even though some crashed in what will undoubtedly be some of the worst conditions you will ever have to face on a race track.
Because I only completed a handful of laps this entire weekend, rather than bore you with 20 minutes video sitting on pre-grid during yet-another-red-flag I made a quick montage :-p
http://youtu.be/YPBs4cyrS98
and a few pictures from the event...
Heading out to grid up
My starts were consistently good
riding in the cold and wet...
and somehow Arcy managed to catch one of my FOUR dry laps.
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