[hessogood]

What a long hot race weekend. Here's the play by play write up. All you illeiterates can stop reading here. There are no pictures in this thread yet.

Got up to the track friday night, confirmed my registration for the races and picked up the transponder. Worked on my friends bike till late in the hours then set up the tent and slept a little. Rose up around 5:30 AM saturday morning. Got out for my first practice and ran pretty good on my old tires which were definitly spent. Running around 1:24 - 25 lap times. Got a brand new set of bridgestones mounted but not fast enough to make second practice so i had to skip out. My ussual tire guy was at a different race so some lady was working the pit. A bit of foreshadowing here, she mounted the front tire backwards, had to look in a book to give me the "reccomended" tire pressure for the day's temp and conditions and back to the book for everything else that I would ask her or talk to her about, and she didn't even set the tire pressure for me. I found 42 PSI in my tires when I got them back to the pit, and 62 in my friend Dan's front tire. We had to go borrow another tire gauge because we just could not believe it. Now to the races.

Got out on the track for my first race (race #2) heavy weight supersport. Decided to try my luck in this one with the six hundo this time around. Was running pretty good, back tire was sliding a bit but I was riding through them and really felt good. A little strange since the tires should not be sliding at the laptimes I'm running. I was running in top 3 or 4 making a pass on the brakes coming into turn three really hot, dropped in for my line, which was much wider then my ussual, but a good line never-the-less. Just before the transition to climb the hill I lost the back end and supermaned into the gravel trap. Got up and got the bike was trying to start it to get back in the race and the cornerworker told me I was leaking fluid and had to push the bike off. Push it off, check everything, minor damages, still good to race no leaking fluids but a few pounds of gravel filling my bellypan. Just as I get him to let me go back out they redflag the race for another crash and line us up for a restart. Again running really good, coming into turn three fast with a guy not too far off my tail and a guy in front of me. I can see smoke pouring off the rear tire of the guy in front of me and I know he's not going to make the corner so I slow WAY down as does the rider behind me. Just as I thought the kid highsides, and pretty bad too, I took the corner through a cloud of flying parts. Redflagged again, restarted again, ran hard, a lot of rear end sliding, but doing great consistant lines and good times. Got into first place about halfway through the race by passing a black motard. He passed by me last lap coming out of turn 10, I let him by and got on his ass through the tight turns onto the straight, 11-11A-12, went real tight into 11 and real wide for 12 and got a great drive, he turned his head about halfway to the start/finish just as I was rocketing by him.

Next up, race 4, middleweight supersport. Hit the pits and doused myself with icewater, had a short brake and back on the track. It was HOT. Tracktemp was about 140 degrees. Get a great start and running really well, 4th place, two passes on the first lap and I'm into 2nd. The guy with first was close for a lap and then pulled a little distance, from me, as I put some long distance between me and the 3rd place. Running through turn 6, the bowl, The rear end starts sliding, I stay on it knee down and on line but it just keeps sliding, bike goes completely sideways sliding, drops me off and goes flying. That was a tumble that hurt a bit. I don't think I'll have the pictures till next week, but my friend snapped a few great shots of it. Turns out I cooked my brand new tires, thanks to the bridgstone lady giving me the wrong pressures. Tire was smooth as glass where it spun up and the other side you could see where it was slding through the turns. Damage to the biek and no recovery from that crash, I was sore and my muscles were locking up, so I relaxed and sat out for race #11 MW superbike.

Got up early the next day and made a bunch of repairs to the bike and switched out the rims to the tires that I had spent, last years michelins, with a bunch of practices, races, and a whole long hot trackday on them. Ran my first race (race number 5 heavyweight superbike) and did decent, think I finished 6th or so, I'll have to check. Tires felt good but I was just nervous and running a lot slower and less agressive after the prior days surprises. Got off and had a short brake, couple drops of rain fell literally, then back out for my next race. Race number 8, Middle weight grand prix got a good start, running in 5th place in a tight pack. We had a long distance on the next place but the pack was stuck together pretty tight. Felt pretty good and upping my pace a little, still a little cautious of old tires. The race got red flagged for Erin's crash in turn one (heal up Erin!). We restart and I blow it. I got a great drive off the line and was coming into the turn fine with a great place fighting for 2nd into turn one with a guy on my outside, when bikes start apearing everywhere. Turn one can get dangerous with all the superhero's in MW who pick up a bike with rossi dreams. I decide that instant that I'd rather run the turn than have 8 bikes pile up on me, I run wide around the oval and get waved back in after last place. I made up some distance and was moving up the ranks, and I guess I'm a little guilty of rossi dreams too because as I'm running and moving up ranks I have that part of faster in my head, or at least the mentality, where rossi blows the first turn and then you just watch him fight himself into first. Well I wasn't shooting for first but I was fight my way back into the race. About halfway though I can feel the rear sliding through turn two, put some more attention on feeling what it's doing for the rest of the lap, and it's sliding all over the place, I decide to slow it down as I know my tires are all done, I drop back about 5 seconds on my lap times and end up finishing 8th I believe.

All in all, a good weekend. I ahve some repairs to do and will need to locate some parts by next friday so I can run my races on saturday. My friend who managed to get the bridgestone guy I usually deal with on the phone told me he is very concerned and wants me to get in touch with him. I'm hoping he's looking to make it right since I got a lot of damages to the bike and myself due to the "expert" tire instructions that I was given.

[Paul_E_D]

What exactly did they tell you to do? I'd be suprised as hell if they did anything for you. Tire pressures are pretty common knowledge around the track.

It seemed like over half the HWSS nov field crashed out! I don't think people understand how different the track feels when it over 130 degrees.

You don't have to be going fast to spin and slide on 600+ bikes. Just getting on the gas to abruptly at any angle will do it. In fact, the slower you corner, the more likely you are to try yo grab a fistful of throttle to make up for it. Not to mention that if you're making steering corrections, it's sure to slide.

The faster you go, the smaller your throttle inputs get. You just don't let it fall off the revs as much...

[RSVMILLE661]

Jay it was great to see you out there this weekend. It takes some serious guts to get back on a bike after crashing hard and still run some decent times.

I'll be sure to grab the spine protector from you at somepoint this week.

I only hope the suspension tips helped.

[Paul_E_D]

Jay, Congrats on some good finishes. Like Scotty said, getting back up to speed after a crash is tough and takes some real resolve.

I'm not knocking your riding in the above post, just responding to some questions you posed...or questions you raised.

[R7]

Nice report Jay and congrats on your results
Good to see ya up there and get to work on that bike...

[bigred875]

Originally posted by Paul_E_D
What exactly did they tell you to do? I'd be suprised as hell if they did anything for you. Tire pressures are pretty common knowledge around the track.

It seemed like over half the HWSS nov field crashed out! I don't think people understand how different the track feels when it over 130 degrees.

You don't have to be going fast to spin and slide on 600+ bikes. Just getting on the gas to abruptly at any angle will do it. In fact, the slower you corner, the more likely you are to try yo grab a fistful of throttle to make up for it. Not to mention that if you're making steering corrections, it's sure to slide.

The faster you go, the smaller your throttle inputs get. You just don't let it fall off the revs as much...

she mounted the front tire backwards,

[R7]

Originally posted by Paul_E_D
It seemed like over half the HWSS nov field crashed out! I don't think people understand how different the track feels when it over 130 degrees.

I wonder if they too were running bridgestones? If you seen what their tires looked like after a practice and some race laps, you'd be questioning them as well. I've never seen anything like that before

[hessogood]

Yeah it was definatley a major issue with the tires and I will talk to the regular (more knowledgable) rep tonight. One possibility that was mentioned was the tires were running too hot and it was scorching or something like that? You could see where they were letting go in the corners on both my and deg's bike and you could clearly see them smooth as a babys ass from where we both crashed. I did change my riding style on them a whole lot, much further off the bike and much more conservative with the throttle which i think helped me get better times but didn't stop the tires from sliding. The problem was there from the beginning as I mentioned to Heath that I was sliding around the track. I backed off on the michelins the next day because they were not sliding all the time I had used them and then began in the second race, this told me the tires were going off and I had better not push it. Jim has some great pictures of the crash that he'll put up when he gets back from Bike week. She did mount the front tire backwards on a number of bikes, mine, degs, and Erin. some people told me this wouldn't matter unless it was rain due to the tread pattern and others told me it does because of the way the carcus iis molded. I'll talk to the man tonight and find out more. Thanks everyone for making it a great weekend and thanks for all your responses.

Paul, I know you're not knocking my riding at all. There are a lot of people up there that need it worse than me though, they could also stand to go through a book or two and understand some concepts. I welcome the advice and hearing something that could help me out would never bother me, even if I know it like a rock.

[a13x]

Hey Jay, great report man, you might type more than I do.. hah
I checked out Degsy's rear Bridgestone and ya.. it was definately weird. For a tire that had 10 'hot' laps on it.. it wasn't scrubbed at all and seemed hard as rock. Hey I'm no expert, but seemed weird.

Nice job on the win and even more props on the smart move in Race 8. I had a similar situation myself (as my report will show) and I decided slowing down was better than sliding down.

[Paul_E_D]

I've gotta say, I don't think I'd like to try bridgestones anytime soon. I have heard a LOT of people talk about tires that just don't "come in". I've seen a few examples of the wear pattern that you describe. It seems to support the theory that the tire compund just doesn't get compliant for some reason.

There's too many good tires out there to risk having a bridgestone fail to come in. I'd just move on to Dunlop or Michelin, or Pirelli before taking that chance again.

On the other hand, some wickedly fast guys use 'Stones and swear by them???

[SVRACER01]

the Bridgestone guy told us that up at Loudon they arent very popular but there are other places like mid ohio or something that 'stones are the only way to go. Dan said the rep told him that for the conditions we had up there that an "endurance" tire would have been better. ive never used them before, i have a set of their rain tires but i still havent used them either. Im used to riding on extremly hot tracks but i wasnt there Sat. hotter temps usually men lower press. right?

[hessogood]

I spent a lot of time talking to Quintin from bridgestone tonight. He knows what he's talking about for sure, unlike the lady that was up there this past weekend. It's hard for him to figure out what the issue is as he's just getting confused trying to interpret what we're all telling him. He wasn't up there to witness the conditions and he hasn't seen the tires either so he's shooting blind. He'll be up this weekend and him and I are going to be looking closely at the tires and giving them some runs and measurements to find out what they're doing and see if it was just too hot for the tires or way off pressures. The bridgestones did win the tire shootout this year, and had a great writeup in roadracing world last month. Being a new racer I want to try a few different tires to find what feels the best to me. Another thing that he mentioned is that with the track temps being that high it's possible that I shouldn't have run the tire warmers. This could make sense since after we got red flagged twice and the tires spent a lot of time on the grid cooling off I went out and ran my personal best lap time of a 22.6 and took the first place in the race. Of course I'm still new to the track and soaking in everything I can learn, but I think I'm really starting to get a great feel for everything and I've found I can actually tell how the bike is handling and what it's doing pretty accurately. I forget if I mentioned but after the first race that I crashed and won, I came into the pits and told Heath the tire was sliding a bit and spinning a little through the bowl, turns out that it spun up way too much for me and the exact place I had been feeling it. I need to get with someone with a lot of suspension experience to help me interpret what I feel the bike doing out there into the adjustments I need to make. Just don't know who has time to sit aside with me. Scotty and the people I talk to are great using what they know to help me out, I think someone that knows that stuff like the back of their hand could interpret what it's doing a little better. I'm way overwelmed as to me it seems like so many different adjustments seem to be solutions to single issues.

Alex, I saw you up there but between running around getting everything done and being exhausted by the heat I didn't get a chance to come over and introduce myself. Are you pitted out in the corner by our canopy? I'll see you up there on saturday and be sure to swing by.

[Degsy]

Originally posted by SVRACER01
the Bridgestone guy told us that up at Loudon they arent very popular but there are other places like mid ohio or something that 'stones are the only way to go. Dan said the rep told him that for the conditions we had up there that an "endurance" tire would have been better. ive never used them before, i have a set of their rain tires but i still havent used them either. Im used to riding on extremly hot tracks but i wasnt there Sat. hotter temps usually men lower press. right?

I WAS running an endurance tire (I only run endurance races, no sprints for me),...or so I was told!! Maybe I wasn't! I will have to check the numbers on the tires to see what I was running. I asked for medium rear and soft front which is standard for endurance racing.

I also asked her to set the pressures for me as I was pushed for time and she said ok. Foolishly I didn't check, but I will check on the bike tomorrow and see what i was running them at. If they are at 60psi or so, then that answers all the questions and I will come right out and ask Bridgestone to give me a new set for free.

Jay, I only set my warmers for 145 instead of 175 so I should not
have had a problem with temps.

derek

[Collision pro]

Originally posted by Degsy
I WAS running an endurance tire,...or so I was told!! Maybe I wasn't!

derek

Yeah...I hear that was a good choice! MY PAINT!!!

[Degsy]

Originally posted by Collision pro
Yeah...I hear that was a good choice! MY PAINT!!!

Yeah, yer paint is fooked now dude. Sorry.

degs

[scootertrash]

Congrats on your win Jay...
The announcer was giving a good running commentary for the last couple of laps and the battle between you and the motard. It was good racing.

[bentbryan]

Great job Jay! I'm sure this will be the first of several wins for ya!

[legalspeed]

Originally posted by Degsy
Yeah, yer paint is fooked now dude. Sorry.

degs

+1, but that was my fault.

The Bridges are working great for me, I'm on an '04 750; been in 6 races with them, won 4, I crashed out in the rain doing something stupid, then set my suspension totally wrong and dropped to the back of the pack. After re-setting my suspension, went out winning again.

Degs: front tire, on red stripe one white = soft.
rear tire, two white stripes = medium

The endurance compound has not bee brought up to our track yet, Quint is bringing a set or two this weekend.

I have all the digital pics, how would you like them? I plan on printing a set for us to have this weekend.

[hessogood]

This just in. The guy that was running 3rd place in race 4 behind me in my turn 6 crash had a bullet cam filming. He said he has my crash on tape. I think he's going to try to upload it, or if not I'll get a copy and upload it .

[Collision pro]

Originally posted by legalspeed
+1, but that was my fault.

The Bridges are working great for me, I'm on an '04 750; been in 6 races with them, won 4, I crashed out in the rain doing something stupid, then set my suspension totally wrong and dropped to the back of the pack. After re-setting my suspension, went out winning again.

Degs: front tire, on red stripe one white = soft.
rear tire, two white stripes = medium

The endurance compound has not bee brought up to our track yet, Quint is bringing a set or two this weekend.

I have all the digital pics, how would you like them? I plan on printing a set for us to have this weekend.

How bad does my paint look? You guys were the last ones I did besides Pete's and well you know!! You guys suck!! I may do a shipping thing for paint jobs soon but i'll keep you guys updated when it happens.

[OreoGitorio]

Originally posted by Degsy
Yeah, yer paint is fooked now dude. Sorry.

degs

zee fehrst tyme you hie sieeed weeth new paint eets like FFFFFFFFFFFFFAHK!

[hessogood]

Originally posted by OreoGaborio
zee fehrst tyme you hie sieeed weeth new paint eets like FFFFFFFFFFFFFAHK!

Hitler is alive and commentating race reports?

[Nikon]

Originally posted by hessogood
Hitler is alive and commentating race reports?

think Rossi in the first 5 mins of Faster....