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Wow, where do I begin. This sport simply amazes me. The highs are so incredibly high, and the lows are so incredibly low.
Came up Wednesday for Thursday practice, feeling good, ready to kick some ass this weekend. Thursday morning I sign up for all day practice, but I have to wait for Miles to get in with the tire machine so I can change my totally bald tires. Get them changed and make it out for half of session 3. I had taped my throttle grip with some hockey tape when I noticed a tear in the grip. This caused some issues with the throttle sticking to my glove and staying open after I regrip on downshifts. After going into 3, and 6 way too hot a few times from being on the gas and the brakes at the same time, I came off a little early to fix. I take the tape off and there is adhesive all over the grip. So I use some electrical tape thinking it would be a little bit slicker to cover it up. Not so. Next session few laps in, going into T9, I downshift, brake, and start running wider, and wider, and wider, and then I realize, my throttle is staying open. I try to close the throttle, brake a little, lean the bike more. At this point im super wide pushing the front heading fast for the wall, and just lay the bike down. I slam into the air fence, and the bike bounces off some stuff and out into the middle of T10. Get up, wait for the last bike to go by and asses damage. Not good at all, but Ive fixed worse and plan on getting back out there ASAP. The left rearset bracket was completely mangled, but I was pretty sure I had seen one on the trailer at Street & Comp. Well we didn't have one, so I spent the day trying to work that out with some map gas. Problem with my bike, is that rearset has to be aligned perfectly to be able to shift. Best I could get the rearset in order was with it pointing down, an about 30* back. I already ordered the new bracket, and it would be in for Saturday, so I called it a day. The bike would barely shift and I was only going to get about 1 session in going out on cold tires. Balls.
Saturday morning, new tires, ready to kick some ass again (New grip also). I felt a little slow in practice, did a couple mid 19's, but I was still feeling those long sweeping turns from my trip to calabogie last week. It felt weird being at loudon, almost like I had to ride the bike a different way. I have 3 races today, so I'm confident ill get back into it by the dash.
Race 4, MW Superbike
Yeah, pole position. I set my tire pressures normal in the front and a pound low in the rear. I don't usually build much in the front so I figured Id see what it did in this heat after the first race. I went to the drag strip last week, and practiced my starts so even though I don't like being gridded in A, I was excited to see how it paid off. It worked great, and I got an awesome start. Got boxed out by Kagan going into 1 but I was right there with him. Hes always had really great starts, and I was pumped I stuck with him. I sneak in behind him for one and plan on stalking him for the race. Few laps in Chris #446 passes me. Kagan is right there so I plan on following these guys and ill pass them into 6 on the brakes. Well my front got hot, and greasy, and starts slipping and pushing. Not bad, but I have 2 more races today, so I slow down a bit and figure Ill try to stay in 3rd and stay upright. Next I start hearing someone coming up on me in 1 and 3. I'm trying to think who the hell is this? Well the next lap, I get to see who it is when he is literally leaning on me trying to make a pass on the outside of one. Its Pete Ross, who has been out for a while from a shoulder injury, but hes quick. I pass him back outside of 1A, and hold him off until the next lap, when I blow T1. I followed him for a few laps, and the front feels like shit. Some serious loss of traction into 1, 3, and 6. Last lap just touched the brakes into 6, and the front squirts out from underneath me. I slide a bit and the bike goes flying into the wall. WTF, it looks destroyed, shit leaking everywhere, and the new left rearset bracket is mangled, again. My last spare fairing bracket is shattered.
My next race is 6 and I start trying to figure out how I am going to fix this thing. When I get back to my pit, my awesome pit mates are there and they help me get to work. We are running around like crazy, ripping the bodywork off assessing damage, trying to bend rearsets back. Aside from the bike not starting (which I assumed was the main fuse since that usually pops when I crash) there are all sorts of rocks in the bead of the front tire. I am not going out on that so I just focus getting the bike ready for the dash. I take the wheel down to S&C and remount the tire.
The bodywork was pretty bad, and the gauges were screwed up. I planned on riding without bodywork, or gauges, and we had already zip tied the bellypan to the bike in order to do that. Well Miles has a fairing bracket for my bike, so I grab that and decide im going to mount my new set of bodywork that I had been saving to put on as incentive to not crash lol. I try getting the bike running. Its not the fuse, fuel pump wont prime. The aluminum radiator hose on the left was smashed completely flat, but my buddy Pete got it bent back enough to see through and it looked like it would be fine. I tried everything to get this bike to start. Ive chased the whole system down, unplugged connectors and blew them out. I checked every bit of wiring I could think of that had anything to do with turning that fuel pump on. Nothing made sense. I swapped all the relays around on the left side of the bike, and nothing. Power commander is not coming on so we pull that and run it stock. Nothing. After going over the same things over and over again with no luck I start thinking I might not even make the last race. It was coming up in about an hour or so and I hadn’t really gotten anywhere. Finally I grab the old headlight relay, which I thought was bad because I had swapped it with the engine stop relay before. Bike starts. I rev it up to make sure its running fine. Justin (#699) hears my bike and comes back to help. It looks like we can fix this thing. Between him, his dad, and my buddy Matt, we get this thing duct taped, zip tied, and bent back together! Im so pumped. We get it done about 15 mins before the start of the race, and I realize in the scuffle the warmers got unplugged. I plugged them back in and find the rear took a shit. WTF. I grab Justins and get it on. Luckily the front was a little warm so I thought it would be ok. I also thought the shifter would be ok, which the lever was bent back and the toe peg pointing towards the footpeg. Looks manageable at this point and the bike is going into gear so I don’t want to mess with it. Eating something and getting hydrated was more important.
Race 13, MW Grand Prix
Yeah, pole position. Except my tires are cold, I have a check engine light, and I'm definitely not steam rolling turn one like this. Chris (#446) had checked up on me earlier and was joking with me about how beat my bike was, and asks me if the bike is safe. I jokingly tell him no, and to stay away from me. I get a decent start but I don’t go to hard into the first and file in line in order to go into one at a safe pace. I try to keep up for a few turns but the tires felt squishy, and I just want to get them warmed up. Well Going into 3 I kinda realize, I cant fit my boot under the toe peg to shift while im on the brakes. So I brake, let up, slide my foot in, and brake again. This ends up being a problem the whole race. Almost every time I went into T11, I would upshift, because my toe would hit the peg on the way down and Id end up in 4th or 5th going into T12. I had to park it a few times before T12 to grab a few down shifts in order to get a decent drive out. Last lap im in second to last place, im stuck in 2nd gear after T9. Coming onto the straight out of T12 im standing on the shifter trying to get it to shift and I say fuck it. I didn’t want to get passed, and pin the throttle redlining it over the finish line. After I get in im talking to the slowpoke guys and they tell me my bike was smoking across the finish line. In all the craziness, I never refilled the water I lost in the crash earlier. I go back to my bike, and try to get it to smoke again. It sounds fine, no oil in the coolant, or vice versa. I figure the cap is a little bent or maybe I was leaking water onto the headers and it was steaming. Maybe the CEL was because I was over heating. When I came in to the pits the light was off. Also, since I had set my front tire pressure cold, I found out it was actually at 35lbs in the front when I came in. I finish second to last with a fastest lap of 1:20 flat. Didn’t even care, I finished the race and had a little battle with the guy in last. It was interesting, and I was riding.
Sunday Practice I take it easy, got the shifter and everything straight, refilled water, etc. Bike is in order. No CEL until the second to last lap. Then there is a nice stutter. Great. I ask Senacal who was behind me for the last lap if I was smoking and he said no. I think great, im sure the stutter is something small, maybe I hooked the PC3 up wrong or a connector is loose.. I go in read the code, and it’s the speed sensor (speedo busted) and all 4 injectors. Gotta be the PC3. I unplug and replug in the PC3, and run the bike. I clear the code, and now im excited. Maybe I can salvage this weekend. I have two races today.
Race 4, MW Supersport
About 20 mins before the race I find my front tire is ice cold. Light was on the warmer, but it wasnt putting out heat. Great now my front tire warmer is beat. I grab my buddies warmers and throw them on hoping to get some heat in the tires. Go out for the warm-up lap, and get the CEL again. No stutter though, so im thinking it’s the speed sensor. I grid up, im in 7B and Chris #446 is in 7A. Hes joking around with me about the bike and I assure him its safe. Red flag in wave 1 and they call us into hot pit. Go back out and I get an ok start. I go to get on the gas coming out of T2 and the stutter starts again. It barely made it over 10k RPMS in 3rd it was so bad. I keep up my pace as best I can until T7 when I go to the outside and start waving people by. I decide to pull out of the race, before I screw something up. As I go around T9 I see the dust cloud and I thought nothing of it, they looked like they were in the grass, and didn’t seem to bad a spot in 9 to go down. I pulled out anyways despite the red flag and headed back to the pit to try and find the problem again. I could see three ambulances in T9 and thought this cant be good. I pull the bodywork off, try playing with the injector connectors, and put the bodywork on. Clear the code, and have enough time to get the bike back together for the restart. I go back out for the restart and on the warm up lap I get the stutter and the CEL again. I pull off and go back in to the pit and give up on this race. When I talk to my buddy who was behind me he told me I had a cloud of smoke behind the bike on the warm-up lap. At this point, I figure I am probably done for the weekend. I get credit for my second race and pack it up. Check the motor out Monday night. No oil in the water, and vice versa still, but the compression in all 4 cylinders is 30-35psi low. I squirted some oil in the cylinder, and the compression went up to near normal. Looks like the rings are worn out. Plugs looked really white and ashy. I'm dropping the bike off with Mike Martire on Wednesday, to get checked, then im going on vacation to OBX, NC for a week. Unless I can find a motor for this bike, or find a new bike, ill most likely not be racing next round. Aside from all my bad luck this weekend, none of it compares to what Chris is going through and I am grateful to still be in one piece. The worst part of my weekend was his crash. Im pulling for ya buddy.
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Originally Posted by Pittenger5
