Daytona/CCS Race Report

[daviid]

Ill do this day by day.

Myself and a few friends left our shop at 4pm on thursday afternoon. 2 Hours later just north of Columbia, SC. we lose the motor. it stats knockig badly. So while we wait for our friends wife to come pick us up, we have to unhitch the trailer and put the truck on a tow truck. She finally comes and gets us (2 hours later) and we begin our drive back to Mooresville (Just north of charlotte). So around 1030 Pm we begin our journey back. By now i realize there is no way im doing the Team Hammer Practice day on Friday. We finally get the trailer loaded up again around 1230 am and continue onto fresh ground.
around 3am after getting gas in GA. we accidentally got on the north bound land and stuck there for 15 miles. We finally roll into the speedway at 715am. 15 hours after we left for the track. Normally it only takes about 6-6.5 hours.

I was completly turned off from doing the team hammer day, even though i wanted to shake out the new bike. so i ended up entering Lightweight Superbike, Lightweight GP, Ultralight SuperBike, CCS Thunderbike & ASRA Thunderbike.

We get inside and get ready to start unloading. i move a ton of fuel around and prepare to unload the bike. the first thing i noticed is my cheapo clutch lever is broken. Good thing Street & Comp is here, I needed some stuff anyways.

Anyways, i spent the day just doing various setup related items. I also got the bike suspension setup by John of CTR Suspensions. JB also got my pitbike running for the first time in 6 months.

The one thing i really hate about Daytona is tech inspection, it wouldnt be so bad if you didnt have to push your bike up a 2 foot tall ramp.

Tomorrow consists of 2 rounds of practice and CCS Thunderbike, & ASRA Thunderbike qualifying

[Daytona440]

cool! Good luck!

[The Snowman]

I like the "GP Shift" sign on your upper triple. I should put on my my track bike. I might miss less shifts that way.

[Pittenger5]

I like the "GP Shift" sign on your upper triple. I should put on my my track bike. I might miss less shifts that way.

In reality its for corner workers in case the rider has an oopsie, so they can get it into neutral to move it.

[The Snowman]

In reality its for corner workers in case the rider has an oopsie, so they can get it into neutral to move it.

Standard rules or just a courtesy?

[Pittenger5]

Standard rules or just a courtesy?

Im sure some places its in the rules, Loudon asks riders to do it. The oil note is also whether you use regular oil, or synthetic oil to assist in clean up.

[daviid]

Im sure some places its in the rules, Loudon asks riders to do it. The oil note is also whether you use regular oil, or synthetic oil to assist in clean up.

i do it as a courtesy.

[pasta-rocket]

I was Daves 1st customer!! Thanks The fuel worked great.

here is the pix from me setting up the camper and getting my car out

[daviid]

Saturday

First Practice
I head out for first practice and the bike feels different. in all sorts of good ways. I hit the brakes and its smooooooth. not like the stock front end where it just drops and becomes bumpy. Well through the chicane on the first lap, my throttle pushes outwards. im able to pull it back in while on the banking. it does ti again coming into t1 so i take it easy for the remainder of the lap and pit in. im excited at this point

Second Practice
With everything tightened up, i head out for 2nd practice. playing around with it and learning what the bike is going to do. i felt really good. I really began playing the "how late can i brake" game again. i felt really good about it.

CCS Thunderbike
During lunch it POURED. But by the time Team Challenge had ended, it stopped. The banking is "Self Cleaning" so the water comes right off. but i was concerned about the infield. I really hate when the track takes its time in drying. i spent about a hour before hand debating on what i should run for a tire. either rains or slicks. looking at the banking turning gray again, i went with slicks.

There is 7 riders registered for the race. im starting in Row 2G [aka 2C]. We go out for the warm up lap and i notice there is only 1 other white plate out there. I was pretty irked about this. So here I am on slicks, the other guy is on rains. This can go either way really i think. Green drops and i was looking at a awesome start, but then the rear came out spinning on some wet pain [as i was told]. Coming into the international horseshoe there is water in the middle. so i take it nice and easy through. T4, T5 nice and dry haul ass through there. coming down to T6 there is water everywhere. T6 is a corner i really do not like, So i took it easy coming out until i got onto the West Banking. Downshift twice going into the chicane and cut through 2 puddles and back onto the east banking. Dude on the rain tires was gone, so i got 2nd. What really made it interesting was as soon as i got to the banking, my visor would fog up. As soon as i would situp for braking, it would clear up.

ASRA Thunderbike Qualifying
I head out to pit out and again, only 1 other guy. Im like seriously? there is only going to be 2 of us. Whatever. The track was definitely alot drier. the really wet spots from earlier were still wet. but everywhere else was better. i felt alot faster and just went out and pushed myself. I came in and they actually made me go through post qualifying tech. i really had no clue what to do, as i never had to do it before. basically i just pulled back into tech onto some scales. they then weighed my bike, i believe it was 376 lbs. then weighed myself. my bike & myself had to weigh more then 470 lbs which i did.

["Dangerous" Dan K]

Cool writeup man. It being our off-season, I sort of forgot about this section of the site. Thanks for the read.