771 Racing - The Sumo is the reliable bike?!

[Kurlon]

NEMM 2017 Rounds 2 & 3 plus 2017 Loudon Classic — OutOfSpec.COM

I haven't had a race weekend hangover like this in years. Everything hurts.

When do we do it again?

[breakdirt916]

Go sumo!!

No injuries from the get off?

Carb sorted with right hand?

[carsick]

It was a great time seeing you run the Supermoto race! Glad I could make it down for my biennial visit. See you soon at Boxshop...

[Kurlon]

Just a lil bruising of my ego. I've got some things to poke at carb wise to dial it in more, but it works fairly well in those conditions.

And I'm greatly looking forward to Boxshop shenanigans in a couple weeks. Should be a damn good time.

[nt650hawk]

DUDE you were killing it! i've never seen you ride like this before. it was awesome to see!

[Paul_E_D]

DUDE you were killing it! i've never seen you ride like this before. it was awesome to see!

Agreed, that's a good pace on the fizzer. I had my eyes opened to how competitive those bikes STILL can be when I raced the Moriwaki with USCRA. Quite a strong motor.

[nhbubba]

DUDE you were killing it! i've never seen you ride like this before. it was awesome to see!

Outstanding showing in that sumo mud wrestling fest!

[Kurlon]

Agreed, that's a good pace on the fizzer. I had my eyes opened to how competitive those bikes STILL can be when I raced the Moriwaki with USCRA. Quite a strong motor.

Is there another 490 running with them? I only knew of the one that disgraced itself after 2/3rds of a lap on PK?

[nt650hawk]

Is there another 490 running with them? I only knew of the one that disgraced itself after 2/3rds of a lap on PK?

Dark side

[Pittenger5]

Please include more malemal toe details in your race reports.

[Paul_E_D]

Hahaa, there were a few FZRs running USCRA. Rick Patrolia was doing 21/22s. I have to assume it was a 490 based on it's acceleration rate. lol.

[xxaarraa]

I am sorry to have missed the sumo race. After sitting in the bleachers for 95 minutes and watching the highly professional team of engineers rebuild the entire dirt track, which was riveting, all the while wondering why AMA dumped Loudon, I couldn't take any more excitement in one day, so I left.

[Kurlon]

Yeah, that was a bit of a shit show. The racers were getting just as pissed at the whole affair as the fans. Add to that only getting updates by an LRRS official walking up pit road with the world's quietest megaphone... there was some chaffing going on.

On the AMA front, primary change was a new promoter picking up the series. A lot of the riders didn't like NHMS because of the length of the straights, guessing enough barked to the new guy that he opted to skip here despite how much we all enjoyed having them come up. I've got my fingers crossed that next year will go better based on what I'm hearing in the background.

[Paul_E_D]

I much preferred the parking lot course to the road course. It was good for the spectators and more appropriate for the bikes.

[Kurlon]

I liked this year's course, only change I could really want is a different dirt mix. Keep the layout, but something that cleaned off the tires sooner and didn't mush around creating new ruts each pass as much. A proper road course turn would have been nice too but that's getting nit picky. I wonder if next year they'll skip the dirt on the pavement, have us go up the hill and do more in that back field before returning to the pavement?

[Larry]

The parking lot was a WAY better spectator experience. There's no reason we can't suggest a better layout for next time and help organize it better as well. My first suggestion is to move away from the jersey barriers near the bathrooms. Oh, and add bigger jumps for the 250/450 classes.

[loudbeard]

I never understood why they brought you guys down the front straight for the AMA race. Would be pretty slick to use everything outside the wall; turns 4-8 and into the dirt, back onto the asphalt in T9, then complete the loop through the 3-10 split. Could extend the dirt section a bit as well, have the start/finish line under the tree house. I assume if it was easy to move timing for holding the event in S3, they could likewise move timing for this layout as well.

[loudbeard]

Like so:

[Kurlon]

I dunnno as they could as easily move the timing loop prior to this year. I also wonder how much of the 'dirt' delay was just taking advantage of time needed to get the loop working?

[tls25rs]

I never understood why they brought you guys down the front straight for the AMA race. Would be pretty slick to use everything outside the wall; turns 4-8 and into the dirt, back onto the asphalt in T9, then complete the loop through the 3-10 split. Could extend the dirt section a bit as well, have the start/finish line under the tree house. I assume if it was easy to move timing for holding the event in S3, they could likewise move timing for this layout as well.

Like so:

I would suggest even bypassing coming back into the oval at all. Come out of the dirt section take a left up the hill to where the ambulance road is, take a right then a left and head down into turn 6.

Pretty sure that the go-kart racing that goes on up there uses a similar layout.

The advantage of the S3 lot area, as others have mentioned, is the spectator viewing is better out there then it is on the suggested use of the outside the speedway parts of the road course. Also whatever dirt they would need to bring in would be better as far as the size of the rocks contained within. The area off of the road course is filled with large stones that are not fun to ride on.

[hammadown]

You were flying out there man, was watching in the bowl. When you came around back a bunch of positions the last couple laps, I knew the damn sludge must have shaken loose in the tank. Nice push staying in the front, you def had the top box!!

The sumo track was fun, hope to have more of that in the future at events. A couple areas for improvement on the track- that dirt (clay) was slick and didn't scrub off the tires like most dirt, half way through the pavement, rear still felt really greasy. Would have been cool to have a berm on the outside of the turn for those of us who suck at weighting the front haha. All in all tho, it was a good mix of conditions to test the skills and fitness

[loudbeard]

I would suggest even bypassing coming back into the oval at all. Come out of the dirt section take a left up the hill to where the ambulance road is, take a right then a left and head down into turn 6.

Pretty sure that the go-kart racing that goes on up there uses a similar layout.

The advantage of the S3 lot area, as others have mentioned, is the spectator viewing is better out there then it is on the suggested use of the outside the speedway parts of the road course. Also whatever dirt they would need to bring in would be better as far as the size of the rocks contained within. The area off of the road course is filled with large stones that are not fun to ride on.

That could work to. Point being, they could very likely install a permanent dirt section if they could commit to a layout out back using the road course/ambulance road only as you've suggested. Also, if they commit to a permanent track they can actually lay decent material down for the dirt section(s) eliminating the problem of the rocks in that area. Spectating for the dirt section during the AMA event was always good too, although there really isn't anywhere with that layout where spectators can see the whole track.

[tls25rs]

Spectating for the dirt section during the AMA event was always good too, although there really isn't anywhere with that layout where spectators can see the whole track.

This is exactly why S3 worked so well. Spectators could see the whole track from pretty much any viewing point.

[nhbubba]

After watching the revamp Aaron did at Boxshop recently, I believe that a dirt course cannot easily be thrown up and then broken down overnight. The soil needs time to set up. From where I sat spectating it looked like a really tough course by the end. Couple of the jumps looked like they simply turned to rows of wheel grabbing ruts. And the transitions to/from the hill onto the pavement looked really rough on the riders. In all by the end of the open main I was glad I wasn't out there. It looked sketchy.

Were anyone listening to me, I'd suggest a more permanent dirt course up on that flat bit of grass behind the dirt corner, prepared sooner and allowed to set up. I'd relocate ALL of the dirt features to that area and keep the dirt off the pavement.

Many of the dirt features they manufactured at the last minute got dozed in last years event too. I don't think there's any easy way around that. Seems par for the course with anything temporary.

Utilizing the T3-10 part of the road course and sending people through the 3/10 split or ambulance cutout would be cool too. I also noticed that there is a paved access bit parallel to T7-8 on the other side of the tree house. I'm guessing that is what the go-karts use. That could be cool. I'm going to speculate that the part behind the dirt corner in this weekends course is normally used for overflow parking or something. I bet they'd be more willing to have a more permanent dirt course down behind T9. Or is that space used for prime RV parking during NASCAR events??

Anyway. Tons of options. In all those that organized did well with the resources available. I enjoyed the hell out of watching the event and am glad LRRS ran it.

I sort of regret not loading up my bike and suiting up for this one. Not so much because I wanted to run this race; throwing B (at best) riders like me in with EX'ers playing for keeps in a money race seemed like a bad idea. (Although it seemed to work out okay.) And quite frankly by the end of the mains that looked like a slop fest. But I regret not putting my money where my mouth is and supporting the event at any cost. Even if I'd just putted around in the main.. or politely bowed out like some riders did. I want LRRS to do more of this and give North East SM riders another option to compete. Especially for a 1x special event at the Classic. If I had had a mini I definitely would have been out there.

Next time I won't pass. I promise.

[Kurlon]

I think the dirt type was a big chunk of the issue. Both Aaron and the track had trouble 'cause they were playing with a clay heavy mix and the weather didn't cooperate. In Aaron's case he's looking to get a solid base, so that makes sense. In the track's case, I dunno what they were thinking.

If you look at the hill and ignore the pavement, that area all worked as intended. The top of the hill developed an inside berm with loamy outside area naturally. Up and down the hill stayed pretty good as well. It wasn't till you transitioned to the clay on pavement that the plastic fantastic ever shifting rut hell started. Even then, the ruts on leading up to a jump weren't bad, it was the unknown ones beyond that would catch you out. So I agree, keep the dirt off the pavement, but I don't think you have to go quite so far as permanent dirt features yet and I highly doubt the track is quite ready to make that commitment.

As far as the B guys out there with the out for blood money hunters, everyone seemed pretty well behaved from my perspective. Come, join us, JOIN US JOIN US JOIN US!