Eventful weekend to say the least. For those who have asked, here is how AHRMA's points system works (
www.ahrma.org):
1st place - 1000 points, 2nd place - 835, 3rd place - 700, 4th place - 590, 5th place - 499....points go all the way to 60th place
To win the coveted national championship title, AHRMA combines your best 10 finishes. Each race weekend is a double header. For us to score 4th place on Sunday is not the end of the world as we have three 1st place finishes as well. One of our main competitors and the current #1 plate holder currently has finished 2nd to me twice, as well as finishing 3rd at Roebling. If we do not attend either Miller or the new NOLA track in New Orleans it will be very close and a bit of a gamble. None of this is news to us as we've been planning the season since last Fall. With regards to AHRMA, we will see how Gingerman goes and make our decisions from there.
Grattan:
Friday test went well. We were fast out of the gate. Ken and Todd made adjustments after each session as set up for Grattan is much different than Road America. We tried a new shift linkage that they had machined to shorten the throw. Upshifts were much better, but downshifts were a bit more difficult. Another change was made after our last session and we'd have to wait until Sat morning practice to try it out. Overall it was a great day. Sunny and hot.
Friday night was great. We had a very exotic dinner at the fabulous Grattan Irish Bar followed by bench racing with our new friends from Vicious Cycle out of Portland, Oregon (
www.viciouscycle.com) Another one of our main competitors in the Vintage Superbike Heavyweight class is Joe Weir from Vicious. He's on a very clean and well sorted GS1000 that has a SV650 front end and a GS1150 head. These guys are very dedicated to vintage racing and build some amazing bikes. They're very active in one of AHRMA's biggest classes which is 200GP. Huge grids and very close racing. Most bikes are Honda CB175 based. You can run custom or OEM frames with any period era suspension and brakes. I helped Joe a bit in practice as he'd never been to Grattan. Before the sun went down I took Ken and Todd for a walk around Grattan's 2 mile track. You should have seen their faces. Walking around a track really puts a lot of things in to perspective, especially when there are so many blind turns and big elevation changes. When we were 3/4 of the way around, Joe from Vicious hopped the fence and walked with us the rest of the way. I helped him with some lines where it seemed like he was struggling in practice.
Saturday morning came quickly. After going through tech inspection, I found a nice pair of women's black lace panties on the ground outside of the women's bathroom. I picked them up with a pair of pliers and promptly put them inside our friend's tent while he was still sleeping.....for good luck.
We only did one of the morning practices as we wanted to conserve our tires. Bike felt good and it seemed like the new linkage was better. Did I mention that this bike is f'n fast? I passed every bike on the track in our practice group and came in.
We were in race #7 gridded behind the modern middleweight twins, Triumph Thruxton Cup, and in front of the Sound of Singles 2 strokes and Sound of Singles 4 strokes. There were a lot of modern 125 2 stroke bikes that were really running fast in the other practice group. I was curious to see how the beast would measure up on the tight back section of Grattan.
Our holeshot was decent and we were running heads up with another great competitor, Dennis Parrish, on his Randakk's backed CB900F. I was able to run deeper in to T1 and we stayed in the lead. We had a problem however. On lap 2 we couldn't get the bike downshifted cleanly coming in to T1. Grattan has a very long front straight where you are flat out, then braking hard for a 3rd gear right hander. This ended up happening 3 laps in a row. The first bike to come by me was the Framecrafters bike which is a custom framed GP style bike with a 65hp CRF450 engine. These guys have been working with GP Tech building a Moto3 bike to run at the MotoGP round in Indy. I was able to pass them back on the straight but then had to be very careful coming in to T1 due to the downshifting issue. I decided to let him go as we're not in the same class and I needed to focus on my own race. On lap 6 in turned around to see if anyone was close, and Joe was very close. I was surprised! Great riding from him having never been to Grattan. I was able to put my head down and run a hard lap w/o too much traffic (impossible in AHRMA) and we finished with a very convincing gap. Ken and crew were happy with the win and we just like every single time I step off the bike Ken asks me how we can make it better. We talked about it and they made the changes to get ready for Sunday.
After the awards ceremony where I thanked my main sponsors, Michelin (
www.sportbiketireservice.com), Bell Helmets (
www.sportbiketrackgear.com) and Amsoil, we were off to get a hotel as it looked like a big storm was coming in....and did it ever come in hard. Many EZup tents folded in the paddock while we were gone and a few bikes hit the deck as well. After the storm it cleared up and turned in to a beautiful night. We had some drinks with the Vicious Cyle guys and turned in.
We woke up Sunday morning to pouring rain. It rained hard all morning and through lunch. We were well prepared with a fresh set of Michelin Power Rain race tires. I don't mind racing in the rain. It's actually quite fun if you're on good tires. We did not go out in practice, hoping that the rain would stop. We were in race #7 again. Some friends were in race #4 and said it was still pretty sketchy. We held out though and made the decision to not mount the rains. Our decision was the correct one as the sun finally came out 15 min prior to our race and gave us a mostly dry track.
This time I got a killer holeshot and ran a few really good laps. I passed a good amount of the Truxton Cup guys who were gridded in the wave ahead of us. No pesky 2 strokes coming by this time. Bike felt good and we were spinning the rear in a few areas but it was to be expected due to the track. Grip was actually pretty good considering the amt of rain we had all day. I backed the pace off a bit after we got the 1/2 way flag as I had looked back after exiting turn 7 and nobody was in sight. The next lap coming over the famous Grattan hump between T4 and T5 without any warning I found myself immediately sliding on my left side. I was able to keep my hands up and feet out front, while watching an amazing fireworks display coming from the left rearset peg and stator of the CycleX superbike. Not good. We slid for a while too. Down the hump then in to the grass. I was lucky to not hit the bike and stopped sliding just shy of it. I jumped up and got out of harms way and did a quick evaluation of myself and ran over to the bike to make sure it wasn't still running, which it was not. I was fine and the bike didn't look too bad. Bent left bar, small dent on the front left of the tank from the fork tube, bent left rearset peg and a ground down stator. Right side of the bike was still perfect. Exhaust was perfect and the CycleX engine seemed to look just fine.
We have an idea of what caused the bike to lock up, but since we're not certain we'll save that discussion for another day. Ken was bummed out to see his baby scratched up, but at the end of the day racing is racing. Anything can happen at any given time. Ken has been involved in many disciplines of racing for many decades. He took it well, and just like always asked me what he could do to make the bike better.
The CycleX team has a goal. They want to win the AHRMA Vintage Superbike Heavyweight #1 plate. Their years of developmental work with the SOHC engine is unmatched. I can't begin to tell you how hard this bike not only pulls top end, but mid range out of corners. The chassis still needs some refinement if we're going to win the #1 plate. There are a lot of other very capable bikes and riders on the grid. It's not going to be easy, but we're off to a very strong start. It does not matter that it's midway through the season. Other riders are going to have to race more rounds to get rid of their lower finishes to us. No matter how you shake it, the championship will come down to the wire at Barber and Daytona which will make for some very exciting racing. If you've never been to Barber, you should consider making the trip. Mecca of all motorcycle museums and one of the most beautiful road courses in North America. Hope to see you out there...
Cheers.
