Sorry I didn't give a report this weekend fellas. It wasn't my best showing but at least the Forum was represented.
I only entered 2 classes at this event. Street ET on my F3 and super eliminator on the newer build, F1. Due to the wife's work schedule we weren't able to get to the dragstrip until Saturday morning. I missed one round of time trials in each class. Saturdays schedule only gave 1 time run in street ET before eliminations later that evening. An unexpected misshift into 2nd gear screwed up the pass and the bike only ran a 10.87. Arrrrgh!! Now I had to figured out my dial for eliminations from a bad pass. Oh well, I've been running the bike long enough to take an educated guess.
Next out was the 2nd of 3 qualifying passes in super eliminator. I had put a freshly undercut transmission in the bike a few day prior to this event but never had a chance to test it so I was somewhat leary about the pass. I rolled into the water box and heated the tire up. Pulled up to the line and stayed up, the pro tree tree flashes and I throw the clutch lever. Dammit the bike bogged because I didn't have the rpms up quite enough. Nevertheless I'm off on what I was hoping to be a decent A-B pass. Nope, the dang bike misshifted 2nd gear. Crap. I hit the button again on and it goes into 2nd. It went into 3rd and 4th okay but acted up going to 5th. Oh boy- not good. Bike still ran a 10.59 or so. Back in tbe pits, Mark from the forum has me put the bike onto my jsck stands so I can roll the rear tire as I'm checking to see it the bike dry shifts properly. Yeap, all good there in every gear. Further investigation revealed a slack chain so we get that tightened up. Digging a little more I surmised that tbe air cylinder may not be pulling in far enough to allow full movement of the shift lever. I decided to reorient the shift lever on the shaft to give me more movement for the shift ram. I started tbe bike up and tested it running through each gear. It seemed to shift okay without a load. I then put the bike on the ground and tested it on the return road at tbe end of the track. I couldn't really put pressure on it but it did shift through all gears. Okay, maybe we've solved the multi part problem. I had one more shot down the track in the 3rd and last qualifying pass for that day. I needed to make a good run to verify I had fixed my shifting issue.
In between time trials for tbe 2 classes I was entered, I was helping my good friend with his 4.60 index bike. 4.60 is tbe quickest of tbe sportsman classes at the Man Cup and is run 1/8th mile only. It's a very tough class but has been growing like wildfire at sanctioning bodies all over the country. My friend was sitting in 2nd place in the points coming into this final event. There were 50 bikes in tbe class so he did have a numerical chance of winning the championship if tbe number 1 guy lost first round and my friend would then have to win tbe race. Unfortunately, those hopes came to a dramatic end when he crashed his bike in the 3rd round of qualifying. He came off the bike after it drifted rapidly against the left side retaining wall. He was momentarily unconscious but by tbe time my wife and I ran that whole 1/4 mile he had come to and was talking to the emergency tech. God was on his side because he was alert with no signs of broken bones. We got his helmet off once EMS verified he didn't have neck damage. Of course they stabilized his neck and then moved him onto tbe back board. He had contusion on his left hand and left big toe where the boot had been ground down when he was riding the wall. We followed the ambulance to the hospital and stayed until they complete CT Scans and x-rays. They discharged him with several hours so we took him out to eat so we could observe his condition before taking him back to his RV at tbe track.
That was a scary moment for us to see him crash and and hope I never witness it again. On a side note, while we were waiting at tbe hospital, I missed tbe 1st round of actual eliminations in street ET and the last qualifying round in super eliminator. Oh well. I now had to go into eliminations on Sunday with no good data but making a choice between racing and being there for a friend in need was a no brainer.
Sunday morning came fast and we were back at the track uoading and prepping for 2nd round eliminations for street ET. They have this weird auto buyback if you loose 1st round. Everyone essentially comes back to race again to see who truly advances into 3rd round. I dialed the bike in at a conservative 10.68 thinking I'd be okay and would just race the stripe. I staged up and left the line on what I felt was a decent pass. As I approached the finish line I chopped throttle a little because I didn't immediately see my opponent close by. Oops, wrongs answer because he flew pass me for the win. I only ran a 10.80 on the pass. I had a much better light but my 60' time was only a 1.60 whereby tbe previous shirt time was 1.46. Crap, I probably would have lost anyway because I didn't launch the bike very well. Such is a part of drag racing. I had one more ass to contest so I tried to refocus my attention. Super eliminator didn't run until after the pro classes so I checked tbe bike over again and walked away feeling I had covered my bases. I put the bike in the staging lanes early so I could help a few 4.60 index racers. When the time came for super eliminator, I was feeling confident that the bike would do just fine. My opponent was riding a much quicker H2 dragbike running off a 9.09 index. My index was set at 10.30 because I had actually reset my own record a the Rickingham event. I never check the ladder sheet or index board before rolling into the waterborne and was thinking I was still running off my record of 10.42 from last season. Well, I stage up against the Kawi 2 smoke and throw the clutch lever but apparently I didn't get the rpms up high enough and the bike bogged off the line. I proceeded to watch the shift light so I could hit every shift points t. A was going fair until I pressed the button for the 4-5 shift and tbe dang thing didn't shift initially. I bumped tbe button again and it went in gear. By this time I was near the stripe but that 2 stroke buzzed past me like a swarm of angry bees looking for a victim. His win light came on, ending my day. I ran A 10.45 @120MOH. It seems I scrubbed about 4 mph off so I definitely chopped throttle too soon.
Although the weekend didn't go as planned, I still had fun. I'll sort my shifting issues out a bit more and do some testing soon. I've got some things I need to change on the bike in the off season to make it better. I'm determined to throw a nitrous bottle in this thing to see how a SOHC handles spray. I won't consider adding the oxidizer until I make consistent motor passes. On a side note, I ran into a gentleman by tbe name of Johnny Bond Illinois. He's an old drag racer from way back. He shared with me his experiences as being tbe first person to put nitrous on a bike after having a custom system made by NOS. Bottom line, he tore up a bunch of parts until he got a handle on horsepower in a bottle. He said tbe engines will respond quite well to spray. So stand by people, we will find out in the near future.
