I got a feeling that this may be a long one...
Sam's reaction time variations have reduced as he's had more seat time. Looking at what he did at Valdosta, he generally was far better reacting than his opponents. He came up against a "good" opponent and gave him a free win due to his red light. Your mind doesn't care who's in the other lane. See the light, react. It's the same for EVERY opponent. When you think that your best isn't good enough to win a race, park the bike. Always being the slower bike forces you to leave first. Any reaction that forces the opponent to leave the starting line to chase you gives you a chance to win. Thinking that you need a near perfect light is the best thing that you can do for the opponent. You've repeated my "it's just another time trial until the finish line" but aren't practicing what I've been preaching. You and Bill have seen what the Hondamatic's reputation has done for your racing; a lot of opponents are red lighting against it. See any similarities? Even the good racers seldom see a slow consistent opponent. A big head start and their clutch hand gets a little twitchy. The opponent could red light against you; he/she/it could bog, spin, miss a gear, etc. Give yourself a chance to win the race. Don't try to do anything different for the good ones. Your bike can also run fairly close to it's dial-in as you've done many a time. Give the "good" ones a good race. We don't win them all, but you can surprise yourself by
not thinking about the opponent.
Backing off before the finish line. "I don't know what I would have run". Ummm, yes you do. One simple rule to follow: Don't get off the gas/on the brake before the 1000' cones. You are probably already doing that. That gives you 300'+ to slow down. Take your last full pass timeslip and subtract the 1000' time from that slip from what it ran at the finish line. Take that value and add it to your 1000' time on the pass when you did get out of it/on the brakes. You now know fairly closely what the bike would have run if you had stayed in it. Don't use timeslips from when the bike was cold or from another race. Once in a while in eliminations, you drive it out the back door. Yes, when you see the win light in your lane it's a free time trial. Drive it out the back door! Short of crashing or crossing the center line, you can't lose the race.
One of the biggest challenges in dialing in an air cooled bike is the changing oil temperatures. Sam's bike always runs slow on the first pass of the day; the second one usually is quicker. That's because the oil was warmer for the second pass than it was for the first one. Your third round at 4:30 in the afternoon probably had colder oil than the second round had. (guessing at around 2.5 hours of the bike sitting around?) No chance of an 11 for that round. Basically you're back to square one for dialing it in. Think of your first time trial and take about .07 off of it. That should get you close for that third round dial in. Fourth round (had you won) coming within an hour of the third round and you could get close to an 11 second dial-in. The air was getting colder/you would be making a little more power/the oil would be reasonably warmish/ and I still don't think that you would have quite gotten there.
There is a fix for the variations in oil temperatures giving you headaches with dial-ins. I don't have it assembled yet, but will show everyone a photo when it's done. Summit Racing sells an oil pan heater. It's an immersion heater that's about 4" long. I'm looking at a spot to the right of the oil drain plug about an inch over. My machinist is welding in an aluminum collar to the outside of the pan. The collar gets drilled for the diameter of the heater rod. The collar gets pipe tapped for the threaded end of the heater rod. Add good sealant and you've got a 400 (or 250) watt heater with a short ac plug cord. A couple of wire ties and it won't ever move on the bike. A 400 watt oil pan heater gets the oil up to operating temperatures in about 10 minutes. So, we unload the bike, find out what time the first pass is, subtract 15 minutes and fire up the generator for 10 minutes. The bike should now run just like it will every round of the day. The oil temperature gauge should verify the results. I'll bring it with me to VA if I can get the pieces to fall right.
Speaking of VA and the Cup event. I was at a Prostar event long ago at VMP about the same time in June as what we're going to do. I baked on that weekend. Highs around 105 and lows about 90 (F). Please get the long range forecast for that weekend. If it's anything like what I've already seen, it will be a survival event. The bikes will hate the very high density altitude. Think 4500 - 5000' DA. My 'matic lost a half second and 3 mph. I only had brought one size smaller main jets with me. Big mistake. I'll bring 4+5 sizes down of jets with me if the weather is like it was back then. The hot bad air also made the idle circuit too rich. That made the launches much more sluggish. (reaction times got worse). Don't even dream of 11's if it's hot there. I recommend sun tan lotion, shade, and your choice of Gatorade, prefably frozen the night before. Wandering around the pits between rounds will take a lot out of you.
I'll play with simple pump premium. The exotic gas will need temperature management. OK, I'm coming up for air
