Race reports
Aug 12-13: Summit
WERA National Endurance Series
Andy #93
I was at school all week and had an early day coming on friday so I could get in some much needed practice... I get to my truck ,check my phone and NJracer, Bmann29 and Jeff had BLOWN UP my phone with voicemails. I knew it was bad cause I had 6 of them in a 20 minute time period... They ask if I could bring my bike due to a crash in practice that made the bike un-rideable ( T6, the carousel )... High Side... I call them back and we discussed the earlier plan of me bringing my bike and everyone said "No, don't bring it we're good on spares except for a front wheel... "
Just to give you an idea, School was 1.5 hours from home and 1 hour from the track that is why I needed to plan this early... So Bmann offered up his 2004 GSX-R 750 to fill the empty spot on the grid... He lives 50 minutes from the track...
Jeff arrives w/ the 750 and we start prepping it for the AM. We removed the front & rear wheels so we could have the slicks mounted in the am. Cleaned the bike, helmets and made sure everything was lock tighted that could come loose. We decided some controls needed to be relocated for comfort purposes but to a happy medium for all riders... Started getting late, I was getting sleepy and Jeff had some soreness finally setting in.
SATURDAY: Race Day
We install the tires, tech the bike, tech helmets for Brandon & myself only to find out one was No bueno... too old by 1 month. This meant I had to wear the same sweaty helmet all day long... I was NOT happy.
PRACTICE: We get a whopping 30 minutes... I was having some real mental issues with tire pressures on the new Pirelli Diablo Superbike Slicks. We set them 31/ 29 COLD... as normal... So I take 15 minutes and NJ racer takes 15... right away I notice the shifter is too high. Every time I tried to down shift the shifter hit me on the side of the ball of my foot... That just is not going to work, I tell NJ before he goes out... NJ takes to the track and returns at the checkers.
"I'm missing shifts everywhere" he says. We adjust the shifter by 1 spline on the shift shaft due to the shift rod being too short to do it any other way. After practice, we talk about where to move the hand controls with the whole group present and come to an agreement by sliding the clip-on tubes in by 1" so we don't look like Ben Spies. Well this was my 1st time on a new generation gixxer and it went as good as it could have... I was running some 1:24's within 5 laps of getting on the bike prior to the controls being moved... I was happy with that... I immediately roll the bike to the Pirelli tent to check HOT tire pressure as recommended... HOLY SHIT was I surprised to see 36/ 34... He said it should be 31/29 HOT! Were you sliding around and spinning up the rear? I said YES, 10-4... He set the pressure and said this will be 100% better... WoW was he right...! I would recommend running a front pressure of 30 HOT on the RR due to the extra weight of the bike cause the 750 was pushing bad in T5 as we approached hour #4.
Myself being the lightweight of the bunch @ 175 lbs, I had to deal with the overly stiff susp for the heavyweights but I knew it would soften up when it got good and hot, which it did by the time NJ came in for the 1st rider change and fuel top off... NJ ran consistent 1:23 to 1:25 range the 1st 50 minutes... My Turn: I hop on the bike when the key gets shoved back in the ignition and loft a Noiiiicce leaving the hot pit... My 1st hot lap was a 1:22.6... Already I was on a blistering pace... not knowing if i could hold that pace for 50 minutes or more I just kept pressing on... Pretty soon, like 10 laps into my portion I was running high 1:21's and picking people off 3 and 4 at a time my entire 1st hour on the bike... still amazed at my ability to stay extremely consistent for such a long period of riding 110%... Yes, I know it's an endurance race... I just felt really relaxed while I was out there so I kept going the same pace... I came upon Dr. Fever and follow him a few laps before I decided to have some fun with him since I was on the 750... :tongue: I'd let him show me a wheel or pull along side me and I would just roll the throttle open and take off... I know it was just tearing him up for me to beat him like that , but i was WAAAAAy slower than him a few years back...
Ya know that caption contest pic we were making jokes about...
Not so funny when you find yourself in that same situation in 3rd gear @ 13k... with your knee on the ground... No, I didn't throw it away, but damn was it close... I did it right in front of FEVER... :tongue: Just after my moment I noticed the left grip was hanging on by about 1" of the clip-on :lipsrsealed: I shove it back on as i motor down the front straight... bike felt pretty good overall except in really sharp turns (T5)... Them damn Suk's just WON"T turn like a Honda will... :sad: The fuel light came on just after start finish so I had to TAP the helmet next time around to let them know... I'm coming in... :cheesy: The tire was pretty spent after an hour of consistent .21's and .22's... I was sliding the rear all over the place pretty controlled compared to what I can do with the RR... I let Bmann know this as soon as I got off the bike... He goes out and had 2 crashes right in front of him in the 1st 5 laps... He does his 30 minutes and comes in due to fatigue and nerves from the crashes he was almost in the middle of... Smart move on his part... Not worth throwing it away just to do your part of the duties IMHO... I'd rather have you around for the next one... :grin: sometime if you just don't feel it... It just isn't worth it... Props to you Bmann29... :grin: Jeff goes out and we tell him to just be consistent and keep it upright knowing he is still unsettled from ther crash... I know I would be...
Jeff stays very consistent but a lil on the conservative side... He did his part and brought it into the pits safe and for our only tire change of the day in which we did it the old fashioned way in about 3.25 minutes... NJ got on after the tire change and did it all again for 50+ minutes... then handed the bike off to me for the 2nd time... Fresh out of the pits I ran a 1:22 my 1st lap... the second lap I was haulin as well till I hit T7 where I noticed a waving RED Flag. Glad they called it when they did cause right after I went through T10 my 1st lap a guy blew up and spews oil all in the racing line for like 1/4 mile... after that all I could muster were .23's to .25's but no slower... Bmann gave up his spot so NJ and myself finished the race, Bringing home a 5th in Class finish which we did NOT expext... I guess you could say we were the spoilers... :tongue: :tongue: :tongue:
MUCH thanks to Bmann for the use of his bike, Jeff for the sleeping qtrs, NJ for the SHRIMP I did not get... :wink: and most of all to Bmanns MoM and DaD for fronting the money for the tires and entry fees...
DAD, You can be my pit Boss anytime... :grin: I really enjoyed working with you and your wife... Hope to see you next year...
