Ride it like you hate it!

Another weekend race report for everybody. Like usual, it was complete chaos.

Arrive at Summit Point, WV (home away from home) 10 pm Friday night. Find keith palmer setting up the Zero Dollars Racing pit by the woods. Not having my usual pit partner Dave, I decide to pit next to them. Get set up and to bed by 12:30am.

Saturday morning wake up and go to registration to pick up my pre-entry registration for sunday and post enter the Solo 20 race for that day. i was feeling good and wanted to try and finish the 18 lap race on saturday for money. At registration I find they've lost my pre-entry. that means I go to the back of the registration line and wait like everyone else. that's ok. I'm last practice session, so things are cool.

get my registration squared way, bike teched and head out for the first practice session. things feel good the first couple of laps. I'm headed up into turn three on the 2nd or 3rd lap and go to down shift. when I hit the throttle, there's no go. the bike revs, but doesn't move. Maybe I hit a false neutral? shift and try another gear. still no go. I throw my hand up to let everyone know I have problems and head for the side of the track. it's still morning, the grass is dewy and I have slicks, so down I go. damn! I didn't need that. pick the bike up and push it up over the burm. the cornerworkers are trying to retech me to go back out on the track. I tell them it's done, I'm PUSHING it back to the pits. It turns out, my counter shaft sprocket nut cam off. What's that? it's the nut that holds the front sprocket on the transmission shaft. without the nut, the sprocket comes off and the bike has no drive. I have 3 of these things at home, but none at the track. frantically I run through the pits asking people for a spare nut. Finally I find the nut, but now I need a special lock washer to keep the nut on. I ask around and the consensus is locktight the nut and forget about it. Meanwhile I'm filing out the inside diameter of a regular washer to fit behind the nut in place of the lock washer that should have been there. get it back together and head out for second practice session. things are going well. i'm running a few laps with keith and he decides to pull in. i stay out, but decide to look at my temp gauge. the bike had been overheating last weekend at VIR. I put a new radiator on it and flushed the system before this weekend, so let's see how it's doing. Damn again! the needle is in the red. it's boiling! Again I throw my hand up and head off the track. this time it was turn one. there's a paved pull off down there, so no falling again. I ride it back to the pits and start working. I figure it's got to be a bad thermostat. I pull it out and start drilling holes in it for more flow. meanwhile I ask Steve (owner of SpeedWerks builder of the bike) what's up with my bike. it's typical for bikes like mine to overheat, but I could have a blown head gasket. ooh that would suck. he says keep up with the thermostat, put it back in, fill up with coolant, and get the bike to race temperature. when it's hot, whack the throttle. if you get a geyser out of the coolant fill tube, you've got a blown head gasket. I do all that and sure enough I get the geyser effect. back to steve.

bob: "ok now what"

steve: "put a really big catch bottle on it and run it"

bob: "I can't even get out to the starting grid without it overheating"

steve: "how are you doing with points (the regional points chase)?"

bob: "I'm tied for third"

steve: "we've got a spare motor in our trailer. If I blow a motor, I don't care. let me call john (his partner still working at the shop in dover, de) and see if he needs it"

he calls john

steve: "john doesn't need it, he'll bring it when he comes to the track later today. meanwhile here's a list of things to do to your motor to drop it out. come get me when you get all this done"

so I run back and start dismantling things. in an hour I have the motor ready to drop. I go get steve and we drop the motor. for the rest of the afternoon my bike sits there with no motor in it. it got a lot of attention. some guy even video taped it.

8:30pm the speedwerks trailer pulls up. I get the motor and haul it back to my pit area. Both Steve and John come over to help put it in. In about an hour the three of us have it in, some of my parts switched over and ready to start it. the motor sat for nearly 2 years, so it took a good 10 to 15 minutes to get it to start and run on its own. they head back to their motel and I'm left to do the finishing touches and safety wire it. 12:30 am I go to bed. only thing left is to align the rear wheel and put the body work on.

SUNDAY 7am. get up, eat, finish bike and head out for first and only practice. things go well, the bike runs well. the engine is a little slower than mine, but it'll get me across the finish line. my first race is Formula 2. this is the race I don't care much about. the green flag goes, and my bike practically stalls. zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom bikes fly by. For most of the race I get behind these guys on Suzuki sv's. they're faster on the straights, but suck in the turns. finally get around them and my lap times start dropping. finish the race 9th, which is typical for that race.

second race is D superbike. I'm tied for third in points in this one. starting on the front row. I had been practicing my starts, so I thought I was ready. waiting for the green, the bike is moving front and backward as I try to get the pressure on the new grabby clutch. the flag goes and again zoom, zoom, zoom bikes fly by. again I'm behind the one SV and a friend of mine on the same bike as me. we're racing pretty good the first lap (1:30 my fastest time at Summit). we come around to the start/finish line and I see the meatball flag. they throw the meatball flag when a rider jumps the start, or rides like an idiot somewhere. i thought maybe it was the SV rider because he was an idiot. we come around on the second lap and I decide to see what number got the meatball. Doh! 913 that's my number. I indicate that I saw the flag. this means I get a stop and go penalty in the pit out area next lap. I basically give up and head around the track. about turn 4 the red flag comes out. that means racing stops head back in. some guy crashed in T10 bad enough to red flag the race. he was ok, and now my meatball flag doesn't count. we grid up for a restart. this time I clamp down on the clutch. even if I get passed by a bunch of people, I have better chances than a meatball flag. the green flag drops and we're off. not even a bad start (wasn't the best either). by lap 3 I'm in my usual spot - middle of the pack. the guys racing for 5th or better are way up ahead and the guys racing for 8th or worse are no where to be seen, so I settle in and concentrate on finishing the race in my usual 7th place. go by the half way flag, just 4 laps to go. this time in turn 5 (a super blind turn) the red flag comes out again. a red flag after the halfway flag means the race will not restart, but who crashed? I get around turn 5 and there piled up on the side of turn 6 are the leaders. the number 1 and number 2 guy (of the race not points) went down. that means I finish in 6th, get 10 points and they get nothing.

SO. 3rd place in regional points is a sure thing(as long as I don't crash next weekend). I'm within striking distance of 2nd and dropped my time another second at Summit Point. all on a borrowed engine.

going to the grand national finals in atlanta is a definite. so stay tuned for more race action chaos.