The Racing Wade at NHIS, April 29, 2001
Background:
About mid-season last year, I bought an XR100 for Tim, my 12-year-old son, that had a good chassis, but needed engine work. The countershaft bearing had exploded, ripping a jagged hole in the side of the left case. I traded some EX-parts to Dana Temple for an old XR100 bottom-end with a bad big-end bearing, and over this past winter have periodically attacked the beast. We had to buy one case from the dealer, and patch one with liquid steel, and his motor is half silver and half black, but last week it finally ran for the first time since we've owned it. This made Tim and I both very happy, and we have been looking forward to his getting a chance to ride it. He and I spent an hour or so on trails the day after we got it started, and the bike started every time (one kick, usually!), and didn't blow up, so I was eager to get him some more time on the bike….
Friday, April 27, 2001
The weekend pretty well started Friday morning at about 10am when I picked Tim up and headed to the track with his XR100 in the van. The primary goal for the day was to get him some time to ride in an open & fairly safe area with his friend Tom (Mike I's 12-yo son) for a few hours. I needed to find out about whether or not my EX would need a belly pan, and maybe get some writing taken care of while Tim was gallavanting. Am I ever the optimist, or what? Or maybe I'm just unrealistic. Anyway, Tim's XR ran great, and he and Tom had a fine old time. I learned that LRRS wouldn't be enforcing the belly pan rule, which would require every bike have a catch-pan under the motor capable of holding 3 quarts of oil in case of "energetic disassembly". This meant that my EX with the newly installed headgasket (my first shot at that repair on this motor) would pass tech even though I haven't got such a catch-pan in place. Yay! At 3:00 we had to pack it in to get Tim to baseball practice. This evening, I started the EX and it seemed unwilling to run for more than a few minutes. I did the fuel-line troubleshooting exercise, and found a kink in the hose from the tank to carbs, but the problem persisted. Eventually I gave up because it was getting late and that muzzy exhaust is SOOOOO loud - even with the garage door closed. I have to remember that I have neighbors now.
Saturday, April 28, 2001.
I went to the track early to renew my racing license, sign up for one Sunday race, and look into getting a spare motor from Bob "EX-Parts" Perkins. He has a motor, but not with him. Maybe I'll get it next time. I signed up for the SUPERTWINS race, not thinking carefully, and in a hurry to not hold up the line. I only signed up for one race, so that if the headgasket didn't hold up, I'd only be out $50. Then I zoomed back home just in time to catch Tim's season-opening game. The kids had heart and some big hits (including a couple RBIs by Tim), but a couple of costly errors let Foster's get away. Get 'em next time, Hilltop!
The Rat-bike has had only a few mods since last year. It still has the EX-motor and chassis, with the CBR-600 F2 forks and wheels. I modified the subframe to hold a complete EX-seat again, and it's bolted into place, with a new Airtech (I think) solo-looking tailsection that nestles over the stock-seat. This new rear-end/seat arrangement weighs more than the mess I had on there last year, but it is MUCH more rigid, and I'm very happy with it's functionality if not its color. The tank and seat are red, the tail is purple with blue lightning bolts, the fairing is a light-whitish-cream color, the front fender is white, and the wheels on there now are red/silver, but will soon be replaced by purple/silver front, orange/silver rear. A decorator's nightmare. But it rides ok! I spent the afternoon putting the last pieces together. I added a couple of terminals inside the rear fender to make it possible to jumpstart the bike without removing the seat. This became important later because I failed to get the right type of battery to replace the tired wimpy battery from last season, and it couldn't hold enough juice to start the bike when cold. I also finished lock-wiring the front end (which had been all apart after last season to remove one of the brake disks.)
Sunday, April 29, 2001
Finally, race day. Up at 4:30 to eat and go get Tim, then drive to the track. Since he's 12 now, "he's an adult" and it costs $25 to get through the gate for both of us. Yikes. The old "open wallet, start shoveling" mantra rings in my head. Later on we realize that this gives us a basis to let Tim and Tom ride their XRs around, despite the "no children on two-wheeled vehicles" rule: They aren't children anymore!
I pass tech inspection, but Brian notes that I failed to lockwire one plug - I'll fix that. And I thought I was such a good doobie - I even lockwired the oil-banjo-bolts on the back of the head when I put it back together!
There were several incidents during Saturday's practices that resulted in pain and discomfort for the participants...some attributed to cold tires. These warnings ring in my head as I went out for the first practice. Air temp was about 48 degrees, I think, and my bike still has the Michelin Pilot soft slicks I bought at the beginning of last year.It takes three long laps before I'm beginning to feel any confidence in them - they both feel like they're sliding sideways as I go up the hill out of T3. I must have been very cautious in T6 (having destroyed one bike there last year during first lap of a practice on cold tires) because I didn't notice it much there. My laptimes were in the high 1:30's. Yuck. But it's early, right? The front end exhibits no chatter - which is no surprise at this speed, but it is a little twitchy. Hmmmmm. I don't remember that...After pulling into the garage, I see Chris checking his tire pressures. Hey, I says to myself, That's a good idea! I find that I had about 20 psi in the front tire. No wonder it felt rotten! I wait until the next practice is about to begin to let the tire cool a while, and stick 29 psi in there. The rear was spot on at 30, so I left it alone.
The second practice goes better. I get a few "warm" laps in. At least they feel better than the first practice. But I'm still off last year's laptimes by 6 seconds. The single front disk works OK, but requires more lever force than I am used to - I have to really think about applying LOTS of force coming into T1 and T3 particularly. My transitions are not smooth enough, and I overbrake into 1, 3, and 6. Each time I pass the apex, I realize I could have taken that turn faster! I just need to get that message to my right hand as I enter the turn. Being this much slower, my shifting points are all messed up as well - I need to go faster!!!
The cheering squad, in the form of my loverly wife-ly unit, Connie, arrived around midday - It's nice to have an audience. We sat around jawing for a while until my race. Mike was just taking it easy, having endo'd his SV in practice Saturday - his neck was sore, but the xrays say nothing's broken. Rick nearly killed hisself while golfing last year when a driver shaft fractured and went through his leg - he said he'd show us the 9" scar, but we never got around to it. Maybe that's just as well. Tim and Tom found some sticks and were greatly amused for probably 45 minutes toasting marshmallows over the charcoal grill.
Grid sheets get posted about 11. This is when I realize that I'm on track with a couple Ducati 996s, a 748, a 900, one SV650, and one RC51. What the heck am I doing here???? Oh well, you pays your buck, you takes your chances. There were 7 bikes in all, two rows. I was dead last on the grid. One bike on the lead row starts moving about 2 seconds before the green flag flies, and I hope the starter noticed it. My start was not stellar, but not HORRIBLE. The couple of bikes that I got past into T1 quickly went by me on the back straight. I was probably the very last bike, but I wasn't too far behind one Ducati (turned out to be a 900). I'd catch him in turns under braking, but he'd motor away on the straight. I showed a little wheel a couple times, but passing has never been my strong suit. I never had much practice at it, you see. About lap 4 I finally pulled up beside him at the exit of 12, and the rider looked over at me very pointedly, then motored off, I chased him down the front straight, and passed under brakes on the outside into T1. Being wide in 1 put me off-line for 1A and 2, and I expected to see him come up under me out of 2 and motor past into 3, but he didn't, so I just put my head down and tried to be as smooth as I could. By the end of the race, my confidence in the tires was coming back, and I got a little more lean angle going. Only a few of the leaders from the first wave lapped me - which surprised me, I was expecting them all to zoom by at some point. I'm still off my best lap by 3 seconds, but and I turned a 1:28, and I didn't crash. The starter DID see the other bike creeping, and whacked them a lap, putting me in 5th spot out of 7, for 8 points.
I have more than enough points to move up to "expert" now, but I don't want to until I'm near the front of the Junior pack. Maybe in a few weekends I'll think about it.
After my race, Connie took Tim back to Dover for his sunday baseball practice, and I went up to Turn 12 to cornerwork the last 7 races of the day. I had to pick up a couple broken bikes, but no nasty oil spills. One motor did in fact blow up, sending the rider off at the entrance to 11, whereupon he slid up to the Nascar wall, and then along the wall for 80 feet or so. He was ok, but once leaned over and stopped for a minute, his catch pan deposited bits of con-rod, what appeared to be a wrist pink, and a puddle of oil on the Nascar oval. The catch pan worked great! The rider was ok, and we left the bike there for him to collect after racing was over - to avoid crossing a race-line with a potential oil-leaker. Near the last race the corner captain, Uwe, made it back to the corner (after running a couple races). We've both seen each other's names on the grid sheets lots of times, since we both have EXs, but this was the first time I've shaken his hand. It's nice to get to meet the people you're on track with. Also, Chuck Calvert came over to the garage earlier in the weekend to meet and greet, and to commiserate about the unexpected costs of racing. Open wallet, start shoveling applies pretty much to everyone, I guess.
Next weekend, I will have new slicks. My confidence factor was a major problem. New tires should go a long way toward fixing that. The Dunlop slicks reportedly have superior stick, but they wear out faster - Given the longevity of the Pilots I was on today, I'm not real worried about that. Hopefully I'll be more careful about which races I sign up for, so that I will be able to run a race or two with hardware similar to mine...but maybe I'll run the supertwins race anyway, just to see if I can embarrass another big Ducati. See ya at the races!
SUMMARY: This was a pretty inexpensive weekend, really:
-Wade Bartlett, April 30, 2001
Last modified on 30APRIL2001