Slaughter
Thu 9/21/06, 2:20PM
Not really a race report but an evolving rambling free-association spewing of words:
Toye and Rapp were absolutely amazing - running an hour and 45 minutes and finishing the Toyota 200 race at a pace of 1:22. That is not going to mean much to those who haven't been on the track at Willow Springs but that pace equates to sprint podium times for all but Open Superbike in a 8-lap race and we're talking 80 laps here!!!
1. Jeremy Toye (Kaw ZX-10R), $50,000, 80 laps, 1:52:22.359
2. Steve Rapp (Suz GSX-R1000), $30,000, -6.170 seconds
3. Jason Perez (Yam YZF-R1), $10,000, -71.868 seconds
4. Robbie Dowie (Kaw), $5000, -3 laps
5. Scott Jensen (Suz), $3000, -3 laps, 18.005 seconds
In Jensen's pits, we had our work cut out for us.
Saturday we got dinged by the Referee because the Ohlins forks were technically "quick change" and we had to make some mods on the ramp geometry so that the wheels weren't "held" in position.
Pics courtesy Eric Barrows:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/EBear228251.jpg
Front end "team" discussing wheel change tactics - taint as easy as it looked. Getting the front end lifted, pin out without having your hand crushed and bruised is entertaining at best, broken bones at worst.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/EBear228248.jpg
We had an R-1 top welded to the gixxer base to make a 7.3 gallon tank. Saturday night we were still JB welding the vacuum-break fill fitting to seal it, bolting it up and rattle-can painting it. Pic shows that endurance sure aint pretty. Tank raced as-welded. Gas splashed during pit practice was dissolving the paint and got Scott a silver crotch.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/EBear228247.jpg
Saturday night was an all-nighter. We decided to run 17s instead of 16.5's because of the better tire mileage and getting those Ohlin SBK forks rotated to clear the calipers.
I have NOTHING good to say about those forks. Ohlins recommends a $400 overhaul every 10 hours of racing! Scott gets the forks for free and is not sure if he's going to keep them. At Laguna, we swapped back to the GSXR forks that worked so well but this weekend, they were used because we can change the front in about 15 sec with the Ohlins, the stockers took nearly a minute. Ohlins have to do their homework if they're going to sell them to privateers who have to spend their own money. Scott blew out a nitrogen seal at Laguna, and tuning them is a NIGHTMARE! One fork is high and low speed compression damping - high speed on top, low speed on bottom of leg. Other fork leg is high and low speed rebound damping. Easy to mix up when you're in a hurry.
We STILL had to grind the shit out of the back side of the calipers to clear the rim when we rotated the forks. The joke was that everytime the grinder came out, we gained a half second. Scott wouldn't let us grind anywhere else.
Pics thanks to Carlos Arzola:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/DSCN0330_small.JPG
More prep work Saturday Night - Scott working on securing the sliders into the swingarm.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/DSCN0331_2.JPG
We were also providing pit support for Dominic Jones and Eric Haugo. Both were out solo. Had to tell them that we'd do fuel and wheel changes for them but if Scott were coming in, we'd drop what we were doing to get Scott. Fortunately, we never had more than one bike in the pits at a time!!! Try pitting for 3 racers sometime!
During the race, Dominic Jones got black flagged when he shed his bellypan. He came rolling into the pits next to us and shut down. I grabbed a handful of zipties, roll of duct tape and we hollered at Javier Ramirez' crew (he DNF'd with a broken motor, but the bike was right there next to us) - said we were going to "borrow" his bellypan! Shit started FLYING and we're yelling at Dominic to keep his shit on. We pulled off Javier's bellypan, drilled and zip-tied it onto Dominics fairing, duct-taped the hell out of the thing and with a nod by the referee (either Larry or Jeff - can't remember who - sorry) - Dominic blasted back out after missing about 3 laps. He still finished in 18th.
Eric Haugo finished 13th. Both Haugo and Jones chose hard rear and medium front tires in order to go the distance without wheel changes
The end result - dinner break in the pits late on Sunday. Scott with his 5th place trophy.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/DSCN0334_2.JPG
It really WAS a good experience. This is our 3rd year working together and with the PR Scott got from SPEED's Superbikes, we are going to have a pretty competent PR campaign in the coming AMA season.
More pics when I'm in the mood. Maybe even write something when there's time.
Toye and Rapp were absolutely amazing - running an hour and 45 minutes and finishing the Toyota 200 race at a pace of 1:22. That is not going to mean much to those who haven't been on the track at Willow Springs but that pace equates to sprint podium times for all but Open Superbike in a 8-lap race and we're talking 80 laps here!!!
1. Jeremy Toye (Kaw ZX-10R), $50,000, 80 laps, 1:52:22.359
2. Steve Rapp (Suz GSX-R1000), $30,000, -6.170 seconds
3. Jason Perez (Yam YZF-R1), $10,000, -71.868 seconds
4. Robbie Dowie (Kaw), $5000, -3 laps
5. Scott Jensen (Suz), $3000, -3 laps, 18.005 seconds
In Jensen's pits, we had our work cut out for us.
Saturday we got dinged by the Referee because the Ohlins forks were technically "quick change" and we had to make some mods on the ramp geometry so that the wheels weren't "held" in position.
Pics courtesy Eric Barrows:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/EBear228251.jpg
Front end "team" discussing wheel change tactics - taint as easy as it looked. Getting the front end lifted, pin out without having your hand crushed and bruised is entertaining at best, broken bones at worst.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/EBear228248.jpg
We had an R-1 top welded to the gixxer base to make a 7.3 gallon tank. Saturday night we were still JB welding the vacuum-break fill fitting to seal it, bolting it up and rattle-can painting it. Pic shows that endurance sure aint pretty. Tank raced as-welded. Gas splashed during pit practice was dissolving the paint and got Scott a silver crotch.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/EBear228247.jpg
Saturday night was an all-nighter. We decided to run 17s instead of 16.5's because of the better tire mileage and getting those Ohlin SBK forks rotated to clear the calipers.
I have NOTHING good to say about those forks. Ohlins recommends a $400 overhaul every 10 hours of racing! Scott gets the forks for free and is not sure if he's going to keep them. At Laguna, we swapped back to the GSXR forks that worked so well but this weekend, they were used because we can change the front in about 15 sec with the Ohlins, the stockers took nearly a minute. Ohlins have to do their homework if they're going to sell them to privateers who have to spend their own money. Scott blew out a nitrogen seal at Laguna, and tuning them is a NIGHTMARE! One fork is high and low speed compression damping - high speed on top, low speed on bottom of leg. Other fork leg is high and low speed rebound damping. Easy to mix up when you're in a hurry.
We STILL had to grind the shit out of the back side of the calipers to clear the rim when we rotated the forks. The joke was that everytime the grinder came out, we gained a half second. Scott wouldn't let us grind anywhere else.
Pics thanks to Carlos Arzola:
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/DSCN0330_small.JPG
More prep work Saturday Night - Scott working on securing the sliders into the swingarm.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/DSCN0331_2.JPG
We were also providing pit support for Dominic Jones and Eric Haugo. Both were out solo. Had to tell them that we'd do fuel and wheel changes for them but if Scott were coming in, we'd drop what we were doing to get Scott. Fortunately, we never had more than one bike in the pits at a time!!! Try pitting for 3 racers sometime!
During the race, Dominic Jones got black flagged when he shed his bellypan. He came rolling into the pits next to us and shut down. I grabbed a handful of zipties, roll of duct tape and we hollered at Javier Ramirez' crew (he DNF'd with a broken motor, but the bike was right there next to us) - said we were going to "borrow" his bellypan! Shit started FLYING and we're yelling at Dominic to keep his shit on. We pulled off Javier's bellypan, drilled and zip-tied it onto Dominics fairing, duct-taped the hell out of the thing and with a nod by the referee (either Larry or Jeff - can't remember who - sorry) - Dominic blasted back out after missing about 3 laps. He still finished in 18th.
Eric Haugo finished 13th. Both Haugo and Jones chose hard rear and medium front tires in order to go the distance without wheel changes
The end result - dinner break in the pits late on Sunday. Scott with his 5th place trophy.
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-9/403336/DSCN0334_2.JPG
It really WAS a good experience. This is our 3rd year working together and with the PR Scott got from SPEED's Superbikes, we are going to have a pretty competent PR campaign in the coming AMA season.
More pics when I'm in the mood. Maybe even write something when there's time.