morbidelli17
Mon 5/19/08, 11:19PM
I felt confident heading to the big track this May. I had a very good outing at the Streets earlier this month. Granted, the bike was better, and parts of the track were repaved. And I rode like an idiot in the Formula Twins Lightweight race there. But in BOTT Light, even though Kenny Kopecky made me his woman, I rode like T. Seth was on my tail the entire eight laps and I wound up more than five seconds faster per lap than last year. So I felt confident heading to the Big Track. Besides, I had an ace in the hole.
Practice on Saturday went well; best of 1:33.9 (lap record is a 1:33.6). Practice on Sunday went well; best of 1:34.0. Andy from West Coast GP Cycles came down to the garage and twisted my knobs, then he let go and I stopped screaming and he adjusted my suspension.
Then I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out my ace. I had been running a medium compound rear all weekend long. Earlier, I had stopped by the Dunlop tent and asked the guys to take a look at a rear tire I had been saving - a soft 3166 compound that I'd used at the Streets on race day. It was going to be hot on Sunday. I had the BOTT Light race early in the day (race two). I wanted to go like hell in that race only and go home before it got really hot. I knew a soft tire would grip like stink for a few laps, then go off quickly. I just wanted it to last eight laps. The Dunlop guys nodded. We slapped it on and put the warmers on.
As Happy Bunny says, let's play.
Got a good start, and the first few laps were relatively clear of traffic. 1:34s kept popping up on the lap timer. Then I got balked behind a vintage Ducati for half a lap. I slipped past going into Turn Eight, went deep into Nine, got a good drive down the main straight. No one in the way. I took a deep breath.
The next lap was a class record at 1:33.3. The next one I was a bit excited, so I screwed it up a little and slowed to a 1:33.6. On the last lap, there was no traffic, so I really stuck it into Turn One. I tried to brake as lightly as possible, but the front started bouncing around a bit. I remembered that getting on the gas shifted weight to the back of the bike and would often settle the front, so I managed to convince my throttle hand that this was a good idea.
I came out of Turn One past the cone with 8,600 rpm showing in 5th gear. That's 200 rpm more than I've ever seen. "This could be a good one," I thought.
I tried to keep it on at least partial throttle as I tipped it into Turn Two and got back to the stop as quickly as I could. All day long, the new GSXR front end had shrugged off the bumps in Two; so I concentrated on keeping the momentum up and let the bike ride over the bumps and hoped it would stick.
It did. I could feel the g-forces; I knew this turn had gone well.
I had a huge head of steam going into the Omega. I played connect the dots with braking and turning points, and was back on the gas hard before I got to the dip at the exit of Five.
I figured I had nothing to lose by going even deeper into Nine than I have done in the past. If I got in too hot and had to slow down to make the corner, no big deal, I've got a good lap in the books already. So I deliberately drove it in further than I ever have. Once I'd made up my mind to stay pinned past the place where I'd let off before, it was actually kind of calm. You know, the calm just before the catastrophe.
Fortunately, this time there was no catastrophe. It was easy to make the corner, even at a speed that felt faster than I'd ever gone through there, knee and boot tip planted on the ground. I came out with a big number on the tachometer, tucked in and drove well past the start-finish line, because I wasn't quite sure where the transponder beacon was.
On the timer the lap time flashed up:
1:32.78.
Nearly a full second quicker than my old lap record.
Last time, I wasn't sure if I'd broken the record or not until I got back to the pits. This time, I celebrated like hell on the whole cooldown lap. I parked the bike, wrapped the tires in the warmers, and ran to the announcing tower to check if their timing said the same thing my lap timer did.
It did. The official time was 1:32.776.
I got interviewed over the track P.A. Somehow, I remembered to thank West Coast GP Cycles, Dunlop, ZenSandy and the girls I garage with. I thanked the Dunlop crew in person, and the WCGP crew as well. Andy called me a "madman" for turning 1:32s "on that thing;" woo-hoo! And I had to talk to Jeremy Toye briefly, and when I shook his hand, he said, "Whoo, watch that right hand, the hot hand out here today."
I grinned like an idiot.
Not a bad way to spend a Sunday at all.
Thanks to the usual suspects; Alex, Andy, Pete and Omar at West Coast GP Cycles - without them, I'd probably be cursing at a broken EX500 right now; Zoran at Twin Works for this brilliantly insane idea of destroking an SV650; and the guys at Dunlop.
:D
Practice on Saturday went well; best of 1:33.9 (lap record is a 1:33.6). Practice on Sunday went well; best of 1:34.0. Andy from West Coast GP Cycles came down to the garage and twisted my knobs, then he let go and I stopped screaming and he adjusted my suspension.
Then I reached into my bag of tricks and pulled out my ace. I had been running a medium compound rear all weekend long. Earlier, I had stopped by the Dunlop tent and asked the guys to take a look at a rear tire I had been saving - a soft 3166 compound that I'd used at the Streets on race day. It was going to be hot on Sunday. I had the BOTT Light race early in the day (race two). I wanted to go like hell in that race only and go home before it got really hot. I knew a soft tire would grip like stink for a few laps, then go off quickly. I just wanted it to last eight laps. The Dunlop guys nodded. We slapped it on and put the warmers on.
As Happy Bunny says, let's play.
Got a good start, and the first few laps were relatively clear of traffic. 1:34s kept popping up on the lap timer. Then I got balked behind a vintage Ducati for half a lap. I slipped past going into Turn Eight, went deep into Nine, got a good drive down the main straight. No one in the way. I took a deep breath.
The next lap was a class record at 1:33.3. The next one I was a bit excited, so I screwed it up a little and slowed to a 1:33.6. On the last lap, there was no traffic, so I really stuck it into Turn One. I tried to brake as lightly as possible, but the front started bouncing around a bit. I remembered that getting on the gas shifted weight to the back of the bike and would often settle the front, so I managed to convince my throttle hand that this was a good idea.
I came out of Turn One past the cone with 8,600 rpm showing in 5th gear. That's 200 rpm more than I've ever seen. "This could be a good one," I thought.
I tried to keep it on at least partial throttle as I tipped it into Turn Two and got back to the stop as quickly as I could. All day long, the new GSXR front end had shrugged off the bumps in Two; so I concentrated on keeping the momentum up and let the bike ride over the bumps and hoped it would stick.
It did. I could feel the g-forces; I knew this turn had gone well.
I had a huge head of steam going into the Omega. I played connect the dots with braking and turning points, and was back on the gas hard before I got to the dip at the exit of Five.
I figured I had nothing to lose by going even deeper into Nine than I have done in the past. If I got in too hot and had to slow down to make the corner, no big deal, I've got a good lap in the books already. So I deliberately drove it in further than I ever have. Once I'd made up my mind to stay pinned past the place where I'd let off before, it was actually kind of calm. You know, the calm just before the catastrophe.
Fortunately, this time there was no catastrophe. It was easy to make the corner, even at a speed that felt faster than I'd ever gone through there, knee and boot tip planted on the ground. I came out with a big number on the tachometer, tucked in and drove well past the start-finish line, because I wasn't quite sure where the transponder beacon was.
On the timer the lap time flashed up:
1:32.78.
Nearly a full second quicker than my old lap record.
Last time, I wasn't sure if I'd broken the record or not until I got back to the pits. This time, I celebrated like hell on the whole cooldown lap. I parked the bike, wrapped the tires in the warmers, and ran to the announcing tower to check if their timing said the same thing my lap timer did.
It did. The official time was 1:32.776.
I got interviewed over the track P.A. Somehow, I remembered to thank West Coast GP Cycles, Dunlop, ZenSandy and the girls I garage with. I thanked the Dunlop crew in person, and the WCGP crew as well. Andy called me a "madman" for turning 1:32s "on that thing;" woo-hoo! And I had to talk to Jeremy Toye briefly, and when I shook his hand, he said, "Whoo, watch that right hand, the hot hand out here today."
I grinned like an idiot.
Not a bad way to spend a Sunday at all.
Thanks to the usual suspects; Alex, Andy, Pete and Omar at West Coast GP Cycles - without them, I'd probably be cursing at a broken EX500 right now; Zoran at Twin Works for this brilliantly insane idea of destroking an SV650; and the guys at Dunlop.
:D