Blog - RPM Motorsports

Read about all the RPM Motorsports adventures straight from the team.

Summit Point End of Summer Cycle Jam
2008-09-06

I started the weekend with high hopes and even higher expectations. I wanted to achieve top ten finishes in the ASRA Pro races, finish in the top third or better in all of the Expert Middleweight and Expert Heavyweight races I had entered. I also wanted to bring my lap times from the few low 1.20's I had experienced the last time I was racing there to a race with consistent 1.18's and a few dips into the 1.17's, 6 seconds off of the record and 15 seconds faster than I had gone the first time I rode at Summit three years ago. I was in for a ride.

Thursday I was fortunate enough to be asked by Roger Lyle of Motorcycle Xcitement to assist his instructors and track day organizers as a Control Rider for a few of the different riding groups he was going to have on track that day. I spent most of my day working with the Beginner and Intermediate Sport riders, not wanting to try to race against other street riders but to start building setup data. I also wanted an opportunity to take a look at the track at slower speeds to understand how the recent resurfacing of a few of the corners had gone and where I was going to find some speed in a few days. It ended up being a good decision. I saw that there were many new places with sealer that had not been there before. I noticed that there were places that looked "wet" from the asphalt but were actually just the brand new asphalt not completely cured. That was going to be interesting if there was not enough good rubber on it come race time. A few riders went down in the turn 6 and 7 areas. The transition from the sealer to older race surface was a little difficult to overcome the traction changes. It would be an area that I developed a momentum problem later on in the weekend.

Friday was the CCS Racer Practice. Conditions at the track were favorable and there was a light turnout of riders prompting the officials to call for open practice. As the tail end of hurricane Hannah loomed in the distance, and many people figured the weekend would be a wash out. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of picking the weather, so I was in it for the long haul. With open practice that early, I spent a large portion of the day in passing practice as most of the riders there were developing their speed a day behind me, and it put my spirits in overdrive. I found myself becoming a little more aggressive, but controlled, and found a few friends that I have been racing with to bring me back to reality. After the lunch break, the race officials broke us all into Amateur and Expert Class groups. I ended up practicing with machines closer in performance to what I had brought to the track. A few of us hooked up and spent the afternoon dicing through traffic, pulling passes out of corners within inches of each other at triple digit speeds all trying to put the moves on early. Trust amongst competitors is something I would learn well this weekend. I had brought along a secret weapon this weekend and that was my crew chief from last year, Greg Walker. He was one of the people directly responsible for helping me with all that I had, and he had agreed to come out for the weekend and give me a hand with my setup. Interestingly, he wanted to know what my goals were before he would agree to come out. Greg is good at providing me with an environment to push myself, and when he sees me slacking, he knows how to help push me a little more to get what I needed out of myself. Friday Greg and I worked on setup, as we moved forward with understanding the differences between the "A" bike and the "B" bike. The bikes are set up differently and we only had three twenty minute sessions per bike to try and figure out what was needed for the weekend. We had most of the gearing figured out, but the suspension was still acting up. Besides, we had a hurricane coming, didn't we need to set the bikes up for rain?

This weekend a good friend of mine, Mike Clark, had also come along to the races. Mike brought his RV, a travel trailer with slide outs. It had a kitchen, full bathroom, and slept 4 adults. It even had its' own master bedroom that he insisted I take. Central heating and air, and even local cable channels. I was in heaven. Never before had I stayed at the track like royalty before. Mike volunteered to cook, run errands, help in the pits and run "radar-duty" keeping track of the storm that was sure to hit sometime over the weekend. He was another one of the reasons I was able to do so much over the weekend and I am truly grateful to his positive attitude and extra pair of hands. He also is a great cook, and tells great stories to keep us entertained while we are not racing around like crazy people. I hope he comes along in the future. Friday night brought the beginning of the edge of the rain, and I was glad to have his roof over my head.

Saturday we awoke to a riders meeting that told us the plan of the day was to practice, even in the rain, until we had a window of opportunity wide open enough to get the four twenty minute GT races out of the way and allow for slightly less-packed race schedule on Sunday. There would be no ASRA Qualifying so we would be gridded by points. That meant I would start on the front row. We would ride the "B" bike in the rain. My friend Pat from a local web sport bike forum was there filming for the day, and he was going to get whatever footage he could. He caught a few crashed on film, some at speed, and all in the rain. He didn't get any of me, because I kept it on two wheels all weekend (except for the power wheelies over the hills). Greg softened up the "B" bike by pulling a bunch of preload out of it, and off I went to practice. It was exhausting. By the end of the second lap, everything I was wearing was soaked. After each session I went out in, I was soaked and chilled to the bone. As the day went on, we had a 2 hour lunch break, and then the storm seemed to lighten. It looked like the weather might allow us to race without it raining after all. I was in race 4, a GTO, a race against bikes that usually have 750-1000 ccs. I like racing with them on my 600's because they can sometimes show me faster lines out of some corners and ways to carry better corner speed through others. The rain changed all of that. When the green flag dropped, it turned more into a survival exercise and I was surprised at the amount of expert riders that seemed to be in way over their heads in these conditions. After a few amateurs passed me on 1000's in the straights, I decided to pick up the pace in the clearing conditions. I managed to finish a fairly strong 3rd amongst the experts and 7th overall. We were happy with the results, but knew that there was some serious work ahead of us. We ended up lengthening both chains to accommodate the smaller sprockets we decided to run on Sunday. We also made more suspension changes, and taking the gearing changes into mind made some pretty radical adjustments on the "B" bike after the day was over. I was happy enough about it to have a beer that evening with dinner. Afterwards, I sat around and talked with a few friends about the coming day, building some personal excitement about it. I spent the later part of the night talking with the crew chief of the #1 plate holding bike and the fastest guy on the track and in the paddock that weekend. I was sorry to see him go when the beer ran out at midnight, I felt I was trying to soak up as much info about things as I could. I turned in to my comfortable bed and slept well, but awoke early on Sunday.

Sundays' activities came early. We got the bikes out and ready for the day, Greg making more adjustments on the "B" bike the other way from where he had moved it for the rain on Saturday. The "A" bike was fueled with the "Go-Go Juice", and tire pressures were set once the warmers had brought up the temps of the Bridgestone rubber to be destroyed that day. I was going to run the "A" bike with slicks all day, and the "B" bike with DOT style tires. That would make it easier as the day went on and kept the setup a little different, but manageable. We ended up being wrong. I ran the "B" bike in my first race of the day, and it felt like it was on rails, but the speed just wasn't there. I seemed to be stuck running in the 21's with a few 20's scattered in there. We had also left the rear sprocket one tooth higher, to simulate the pull out of some of the corners my "A" bike was providing with a smaller sprocket, but higher corner entry speed. It almost worked. After a few more less than desirable results with one more race, we decided to move all of the racing that day to the "A" bike. I was finding speed on the "A" bike, but needed a little more traction. My tire sponsor from Bridgestone, Quentin Mize, came over and we talked about setup. He listened to Greg, and suggested we lower the front and rear tire pressures to new settings that some of the faster 1000's (2-3 seconds faster) were running. Since the warmers were on all day, we made the adjustment and left the suspension alone. I went out in my next race and put my head down, looking to beat the riders who were sponsored by two other competing local motorcycle shops. I put passes on both riders early in the 6 lap sprint race, and rode as hard as I could to a race filled with a 1:22 on my out lap and consistent 1:18's through the remaining 5 laps. Quentin came back and checked on us after the race, and he was visibly happy with the direction we were headed in. We learned that the tuned suspension on the "A" bike only works well when I am thrashing the hell out of it, and that with a little more time, we might just be able to reach the goal of a 1:17 by the end of the weekend. I was already keeping much more experienced and faster racers in view through the whole race, and even though I was frustrated with my lack of "on the gas" in a few corners, I knew that if I got out front or tried to hold on to the fast group early, I could finish well. I was trying to get the "dead space" out of my bike setup previous to turn 10. I needed to get the confidence to stay on the gas down the hill after the bridge, not just to it. I was concerned about sliding through and out of the turn, after seeing many of my fellow racers crashing there over the last few years. Running wide had been something I had been battling with all weekend as well. My biggest problem had been in turn 6 and 7, trying to find more speed there. I decided to rev the motor out instead of shifting, which with the setup we had was a mistake. In hindsight, I should have shifted into third gear at the apex of turn 7 and rode the gear all of the way out, increasing my speed and shooting me through the next three turns and on to possibly faster times. Next time, maybe. We decided to run the "A" bike for the remainder of the weekend, seeing that if there was a bike that could get my 1:17's, it was going to be on the "A" bike. We knew the bike was more than capable, but was I? Mike and another friend, Norm, went to work on the "B" bike to get the DOT tires off and mounted on the "A" bike in enough time to get the tires properly heated and ready for the last race of the day. The ASRA races were fast and furious as I only managed to keep the record-setting pace race leaders during the Superbike race in sight for about 4 laps. After that, I just concentrated on pushing myself to not come in last and not get lapped. In my Superbike race, I finished in eighth place, only in front of a much faster rider after he had crashed out in the second lap. In the Factory Pro Sportbike race with the "A" bike detuned and running DOT tires, I tried to get my best start of the weekend and managed to hold onto a decent spot all the way until turn 4 before being passed by the #1 plate holder and the guys hot on his heels. I got a pretty good line, and managed to hold on for 2 laps. After that, I just focused on those elusive times I had been searching for all weekend. I was in for disappointment. I never got the times I wanted. However I did finish 5th in my Factory Pro Sportbike race, my best finish in an ASRA Pro race to date. I was nervous about the process after the race and I didn't return immediately to the pits which caused some concern to those who had come to see me, mostly my wife. After they had realized that the bike was going to be weighed and checked on a Dyno, a bunch of fans came over to watch. I weighed way over the minimum limit heavy, which is an issue we'll be addressing before the next weekend. My engine Dyno check came in under the limit, so we were happy with that. I then found out that another racer had failed his post race Dyno check, pushing me into 4th place! I was happy with my finish before, so this extra bump was nice. I would have preferred to beat him if I could have though. All of the other Pro riders were congratulating me after they were released from the podium after their interviews. Greg spoke with the race officials and the Dyno tech, and then I rode the bike back to the pits to celebrate with my friends and fans that were there. I found out that I never cracked into the 1:17's, but it was said numerous times by other people and fellow racers that I would have had I had just one more day to practice.

The next race is in a few weeks at VIR, one of my favorite tracks. This time, we are hoping for more quality practice time on track, better weather, and more time to complete a kickass setup. With a few good friends along to be a part of a great time, I'm pretty sure the goals we set out for will be reached and we will build the confidence to be able to compete in the AMA National race there next fall.

I would like to thank Greg, Mike and Norm for all of their help over the weekend. And to Stillie, it was cool having you around. We'll make you a crew member yet. To Kevin and Terry from Fairfax Cycles, thanks for the advice on turn 7. To Jon from CTR, thanks for the patience and I hope to get better at explaining what's happening on track in the future. Thanks to Quentin from Bridgestone for the special attention you gave me. It helped me to push a little more with confidence. To my other competitors, friends and especially my wife Tiffany, thanks for the kind words and understanding. I appreciate you all putting my expectations into perspective. I'll be back for more soon ...

See you at the races!

Summit Point End of Summer Cycle Jam
2008-09-06

Just Got Back From VIR
2008-06-24

Hey everybody! It seems like ages since I've been able to sit back and do some reflecting of the race season so far. I've been really slacking in the keeping up with the weekend details so far, so I'm going to try to get everybody up to speed. <Read More>