Evil Pumpkin Racing

The weather on Friday sucked hardcore, but I guess it’s now a story we can tell new riders in the future.

“Back when I raced in the spring of 2008…we raced in 40 degree weather as it rained all day…and then we had to push our bikes back to the pits..uphill, both ways!”

My bike had some cooling and heating problems…first she was running too hot. At first, we all thought it was the thermostat not working, so with some help from Clint and Derek, we pulled that out. Nope, that wasn’t the problem. Waterpump? Like some wounded horse, we tipped the bike on it’s side propped up by some old tires to act as pillows.

At first, the water pump looked like it was going to be an easy operation. Just two bolts holding it onto the outside of the clutch cover. We were wrong and had to remove the entire clutch cover to remove the water pump. Once we tore the pump apart, we discovered that the impeller shaft had become disconnected from the impeller. We considered epoxying the thing back together, but there was some concern about balance. Balance sounded important with objects spinning at high speed, so we called the expert on high speed disasters, Dr. Dave! We were hoping that Dr. Dave would have a spare impeller or water pump in his mythical spare parts treasure chest.

I was rewarded with a “Who doesn’t have a spare parts warehouse?!?!” and “Yes, I have that part. I will be up first thing Saturday morning and do you also need a clutch cover gasket?”

Okay…there was some grumbling about the “first thing Saturday morning”, but everyone was delighted to see Dr. Dave show up. The BIR security team showed up shortly there-after to practice their hostage rescue skills on Dr. Dave too.

The new pump performed flawlessly! Actually, it performed too well without the thermostat there to keep things warm. For my first race, I spent the race trying to get the bike temp to get above 130. That failed, so I pulled in early to avoid damaging the engine.

Clint and I decided to put some duct tape on the radiator to help it stay warm. Just before the race, the weather decided to warm up by 10 or so degrees. I spent my 17 lap trophy dash short shifting to try and keep the bike temp below 225. I did get to play with Derek during that race though..so it wasn’t all bad.

Thermostat got re-installed right after the bike cooled down from that race!

Sunday was perfect! The bike ran great and more importantly, it stayed at the perfect operating temperature!

The racing action was great on Sunday too. It is amazing what a missing 4HP will do for a bike. I was finally able to mostly keep up with the mildly tuned SV’s on the front straight. They still all have some more motor then I do, but it wasn’t a depressing “watch them get a little further away” thing. I also had some good racing from the fast novice James Fish, #126 on his mutant FZR400/R1/GSXR thing, and Kyle #73. My best lap time was a 1:58, but I am still wondering how I was able to run 1:55’s in 2003 and 2004 on my bike.

A special thanks goes out to:

• Eric at Sage Homes for his huge help at making all this fun possible!
• Paul and Jen for letting me use the Motel Jenspeed Trailer to set my cot up in.
• Bruce for letting me use his Super 8 Shower.
• Dr. Dave for his treasure chest of spare parts.
• Derek and Christy for the mega power diesel truck and trailer.
• Clint for his mechanical expertise.
• Pat and Wanda for the coffee.
• Rudolf Diesel for making me the only person on the team without a diesel truck!

So, here I am, an Evil Pumpkin Pumpkin.  I’ve got two race weekends under my belt, and I’ve never crashed in a race.  Of course, don’t ask about practice before a race, like maybe, the last practice before the new rider’s race which I need to complete in order to get my racing license…  Ahh, but that’s another story.

So I’m getting all gung-ho about this like I often do with things.  So last year in my 2 months of racing I bought a motorcycle, 1-pc suit, gloves, armor, back protector, etc.  Then after crashing Tate’s bike (which I was planning on buying but hadn’t yet) in Friday Practice during the New Rider’s School, The Good Dr. Squidward (a.k.a. Dave Johnson) was kind enough to lend me his SV for the ROI (Race of Idiots) so I could get my license.  I then borrowed parts from all sorts of people who were more than willing to help, and thanks to Tate scavenged up a windscreen.  So then it was time for spare parts like an extra windscreen, rear sets, a transponder, etc etc.  Remember when everyone said “racing’s not cheap?”  Yeah, I remember that.  My wallet is now remembering that too.

Found in the belly pan after the crash - Momma bird is gonna be ticked! ;^)

Bike almost ready after crash

This Pumpkin ain’t out of it yet!!

 So of course I was looking forward to the off-season.  Time to recover from my big-spending and save up for next year’s full racing season.  Yeah, right.  That is until the banquet.  Ooooh, there were so many cool things up for bidding at the Red Flag Fund auction!!!  Helmets, stands, races, DCTC sessions, gift certificates, yeah man, I want it all!!!

Ok, so now the banquet’s over, time to start the recovery from my big spending.  Yeah right.  That is until I started looking at trailers.  I was able to convince myself fairly easily - maybe too easily.  But hey, I’m in the middle of a mid-life crisis - now’s the time to spend the money and have the fun right?  In five years, I may be too fat or to beat up to do this.  No time like the present!!  So I go out and buy a new ‘07 Featherlite.  Hey, I reason, I can save enough money on hotel rooms in a season of racing to make a year’s worth of payments on the trailer.  So really it’s…  it’s… free!!  Yeah, that’s the ticket…

New ‘07 Featherlite

So it’s already January.  What am I working on?  Going through the bike?  Getting the bodywork fixed up (thanks to my crash)? Getting my suit repaired (see crash)? Getting my $400 Arai helmet checked to see if it’s still useable (see crash)?  Getting in shape (seeing how I’m carrying approximately -7 horsepower of extra weight on my body)?  Nope.  I’m getting my new trailer ready.  Hmmm.  Great idea, but I’d better get it done fast or it’ll be May and my trailer will be the only thing that’s ready…

So, I thought I’d post a few pics of the trailer and where it’s at currently.  I hope to get some sort of EPR stickers for it - I’ve already got some big CRA stickers from last year that will definitely be on it by May race weekend.  But for now, I’m concentrating on interior.  Hooking up 110v, lights, painting, etc.  Once the painting is done, it’ll be E-track, and wheel chocks.  I’m hoping that a cool idea I had for wheel chocks will come to fruition but as yet I have not heard from the fabricators.  Finally I’ll be figuring out where I can fit everything else in - closet/shelves/generator, all my other stuff…  But that’s fun to me, believe it or not.

Interior with lights, but no paint. Yet…

Interior - walls are done!

 Painting complete!!

I’m also hoping to have some company in my friends Brian “The Phoenix Phlyer” Chen (a.k.a. R6 + 140mph tuck in turn 2 + cartwheeling = small finger cut and trashed bike), and Adam “Whiz not, want not” Whizner, who has “up”-graded from a Gixxer 600 to an SV650.  With any luck, perhaps these two Pumpkins of Evil will be putting some posts on here as well.

Anyway, enjoy!  I regret to inform you, you haven’t heard the last from me…

Big D #999

The weekend started out fairly well and ended well, but all the crap in between really blew chunks.

The plan was to leave my house by 11am, hit Paul’s house to grab his truck and the JenSpeed trailer and be at MAM by 7pm. So to help that plan along, I took friday off of work. Fortunately, that gave me time to go to the daycare center with Les to help her get through Ben’s trial daycare run.

We dropped Ben off and Les was feeling pretty bad about leaving the little guy, so we decided to hit Denny’s for some breakfast before I headed down to Paul’s. That set my time back by an hour, but oh well. Les needed me and the schedule isn’t really that important. The MAM website said that I had until 10pm to get to the track and have someone there to let me into the pits. I’m still going to make it there with plenty of time to spare!

I get the poor Mazda3 loaded with all my gear, tools and stuff. The car is packed tight! The trailer gets hooked up and the bike loaded, no problems! So, I’m thinking to myself, this isn’t going to be that bad…

I leave the house a little after 12pm and hit a head wind on I-35 South. The poor Mazda3 is whispering “Dude…what the hell do I look like? I’m a sports car, not a freaking truck!”. I made it to Paul’s house, but I was feeling real glad that Paul was nice enough to lend me his truck and the JenSpeed trailer for the remainder of the trip. I think that my car would’ve blown up if I had tried to go the rest of the way to MAM.

Things take a turn for the worse shortly after I leave Paul’s house. Literally. Just to help set the punch line up…I’ve got my GPS ( Sheila ) all hooked up and MAM’s location/route programmed into the thing. Paul’s truck has a compass built into the mirror. I’ve been to his house lots of times, so you would think that I know the way. Oh no…I don’t.

I’m heading towards I-90 leaving Alden and for some reason decide to turn right onto I-90 thinking that it’s I-35. Yeah..that’s pretty dumb, but it gets worse. Sheila told me to go over I-90 and turn left, but I ignored her. Dumb GPS doesn’t know where it’s going! I’m on the way to MAM! Okay..why does Sheila keep telling me to turn around? Is Pacific Junction, Iowa really the correct place? 20 miles later I have a Do’h! moment when I finally notice the sign for Blue Earth.

Feeling real real dumb, I turn around and head east on I-90 and Sheila happily informs me that my ETA is now 9pm instead of the original 8pm when I left Paul’s house. To add insult to injury, there is a strong headwind blowing NW and Paul’s truck is not happy to be fighting it. Before I left Paul’s house, he warned me to be careful about the torque converter and overdrive. If I noticed the engine/transmission locking the converter too much, then I should slow down until it stopped shifting in and out. The headwind is making the thing go crazy and maintaining 70 is a struggle. Awesome!

I finally claw my way back to I-35, turn South, the tank is already half empty and the headwind is even worse going south. So..I’m now 2+ hours behind schedule, the wind is making the truck drink fuel like it’s water and other vehicles are passing me like I’m a blue hair. Mason City is the first stop on the trip and the truck drinks up 19 gallons. I’m thinking, “Oh, this is going to be an expensive trip!”. Maybe I’m psychic now…

The trip gets a little easier when I finally hit Des Moines and head west towards Omaha. The head wind becomes a tail wind and the truck is happy. I am finally able to set the cruise at 75 and relax a bit. Cars and trucks are still passing me, but not nearly as bad as they were when I had to drop down to 65 just to make it to Des Moines without blowing up Paul’s truck. I’m thinking that Paul’s speedo has got to be off by a few miles, but don’t feel like messing with the GPS’s display settings to show me the MPH to check the speedo.

I end up making it to the track with 30 minutes to spare. I meet Shane, Gareth, Bill ( Head Instructor ) and Dean ( Track Addix owner ). I get the download on the plans for next day’s plans and how the school will work. I also run into Andy who had been one of my DCTC students. He took my advice from last year and got himself a GS-500 to try out some track days instead of risking his Yamaha 1000 street-bike. We talk about his bike and plans for a few minutes. Feeling pretty upbeat, I setup the air mattress in the trailer and goto bed.

Damn trains! Why the hell do they have to blow their loud-ass horns all the bloody time!?!? Seems like every hour or two I get to wake up to a wonderful foghorn sound. The air mattress decides to have a slow leak in it too. So..by the morning, I’m laying in a half inflated bed while listening to the trains go past. The day is not starting out all that great, but a nice hot shower in the awesome MAM shower facility helps me get over my grumpiness. If I could only find a bit of coffee then the world would be all right!

The class starts out a tad slow due to it talking a few students a long time to find their way to the class, but Bill has things under control so all is good. The students are all upbeat and looking forward to fun day of riding. I’ve got four students. Andy on his GS-500, Patrick on a Duc 749 and two others that I have forgotten. One was riding a Katana 600 and I’m not sure what the forth was riding. Sorry, but I sorta have an excuse…

I talk to them about looking through the corners, trying to watch when I turn my head to look and how to follow me. I get all suited up and ready to go when I discover that I had taken the key out of the SV’s ignition and left it in my jacket. So, I run back to the trailer, grab the key and get back to the bike to lead the students on the track.

Things are going well. I’m getting warmed up. The bike is feeling good. The students seem to be doing okay. Andy is lagging a bit behind on the GS, so I slow down a bit more. Just take the first few laps nice and easy is my plan. I lean the bike into turn 5. Nice and slow left horseshoe while looking through the corner. Doing everything right when, Bam! I’m on my ass and sliding across the track! The bike is leading the way on it’s side and I’m thinking; WTF!?!? The SV hits the grass and gets shaken a bit more as it flops up and down, but not the cartwheel of parts thing.

The first thing that I thought was that I was stupid enough to not let the tire warm up. “But wait, there’s more!” Then I notice all the oil on the fairing and engine cases and I wonder if the fall cracked the engine case again. So, the crash truck comes, the driver helps me push the bike up and onto the trailer and I’m looking over the bike while the corner workers are spreading down oil dry all over the corner. Yes…I dumped a lot of oil on the track! The damage and parts cost tally is starting to tick. I have a belly pan with about a quart of oil sloshing around in it and no visible cracks on the motor. The tail section and rear sub-frame is beat to hell. The left foot peg is ground down to 1/2 size, the bar end slider is bent, the tank is even more dented and probably not worth fixing, the upper fairing stay is broke and the uppers and lowers are scuffed up pretty good on the left side.

The crash truck drops me off at my pit and I start to look for the cause. I can see drops coming out from the filter area, so I’m thinking that I must not have put the filter on right. Maybe I over tightened it and crimped the o-ring? Trying not to dump the belly pan oil all over the pits, I gingerly remove the belly pan and walk it over to the waste oil drum. Clean the belly pan and then with the oily underside fully exposed, I notice that the o-ring on the oil filter has a blow out on the right side. So, I’m thinking that I really must have over tightened the filter. I pull the filter off and with it in my hand, an o-ring falls to the ground. Huh?!?! But the filter has an o-ring still in it!

Man…I am such an idiot! When I tried to be pro-active and change the oil out the week before, I didn’t notice that the previous filter’s o-ring got stuck. So, I dutifully put a few drops of oil on the new filter’s o-ring and blindly screwed it onto the bike. Refilled the oil, safety wired the filter and drain bolts and started the bike. No leaks…everything’s good!

Yeah…I took, am taking and will take a lot of crap for that. Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted it, but it seems like I’m not the only idiot in the world of oil filters. I had more then one person admit that they too had done that with their car’s oil filter at some point in the distant past.

I feel bad that:

1. I oiled the track.
2. I didn’t get a chance to help out the Track Addix students.
3. More money needs to be spent before the first race to repair crash damage before the season even starts!

So, I left early and the ride back was much easier. I had a tail wind and I discovered that the speedo in Paul’s truck is off by 8 MPH. So…instead of doing 75 mph in a 70 mph zone, I was really doing 67 mph! No wonder why all the other cars and semi’s were passing me! I bumped the speed up to an actual 74 MPH and get to Paul’s in no time. During the drive, I had talked to Les, Paul and Jen…we decided that it would be a good idea for Paul and I to see what damage we could fix using his well equipped garage.

Jen has some good home cooked food waiting for me when I pull into the driveway and Paul had a generous shot of tequila poured for me to help relieve some of the day’s tension. Dinner and the shot went down fast and we headed out to the garage to see what could be done about the crash damage.

We got the rear sub-frame straightened back out using a sledge hammer and a huge pry bar. So..there’s a hundred or two saved. I managed to fix my left side bar end slider, so there’s another $30 saved. We found out that the air box and injectors had popped out during the crash. So we took that apart, cleaned and re-tightened everything. Paul was even able to extract two broken bolts that had been bugging me for the last two years. Nothing critical, just some extra plastic attachment points.

So…damage tally is:

1. Replace foot peg.
2. Repair the broken/cracked fiberglass tail section.
3. Reinforce minor cracks on upper fairing.
4. Buy an after-market race fairing bracket.
5. Change the oil and filter. Paying very close attention to the evil o-ring!
6. Find a new fuel tank on E-bay.

CRA race weekend is two weeks away! Oh joy!

The 2007 race season is getting off with a lot of changes for me.

First off, my wife and I just had our first child.

I hereby present the newest Evil Pumpkin, Benjamin Nelson!

The second big change for this season is the addition of Track Addix to my racing and Riding Course schedule.

At the end of the 2006 season, Gareth Jones asked me if I would be interested in helping out as an instructor with the Track Addix School. It sounded like a lot of fun, so I said, “yes!”. My first tour of duty as a Track Addix instructor/helper is scheduled for next weekend. Apr 21st - Apr 22nd.

Now I really need to get busy on making sure the bike is up to task!

I need to change the oil, clean my leathers, check the battery, add coolant and I’m sure there are a few other important maintenance tasks to complete.