Evil Pumpkin Racing

I recently added a new bike to the garage.  A 2009 Kawasaki ZX6R!

I can even thank my wife for coming up with the excuse to buy a new bike.   I need it to commute to work this summer.  Amazing how easy that excuse worked.

I am currently in the process of getting the parts to race prep it in time for the CRA’s June race weekend.

This year will only be a partial race schedule…so partial that I am only planning on doing one race this year.  Budget constraints…I think we can all feel the pain there.  However; I am hoping to return in 2011 for a full race season.

See ya all at the track and DCTC this year.

So here we are, the last race weekend of 2009. I can’t believe it’s over already (although my wallet is begging for mercy). This time, I’m going to run in my first endurance race!! Dean(#116) & Mike Nemitz (#998) are both running endurance races on their bikes – Dean on his Kawi 650, and Mike on his SV. It’s going to be the Derek twins and Dean on the Kawi – Derek Gilbertson (#95), myself, and Dean), and Brian Chen (#65), Skrawny (Scott Christopher #666) and Mike on the SV. We weren’t the most prepared people going into this, but fortunately we had some experienced folks helping us out from a set-up, pits, and strategy point. With the Kawi, we had the advantage of a fuel light. I believe this little light proved to be the most important tool in our arsenal. The 2nd most important tool in our arsenal was that we didn’t have rain tires. But more on that later.

On Saturday I had 3 races – Supertwins, Lightweight Superbike, and Lightweight GP. All races were shortened to 6 laps since we’d be running the endurance all day Sunday.

Christy and Hannah came up to cheer me on – it was nice having them up, to share the fun, not to mention sleeping in a hotel bed and having a hot shower was pretty nice too!  My folks also came up for a bit on Saturday to watch a couple of my races.

I brought my camera up again, but never found the time to dig it out and hook it up.  I think I waited too long to make this post because I really don’t remember much about the three races I was in Saturday.  The only think I know for sure is that I took 2nd place in all three races to – you guessed it – AJ (#817).  AJ has definitely stepped it up a notch.  He’s right in there with the experts.  Fortunately (for me), he’s moving up to middleweight next year, so I won’t have to compete with him.  I can’t say where any of us are going to end up yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of us end up moving up to expert next year.  As long as I have some fun guys at my level to dice with, I’ll be happy no matter where I am.  Oh yeah, and if my bike keeps running…  :^P

Anyway, I do remember Gus Aramayo (#214) stepping it up a notch and passing me in the last lap of the Lightweight GP race.  Thankfully (for me), Gus thought for sure I was going to try to beat him going into 9, and in his effort to hold me off he went in a little too hot and went wide in an effort to recover.  He kept it on the track, but I was able to blow by him out of 9.  Amazingly, he got back into it and still almost beat me to the finish!  I was really impressed (and a little worried)  ;^)

I ended up beating him by .115 seconds.  Another close race for the books!  And the last individual race of the 2009 season.  I was almost 7 seconds behind AJ.

Well, now it was Sunday.  Time to run our first endurance race!  I still get excited thinking about it.  What a great time!  We had to register Sunday morning, so I ran up to the tower to do so.  Mike/Brian/Skrawny had decided their team name was Angry Dragon Racing (I will say there is a hidden meaning to this name, but since this is a family site I won’t say what it is).  We decided to call ourselves “Grasshopper”, since we had a grasshopper-green motorcycle, and we were going to try to follow the immortal words of Kane’s master and “snatch the pebble (of victory) from his hand”.  I had taken a few practice laps on the Kawi on Friday, and Derek Gilbertson and I split the practices on Sunday.  Dean was going to do the last practice before the race, but we ran out of time.  And then before we knew it, it was time to start the endurance race!  We decided Dean would go first.  He was pretty nervous, it being his first endurance race ever, and having had no practice that day.  It was a beautiful day though; a little on the cool side, but nothing to complain about.  The sun was shining and it was supposed to be a beautiful day.  We topped off the tank on the Kawi, and I went further to make sure it was right up to the tippy-top.  Dean went out and started off nicely and stayed consistent.  We weren’t running the fastest laps, but we were consistent.  The team of Mike/Brian/Skrawny had decided to switch off every 30 minutes.  We had decided to go until the light went on, unless we got really tired beforehand.  Dean was a trooper, staying out for an incredible 56 minutes!!!  This really gave us an advantage over our competitors, most of whom were coming in between 30 and 45 minutes.  Then it was Derek Gilbertson’s turn.  Off he went!  about 25 minutes or so into it, Gus stopped over and said he wasn’t sure but he swore that the left wheel adjuster bracket was spinning.  We all were debating what to do, and then Derek came in.  Sure enough it had loosened up.  Or probably more likely, we (spelled I) forgot to tighten the lock nut.  The bracket was banged up a little, but we were able to get it back in place and tightened, then wired and duct taped so it would not come off.  That did cost us some time, but I was on the bike and before I knew it I was off!  The Kawi didn’t have quite the power of my SV, but it did have good torque.  The one thing I had to keep working on was delaying my turn-in to the apex.  My SV turns a lot slower than the Kawi did and I constantly found myself early-apexing.  I started out at 2:02’s and 2:01’s.  It seemed like forever before I broke into the 2:00’s.  I was working and working and FINALLY I broke the 2:00 mark and got a 1:59.  I felt good about that.  Fortunately for me this little battle made time pass pretty quickly and before I knew it the fuel light was on.  I hadn’t made it quite as far as Dean, probably in part due to the fact that the gas tank hadn’t been filled to the last drop like some anal-retentive guy (who me?) would have done.  But in any case, I still made it about 46 minutes or so, and before I knew it Dean was back out there.

We’d had good luck so far in the race – the weather was great, we had only one small mechanical glitch (the loose adjuster), and some of our fiercest competition in our lightweight class (Miller’s Atomic Jenspeed – featuring Mark Miller (#88), Karl Rehpohl (#80), and Paul Jensen (#888) had clutch problems, needing a replacement bike that put them way behind.

We still had Angry Dragon, and Redneck Sex Bomb – Gus Aramayo, AJ, and Ernie Scherger (#308), and Team Scared Sheep Jesse Stoner (#61), Kyle Knutson (#73), and another person I don’t recall).  We felt we had a good start with Dean’s 50+ minute run, but the chain adjuster bracket had put us back a little bit, and the other teams were running faster laps than us.

Of course, just when you think you’ve got a plan, something changes.  In this case it was the weather.  In rolled the dark clouds and wind and…  yes, rain.  And it got cold.  The temps dropped from around 60 degrees into the low 50’s and upper 40’s, then dropping into the lower 40’s!  Dean got wet, and rode until his hands got numb.  The weather had definitely hosed everything up.  A number of teams were switching to rain tires.  We didn’t have rain tires, so we had to just putt around slowly and carefully, racking up laps while our competitors changed tires in the pits, and hoping we could hold them off.  It looked as if it might blow through, but it was hard to tell.  Well, Dean had come in, and Derek Gilbertson took off in the wet, for all of about 2 laps, when someone crashed in the straight and they red-flagged the race.  I’ve never seen a bike slide so far!!!  On the VHT of the straight, which was like glare ice when wet, the bike slid from near the start line almost to the flagging station!  Fortunately neither the bike or the rider were hurt.  Derek came in (as did everyone) and we waited for them to clear the track and get ready for the restart.  The race stayed red-flagged for probably a 1/2 hour while we weathered 40mph winds and rain and cold under our pop-up.  It was crazy.  We were basically ready to stop racing.  The race steward actually came by to get people’s feelings on whether we should restart the race or just call it.  Honestly, we were ready to call it.  However, they decided to go ahead, and restarted it with less than an hour to go.  I told Derek if he would run the 1st half of the remaining time, I’d run the last half.  So we did.  Mike Nemitz had decided he was done – they weren’t going to race.  Then at the last second he changed his mind, hopped on the bike, and raced!  Gus was debating whether his team would run as well, and despite our saying we weren’t going to, when we did, he got out there too.  The weather sucked big time, but we were still having fun!  After Derek came in, it was my turn to run the last 20 minutes or so.  I was pretty freaked out, but just took it real easy.  I started out turning almost 3-minute lap times, but as the rain let up (the track was still wet) and with some time to work on it, I was able to bring it down to around 2 1/2 minute laps.  Mike was still out there kicking  butt!  he passed me and I couldn’t catch him.  Also, Team Scared Sheep had switched to rain tires and was kicking serious butt!!  I’m pretty sure they passed me twice while I was out there.  I did pass the Angry Dragon team, though.  Then, before I knew it, there was the white flag!  I didn’t expect my pass to make a difference since given our longer times between switching riders I thought we were ahead of them.  I was able to stay ahead and finish without incident.  Unfortunately Gus’s team crashed (maybe that was fortunate for us?).  Nobody was hurt and the bike was ok, so mostly pride.  In the end though, that pass I had made on Angry Dragon was the difference in the race.  We had taken 8th place overall and 1st Place in our class!!!  Angry Dragon took 2nd, just 28 seconds behind us, followed by Scared Sheep, who were a lap behind us.  Then it was Redneck Sex Bomb, who were 5 laps down.

What a way to end it.  We were wet, cold, hungry, and happy!  I never would have expected we’d take first place in our first endurance race!  All rookies!  And for Mike/Brian/Skrawny to take 2nd, was awesome!  We left feeling really good about the season.  And I must say, ready for next season!!

In the end, I finished 13th overall in the novice class this year.  My goal was to finish top 10, and if it weren’t for the broken crankshaft that eliminated my June weekend, I have no doubt that I would have.  So I’m happy.  And as long as the bike keeps running well, I’ll stay happy.

Now I still need to change oil and get the bike ready for “winter”, although it is in a heated shop so I don’t have to worry about the water freezing.  I also plan to remove the shock and have it checked out/rebuilt and probably up the spring to something more for my weight.  I also plan to lose some weight which should help me out next year.  It’s always something eh?  Anyway, signing off for now.  Looking forwared to the banquet in just under two weeks!  And looking forward to May 2010!!!  Have a great off-season everyone!

D #999

So, it’s now October, and I’m trying to remember the August race weekend.  Some day, I’ll get caught up – maybe when the next season starts?

So here we are, ready for another short-course race weekend.  I have to say, the more I race on the short course, the better I like it.  I’m a bit rusty – I had only raced the short course once, and it was 11 months ago.  And despite a slip-up in practice that almost put me out (um, when you miss an up-shift coming into 10, and you go through with the clutch pulled in and idling, DON’T let the clutch back out while you’re leaned over).  Sometimes my brain drops a cylinder.  Thankfully after the rear slid out a foot or so and a WICKED tankslapper put me in the grass on the outside of 10 headed back toward the track and the pit wall outside of 11, and crossing the straight out of 11 at a 90-degree angle, I managed to get the bike stopped near the pit wall without going down.  My brain still was only hitting on 1 cylinder as the corner workers will tell you, but thankfully I eventually got on the track headed in the right direction with only a badly bruised shin (where the foot peg stabbed it when I let the clutch out and things went crazy).  Perhaps a bruised ego too – though I felt very lucky that I hadn’t wadded up the bike and done more damage to myself.  Ahh, but that was just practice.  Now it’s race time!!!

My first race was the Trophy Dash (GP1/GP2).  Great.  Start your first race on a course you haven’t been on in almost a year with an 18-lap Trophy Dash…  Oh well, I was a little nervous, but felt good.  Despite the fact that Brian and I had come a day early to do a track day with ZARS, but ended up spending the whole time working on our bikes (Brian changing front brakes, then finally front ends, me installing my oil light, setting up a camera mount, and getting a few other things straightened out), I had enough practice to where I felt pretty good.  And this race was to prove to be in some ways anyway, the best race of the season for me.  And I had my new ContourHD camera along for the entire race.  If you like, you can see the race here:

CRA Racing Trophy Dash GP2 at BIR 20090822

I got a good start, but I was back a ways on the starting grid.  I worked hard to catch and pass a number of people.  Though I didn’t know it at the time since theere were experts ahead of me, I actually lead most of the race, starting around the 3rd lap or so.  Jon Nordos got me a couple times, usually coming out of turn 13 and into turn 1, but I was able to get by him each time, the last time for good.  I didn’t know it until after the race, but I had WON my first race!!!  I was really psyched!  Of course, A.J. wasn’t in that race, but it was still probably my best, most consistent race ever.  Now, that didn’t leave a lot to look forward to for the rest of the weekend (how do you top a win), but I was already happier than a tornado in a trailer park!

The next race was the Formula 40.  Not a points race, but a fun one.  This race is open to anyone over 40, and they can have any kind of motorcycle.  I also have a video of this race:

CRA Racing Formula 40 at BIR 20090822 clip

I didn’t expect to finish very high in this one since a number of people had faster bikes than me.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to finish 3rd!!  The short course does help the lightweight bikes because motor doesn’t give you as much of an advantage when you don’t have the mile-long straight to get up to top speed.  This was something I was hoping to use to my advantage (something I had planned to do in July until my crankshaft broke) – I was going to run middleweight races.

Well, first things first.  Enjoyed Saturday, and before you know it, Sunday had arrived.  The first race was the SuperTwins race.  I had a horrible record in this race so far – doing poorly in May, missing June (twice), and having self-inflicted carburetor problems in July.  This time I did pretty well, finishing 5th.  The first two finishers were on RC51’s, so in effect I was 3rd (in my head anyway) behind Jon Nordos and Scott Christopher who was kicking butt on his sup’d-up SV.

After the SuperTwins race, I decided to bleed my front brakes.  Not for any particular reason, other than it had been a while, and Brian had been bleeding his due to brake problems so I figured I might as well do mine.  All went well.

Now it was time for the first middleweight race.  I was freaking out a bit because there were a lot of bikes out there and there were a lot of crashes in this class.  However, I went out, and ran the warm-up lap.  Halfway around, I noticed that the bolt holding my front brake reservoir on was gone.  Yep, I had done it again.  Stabbed myself in the gut.  I forgot to tighten the bolt.  I am an idiot!!!  I decided the best thing to do was get off the race track before something bad happened, and just hoped that nobody would hit the bolt or spacer, and that they ended up off the track.  Then it was back to the pits to see if Brian could save me with some bolts and spacers.  So I missed the entire race, which was a bummer, but on the bright side, Brian had a bolt and spacers, and I was back in business!

The next race was lightweight Superbike.  I honestly don’t remember a lot from that race (that’s why I should do these posts a little closer to the event).  I finished 2nd in Novice, 3 seconds behind AJ.

The next race was Middleweight Gran Prix.  It was the first Middleweight race I was actually going to race in!  Jason Cheng had been giving Mike Smith crap about how bad it would be if I was able to beat him on a lightweight bike (he’s on an R6).  Jason told me I had to try to beat Mike.  Well, to be honest, I wasn’t worried about any of that now.  I just wanted to finish the race without being involved in a crash.  I was pretty nervous, but after the start, it was all business.  I passed a number of people and found my “spot” where those behind me were slower than me, and those ahead of me were faster.  I rode hard and kept trying to catch up to those in front of me.  I actually saw Mike Smith ahead of me during the last couple laps.  I could tell he was getting tired and his pace had slowed a bit.  I started closing in, but ran out of race before I was able to reel him in.  Mike later told me he looked back after the finish and saw me there (I almost passed Ciege Henry coming into the finish line, but she saw me try to come outside of her out of turn 11 and pulled hard to the finish line).  So I finished 2 spots behind Mike, and took 9th place.  I was pretty happy with that!

The final race of the weekend for me was the Lightweight Gran Prix race.  I got a good start, though I was behind Brian, who almost always beats me at the start.  I was also behind Skrawny on his freakin’ fast SV.  I didn’t know it, but Brian had been telling Cassondra how he jumps out to a lead all the time (which he does), but he always gets passed before he completes the lap.  Well this time he wanted Cassondra to see him in the lead, so he wanted to get to the carousel turn 8 in 1st.  Unfortunately he pushed turn 4 too hard while trying to hold Skrawny off and went down on the first lap.  I thought I had captured it on my camera, but later discovered that the camera didn’t take an video on Sunday for some reason.  I was a little worried about Brian, but was happy to see on my next pass that the bike was off the course and so was Brian, with no ambulance needed.  I was able to get by Skrawny, and then started dicing it out with AJ for a good part of the race.  Then I tried to take him coming into turn 3 in what was the last lap (though I didn’t know it at the time).  I pulled up next to him on the outside of the straight coming into turn 3 and looked over at him for a second.  Then I suddenly realized I was almost at turn 3, going way to fast, and on the outside of the track, out of my normal position.  I clamped on the brakes and turned part of the way through, but then realized trying to make this was futile.  I went off in turn 3 but was able to keep the bike up and get back on the track shortly after, only losing a spot to an expert.  If I’d been more aware and more patient, I might possibly have won the race!  However, I was very happy to take 2nd, given that I’d run off the track on the last lap.  I finished almost 20 seconds behind AJ, but it was still 2nd place!  It was a great way to end the weekend.  I felt good, competitive, and yet comfortable with the fact that I still had plenty more to learn and improve at.  The best part of the weekend was that I didn’t have any trouble with the bike!  Other than my self-inflicted blow not tightening the brake reservior bolt, the bike was perfect.  It even stayed up when I virtually tried to crash it out of turn 10.  What more could a racer ask for?  I had been competitive, had improved immensely, and had won my first race!!

On a side note, I had switched from Pirelli slicks (which were burned up after July) back to Michelins, but then I had burned another rear up after Saturday, so then I talked to Darren Hickie and he’d gotten me two sets of Dunlop slick take-offs for a great price (and they were in great shape).  I was able to use them for Sunday’s races and all of September.  There’s more to that story, but we’ll talk about that in the September race report.  See you soon!
D #999

Sorry, I’m waay behind on my postings. So first I’ll update you on the July weekend.

Once again, it was an interesting weekend, full of more plot twists and turns than a Cohen brothers movie.

I picked up the freshly-put-together bike from Silverback on Thursday afternoon – on my way to Brian’s, then to BIR. It had a fresh crankshaft and a few other tidbits that had been damaged like a starter gear and flywheel and generator cover. They also noticed that the clutch pivot (in the chain cover) had lost most of its ball-bearings so they replaced that with a used one as well. Fred said it was making the same HP as before, so all was good. So I’m all set right? Not so fast. This is my bike we’re talking about.

I practiced with it and all seemed pretty well.  Until the last practice that is…

I’m out for the last practice on Saturday morning and suddenly the bike starts missing again.  I pull off and head for the garage.  I start looking at things.  I’m worried about the choke, because the front cable has a bad habit of pulling out of the 2-to-1 cable housing, which has a broken end on the cable that goes to the front carb (like probably 98% of all SV’s that have ever had the carbs removed).  When it does this, it causes the front carb to be on partial choke while the rear is not.  However, this usually causes a problem at idle too and I don’t have that right now.  Then I remember last September when a needle clip broke and it exhibited the same symptoms.  So the first thing I do is push the slides up.  Sure enough, the one needle stays put.  I broke another clip.  I honestly don’t remember if it is the same one that broke before or not.  However, this time I’m prepared.  I have Christy’s old carbs with me.  I pull a clip out of that one, and after pulling the needle out of the other carb to verify the clip position, I put everything back together and figure I’m all set.  It seems to run great.  I’m thinking I dodged a bullet because I took care of it in practice.  All set for the race, right?  Yeah, right.

Now it’s time for my 1st race, Supertwins.  I go out, practice a start, and the bike takes off great.  Zipping down the front straight and through turns 1, 2, 3, etc.  But as I come into 9 and 10, it seems to be just a little off.  I’m thinking, hmmm.  Well, nothing to do but race.  The flag drops and I take off, down on power.  Every turn is getting worse.  After a lap, I pull off at the track exit.  I am SO angry!  For the first time I actually show my emotion and pound on the gas tank as I’m exiting.  I am so frustrated with this bike that continues to baffle and fail on me!  I get to the garage and think about throwing my helmet, but thankfully stick to throwing my gloves and boots.  Scrawny comes over and asks what the problem is.  I open the tank, pop off the air cleaner assembly (I’m getting really good at this by now), and immediately check the needles.  They’re fine.  Now I’m really angry.  Scrawny takes a look and says “Maybe this is your problem.”  Um, yeah, that would do it.  I forgot to tighten the vacuum cap screws on the carburetor that had the “good” clip in it.  So now I am at once overjoyed and thankful to Scrawny, and embarrassed because I got all ticked off and had a little tantrum and blew a race all because I forgot to tighten two screws.  Yes, it wasn’t the bike’s fault.  It was mine.  But hey, I tighten the screws, and we’re all set right?  Um, remember, this is my bike you’re talking about.  I talked to Dean & Mike Nemitz.  Dean says they’ve disconnected the front choke to eliminate the problem of the front one sticking.  I thought that was a pretty darn good idea so I disconnect the front choke.  I notice that the fuel line is a bit short to the tank and when I’m cranking the tank up it’s getting kind of tight.  However, everything seems fine.

Now it’s time for race #2, LW SuperBike.  I go out and have a pretty good race, finishing 3rd behind AJ & Dan Peters, and beating Jon Nordos.  I feel pretty good.  So now it’s a few minutes before my 3rd and final race of the day.  I fire up the SV to warm it up.  Immediately gas starts running all over the place.  I quick shut it down.   Apparently cranking the tank up and down so many times has done a number on the fuel line.  I pull the tank up and it’s split right where it connects to the fuel tank.  Brian grabs my lower and dumps the gas out of it while I cut the end off the line and quickly reattach it.  It’s even shorter now, but at least it’s not leaking!  We get everything together just in time for the next race.

Race #3 Lightweight GP:  I start the race.  Immediately I can tell that the bike is down on power.  I’m not sure why; it’s not missing or anything, just doesn’t seem to have the “go” it usually does.  Interestingly, it proves to be one of the most fun races of the weekend because it slows my bike down enough to where I’m competing with Brian,  Dean,  Mike Nemitz, Mike Gates, and Gus.  It is really hard to get ahead of them.  In the end I’m able to squeak by them for 4th place, quite a ways behind AJ, Dan, and Jon.  It was a really fun race though, we were all dicing it out for virtually the entire race.  However, I’m still not sure what is up with the bike, but I wonder if the fuel line is so short that it’s getting pinched.

At the racer’s meeting on Sunday morning, I ask if anyone has any fuel line.  Fortunately Christapher Morse (#192) has some fuel line which he donates to my cause.  I put on the new much longer fuel line, and had no problems for the rest of the day.  Another mystery solved!  Sunday was a good day for me; I finally got all the bugs worked out of the bike, and was able to focus on trying to work the bugs out of myself for a change and improve my racing.  I took 4th in the Supertwins race, 3rd in the Superbike sprints, and finished the weekend on a bright note, finishing 2nd in the Lightweight GP by avenging my 38/1000ths of a second loss to AJ in May by beating him by 11/1000ths of a second in the final race of the weekend for me.  I actually thought he’d beat me – it was that close.

Oh well, another weekend down.  After a lot of struggling and mistakes, Saturday ended on a good note with the most fun race of the weekend, even though the bike wasn’t quite right.  Then on Sunday the bike was perfect and I ended on a bright note by beating AJ by the slimmest of margins.  It would be the last time I would defeat AJ though.  He stepped it up several notches after that and was some very tough competition.  Oh well, I’ll update you on August and September in the next post.  Have fun!