So since I had a ‘new’ 675 for this event. I thought I’d post up a report about it. The new ‘A’ bike is the one I just picked up from Jebus. I also took my SE out there but it didn’t last the weekend. What a surprise, NOT. Just for clarity, I’m call the 2010 SE the B bike, as in B for broken. Yet, again. The new A for awesome bike, is the 07.
So I left Santa Fe Thursday morning, at some obscene hour. So I could pick up the two others I was traveling with. The plan had always been to put Brian’s bike in my trailer and pack it with all that we could and hook it to his truck. Since my truck won’t seat 3 people as comfortably as his does. But, this just hasn’t been my year. On the way to Farmington, my truck went into ‘limp’ mode and I couldn’t do more than 50 mph and I wasn’t sure that I was going to make it. It’s the second time this truck has let me down! First it left me stranded in CO when the clutch went and now there is something else up, what kills me is there was no ‘check engine’ light. It just started to run like crap, and wouldn’t go anywhere. Oh well, enough about my lame truck. It was a long drive to SLC, but with good company it went by pretty quick.
Back to the bikes and the fantastic track. OMG, Miller is an amazing place. Running the full track is the most fun I’ve had in a while. It’s kinda hard to remember where you are at any point. There are 23 turns, but most of them are multiple apexes. So even one I knew where I was, it still took some doing to figure out the fast way around… and I really didn’t find the fast way, but Brian did. Sometimes I hate him. He’s so good at going fast at new tracks, that I get jealous and frustrated that I can’t do the same thing. Then again, I’m never going to be as good on the brakes as he is…. He’s just scary late braking.
We rolled into SLC about 9 pm, it was great to have a place to stay and even better to be able to stay with some of the people who we’d be chasing around the track. Brian got a run down of the track on a map from another rather fast guy. I really should have been paying more attention to what was being said.
Friday morn, we headed out to the track, it was the second time I’d been there but it’s so much different when you are racing. We hit registration and then found the garage I’d rented for the weekend. Since there was a high chance for rain I really didn’t want to be pitting out of the trailer, it just bites to do that in the rain. The open track day there was quite informal and since it was our first time, it was not what we expected, I mean really, you tech your own bike?
The first session I decided to follow the school group around just so I could see everything at a slow pace. Then I headed out with the race bikes for the next group. The B bike seemed to be holding together well and I was quite pleased with how it felt. I knew that I was going to need to pad on it, but I had gotten a call that the pad they sold me wouldn’t work on the SE. Why was I not surprised, every time that I try to get stuff for it, they order the wrong part. So I tracked down new pads, (special thanks to Lindsay) I was just starting to trust it and think that maybe buying the other one was a mistake. That didn’t last long. I did 3 sessions on the SE and then noticed that there was oil on my kick stand and the lower. (Yes, I had the kick stand on… it makes control riding easier. I do take it off for the races.) See now why I referred to the 2010 SE as the B bike? That bike is just surrounded by drama. I really don’t like drama.
So at that point I had to get the some new rubber on the new A bike so I could get a feel for it before the races the next day. That turned out to be harder than I would have thought. Turns out who ever changed the tires on the A bike last broke the valve stem. (Again, Lindsay to the rescue, she picked me up a new valve stem so we could get that rim fixed for the next day.) So I had to pull the rear off the B bike an put that one on the A bike. Not an easy task with only one rear stand, good thing I had the rain tires mounted on my spare rims. I managed to get one afternoon practice session on the A bike. Not quite how I would have like the day to go.
I wasn’t as quite on the A bike as I had been on the B bike, but figured it was just do to needed to set the suspension for me. Again, not quite as simple as it should have been. Brain tried to set the front sag, only to find out that the forks have a huge amount of stiction, you push down and they stay down , ya pull up and they stay up…. Not good. Since we didn’t have a lot of time, and we still had to get the bike back to Mike’s place so we could get it safety wired for the races. There wasn’t time to deal with the suspension; I just had to ride around it the next day. All I can say about ‘THE Michael Carr’ is that he is the one of the two most amazing guys I know. He hauled my bike back to his place and bought a drill press, just so we could get the A bike ready for the races the next day and then was up working on it until 11pm. He also showed me some new tricks for wiring.
I really wish that race weekends would start at a more reasonable time in the day. This getting up before it’s light out just isn’t my thing. We hauled the bike out, and I got to work putting it together for tech. It passed, of course. Then it was time for practice. Unfortunately, it was then that we discovered that the A bike also had a bit of an oil leak. Nothing like the other one, but you could see it on the right case cover, seeping around the top. It wasn’t so bad that I was worried, but we did top off the oil before the 1.5 hour endurance race. I just signed up for it so that I could get some more track time. I also decided to run the Sportsman race instead of AM O. I’m slow and I just didn’t’ need to get humiliated in the AMO race.
I had one of the worst starts ever. I so did not expect them to use flags, and pretty much jumped the start then almost stalled it … I was way behind heading into the first corner and stayed there for the whole race. But, it was good practice and I knew that my starts would just get better.
I didn’t even try to launch the bike for the endurance race and gridded about 2 rows behind the last guys. I didn’t see the point of getting in the mix when I was just there to get more time on the track. I ran about 22 laps on the one tank of gas, since I’d mounted the lap timer where I could see it I knew that my times were continuing to drop even after 20 laps. I was surprised that the tires didn’t really go off. I just kept trying to figure out better ways though each corner and would try to stay on the tail of the guys that would pass me. I kinda surprised that only two went around me more than twice. I pulled in and was going to just call it a day, but Brian informed me that I was in 10th and there was only 13 minutes left, so I went back out. The last two laps were uneventful and it’s a good thing that the race wasn’t longer, the sun setting was starting to make it hard to see the exits of the corners. I managed to finish in 9th. Not too bad.
Back in the garage, we fiddled with the bike some more and thought about pulling the forks off the B bike to put them on the A bike. But, that meant changing brake calipers and a lot more work then Brian could do in that short a time frame with out the right tools. So we left the bike and headed back to the house to crash.
Once again, we headed out to the track super early, after stopping for breakfast we got there just in time for the rider’s meeting. More practices, and then time for Brian’s first race for the weekend and my first for the day. Neither of us got the best start, but at least Brian didn’t stand his bike straight up off the line. I saw the flag go and then all I saw was sky. I was a little concerned that it was going to go over but it set back down and I went. I still managed to pass a few people coming into the first corner. That didn’t last long by turn 5 I was toward back again. It was still fun and each time out I figured some things out.
The next race was about the same, but my start was so much better. I spent the whole time chasing down Tim, but just couldn’t get by him until the last lap and I would have had him, if it hadn’t been for a red flag.
The last race I got off line great , but still can’t figure out turn 5. I lost like 8 places there, it was buggin me something fierce, that I kept blowing that one. I stayed out in front of Tim for two laps then he got me in 5 and I got him back in Faster. We went back and forth like that until the last lap, he got around me in the club house turn and I got him at the line. It was one of the most fun races I’ve had this year.
Loading up the 4 bikes was such a let down, I didn’t wanna go home. We headed back to Mike’s for our after party. Since there was no way that we were going to leave SLC, until Brian and Anthony had gotten their Crown Burgers. They had been talking about it all weekend. The trip back to Farmington was uneventful. I would have like to say that my last leg back to Santa Fe was too, but no such luck. The truck had more problems and I had to stop for awhile before I could drive the rest of the way. Then I got stopped twice for driving too slow…. WTF. That was a first and second for me. It took me 4.5 hours to do a drive that should be under 3. Still waiting to hear what’s up with it, how much it’s going to cost and then it’s going to be sold and I’m getting a new truck.