Dusted off the 01 GSXR 600 this summer and hit the track again after several years off. Now I'm getting back into an ARCA car after a much longer layoff. The guy I spot for and coach has asked me to drive his car next week in Chicago. The cars have more power and totaly different set ups then when I drove last. I can't wait!
Dang Bill I thought you retired. I was going thru an old phone and saw your # there. Glad things are good.
Isn't that a sweet little bike? I'm getting ready to put mine back over to a street setup here soon. Gonna ride it around the street for a summer one last time then sell it.:up:
It was a tough few days. The car was wicked loose all weekend. It didn't take long to get the hang of it again and get up to speed but it did take some time getting familiar with the new coil bind set up. The front is just so planted and will go anywhere you want. The problem with it loose is it's a handful because the front is so reactive to the slightest steering inputs and the back wanted to jump out. A small correction right settles the rear then turn back left for the corner and the thing wants to step out again, a never ending cycle till the exit of the corner. The race didn't go as hoped; it turned bad right from the start. These cars start in second gear and on the 2nd to 3rd up shift the gear lever went into third but jammed the tranny into first and locked the shifter/tranny into gear. Fortunately the first lap caution kept us from going too many laps down while they got it un-jammed. The car was loose from the start of the race till the end. We worked on it when we could but the long green runs didn't give many opportunities to make adjustments. I spun off of two just as I passed the 90 car. My corner entry speed was awesome, even better than the leaders at times, but I just couldn't pick up the throttle like I needed to get off the corner and get any kind of drive down the straight. It made passing very challenging as I would have to hang back about 2-3 car lengths as I approached a corner and try to time the pass just as they would go to the bottom and I would sail past in the second groove. Problem was that it was very easy for them to get back under me or actually beat me off the corner. On the spin it took about three attempts to get far enough in front of the 90 car to make it stick, I was getting a little frustrated and decided I had to stay in the gas and try to ride it out. Car actually felt good coming off until the last bit and it jumped sideways. I put some right correction in the wheel and it started to come back. I straightened the wheel but could tell it was coming back harder than I wanted so I cranked left to keep from hooking to the outside wall. As the car rotated to the left I looked across my shoulder and when I saw I was perpendicular to the straight I locked the brakes sliding the car down the straight keeping it off the walls. Right front went flat, had to pit before the pits opened. This puts us at the tail end of the longest line at the restart. Got boxed in on the restart by slower cars as you can only pass on the right until you cross the start/finish line and everyone runs the wall till then. That put us more than half a lap down to the leaders then. Running a second off their pace due to a loose car and it doesn't take long till they are coming around. A long green run approximately, 70 laps put us two more laps down and then we lost another lap with a green flag pit stop. They made some adjustments on the final stop that helped the loose off but the car had a loose twitch in the center as soon as I picked up the gas. It didn't matter how smooth I went to gas the car would twitch and I'd have to let it settle before I could go hard in the gas. Caution came out with about 17 laps to go. On the restart tranny jammed again and that was the end of the race for us, finished 16 laps down. The team plans on going over the cars geometry because something isn't quite right with it. I only wish I'd have the opportunity to test and race the car again but that probably isn't going to happen. I enjoyed being in the car again and am very thankful to those responsible for me getting this opportunity but I'm disappointed with the results.
<Cole Trickle voice> loose, whats that? i just drive. . Looking good out there BC keep up the hard work.
I wondered why you went backwards on that final restart, sucks that it happened but ti was cool to see you out there again. They have plans to put you in it again?
