Haven't posted about any racing in a long time, but put this together for my buddies at one of my x-box bbs's. Some of it is a little "layman speak". How did it go???? I mentioned that the bike was highly modified, so for the benefit of the techies out there, I'll get the tech talk out of the way first. Motor: Eric Mercer (the owner of the bike) has been racing SRX's for years and when he bought the MZ, he planned on making it one of the best ones out there. The motor actually displaces 762 cc's, the increase obtained by a 5mm bigger bore and 4mm longer stroke. The head has been ported and has oversized intake valves. (just the 2 outers, no room to bigger on the middle one...) Of course, the cam has been replace with something a bit more lumpy. THe stock carbs were ditched (I think they were a 32/36mm combo) and replaced with a pair of 39mm flatslides. Stock flywheel hit the trashcan as well (11lbs of weight spinning on the end of the crank!!!!!) and was replaced with a PVL, which weighs about 1.1lbs. Of course, the elec start got lost in the operation..... Chassis: Actually, not too much here as the stock chassis is pretty decent. The bike has a full Computrack set up, including triple clamps, altered rake/trail, revalved forks and an Ohlins shock. Stock wheels were ditched and replaced with Dymags. (3.25F and 5.25R) The Gas tank wouldn't fit with all of the motor mods, so Erics fabricator, cut 3/4 of the tank off (it's made of plastic!!) and fabricated an aluminum tank that fit inside what was left of the stock tank so the tank appears stock, but actually only holds 2.2 gallons and is lighter. The weekend: Got to the track with plenty of time to get ready for practice on Sat. As this was the WERA Cycle Jam, turnout was high and practice time was limited to 1 round per class. Eric and I discuused a few things, namely where I should shift, as I had no interest in seeing how much it would cost to fix all of his motor work if I over-revved it, and I went out for my practice. The bike has Michelen slicks on it and they are notorious for taking a long time to warm up, so I took it very easy on my first lap out. The first thing I noticed was that the bike made HUGE amounts of torque and low rpms. The motor hits hard around 3K rpm and pulls well till 7.2K. Eric told me it was safe to rev to 8.2, but I never even bothered spinning it past about 7.6 all day as the power had started tapering off by then. The chassis was very well sorted . So good in fact, that I couldn't think of a single adjustment to improve it. The only area that I though could use a little help was the brakes. The bike has only a single disc on the front and even though it's a "leightweight" bike, I still felt that more stopping power would have been nice. (more on that later...) By the 3rd lap of practice, I was finally confident that the tires had come up to temperature and started pushing it in the turns. As fate would have it, so did someone else, only he pushed too hard and crashed, bringing out a red flag. Knowing how busy the schedual was, I feared that I wouldn't get another chance to go out, so pulled over in the pits and practiced a launch. The rider was hurt and had to be transported, (2nd transport that day, and it was only the second group out!) which took the second ambulance, so WERA had to shut down until another ambulance showed up. This resulted in me not being able to go out and practice again, as time was tight. Still, even though I'm a bit rusty and the bike was new to me, I've had 3 or 4 hundred laps at VIR, so I felt pretty good going into the race. First race up was Clubman, a class dominated by thumpers, ex500's and the occasional RZ. There were 16 bikes in the class and I was gridded on the last row, due to my lack of points. (I haven't raced Clubman in over 2 years) I got the holeshot from hell and had passed the 2 rows in front of me before I even had the clutch fully engaged. The torque of the big Yamaha motor pulled me through the rest of the field and I found myself in 3rd as we approached the braking zone for t1. Unfortunately, my usually calm collected brain got a little bit excited by the excellent start and decided that the "I'm not going to brake until the leaders do.." technique. Bad idea. The leaders hit the binders and so did I, but as soon as I hit them I knew I was never going to make the turn and I went shooting past the leaders with the back wheel hopping, straight off the track! I hit the grass going about 30, backed off the brakes and slowely got it turned back toward the pavement. By the time I was back on the track, I was about 15 secs behind the last guy and just put my head down and treated the race like a practice. 3rd lap in, I was passing one of the slower guys in the tight t4 and had to change my line and clipped the curb with my knee, tearing my slider off. No bigee, but it meant I couldn't drag my knee around any left hand turns for the rest of the race, wich distracted me a little. I ended up passing 4 guys and one person crashed, so I was 11th. Not an auspicious start, but atb least I was starting to feel more comfortable on the bike. After the race, I went down to the tower to check my lap times and saw that I had turned a best lap of 1:45.7, but mostly ran in the 46's. This is OK, but not really where I would hav liked to have been as my best lap on an RZ at VIR was a 1:42 and the mz should be able to go faster. Next up was D-Superstock, which is mainly a home for Aprilia 250's, FZR400's and Hawk650's. I made a mental note to myself to run my own race and brake a little earlier for t1 and took off for my warm up lap. Again, I was gridded dead last, this time in a field of 19 bikes. As good as my start was in the 1st race, this one was even better! The front wheel skimmed 1 inch off the pavement all the way through 1st gear, a perfect launch. The Aprilias are quick bikes, but off the line accelleration isn't one of their strong suits and I sliced through the pack like a sushi chef through Hamachi. Again, I was in 3rd going into t1, but this time, I braked a little early and lost a spot, but kept it on the track. Immediatly, the lead trio of riders started to pull a little distance on me, but I finished the 1st lap in 4th, so things were looking ok. On lap 2, I was passed by an Aprila on the brakes going into t6. I followed him a bit, sizing him up to see if I needed to get back by immediatly or wait till the last lap. He was holding me up a little, mostly w/ poor drives off the turns so I made plans to pass him coming out of the Snake (a non numbered series of quick R/L esses after t5) on the next lap. As I approached t4, I backed off a little to give him a small gap, so I could maximize my drive and going into t5, another Aprilia went shooting by, causing me to lift and go off the race line. 2 more went shooting by and all of the sudden I was pissed! I gathered it back up and put my head down and made my way back up to the group. These guys were very determined, passing and out braking each other in just about every turn, which was slowing them all down and keeping them in a tight group. Every time I would pass the guy in front of me, I would have to move off line a bit to miss the guy in front of him, allowing the pasee to pass me back. I decided to sit back and wait, hoping that these guys would sort them selves out a bit, giving me room to pick them off one at a time. Excellent decision! On the next lap, the leader of our group (4th place) lost the rear exiting uphill t6 and 5th was too close and ran him over, going down as well. 6th place and I both had to take to the grass to avoid the tumbling bikes/bodies, but no one behind us was close enough to capitalize and we both got back on the track with neither of us gaining an advantage on the other. At this point there were only 2 laps left and I startd thinking about wether I wanted to try and break away from him or save it for a last lap move. He decided for me as he ran a little wide in Hogpen (the last turn) on the penultimate lap. I went shooting by and put my head down, trying for the best lap possible. It was smooth sailing untill I hit the Rollercoaster, where he outbraked me, putting me back in 5th. He ran wide on the exit and I probably could have gone back by going down the hill, but it's realy risky trying to pass there and I was confident that I could out run him on the run from Hogpen to the stripe, so I sat back and followed him through hogpen, got the monster drive and passed him about 100 yds before the strip for 4th. It was an excellent race, with lot's of drama. I was beat at the finish!! All in all it was a good day at the races. I probably could have finished 4th in clubman if I hadn't had the braking miscue, but the top 3 in both classes were going 2 secs/lap faster than me, so I think it was kind of a 4th place day. My lap times were better in the D-Super race, in spite of all of the drama, I put in consistant, low :45's, with a best of 1:45.1. Still not what I really had hoped for, but I never really had a clean lap, and every single lap was under my best lap from the first race, so I can't complain.
Continued.... As far as thumpers/vs 2strokes goes, I really enjoyed riding the mz. I don't feel I came near to extracting the bikes potential however. My lines were very "2strokeish", with me getting most of my braking done in a straight line to maximize my drives. If I got a chance to ride the bike again, I would work on charging the turns harder, letting off the brakes earlier and letting the prodigious amounts of engine braking finsh off the braking for the turn. No need to worry about trying to get a good drive with the big mz as it has so much torque, it's nearly impossible to NOT get a good drive with the beast. Eric was happy with my performance and hinted that another ride might be in the cards at a later date, so who knows? Maybe I'll get a chance to improve my thumper skills. Next week, I'm off to Jennings FL and back on my usuall steed, a Yamaha 2-stroke twin with WERA Vintage. I'm going to be riding a new (to me) '79 rd400 in 3 classes, Formula 500, V3 and Formula 2 stroke, as the TZ isn't ready yet. I feel much better going down there now that I've had a weekend to "scrape the rust" off of my racecraft. Thanks for all of your interest! RZ
Man it sucks to get passed for position within sight of the checkers! It was a fun race and I really enjoyed it. That MZ is stout! :wow: I thought for sure I had it coming out of T17. Congratulations Mark and I hope we meet in person at an event soon.
Mark Thanks for the report, and thanks for demonstrating how to launch that beast Now that you've had 2 good practice sessions on the MZ we'll be looking for big things next time.
Nice report Mark, have fun at Jennings. Eric, here is where I begin begging for a test ride... Pretty please Bob
Bob Tell you what, beat me in V4 at Summit on June 12 and you can ride the MuZ in a practice session Sunday...if it's not raining
What to do, what to do... I've pretty much have my heart set on doing twice the drive to have "my ass handed to me" (quoting Mark from an old thread but a goody ) by Tim in V4 and Bob M in F500 ( and Mark for that matter if he opps for Tally ) How about I just beat you with a stick in the paddock at CMP at the end of July?!?! Doing it on the track in V4 may be a bit of a reach. Sure is a much shorter drive to Summit though. Oh, If I would show you can count on rain. I went there a good bit in the late 80's and early 90's and the chance of rain would be near a 100% Even George's rain record at Summit would pale next to mine. Bob
Sorry to toy with you, Bob...I knew you were planning on Tally...but if you change your mind the offer stands I'd be going to Jennings this weekend with Mark Morrow & John Stauber if I could afford it, but hey, forecast for Summit this weekend is mid 70's and sunny & I've got some free CCS entry credits, so I'll tune up for the June race there.
