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RRR Vintage3 and F500

Discussion in 'Race Reports' started by RZ Racer, Jun 3, 2014.

  1. RZ Racer

    RZ Racer It passed tech LAST time!

    What a great day!! Those that stayed away due to the 40% rain forecast missed a good one. Weather was perfect and we never saw a single drop of rain all day long.

    The 1st thing I noticed that was a different was that the lines in registration were longer than usual. There seemed to be a lot more Vintage guys than I saw either at TGPR or at Summit this year. I got registered and we pitted next to the Garlands. I had some work to do on the bike, so was pretty late getting a tech sticker, but, thanks to help from my wife and daughter, I was able to not only replace the bad manifold I had, but also, Dick Gruhn had some .040" head gaskets so I swapped my .020" gaskets for the thicker ones because I was only able to find 100 octane BP in Raleigh. I still had 1.2 gal of leaded 112 left over from summit, so my actual octane was somewhere in the 103 range, but I still felt better reducing my compression for the event.

    Both practices went well, with me getting up to speed quite quickly. This is the 1st time in SEVERAL years that I've been to the same track twice, so I didn't have 12 months of rust to scrape off. I never looked at the time sheets, but felt like I was having no problem hitting my lines and braking fairly deep into 1, so I was ready for some action! I usually only run the gopro for the races, but for some reason, I put it on the tail section for the 2nd round. Dick Gruhn came out right behind me and followed for a lap or 2 before showing off the superior speed of his bike. The session ended early when Charles Gault got spit off going into t1 when his bike seized. I spoke w him afterwards and he had some severe swelling on his forearm, (maybe a chipped/cracked bone?) but was otherwise fine. Tough luck as I know he was eager to show off what he had learned here 2 months ago.

    click linky for video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D56JHcn0cM

    1st race of the day was V6lw/F2stroke/V4 combined and I enjoyed watching it from T3. Dick Gruhn nailed the holeshot and led the 1st lap until they hit the front straight and Jim Hinshaw's big 750 H2 Kawasaki took over at the front. V4 leader Roy Chapman also came by on his Yamaha XS. Around lap 3, Dick pulled off the track between t1&2 with a seized motor. A few laps later, Jim suffered a similar fate when he broke a piston, handing the win to Scott Reavis on his rd400. Roy was never challenged for V4, but there was a GREAT battle for 2nd between several riders including: David Rutherford, Rich Oldekowski and John Rickard. David pulled off the last lap draft pass on his SRX Yamaha.

    Next up was V3/V5 and Both Roy Chapman and Scott Reavis were entered in this, so I had an expectation that it was going to be a tough one. I wasn't mistaken.....
    I got a great start and blasted through all 3 of the 250's that made up the V5 grid, but so did Roy and we went into t1 side by side. I eventually backed off in between 1 and 2 and decided to follow first and see where there might be a weakness. Unfortunately, I made several minor errors on the 1st lap and was out of touch when we hit the front straight, so I was unable to utilize any draft off of his fast 750. I pushed much harder on the second lap, but pushed too hard exiting t4 and had a small slide that set me back even more. (you can barely notice it on the video, but to me it felt HUGE and scared the crap out of me!!) After the slide, I began to entertain notions of settling for 2nd, but 2 things kept me going: 1) Scott Reavis was still back there (at least I THOUGHT he was back there...aparently he was a dns) and 2) Roy wasn't extending the gap anymore so i kept my head down and focused on cleaning up my riding because honestly, the 1st 2 laps were NOT my best! Lap 3 Roy must have made a mistake of his own or something because I halved the gap in T1 alone. I kept pushing and closing the gap until on lap 6, I finally caught him in t3 and rolled off a little to stay behind. At this point, I could see that I was faster in 1,3&5, but that he was a little faster on the last 2 (VERY IMPORTANT!!!) turns and definitely had motor on me, so I decided to follow until the white flag and hopefully pass going into 1 so I would have some time to open a gap. Everything worked perfectly as I came out of t9 right on his tail to take the white flag and his draft pulled me down the straight allowing me an easy block pass going into T1. I put my head down and tried to put in my best lap of the race. Everything was going well, but for some reason, I just didn't get out of t6/7 well and on the short drag up to t8/9 I heard the booming twin closing on me. I hit t9 as well as I could, but as soon as we hit the front straight, he came by and I was powerless to do anything about it. It was a great race though and I was psyched to have come back from so far back to at least lead for a bit.

    Click linky for video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0FDLZMe1H4

    I missed part of V2/500gp/250gp, but know that Steve-O had to come in for a stop and go. Scott Reavis won V2 and David Rutherford either won 500gp or was 2nd in V2.

    F-500 was going to be tough with both Jim Hinshaw (on his 500H1) and Scott Reavis on the grid. I got my usual holeshot and led the 1st lap. I was surprised when neither of them went by on the front straight and started entertaining the notion that I might run away at the front. The dream was shortlived however, when going down the front straight for the second time, I was passed by both of them and they both had a LOT of speed in hand when they went by!! I was desperate not to get stuck behind Jim through the infield and made an aggressive move in t1 to get 2nd back. Scott had already opened a 1 sec lead and I put my head down to try and close it. Sadly, I was only able to maintain the gap and couldn't find a weakness anywhere. In fact, he was slowly extending the gap! On lap 4 or 5, any chance of closing back up with him ended when he caught 2 lappers going into t9 and I had to ride around the outside of both, killing my drive. I now became concerned with just finishing ahead of Jim, who has a tendency to be a little lack luster early in a race, but steadily pick up the pace, being VERY fast at the end. (the 20+hp advantage his bike has on mine is always in the back of my mind too!!) Lyn Garland was giving me signals and sure enough, Jim was catching! I tried to focus on breathing and not trying anything crazy, just hitting my lines every lap. On the white flag lap, Lyn was still giving the "closing but not dangerous yet" signal, so I hazarded a quick glance back exiting t6/7 and sure enough he was there, but I could tell that it wasn't going to be enough unless I made a mistake. Fortunately for me, there was no mistake and I crossed the line in 2nd with Jim blasting y 100 yards after the stripe.

    Sadly, I had forgotten to turn the gopro off in between races and the battery died on the warm-up lap, so I don't have any footage to share of this race. :(

    All in all a great weekend. I would have preferred a win or 2, but i'll take good close racing anytime!!:up: Big props to Roy and Scott for their wins. Condolences to those that crashed or broke.

    HUGE thanks to Lyn Garland and Vintage specialties!! Without his help I would have been unable to make this event. Also huge thanks to Dick Gruhn, Moto Carrera, Buff Harsh from THR and Continental Race Tires.

    Till next time.....

    Mark
     
  2. V5 Racer

    V5 Racer Yo!

    Errr, that was two EX500s and a FZ600.

    Carry on :D
     
  3. RZ Racer

    RZ Racer It passed tech LAST time!

    Oops!! :eek:
    I also left out mentioning the V6lw and V5 winner, Kurt Kesler!!:up:
     
  4. V5 Racer

    V5 Racer Yo!

    There wasn't much "winning" going on, there were only 2 or 3 of us in each race. Michael was having bike issues (so was I but his were worse) and Blake is still as green as his motorcycle.
     

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