Summit Point Barbeque, Zero Dollarss Racing June 7-8

Smokin’ at Summit – ZDR Gets Barbequed

The WERA circus rolled into Summit point this past weekend, and Zero Dollars Racing along with it. After a cold wet spring (the last Summit event was cold and drenching rain) summer suddenly arrived. With a vengeance. And I mean angry Norse God vengeance. As in 99 degrees + miserable humidity. As in ideal weather for strenuous outdoor activity. In leathers. On a hot track. Ahh yes, adulthood and the ability to make wise choices.

Saturday a.m. started our promisingly. It was already in the high 80s by first practice and muggy as all get out. Heading out for first practice the track was so hot that I was knee down halfway through the first lap. The track looked a bit sketchy, the new pavement coming up in places. As I came into Turn 1 at the end of my first practice lap I tossed it in, got my knee on the deck, and promptly fell down. WTF? The track was degrading so badly on the line that I basically lost the front in gravel. And did I mention it was hot? Great weather to be picking your bike out of the gravel first thing in the a.m.

I grumbled my way back to the pits and surveyed the damage. Looked like just a brake lever and a windscreen, which were quickly repaired. In second practice everything seemed OK, though hot as bloody hell.

My first race was Vintage 6 Lightweight. As I gridded up next to Scott McKee and prepared for one of our typical hammer and tong battles I thought “this is gonna get hot”. I got the hole shot and led into Turn 1. Having seen this movie before, I was not surprised when Scott came by into T3. I repassed into T5, and by the end of the straight had a second on him. He had been struggling with jetting and it clearly wasn’t right yet. He pulled off and I concentrated on keeping smooth and steady, increasingly hard in the heat as the race wound on. Given my recently earned mistrust of T1 I was running it in deep on the inside of the spalling pavement, flopping it over and “powering” out (hey, this is a 20 year old stock Honda Hawk, “power” is a relative thing!). In the end I crossed the stripe over a minute ahead of second place, and lapped one competitor twice. Clearly the heat was already taking a toll on riders. However, the bike was running hot, hot, hot during the race – something was up.

On return to the pits, after I spent the next ten minutes trying not to throw up and sweating like a sumo wrestler in a sauna, I realized that the radiator had gotten a small puncture during the lowside. Crap. We saddled up and drove the 1.5 hours home and grabbed the spare radiators we forgot to bring, and headed back. First thing Sunday morning I put the smaller of the two radiators on and went out for practice. It clearly was insufficient to the cooling task, so I swapped for a bigger one and drained the badly cooked oil. In the next practice I also found a better line in T1, setting up wide and coming under the bad spot of pavement.

It was, thankfully, a bit less humid, so the heat index was only about 105 degrees, vs. the 110 they had forecast!

The first race Sunday was D Superbike (Race 4), and Scott McKee had his jetting a bit better sorted. He got the hole shot, and I got shunted to the back of the pack in Turn 1. I came up the inside of Chad Hinton in T5, and he leaned over on me in a polite suggestion that I keep my line. I beat him to T6 and set out after Shig Honda. I got him on the inside into T5 the next lap but he slammed the door on me. Next time around I stuffed it under him again in T5 and carried a tad more speed and took the line into T6. I set sail after Scott and slowly reeled him in (he appeared to be having intermittent jetting glitches still). On lap 6 of 8 I got a run on him through T9 and when he slowed almost clipped his rear wheel. I had to shut the throttle down. As you are going very fast leaned over in T9 this is what is generally regarded as a “bad idea”. I pushed the front end a meter or so and just managed to collect it up before I ran off. This gave Scott a safe gap, and I dialed it back and motored home to 4th place.

Next up was D Superstock (Race 7), with most of the same pack of dogs, though thankfully Scott can’t run the SS classes. I got the hole shot and led Honda-san and others into T1. On our second trip into T5 a red flag flew for a rider who had gotten shunted off on the front straight into the wall, bringing out medivac, casting a pall over the pits. The rider has some disc injuries but seems to be stable. On the restart Honda-san smoked me into T1 and I set sail after him. Somewhere around the second lap a slightly wild novice SV from the wave behind us barged past me into T5 and bumped Honda, forcing him wide. I shot into T6 ahead of them and set sail, winning by a comfortable margin.

I pulled into the pits hot, tired and sweaty, with one more race to go (Clubman, Race 9). After a very brief cool off in front of a fan and a swig of water I gridded up with the only other Clubman rider, a newish Duc, who was a fair bit off my pace. I basically cruised around about 1.5/ seconds/lap more slowly than I had in the previous races to take the win.

So, miserably hot, but three wins from four starts. All in all a decent weekend. Today, the following Monday, I feel like an old man who spent 48 hours in the sauna, a little washed out.

 

You are an old man, and you did spend 48 hours in a sauna Yeah, whatever was bothering the beast made her damn near unrideable in the turn 5-9 part of the track, of course right where all the loose gravel was laying around, made for a real fun ride. Hopefully I can sort out it's unhappiness for Beaver.

 

It was a pleasure, Mr. Parr, watching you pull away from me during the Clubman race. You are one smooth rider. You, McKee, Honda, Hinton, et al do so very well on your rides. Your years of racing experience are evident in your fine riding.

I wish I could join in the fray with you guys, but age and lack of racing experience (not to mention my 59 hp 750SS giving up 10-20 hp to most of the people out there, with you being the exception ) are standing between me and the rest of you. In short: I'm not skilled enough.

As I watch you fellas pull away from me, I keep telling myself that I am improving my lap times every time out and doing so without binning it.
Our racing schedule (races 4, 7, and 9) was brutal on Sunday, especially with two restarts. I thought I was in pretty good shape, but I was feeling my almost-50 years by the end of the day!

btw--I did go back to 2006 and look at Shig's times when he was running a 750SS and not an 800SS. I was only off by a few tenths! Maybe there is hope for me, afterall.

Again, a pleasure to grid up with all of you, even if I am the slow expert of the bunch. I just keep waiting for the novice SV riders to get better so that they can catch up to me and give me some race action :up: .

Kurt Kearcher
newish expert on a "newish" Duc 750SS

 

Kurt - it was a pleasure racing with you. You were smooth and clean - the times will come. And don't listen to old man McKee's kvetching; bad jetting, poor air, yada yada yada. He did a 1:23.9.

 

Kurt - it was a pleasure racing with you. You were smooth and clean - the times will come. And don't listen to old man McKee's kvetching; bad jetting, poor air, yada yada yada. He did a 1:23.9.

 

Kurt - it was a pleasure racing with you. You were smooth and clean - the times will come. And don't listen to old man McKee's kvetching; bad jetting, poor air, yada yada yada. He did a 1:23.9.

 

Kvetching....breaking out the $10 words is not allowed! 1:23.9....just think what might happen if the damn thing actually ran right. :wow:

Kurt, you can't use the old age card with us. I'm not sure about the other old fart in this thread but this one will be 52 on Friday so 'almost 50' doesn't hold much water as an excuse around us. Work your way up to speed at your own pace, stepping over the line too far too soon usually ends in unpleasantries.

 

Was the track surface for turns 5,6,7 coming apart during the past race weekend? I was at a track day Monday and there was loose asphalt all over in those turns.

 

yes, turn one as well