TheDraik77 2015 race season

The Draik 77
Tally 2-21/22-15

I had been so stoked to get back to the track since the off season began. I upgraded my bike by putting on my awesome Apex Mfg. clip-ons, brake pads from SuperbikeUnlimited.com, ZED lap timer from XT Racing, and a paint job done with 129 Photos. I had been really anxious to go racing since my last trackday with Sportbike Track Time back in early November.This was my first weekend on my own SV 650. My only previous experience was when I had raced a borrowed SV at Barber for the 2014 GNF. I was really excited to race my new bike and be back at the track.

On Friday, we unloaded the trailer and had to put the water back into the bike since we drained it due to the super cold temperatures on our trip down to Tally. This was the first time we left home with ice on the ground and temperatures below 20. Temperatures at the track weren’t much better so we tucked the bike under two covers and put a heater on it to prevent freezing. The weather got nasty Friday night but luckily my stuff survived.

On Saturday, the weather was overcast, and cold. I did not go out for the practice sessions because of the cruddy weather and I did not feel that it would be beneficial. So when it came time to race in my LWTSS class, I had a great start but lost the lead into the first turn. I was re-learning the track and had a blast, I ended up in 3rd. I only ran a 1:10 while getting used to the bike. In the Formula 2 race I had a good start and was staying in third for the first lap, then got passed by two other bikes and fell too far behind to make up the time. I ended up 5th in the F2 race, but I improved my lap times by 3 seconds.

On Sunday it was raining and cool out, but I got some new Dunlop Rain tires and practiced in both sessions. This was very exciting because it has been 3 years since I have been or rain tires. I had a blast on them, they were like a dream. My first race was the LWTSS I had a great launch and was in the lead for the wet race. For a few laps I was at the front by myself and was catching lap traffic, but I was also getting reeled in. On the last lap I was passed in turn five, I was in the wrong gear going in, and that was the same reason I did not get back in the lead at the exit of the corner. I took it home in 2nd place and learned from my mistakes. After waiting 8 races, oil was leaked on the wet track and the last three races of the day, including mine, were postponed until further notice.

I had a great weekend and I am happy with my results. I can’t wait to get to the Roebling Road WERA National round in Savannah, GA next month.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my first race weekend of the year. I want to be sure to thank all of my 2015 sponsors. I really appreciate all they've done already this year:

129Photos.com, LionHeartMoto, Apex Mfg, Sportbike Track Time, Dunlop Racing Tires, Nitek, Moto-D, Ballistic Performance Components, SuperbikeUnlimited.com, Two Wheel Vinyl, XT Racing, Impact Safe-T Armor, Safer Moto, Daugherty Motorsports, Somethin’ Extra Cycles, Cycle Gear, Sportbikes4Hire.com/The Hub.

I also want to give a special thanks to Tim Price for letting me borrow one of his tire warmers when my burned out on Saturday and Peter Hupperich or the neoprene warmer covers that were much needed on Saturday too.

 

Keep it up

 

Good luck with the season.

 

Awesome Job Draik!! Looking forward to seeing you guys again!!

 

mongo, put the results on the website already so i can see how my friends did!

 

I love that kid!

 

TheDraik77
Roebling Road Raceway
3/13-15/15

Thursday afternoon Dad and I left for Roebling for so that we could work for WERA on Friday. We got to the track late and were able to get the pit set up and a good night’s rest in our new tent. We woke up to a really dreary and cold Friday morning and fired up our camp stove for a warm breakfast before heading off to work. This was my first day working for WERA, I learned how to tech helmets, motorycyles, and be a grid marshal. After a long, but fun day of working I was able to drive into town with Dad and Russell Masecar to grab something we needed from Walmart. It was quite a stressful experience for Russell with me being a newly permitted driver, he loans me a race bike but can’t handle a ride in the car. We made it back to the track and enjoyed hanging out that evening and visiting track friends.

On Saturday I woke up to weather similar to Friday, time to put on the rain tires. Wet practice is always enjoyable, I love riding in the rain and my Dunlops are great for it. The second round of practice was delayed until after lunch due to oil being spilled on the track. This gave me a lot of time to hang out with my buddy Dante and contemplate whether to use rain tires or slicks because the sun was coming out. I chose to stick with the rains for second practice and I’m glad I did because the track was still very wet. Race time had finally arrived; my first race was Formula 2. I got a great start from the third row and entered turn one in second place thanks to late braking. Somewhere along the way I got passed by 2 bikes and fell back to 4th place. There were 4 of us having an intense battle to be 4th. All of us 4th through 7th finished within a second of each other, with me coming out on top of that group, but just missing the podium.

My next race on Saturday was Lightweight Twin Superstock. This is the class that my bike is made for. When the green flag flew I jumped out with a great start and went into turn one in second place once again. This race I found myself battling with another buddy Jackson Blackmon on his Moriwaki 250. I ended up 4th in my class and 5th overall. I made improvements and was able to drop 1.2 seconds off my previous best lap time. No podiums for Saturday but it was a great day. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot.

Sunday morning we woke up to beautiful weather, clear skies and perfect temperatures! In the first practice session, on the 3rd lap, coming down the front stretch at the fastest part of the track, running about 130mph, the front rod failed! This turned the front rod into a hammer mill destroying the transmission and punching holes in the engine case. Despite it spraying my rear tire with oil and dumping oil and pieces of the motor into the belly pan (and not on the track) I managed to keep the bike upright and pulled it off the track safely outside of turn one. The session was red flagged for WERA corner workers and officials to verify the track was safe and I was quite relieved to hear that I did not disperse oil on the track. By the time I got back to the pits with my broken bike, all of the” Russell’s Band of Misfits” were already prepping one of Russell’s spare bikes for me to ride later.

Second practice session I was on a bike that belongs to Russell Masecar and I was the fastest SV out there, I also achieved my personal best lap time of 1:20.964. This was 3/10 of a second faster than I raced the day before. I was really thankful he loaned me the bike and having a good time. My first race of the day, and first race of the WERA Nationals came along and my day took another bad turn. After another great start I was in second place until the 4th lap, where my buddy Dante bested me into turn 1. I was chasing Dante down, in turn 4 I tried making up more time by getting on the throttle a little sooner and the rear stepped out and started to high side. I forced the bike back down, it started to buck around and it threw me on the ground. My pinky got smashed between the clip on and the pavement. As I slid to a stop I noticed that my pinky was bent over, while I had the adrenaline I popped it back into place. There was so much blood coming out of my glove that I first worried it wasn’t all attached anymore. I am very blessed and fortunate that it is just smashed, no broken bones, no surgery, no infection. Even though that ended my day early, I am proud to say that I was able to drop my lap times by another 2/10 of a second in that race.

I want to especially thank Russell Masecar for his generosity and support this weekend and apologize for making his bike not so shiny. Also to Mike Copoulos, Rhoan Witter, and everyone else who pitched in to get the motor pulled from my bike to get it ready for a new one to go into it. I’m really looking forward to racing my bike with a fresh Copoulos-built motor. See you all at Talladega for the next Southeast Regional and WERA National, hopefully we will be able to make up the race we missed in February too.

 

Awesome Job Draik!!!!!!!!:up:

 

:up:

 

:up:

 

Draik Beauchamp

American Supercamp

Gainesville, GA

March 29 & 30, 2015

I first want to explain how I was able to do this event. I got a great opportunity, out of the blue, to be able to go ride on a scholarship through the Ethan Gillam Memorial Chasin’ a Dream Foundation. Someone nominated me anonymously and they don’t know how grateful I am. So thank you very much to whomever you are!

Saturday afternoon, after I was done doing some yardwork at home we left the house. We arrived at my buddy Dante’s house in Lawrenceville, he and his family were kind enough to let us stay at their house. Dante was to going to Supercamp as well. I was really excited to have a buddy there with me.

Early on Sunday we met up at Supercamp in the chilly temperatures. When we got there, I found that I knew several other people that were taking the camp. We were on TTR-125s this weekend that on average made 10 horsepower. There, we were taught the basics on how to slide the bike. We were on a short track oval to start out with where we did several drills. One example was one hand on the gas cap and feet on the pegs, even on the wet, slick track! It was a crazy day and we had a blast!
On the second day we moved up to the horseshoe track and had warmer conditions which were easier on us in the morning. Everybody had a general idea on how to slide the bike and now we were sharpening our new acquired skills by free riding, more drills, and more seat time. My favorite drill was the take off and braking drill. This is where we were able to go one at a time into a corner and slide the bike sideways into the corner and idle out. It’s really hard to explain all the great skills we learned; I highly suggest that everyone take the camp.
The skills that I have learned at Supercamp will translate into how to pilot a sliding roadrace bike and getting it to change direction. This will help me be safer and be able to go faster out on the track. I can’t wait to go back and learn more!

 

Draik Beauchamp
Tally Regional/National
4-25/26-15

Since my last race weekend, I had gone to a trackday weekend at Barber with Sportbike Track Time. There I was able to break in my new motor that was running stronger than my last one, it was pretty tired. I had a good trip down to Tally and was excited to see my granddaddy that was coming to visit from Indiana. We got to the track Friday afternoon to get our pit spot, there we set up our campsite.

Saturday morning, after receiving about 3 inches of rain overnight. I changed over to my rains for the first practice. Due to our campsite being flooded, we were running behind. I did not realize that my air compressor was losing air overnight. I went over the Dunlop Race Tire Service trailer to get some air but by the time I was done there, the bikes from my session were already rolling in. So I missed my first practice, but my buddy then told me that the track was pretty much dry and it was due for slicks. So I mounted my slicks back on again and made it out for second practice session. I was already running faster in this practice than my last time I raced here, which was my first race weekend on the SV.

My first race was the Formula 2 race, right from the start I was running in 1st thanks to an awesome start. On the first lap, when I was coming into “the bowl”, since I had not had a chance to go race pace all day and I was not sure where I should have been braking. I told myself that I was going to go in a little bit deeper than I felt I should be braking. It was pretty sketchy because the front end was too hard on preload and the front was pushing out hard. I led for a lap or two before getting passed by some faster guys. I finished 6th in this race.

My second race was the Lightweight Twins Superstock race. I led the first few laps before the faster guys passed me. Then I was battling with another guy for most of the race. Then on the last lap, after following him for a while, I had set up a place to pass him but before I had a chance to he crashed right in front of me in the carousel. I was happy that I got 3rd in that race. I ran a half a second faster in the this race than I did in my first race of the day.

Sunday, I was able to get two complete practice sessions and a make-up race that was postponed from the February round. This was also the WERA Nationals day, I am going after the LWTSS National Championship.

I was the only one that showed up for the make-up race. As I gridded up, the grid officials asked if I was willing to cut the race short. I agreed to cut it short, so I got five laps. Obviously, I won so I got an easy twenty points in the Southeast Formula 2 Championship.

My first Nationals LWTSS, I was trying to keep up with the faster guys, but I could not keep up. But, I had quite a moment in turn one due to a cone in the track. I finished the race in 4th. Here is a video link of the off-track excursion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG-bMmfL_L0

The final race was the Formula 2, tried once again to stay with the leaders but I could not keep up, I learned quite a bit. I had a lot of fun though. I finished the race in 7th.

Even though Tally is not a track I really like, I did learn a lot and can’t wait to racing again. Thank you for reading!

 

:up:

 

The Draik 77
NOLA: National Challenge/Nola Regional combined
New Orleans, LA
5-16/17-15

After working very hard on my school work to get ahead and be able to go to the track, we left home on Friday morning and set off on our ten hour haul to NOLA. I was not very excited to go to NOLA because it was not one of my favorite tracks to go to. This was my first time going to NOLA on the SV.

Saturday morning was wet and muggy, just like the swamp was supposed to be. I went out on my rain tires for the first practice, little did I know, that about seventy percent of the track was dry. I stuck it out by hitting every puddle and wet spot I could; fortunately I did not burn up my rain tires. Second practice was better and I improved my lap time tremendously from the first session.

My first race was Formula 2; I was gridded in the first row center. I was second into the first corner. I held the position for about a lap before getting passed by two other fast guys. I was alone for most of this race and placed forth.

My second race was the Lightweight Twin Superstock race. I was second in the first turn. First place checked out and I knew I was not alone sitting in second place I was stalked and studied the whole race and towards the end I was able to fight him off and ended up in second.

The next morning I was ready to race again after having a great night with new friends. I set a faster laptime in practice than I had in the races from yesterday after mounting up a new Dunlop Slick!

After waiting for a while, it was time to race in the Formula 2 race. I started in the first row right, I was following the leader into the first turn, I noticed that every time he would downshift there would come a puff of smoke from his bike. Then when we were on the second lap, he left a cloud of blue smoke down the straightaway. I slowed down a lot in fear of oil on the track surface. I was passed by two other bikes, and in the middle of the race, the leader with the sketchy engine was brought in for inspection and all I had to do was pass the two people in front of me. I did and I finished first!

Then the Lightweight Twin Superstock race came around. I was behind the leader for most of the last race studying him and before I knew it, I had motor oil all over the front of my bike. I had very low visibility, I managed to keep it up and finished second!

I am stoked about my weekends results, especially them being nationals! I can’t thank my sponsors enough and my dad for driving 20+ hours back and forth to the track. My next race will be at Roebeling Road on the weekend of 6/6.

Very Respectfully,
Draik Beauchamp

 

Screw that prick with the shitty motor!

Good job Draik, keep it up.

 

Ed, Mark, and I were talking in Hot Pit during that race about how great it was that Draik was able to keep up with you and learn... then we find out you still beat him with a half dead motor... I guess he still has some work to do...

 

Here's a little bit of press for the boy. ..

News Sentinel

 

The Draik 77
5/29-30/15
RRR Southeast Regional

On Friday, we departed the house and met with our fellow Knoxville racing buddy to travel with. We arrived at the track at around 4:30. For both nights, we were able to crash in another fellow racer’s toy hauler; thanks Shane Hobgood!

On Saturday, it was a dewy morning I had contemplated if I should run the solo or not. I decided to run the race and to get the extra practice. First practice was slow and was just getting used to the track. The second practice was a lot faster and I was able to better dial the bike in for the race.

At the start or the race I could not keep up with the leader, but I was battling it out for 2nd place for almost the whole race. On the last lap I got caught in lap traffic and ended up third. With that race I was able to dial the bike in even more and get ready for tomorrow. That day I had the fastest single lap time of all the 650s.

On Sunday, with another dewy morning, I was ready to race. After my practices I was ready to go, one race was early on and the other was later on in the day. The first race was Formula 2, in the first half of the race, I was battling and when I went into turn one, I lost the front and tried to make the corner with holding the bike up with my knee. This did not go as planned and I found myself in the brush and trees, and hit the tires and the bike laid over my leg and the bar end never hit the ground. After the bike was wrestled out of the woods, I rode the bike in and made it back for the restart of the race. I finished the race in 5th.

Then I had the Lightweight twins superstock race, I had an okay start and was trying to keep with the leaders. I could not keep up with them but I kept them within range but could get close. I finished the race in 3rd.
I had a weekend of a lot of learning and a lot of blessings from the man upstairs. I can’t wait for my next race, Cycle Jam at Road Atlanta.

Very Respectfully,
Draik Beauchamp.

 

Glad to hear your ok and that you got right back on and made it back into the race.:up:

 

TheDraik77
Road Atlanta Cycle Jam 2015

With the trailer ready to go the night before, we set off in my new to me 4-Runner at 3 am Friday morning. No matter how hard I tried, I could not fall asleep as Dad drove us to the track. We arrived at roughly 6:45 am, my dad worked tech and the grids while I was hanging out all day watching practice and visiting with people. Then my Grandaddy came for the Father’s Day weekend; I was super happy that he came to see me race. Later in the evening we head to our friends’ from Witter Racing to stay with them.

On Saturday morning I had good practices and was eager to race, even in the sweltering heat that was with us all weekend. My first race was Formula 2, I was starting on pole position. I had a good start but I was 2nd into turn one, I was passed by other people and tried to keep up by I could not, instead I got into a battle for 5th where I came out the victor. Even though it was for 5th place, I ran the fastest I ever have been at Road Atlanta. Then in the LWTSS race I had put on a brand new sticky Dunlop rear, I was on pole again and had another great start, I was with a competitor all race and we were battling and had been working lap traffic. I late braked him into 10A and he took the line from me it the last corner, I finished 5th in the last race of the day but once again improved my lap time, this time by a half a second. I would have dropped it even more if we had had our full 6 laps; the race was shortened to 4 laps after a rain delay from earlier in the day. We stayed a little longer that evening and visited people before we left to the Witter's house.

Sunday I had only one round of practice but made the most out of it and waited for the national races to roll around. My first race was LWTSS, I had a great start and was dicing it up with my buddy Dante the whole race until the last turn when he crashed, he was OK. I finished the race in 3rd. The Formula 2 race, I has a terrific start and led into the esses. I was battling for 3rd place again I was gaped from 3rd place from the beginning of the race and I had to claw my way back quick and studied. I made my move on the last lap in 10A again, he about ran me off track in the last corner. I was able to recover but I finished 4th in the race. I learned a lot this weekend and dropped my race times from the first race to the fourth by 2.2 seconds! I believe I was only 1.1 seconds off the fastest SS SV time for the weekend. One thing I’m really proud of is that you don't really need race fuel to be competitive. I can’t wait until the Barber round on the 4th of July weekend. This was the first weekend I tried out my Moto D products including the MotoD undersuit on the hottest race weekend we’ve had this year and I loved it. I also wore the cool max socks that were also really thin and cooling. Can’t imagine how much hotter it would have felt without these to items!

Very Respectfully,
Draik Beauchamp