Interesting day at the track with lots of ups and downs..... Met Buff in ATL on the way for a much needed set of new Conti's. The last set worked great, but, like an idiot, I ran them for too long and it really hurt me at my last race. Even better, the new set has the "new" softer compound, so they should provide even more grip! Early morning was spent getting tires installed....BIG thanks to StickBoy for doing the dirty work!!!! Just barely made it through registration and tech in time to make my practice. Took it easy scrubbing in the new tires but by the end of the session, I was definitely back in the groove! It's been 5 years since I raced at Barber, but I've taught 2 Ed Bargy schools in addition to the 3 times I raced there, so it came back to me quite easily. Inspection of the tires showed that I still had a significant amount of tread left untouched, so I was looking forward to pushing harder in the 2nd session. That was the plan anyway.....going into t1 on the 2nd lap of the session, the throttle hung up wfo! I handled it well, but lost the rest of the session waiting for Fuzzy to pick me up. Turns out that what I assumed was just a cable popped out of the junction box or carb top, was actually a failed cable. The individual strands had broken and gotten jammmed up in the curved carb top, causing it to stick open. Lucky for me, Lyn Garland had a spare throttle and cable assembly. At first, I looked like it wasn't going to fit, but then he offered up the carbs that went to it and I noticed that his carbs had the short, straight carb tops and mine had the longer curved type. rather than switch carbs and be guessing about jetting, I simply swapped the carb tops and everything fit up perfectly! Link to short video of me getting a BIG surprise in practice! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ry3Qpkvvt4 F500 On the warm up lap, I immediately noticed that the bike was pulling a lot harder than it used to....hmmm.... I bet the cable and the way it has been fraying has caused my left throttle to not be opening all of the way for quite some time now! Free horsepower!! There were only 3 bikes entered in F500, Mark Williams, Dick Gruhn and myself. I got the holeshot and took off running. Dick showed me a wheel going into Charlottes web, but I let off the brakes for a moment and held the lead into the corner. Unfortunately, my late braking caused me to forget my last downshift and I was suck exiting the tight 2nd gear corner in 3rd, which totally killed my drive. Dick went screaming by but I was able to get a little back on the brakes going into Museum. He opened the gap again on the back striaght, but I had a much better exit through the "S" and was right on his back wheel. He took "wheelie hill" in 3rd instead of 4th, but I elected to follow as I was unsure of his line. when he went to cover the inside going into the final 2 turns, I drifted wide and went around him on the outside. I expected him to come by on the front straight, but he never showed up, so I just kept my head down and rode fast and clean, hitting my marks. After 2 laps, I took a look at pit wall on the front straight and saw Lyn giving me the "huge lead, back off" signal, so did exactly that, finishing the race with no other challenges. Link to F500 video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6gc6NPg_sA V3 I was REALLY looking forward to the V3 race as My confidence was very high and everything was working great on the bike. Roy Chapman and I had a great battle @ RRR and I was looking to even the score from there (he motored me on the run to the stripe) My plan was to nail the start and try to put the V5 bikes in between us. I nailed the start, but not well enough to get by all of the V5 bikes before t1, so had to follow them through 2/3. Dick Gruhn came by on the run down to Charlottes. Exiting Charlottes, my bike suddenly lost power! fearing a seizure, I pulled in the clutch and blipped the throttle a few times. Everything seemed ok. By now, the entire field had gone by. Exiting museum, I gingerly brought the revs back up and started picking up the pace. The motor seemed to respond well so I started racing again. 1/2 lap later, it did it again! At this point, I felt confident that it wasn;t a seizure, but I was fearful of causing one as I was pretty sure it was either an electrical problem or a fuel starvation problem. I soldiered on in last place, keeping the revs low and running a gear higher everywhere and was slowly catching the bike in front of me. I then Saw Dick Gruhn on the side of the track and realized that the guy in front of me was actually a podium spot, so started pushing a little harder. I caught him and passed him with 2 laps to go, but then the bike started acting up again, in spite of my best efforts to baby the motor. He got me back on the last lap, putting me back to 4th. Oh well....at least I finished! long, boring video of v3 race: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FT13COGaEo Even though I spent most of the day with wrenches in hand and had a mechanical issue in the last race, the drive home was VERY positive and I walked away feeling EXTREMELY good about my chances next time I come to Barber. The tires are working great. The bike is handling great. The laptimes in F500 weren't that great, (2 secs slower than what I ran in '09, my last time here) but I was never really pushed and had very little practice after a long time off. I will definitely drop more than those 2 secs the next time I'm here! The throttle cable incident taught me that my bikes motor performance has been less than 100% for the past several races. In addition to new cables, there will be a new mod on the bike for the next race, boosting performance even more. The mechanical in V3 was a disappointment for sure, but at least I came away with a win and a 4th for the weekend. At one point after the throttle cable broke, I thought I was heading home with nothing! (NEVER give up!!) Big thanks to Buff @ THR and Continental Race Tires for meeting me with the tires....they worked GREAT! HUGE thanks to Lyn Garland @ Vintage Specialties!!! Again, I find myself repeating: Without Lyns help, I would not have been able to race! Thanks also to Moto Carrera, Stickboy and my AMAZING wife, Eileen! Till next time..... Mark
That was me on the T500 Mark. Thanks for the exciting duel and I am sorry you had mechanical problems. I had noticed a couple of laps in that you were not catching me so I slowed down to save my engine and my bike was handling very badly like it was hinged in the middle (after the race I found that my steering damper had leaked all its oil out and was usless ). When you passed me it was a complete surprise and I thought "crap" I shouldnt have slowed down. I was squeezing every bit out of the bike to pass you again and was holding on to what seemed like a bucking bronco in the corners. That was a lot of fun and I am glad you got me on video. I can see that I need change my form in the corners and hang me head out more. I was very happy because I dropped my lap times from 2:06 to 2:00. Not bad considering thats the first time I have been able to race the bike at barber and its only the second full race weekend that I have been able to complete without a major mechanical failure. Thanks again for the fun time on the track. See you at the next V3 race. Bill
Mark, I wondered what happened to you? I was looking for to another good race with you at Barber. See you.......GNF? Peter & Edna
Kurt- It was great meeting you too! It's nice to see you finally getting that FZ sorted out. I think you will be surprised at what it can do! Bummer we didn't get to mix it up a little on the track! Bill- Great to make a connection! Seriously, reading what you just wrote really took some of the sting out of that race. I was actually gutted that I couldn't hang on to the podium, but knowing that you worked so hard for it and had so much fun chasing me makes it a lot better! Work on that handling!! SO important! If the bike handles so bad that the loss of a steering damper has a big effect, then there are probably other issues. Peter- BUMMED!!!!! As I broke into Chrlottes I was smiling, thinking:"Here we go again...Peter's going around the outside under brakes..." and then it all ended 10 sec later. I have some new parts coming that I will probably try out at VIR in Aug. (Running clubman because there's no Vintage that round) Next Vintage race will be TGPR. Hope to see you out there!
It's already surprised me, after only maybe a dozen laps at Barber I was going faster on it that I have ever gone on the SV there. We'll get to mix it up at some point, I'm sure.
