Joined: 02 Jan 2007 Posts: 68 : Location: Raleigh NC Items Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2007 4:58 pm Post subject: Summit race report -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A need for a minor bit of machining in the 11th hour kept me from using my new motor, so I plugged my spare 350 motor in the frame and headed off to Summit. My 34's wouldn't fit over the cases, so I had to mount up my new 38's that had never been run. I had reliable (Barlow) baseline set-up in the carbs, but the info was for a heavily modded 400, not a "pretty decent" 350. It was cool, probably the densest air I've raced this year. 1st practice was redflagged twice, once when David Keely siezed his rz in t1 and went down, leaving the bike on the track. David was unhurt. Second red flag was after Gene Lucas and then, Mitch Bolluck went down in t6, both on rd's. Good thing for me, because the bike was racing, like it had an air leak. Kept it running when I got back to the pits and grabbed a can of contact cleaner. Sure enough, in my haste, I had forgoton to tighten the R side intake manifold, so it was sucking air. Decided to check the pilots while I had the carbs off, because Bob McCauley had told me that his 38's were too lean on the bottom when he ran them last weekend at Barber. He eneded up with 65 pilots. Sure enough, I had 40's in mine, so I asked around and Russ Bigley produced a set of 65's for me. (Rusty- You left early, I owe you a sammich!) In the second round of practice, I took it easy for a lap and then wicked it up on the second lap. Bike wwas really fast, but halfway around the second lap, started developing a slight ping. I pitted and looked the motor over for any obvious problems. Nothing was forthcoming, so I took it out for a 3rd lap. The ping was still there, but I deduced that it was'nt really at full throttle, but more at 3/4. Back in the pits, I moved the needle up a clip, but got it done just as the checkers came out for the practice. So no test for my change. After Lunch, I suited up and took a scrub with another race and the ping was gone, but it never showed up till the second lap before, so I wasn't convinced I was out of hot water yet. Got a great start in v3, but was out motored by Jesse Morris and another guy on a 750. Out broke the other guy, but Jesse held onto his lead and was 1st into the turn. Coming out of t2, my bike became a 175 suddenly. I pulled the clutch and pulled to the side, letting everyone past. After the track was clear, I looked down to see a plug cap off on my R cly. Not wanting to get shocked putting it on, I stopped, shut it off, put the cap back on and bumped it off. I charged hard, thinking that, even though a decent finish was impossible, I still needed a 6th finish in v3 and ANYTHING would help keep my championship hopes alive. That all ended when the ping came back, albeit a lot less than before, but still there. I wasted about 5seconds of brain waves thinking that I could just pull the chokes and trundle around just to get a finish, but what's the point, really? Without riding my ass off, there was noway I was going to catch back up to even the slowest riders in race, so I decided to just take the dnf and not risk damaging the motor or risk screwing up someone elses race. Back in the pits, I switched from a P4 nozzle to a Q2 and left the needle in the richer clip. (one from bottom). For insurance I decided to retard the timing a bit as well, cutting from 1.8btdc to a safe 1.5. I run one of the newer PVL's, that have quite a bit of retard on them, but I felt better in my mind doing this. I took another scrub lap, just to make sure the changes would be rideable. Everything seemed cool, so I just waited for f-500. Got another smoker of a start and led the pack into t1 with Rich Oldekowski (sr500), Gene Lucas (rd400) and Jesse Morris (tri500) hot on my tail. Roper was in the second wave on his Arremachi 350, but I knew he'd show up before long... Gene pulled up alongside me exiting t10, as I hadn't really hit it at full speed all day and only used about 3/4ths of the track on the exit. I got a nice warm fuzzy when I looked back at the stripe to see I had puuled almost a whole bike length, even with the half-hearted drive I got. Jesse pulled a BANZAI!! braking move in t1 that stood me up, not really cool, but I'm sure he didn't mean it and just found himself in there a little hot. (We've never raced each other before and I'm sure he though he could just use me as his braking marker like he does with everyone else, but I brake pretty late!!) Rich got by in the process, but I had motor on him and got back by going into 3. I got back on Jesse's wheel going into 5, but he was a little better through all the tight stuff and I followed him through the rest of the lap. I had a good draft on the straight and motored by, retaking the lead. The next 6 laps were more of the same, with Jesse and I passing back and forth 2-3 times every lap, with Rich and Gene hanging on to our draft, but just lacking that little bit of motor to mix it up with us. Our bikes were even on speed, but I was a little better on the brakes. (disc vs drum) He was a little better in the tight stuff and I was a little better in the fast stuff. One lap, (around 5 or 6...) we went side by side down through t4, a very dicy pass (by me!) to say the least, but we both gave each other all the room in the world, though we were hammer and tongs every lap. White flag lap and Jesse and I were dead even, no draft, all the way down the front straight. I was smiling, thinking I had it covered on the brakes, only when I went to out brake him, the lever came back to the bars!! At first, I though I was going off, but they did have some bite and I managed to trade track position for mph and got it gathered back just as I was inches from the rumbles on the outside of t1. I made as much as I could from it and squared t2 off, getting a monster drive, but I had a good 6 or 7 bike lengths to make up and not much time to do it. I closed a good bit through 3 and 4, but, exiting 5, I was surprised when Roper went flying by with at least 5mph in hand!! (seemed like 20...) I bobbled, and in that second, knew I had lost the race. Roper wasn't in my class, but I didn't know if Jesse was in V1, or F-500. Roper dashed his chances of winning the overall when he missed a shift exiting the carousel. I zipped by and steeled myself for a last ditch attempt through 10, hoping maybe Jesse would bobble or run wide. I smoked it, but it wasn't enough, as Jesse went through there better than he had the whole race. He had 4 bike lengths at the line. Turns out Jesse Was in V1, so I was credited with the win for f-500, with Rich 2nd and Gene 3rd. Roper won 350gp. Roper also had the fastest lap of the race with a 31 and change. Jesse had a 32 and I had a 33. This win was VERY important for my championship hopes as now it is effectively a 4 way tie between Richard Beltz, (Rus23 here) Jim Hinshaw, Charlie McEwan and myself. Dick Gruhn, Scott McCain and Paul Garland are all threats for the win at the GNF, but don't have enough points to factor into the championship chase. It will DEFINITELY be one of the most exciting GNF's in a long time!!!! I'm dissapointed that I didn't get to run my new motor, but I'm pretty happy with how well everything turned out. It was very frustrating to pull out of not only my only real practice, but then the v3 race, but I had to to keep the motor together. Stay tuned for GNF report in 2 weeks!! Mark
Here I thought it was the old fart that was to blame.... BTW, Phantom 309, I've been trying to get hold of you. Could you check your Private Messages?
Great race BTW, In case you couldn't tell from Mark's report, it was a hell of a race. Neither of us were giving away an inch. When we went down the hill into turn four side by side, I knew we had a real race on our hands. Still brings a smile to my face. Great fun Mark!
