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Tuna at Indy 2013 (extended version)

Discussion in 'Race Reports' started by kanatuna, Aug 20, 2013.

  1. kanatuna

    kanatuna You can't polish a turd..

    I want to thank everyone so much for their support and enthusiasm. Running Indy was an absolute blast. To be there at such a facility with so many fans was an experience that I hope to relive many more times. I’m glad we took so many pictures. Lol
    We went into Indy with absolutely no time on an XR1200 and not single lap turned at the track. I sat on the bike for the first time Friday morning. My crew had never turned a wrench on a Harley either. The reality of the task at hand was thrown at us pretty quickly. We were on the false grid ready to roll onto the track for our first practice when a tire marshal said “you can’t go onto the track with those tires”. I was hoping that she had a great sense of humor and she was just joking. Unfortunately for us, we had misunderstood the tire rules and thought we could practice on whatever “spec tires” we wanted. We had some Med compound tires mounted up from a previous round but only Hard compound tires were available for Indy. My crew did an amazing job along with Dunlop and we made it into practice about 5 laps after the rest of the field….And it was the most terrifying experience of my life! I kid you not….jumping out of an airplane, being a new father, losing a job, being attacked by a dog, clowns…whatever, an unfamiliar Indy on an unfamiliar XR1200 with brand new cold tires is TERRIFYING. I was turning laps thinking “Don’t fart or this bike will kill you”.
    Qualifying was next. I hardly knew which way the track was going and I was qualifying… The bike scared the piss out of me and I was qualifying. I went out with the rest of the field on hot tires. I learned most of the tracks turns and became more comfortable with the XR’s handling and shift characteristics. Once I got over my fear of death, I realized we had suspension issues. The bike simply wasn’t finishing a turn and it was providing no feedback outside of the chassis movement. I came in about half way through for some adjustments and some advice then went back out. The harder I pushed the bike, the more it fought me. The more aggressive I got, the more it threw me around. I was told “when the bike starts to wobble, let loose of the bars and relax”. Yep…”when the bike wants to throw you off….just relax”...check. “Go faster without riding harder”…uh huh. “Don’t make too many motions at one time”…right. “Dance with the bike don’t try to fuck it”…Ok then. After 45 mins on the biggest learning curve of my racing career, I qualified 27th out of 30 riders. Not what I had hoped but it was good enough.
    Friday evening we made huge suspension and geometry changes to the bike. The bike was oversprung for me. We removed all but a half turn of the preload in the front. We removed all but 4 clicks of compression in the front. We lowered the front end a few mm’s. We took 4 rounds of preload out of the rear and set the sag the best we knew. We were only allotted a 15min practice the next morning….at 8am! I went a second faster. We were the only team who actually went faster that morning vs the previous day. We were 16th fastest in that warm up, the changes did good.
    Saturday’s race was a ton of fun. I got a good start and made it through a couple rows into turn one. I quickly lost that when I drove into turn 4 too hot and lost my drive out. I was in a 4-6 bike battle the entire race. I must have made ten passes during that ten lap race. I turned better times than most in our pack but I couldn’t connect the turns enough to work around them. I finished the race in 21st position after making a turn 9 pass on the last lap. I moved up 5 positions from where I qualified. I was pleased. Perhaps the toughest thing at this point was the track. It’s almost like its backwards. A majority of the turns are decreasing radius and have really late apexes. It’s a difficult track to learn.
    Sunday, we got no practice, no warm up. We threw on a new rear tire and checked the bike over for what felt like the tenth time before watching some of the Moto2 and GP races. All the while we talked with fans, friends and family throughout our pit. Then it was go time. We did the traditional on track pre-race ceremonies with the trophy girls, interviews etc. That’s an amazing experience in itself. To be sitting on your bike, on warmers with your team looking over your bike on the track….waiting to be let loose. To look around at the fans, the towering grandstands and garages that look like skyscrapers only to see your own name on the scoreboard and number on the tower. It’s chilling for a newcomer.
    The goal of race #2 was to get ahead of the riders I battled in the first race and stay there. Our previous days qualifying determined our start for both races so I still started in 27th. I managed to get another good start. This time I ran a better line out of turn four and late and kept my positions into turn 6. I crossed the brickyard in 20th position on the first lap. I was slowly reeling in the two riders in front of me over the course of the next two laps when I bottomed out my shifter on the curbing of turn one. It upshifted the bike and I ran wide. I kept the bike on track but had to downshift three gears entering turn two. When I did, my shifter fell to a vertical position. I limped it through turn four while riders passed by. I thought the shifter had broken but it was still connected. I continued on for another lap while battling a falling shift lever. I could upshift fine but when I downshifted, the shift lever would pop down. I pulled into pit lane but we couldn’t resolve the issue. I went back out and finished the race while using my heel to kick the shifter back into position after downshifts. I completed the race but fell back to 26th position.
    Indy was by far the toughest event I have competed in. The teams, the track, the bike, the riders….they are all tough to figure out and not easy to tame. Attempting this race as I did, felt like trying to dance while not knowing how to walk. I grossly underestimated the bike and the track. The XR1200 racers are a great bunch of talented riders on unique machines. I hope they allow us to come and give it another try next year. Hopefully the sponsors will as well. :0

    Huge thanks to my sponsors for the event: National Cylinder Heads, SMP Installations, Mullins Cycle Works(me), MotoList.com and all of my great friends and family at home along with those at AssfaultJunkies.com and WERA. You guys are amazing. I’m grateful to have you around.

    Much respect,
    Tuna
     
  2. Shenanigans

    Shenanigans in Mr.Rogers neighborhood

    Congrats man!!:beer:
     
  3. renegade17

    renegade17 Well-Known Member

    Good work Tuna.
     
  4. cajun636

    cajun636 Honda Junkie.

    Great report Tuna. Sucks about the shifter :(


    Now..... THE PICS!!
     
  5. JJJerry

    JJJerry Well-Known Member

    Nice work! Sounds like an awesome experience.
     
  6. gixxernaut

    gixxernaut Hold my beer & watch this

    That really does bite about the shifter issue. Was it a matter of it being adjusted too low to begin with? Is there something you can do next time to keep that from happening (other than not being such a freaking awesome rider)?
     
  7. TLR67

    TLR67 Well-Known Member

    Thats awesome Man...... Way to go.....
     
  8. fastfreddie

    fastfreddie Midnight Oil Garage

    Wow. Talk about challenging!

    Respect. :up:
     
  9. CharlieY

    CharlieY Well-Known Member

    Way to go Tuna....that was a great race.

    I actually was trying to figure out the "Backwards track" from the stands, and was wondering how that affected things....I knew there had to be some negatives there....thanx for the info.:up:
     
  10. eggfooyoung

    eggfooyoung You no eat more!

    It was awesome to watch! It's really cool to actually know someone in the race. Even better that you're a local boy. We stopped by on Friday to chat after practice, but you were sitting in a chair eating and debriefing with your crew. While we were waiting, two guys just blew past us and your crew and started chatting you up. I told Stamler that I didn't want to be bothersome as it seemed you just needed space, so we signed your banner and left. No worries. It put much needed excitement into our weekend. Congrats on a terrifyingly fun weekend. I certainly hope you do it again next year! :up:
     
  11. kanatuna

    kanatuna You can't polish a turd..

    Yea, being fairly local, we had tons of friends and family throughout the pit all weekend. At least I got to BS with ya at the bar on Sat. lol

    Broken shifters seem to be fairly common. Ours wasnt exactly broken....just compromised. While making ergonomic adjustments to the controls, we moved the shift knuckle. It should have been at a right angle but that cause me to have to lift my leg in order to upshift. Its kinda like the 250 ninjas, you have to find a sweet spot for the shifter or it doesnt work quite right. We were just outside of that sweet spot. I guess it just took a good smack on the ground for it to act up. lol
     
  12. kanatuna

    kanatuna You can't polish a turd..

  13. kanatuna

    kanatuna You can't polish a turd..

  14. Metalhead

    Metalhead Dong pilot

    Tuna is the man. Awesome stuff.:bow::clap::beer:
     
  15. Steady T

    Steady T Xaus Power

    Most excellent read, Tuna!

    Another high-five!

    (Broome's face is going to melt when he sees the amount of words in that post.)
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2013
  16. Prof._HH

    Prof._HH Well-Known Member

    It was great seeing you - grats on the racing.

    With regards to the track seeming to be backwards; for the bikes, it is. The road course was designed for the F1 race and they ran clockwise. The only part of the track specific to the bikes is turns 1-3. That was added to keep the bikes away from the wall in the first turn - F1 cars used the speedway turn and there were stands where those turns (1-3) are now.
     
  17. eggfooyoung

    eggfooyoung You no eat more!

    :crackup: Yeah, you got there about 3 rounds too late. Sorry 'bout that! :eek:
     
  18. drybreak

    drybreak Fuelish Boy

    Nice job and an excellent report. You really got thrown to the sharks out there! Funny, I always figured Indy would be a fairly easy track to learn. I obviously had that wrong.
     
  19. JBall

    JBall REALLY senior member

    Great job Tuna! It was fun to watch you out there.
     
  20. Nice job Brian, it was a steep learning curve for sure! Hope you come back out and play with us again...
     

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