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Zero Dollar Racing Year End Wrap Up

Discussion in 'Race Reports' started by Parr, Oct 1, 2012.

  1. Parr

    Parr Well-Known Member

    ZDR Races Beaver and Summit

    Zero Dollars Racing ended the year with races at Beaver Run and Summit Point in September. We drove out to Beaver via the scenic route – route 68 through the Cumberland Mountains, and arrived just as the skies opened and a tropical deluge opened up over the track. Thankfully we were pitting with good friend Mike Coomeraswamey in the garages, where we also found Mike Lockhart, who bought my old SV many years ago and is racing it still, and Kevin Mulkeran and his lovely wife.

    Saturday turned out to be a lovely day for racing – 63 degrees and pissing rain. I spent the day helping the head-cases running rain tires on and off their stands as they made serial attempts at hypothermia riding in that mess. Very happy to be in a garage.

    Sunday dawned cool and foggy, but at least it was largely dry. The track was damp but generally free of standing water. We ran a couple of low key practice sessions to assess track conditions and then lined up for the D Superbike race. Scott McKee, Rich Graver and I were gridded behind the novice SV scrum. We got a good launch and were up into the SVs by turn one. Rich came flying by into turn one, slicing through yellow plate SVs like a hot knife through butter and proceeded to run by about four of them in the first four corners, tossing his old Suzuki 450 around like it was a 125. Note that neither Rich nor his Suzi are, well, spring chickens. It was impressive stuff. Scott checked up a bit into T1 and I got by him and a couple of SVs and set off after Rich. Scott used the abundant HP of his Yamaha FZR Superbike to blow by me on the back straight and once I caught and passed Rich that was about it, finishing second in class. I did have a moment passing a novice SV through the second kink on the back straight. I was carrying a fair bit of speed and was going to go around the outside into the final corner when the novice ran so wide he pushed me out onto the gator teeth. With set slippery grass between me and that damned unprotected ARMCO at the end of that piece of track it was a hairy moment but I got lucky and didn’t catch my brake lever in his bike. That part of VIR really needs to be fixed. Next up was D Superstock, where I was also gridded behind the SV pack and spent the race seeing how many I could pass on the way to first in class. Last up was Clubman, gridded with Rich and Ken Mulkeran. We rolled around at a fairly leisurely pace and came out on top.

    Two weeks later we were back to Summit Point. I had started the year with some new carb settings that I thought were going to give me some speed, and had concluded they were actually slowing me down, so I had reverted to previous settings and felt faster. Unfortunately, Scott McKee had blown up at Beaver (loose valves at 14,000+ RPM make a mess) and Bob Robbins was recovering from a bad tumble, so I had no one to play with. That basically meant a weekend of trying to beat as many SVs in the other classes I was gridded with as I could.

    In V6LW I was literally all alone, and basically used it as a practice session. Next up was Clubman, where I had one other bike on the track, a Kawisaki 250, and had another practice session. Next up was D Superbike. Because I was essentially doing 3 races back to back (a quick stop in the pits for gas, water and grid positions between races) I was in full “race head” for my warm up laps and apparently scared the crap out of Tom Moyer passing him knee on the curb in T1 during the warm up lap and so startled a novice SV in turn 3 he ran off the track!. Sorry guys. I got a good launch for DSB and was quickly up into the expert SV LWT pack. Lap times were fair (1:26s and 1:25s) and I finished first in class and 5th overall out of 13 bikes. Last race was D Supersport. Again, a hard launch and up into the SVs. On lap two I passed Duane Brown on the brakes into T1 (he had a fair bit of motor on me on the straight but I caught just enough draft out of T10 to slip by into 1). I didn’t realize that he had followed me all of the previous race and obviously gone to school. In the previous race he finished 10 seconds behind me. Now he hung on, and about halfway through tried a move on me in T5. I didn’t let him have it, lowered my laps from mid 1:25s to low 1:25s and established a bit of a gap. I must have napped a bit, though, because the last two laps he put his head down and dripped his lap times form high 1:25s to high 1:24s and damn near got me at the line, I beat him by 0.017 seconds to finish first in class and 6/10 overall. Nice job Duane!

    So a happy end to the season with my fastest overall race of the season being my last race. Thanks as always to all my WERA peeps, competitors, to Robin, to Q for the Stones and the friendship and to Speedwerks and Hovey Performance Cycles. See y’all next year.
     
  2. Scott McKee

    Scott McKee FZR crasher

    Yeah, you were looking a little lonely out there. Lots of first place hardwear for the weekend though. The funniest was the race with you and the kid on the 250, we were debating whether to meatball you just to make it interesting. Good riding!
     
  3. User_Name

    User_Name PASSWORD

    I think I may have been that novice on the SV that "pushed" you out wide. I remember it a whole lot different than your side of the story though. I remember you turning in hard as if I weren't there, almost contacting me right around the apex, standing the bike up to prevent the contact, and consequently running way out wide. Scared me pretty good. I do apologize if you think I did anything wrong there. I would consult with my gopro but I don't think I turned it on that race.

    I do congratulate you on your wins and your season. I was really amazed at your bike was capable of.

    Duane did step it up near the end of the day at Summit Point. From what I heard, when you passed him, it woke some sort of angry demon within him. You two were gaining on me hard right at the end.
     

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