Race Report #4 from CCS Mid-west round #8, Black Farms Raceway August 17-19, 2007.I was debating on even writing one for this, but I am hopeful that someone will learn from my mistakes and NOT do the same thing I did…
Friday August 17th, Racer Practice:Packed up the trailer and headed down Thursday afternoon, really looking forward to this weekend. Got to the track round 8:00, pulled the bike out, converted the trailer to my weekend hotel, fixed some dinner and to my bicycle out for a couple quick laps for turning in for the night. Woke up Friday morning to a perfect day to be at the track. Sunny, Warm and a light breeze! Wohoo, this was going to be a great day. I was running good times (for me at least) and feeling comfortable pushing a bit, but not a “race” push, more like a track-day push.
Saturday August 18th, Race Day 1I got a good night sleep, But work up to a medium breeze and clouds, not a good sign, but I had been watching the weather before I left so I knew is was going to rain Saturday & Sunday. Got through tech and headed out for the first practice session. I was feeling good, but the track was definitely a bit cold so I took it easy the first session, and waited until the second to run some good laps. After the riders meeting at 11:00, the sky finally started to fall, lightly at first, then progressively harder and harder… While I don’t like to ride in the rain, it doesn’t bother me all that much. So off came the DOT’s and on went the rains. Took a couple slow trips down the access road to bed the SBS dual carbon pads to the clean unmolested rotors… on these wheels as I though it would be nice to have at least some brakes in the wet!
Middle Weight Grand Prix Race:Second race of the day was going to be my first of the day (or so I though…). There seamed to be only about ¾ of the grid showing up, apparently some either didn’t have rain tires, or didn’t want to race in the rain… I was really beginning to like my chances here! So heading out on the sighting lap, I noticed I was getting a wobble in the front end, but someone went down in turn one (yes on the sighting lap) and they red flagged it, so that gave me time to pull into pit lane and check over the front end again, I though I had triple checked everything already, but hey anything could happen. Everything was fine, nothing loose, etc… hum… This is not good. Went out for the second sighting lap and upped the pace a bit only to find the wobble got far worse the faster I went, and I wasn’t even near race pace yet. So I elected to pull back into the pits to check everything out, causing me to DNS this race… I was OK with that.
After getting back to my pit and putting it up on the front stand, at first glance nothing was out of place or funky, then I grabbed a screwdriver and held it against one fork leg and spun the front… Yikes! The rim was almost a ¼” out of round, and it was not in one specific place that it jumped out, it was a very gradual bend. I had purchased these wheels last year from another racer, but had not run them yet, (yes I have three sets of rims) I had checked the rotors, but never the wheel itself. This was a really dumb move on my part as I KNOW better!
Well at that point I talked to a few people, and decided to swap the front rain over to my other spare set of wheels. This is when I found my second “oops” of the weekend, I had forgotten to bring my 3rd front rim…DOH! Oh well, I’ll just have them swap my DOT front for the rain front. But just as I was pulling the front back off… It stopped raining. So I started thinking If it holds off, there are 5 more races before my next race, and a dry line will form allowing my to run DOT’s…and not burn up the rains. Well it did hold off for a while and I started seeing guys going out on intermediates and then a few on DOT’s. So I waited a little longer, a light mist, but still no more rain, so I started bolting my DOT’s back on and wouldn’t you know it, as soon as I finished the rear it opened up again, and the rain got progressively harder. At this point they had just started the race prior to mine, and I didn’t have the time to get the front tires swapped… So much for the GTU race…
This effectively ended my weekend, as I wasn’t going to be able to race on Sunday due to a family event I “had” to attend… So I packed up and headed home.
After Thoughts:1) When you buy used rims (heck, even new ones) CHECK THEM, because you never know.
2) If you have 3 “sets’ of rims, bring 3 “set” with you, not 2 ½ “sets”.
And for those of you who like to see pics... I forgot to bring my camera so I don't have any this time around but there are some posted here...
http://www.gron4.com/2007/event081907/82x/A Special Thanks to:My Dad for being a great traveling companion and pit support – and putting up with me when I felt like beating my head into the side of the trailer.
Thanks to my sponsors:
Ben and the crew at: Two Brothers Honda.
http://www.twobrothershonda.com/Rob and the crew at: Lithium Motorsports
http://www.lithiummotorsports.comRick Ruelle at: Lockhart Phillips, Team Privateer
http://www.lockhartphillipsusa.com/Last race weekend of the season (for me)… once again to BlackHawk Farms on September 14-15-16. I hope…
