Race Report 4:

by Jeff Kufalk
8/23 - 8/24, 2003 - BlackHawk Farms


Weekend two on the new RR. "Things just keep getting better"

Friday 8/22:
Arrived at the track around 10:00pm on Thurs night and unloaded just enough to get started on Friday morning. Temps were pretty warm on Fri night, but sleeping with just the screen door helped greatly.

Woke up early on Fri got the canopy up and finished the setup. Hit the track around 9:00am and instantly started turning effortless 1:16's. 16's are pretty good for me. I've never turned a recorded 15 (although people with stopwatches say they've clocked me in the 15's), so to hit 16's with no effort in practice was good. Around the third session, I noted the rear tire was still shagging a bit on the right hand side. One more click of rebound in the rear tightening to 11 proved the absolute perfect setting. As the day wore on and the old tire wore out, my lap times remained in the high 16's to 17's.

Late in the day, I aimed for running the gas tank VERY low so that I could use race gas on Saturday versus the pump gas I had in the bike. I was running in practice and the last bar was lit on the gas gauge, but was not blinking as I came through the bus-stop (90-deg right hander immediately followed by a left) and the bike died. I coasted back to my pit wondering what happened. I didn't figure that it was out of gas since the reserve light wasn't blinking, but as soon as I opened the gas tank, the light started blinking and I couldn't see any gas so I chalked it up to running it dry. I put in about 2 gallons of PowerMist and wrapped up for the night.


Saturday 8/23:
Stayed up way too late on Friday night for an old guy like me, so I was a bit groggy. I must make note here that the worst part about NOT drinking is that when you wake up, that's the best you're gonna feel all day long! Oh well, being tired beats having a hang-over any day.

Practice went very smooth until the second round when going through turn 1 the bike died again. Damn! Looked at the gas gauge and again 1 bar left and it's dead! By now I'm figuring that the gas gauge is off, or somehow I'm starving the fuel pump. I managed to get it restarted though and got back to my pits. I TOPPED the tank off this time as I'm sick of screwing around.

Another problem I had been having during practice was brake fade. I'd get to where I was pulling the lever into my fingers (one finger braking) and it wasn't enough. My mechanic and fellow Lake Country Powersports Racer, Shane, came over and helped me bleed the brakes yet again. We got a bit more feel out of them, but still not the rock-solid feel I need. I changed out the rear tire and was ready to race...

Middleweight GP:
I got a pretty good launch, I'm getting much better at it. I was running around 4th - 5th and every lap or so I'd end up losing a place. I was running good consistant times but they just weren't fast enough. In 9th place, I cross the white flag and go into T1 for the last time. As I come through the turn, the bike DIES!!! This is NOT GOOD since at race pace, people do NOT expect you to shave off speed out of a corner. There were two riders on my tail. Rider #1 said that he heard my engine die and came around me safely. Rider #2 buzzed by me with a couple of inches to spare. I made it off the track. As soon as I did, I knew what the problem was.

Flip the ignition switch off and back on, and she fires right up. Yep, the bank-angle (tip-over) sensor is tripping through corners. After a few conversations and tracing back of schematics, we determined that the sensor is identically wired to the F4i and it can be jumpered. We jumpered it, effectively removing it from the system and the bike started fine.

Onto the GTU:
The goal in the GTU is simple. Consistent lap times and no mechanical failures. With the bank angle sensor out of the way, I'm looking pretty good on the mechanical side. Through the entire 23 laps, I clicked low 1:16's. There were a few 17's and I think 1 18 as I got into traffic, but the overwhelming majority of the laps were in the 16's. The winning race pace average is around 1:14, so I'm not doing too bad. I held on for 10th place in this race. Not bad for me... Everything was coming together nice except for these darned brakes. Still fading.

Big thanks goes out to Rick Breuer from Learning Curves Racing School who had a card of EBC-HH KIT pads for me (since I only had one card on me). I pulled out the stock pads and was really shocked to see how completely GONE they were. There was about 1mm of pad left on EACH PAD! Unreal! 650 miles and they were completely gone! I should have realized by the amount of pad dust all over the bike after every race. Those stock pads are DUSTY!!!

I spent an hour or so cleaning the calipers and pistons and putting in the new HH pads. I had to let a bit of fluid out from the master cylinder since we topped it off during the brake bleeding earlier on. This showed a couple more bubbles still, and once the pads were in the lever was just as I like it, ROCK SOLID.


Sunday 8/24:
Another gorgeous day, a little on the warm side, but not too bad considering it's late Aug. I headed out for practice and bed in my brake pads. Talk about a night and day difference. Man am I glad that I'm back on the EBC's. I like the progressive bite of the EBC-HH Kit pad where it increases power as it heats vice the linear bite of other pads, where if you want more power you squeeze harder.

First race of the day - Sportbike:
Again, a decent launch, I ran consistent times starting at the front and working my way back :-( yeah, it's supposed to work the other way around, but dang, I'm up against some FAST guys.

A guy who pitted a few spots down from me on an R6 came around me about 1/2 way through the race. I followed him around looking for a place to pass him. As we came upon traffic going through turn 5 he takes the outside of a lapper. I want to get up around the lapper on the inside before turn 6, so I stretch the throttle cables. I pushed my braking point way late so I could get around the lapper and FLY up the outside of the R6. We just go to tip in and I can see him glance at me. I smile and we both go through the corner. I leaned her as hard as I could and poured on the gas as the rear end lit up in the tire marbles at the track edge. The slide was smooth and perfect. I squared the bike off and managed everything fine, but it cost me the hundredths of a second it takes to get in front.

Anyhow, I held on to 10th for this race which was good enough to pay me back $65 of my $70 entry fee. I might have done a bit better had I not landed behind a guy early in the race whose bike was SMOKING like a chimney in every turn. Iknew he was blowing oil, but didn't know where from or how much, so I backed off. It took the corner workers 2 laps to get him off the track.

After the race, I'm looking over the bike and I notice that the rear shock seems to be adjusting itself. I wheel the bike over to my suspension tuner "Suspension-Ed Kwaterski" from Trackside Engineering. A quick glance and he laughs at me, as I have the ride height lock adjusting nut spun down in the wrong direction! Just shows me once again that I need to RACE and not WRENCH! Ed also looks at the sag and finds 41mm of race sag and 11mm of free sag! DOH! We spin it back down to 28mm race sag and 7mm free sag and away I go.

Heavyweight Superbike:
Wanting to finish early in the day, I opted not to run the supersport class, and wanted to run against a couple of other guys I know on 750's, so I entered the heavyweight superbike race (on my 600 supersport!).

Off to a good launch, I'm immediately clicking low 16's and fall into place. I'm gaining on the guy in front of me, looking for a place to pass him when his lower comes 1/2 way off! It's dragging, and I'm waiting for it to fly off so I am holding my lines at the middle of the track versus directly behind him. Again, the corner workers take nearly 2 full laps to get this one off the track. With him gone, it's head down for the last few laps.

I cross the finish line, not knowing where I placed. As I wheel back into the paddock, my crew chief was all smiles holding 1 hand out with all fingers extended. Yep, 5th place. It's not podium, but it's another expert wood nonetheless, and the first one on the RR...

I talked to my buddies on the 750's and they said they got hung up behind a guy and then couldn't catch me. After reviewing the timing sheets, they were running .5 seconds faster per lap than me on the last few laps, but I had too much of a gap for them to make up.


Weekend Wrapup:
I'm really getting to enjoy the RR as it gets dialed in. I think I'm about 90% there, and don't know what I can do to get it better, but there's always something. The weather was very cooperative, and everything came into place. No crashes, no real frightful moments, just a couple of mechanical "glitches" if you will, which were overcome.

Much work needed on myself in order to get passed my 2002 mental barriers, but that too is coming along. I'm running my fastest lap times and lowering them every weekend. And with that, I'd like to take a moment to thank God, my wonderful family and all my friends, sponsors and fans for supporting my dream...


JeF4y Racing is proudly sponsored by:

Lake Country Powersports - For all your Honda/Suzuki/Ducati needs!
Hi-Side Racing - Race products, for racers by a racer!
Scotts Performance - Steering stabilizers & reusable Stainless Steel oil filters
MD Racing - Kyle Gordis measuring/alignment system, Race bodywork & engine building
Moto Liberty - All of your gear needs, street and race!
Sliderwoman - The place for Pucks
Silkolenestore - Only the best lubricants for my CBR600RR
Trackside Engineering - Suspension first, everything else is secondary.
Sliderphoto - Making riders look like professionals!
RevLimiter Racing - One stop racing shop!


So? What do you think? Am I great? Do I suck? Let's hear it... Post your comments in the Forum