AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

100+ degrees for 2 days straight, with lots of drama – crashes, seized engines, breaking wheels, last minute changes, great racing, jackrabbits. Yes, I said jackrabbits.

Saturday practice was definitely slower than I was hoping for. My best laps were only 2:04s. Nothing to write home about, for sure.

Rick Ford’s (one of the SV contingent) magnesium rear wheel started wearing badly, and he wasn’t going to be able to race Sunday, due to lack of spares for his custom setup. Jason generously offered his bike, since his back and freshly pinned collarbone were going to make for a pretty questionable race for him anyway. But loaning a race bike? What a guy. Sadly, Jason’s bike decided to crap out on Sunday on the warm up lap of the first race, with what looks like a seized engine. The motorcycle gods were not loving Ricky this weekend.

Sunday’s races kicked off with a bang, literally. After a helicopter ride for a 600 production racer, the 750/Open GP race got even crazier. A 750 rider high sided out of 13, leaving his bike sliding most of the way down the back straight, into the shadow of the walkway over the track. Some of the Open GP riders got around it, but one of them had a blocked view and ran straight into it at about 120mph. He went airborne, and I hear the fireball was amazing. He should be ok, with a few broken bones, I believe. Exactly how this scenario wasn’t avoided is still being investigated. There were 30 seconds to shut down the race before the second wave showed up.

I signed up for 3 races this round. Open Twins, Formula IV, and 650 Twins. The first is just a screw-around/practice race, since the big Ducatis can destroy my little bike. The other two are the ones that really count.

Open Twins

I got a good start from the back of the grid. Then the madness started. Someone had already tossed their bike on the right side of turn 9 on the warm up lap. Another guy decided to join the party shortly after, and tossed his on the left side, followed by a high side going onto the front straight. Everyone loves dodging bits of plastic on the track. But why leave it at that? As I came down 9 on lap 4 or 5, a good sized jackrabbit came flying across the track, right into my path. I didn’t have any other riders close around me, so I got on the brakes way early for 10, hoping the little monster would hold his course. I missed him by about 2 feet, max. At about 2ft. tall (including ears), I think he would have taken me out as I sent him to bunny heaven.

And back to the racing. I pulled some 2:03s to end up 11th overall. Not bad, but the grid was only 17 people. One major problem though… as I started going faster in this race, my front end started getting really bouncy, and I nearly lost it going through the little bumps in turn 6. I rolled over to Dave Moss’ trailer looking for answers, and he dialed in a ton of rebound damping, asking if I’d ever had the front end set up. I keep trying to remember. After my last fork refresh by Aftershocks, did I get one of the suspension gurus to fiddle with the knobs? Oh well. No time to wonder. I jumped out for the warm up lap of the next race to test it out. It rode like a totally new bike. The front end was planted so well it was almost hard to ride, being used to the pogo stick I had before.

Formula IV

With only enough time to gas up the bike and dump water down the back of my suit, I gridded up hot and tired. I got an ok jump on this one, but took it easy for the first few laps, since I had no experience with this new suspension setup. After a little dicing early, and watching 2 front-runners toss it away, I was left alone with no one coming from behind, and out of striking distance of the guys ahead of me. Time to back off and focus on getting a feel for this suspension. I finished 12th, rolled into the pits, and kicked back to recharge for the last race.

650 Twins

Game on. My brain’s working better, I’m hydrated, and I know my bike can go faster now. 3rd row grid spot. I wheelied the start (should have put that new clutch cable on) but didn’t bother trying to bring it back down, banging it into second gear, carrying the little low wheelie to 3rd gear. 1 guy got around me into 2, but I basically hung with the pack through the first few turns. As we came up over turn 9, the landscape was pretty interesting. The top 4 guys were starting to gap the field, as expected, but the next 8 were bunched really tight. Oliver was in there, Gator, and a few of the Twin Works guys. Ok, game on. Let’s see what this suspension can do. The battle was pretty furious. I passed and re-passed Oliver, Roy Sean, and Mackey. Man, what a lesson in racing. I dove in on the brakes into turns 9 and 10 harder than I ever have before. I also realized just how much planning helps. With such equal bikes with low power, setting up the drive onto a straightaway early and getting past before the braking zone is much cleaner, and doesn’t sacrifice speed through the next corner. Gator broke through the pack early and started running after the top 4. That dude ran great this weekend. I took longer, but finally got through everyone in that pack but Frost, to finish 7th overall. Laptimes were pretty whimpy, not doing better than a 2:03, but that was with some crazy dueling all over the track every lap. It was a fun race, and I know I can make that bike go way faster as I get the hang of it.

Top 10. It feels good to have hit my goal for the weekend, but Round 5 at Infineon is coming soon. What’s the goal there? Run 1:47s? 2 seconds faster should be doable. Where that places me will depend on other traffic.

I also need to decide what to do with my engine. The false neutrals and jumping back a gear persisted, and I doubt I’ll make it the rest of the season without a rebuild.