AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

Riding Without Excuses

The story starts shortly after Round 5 at Infineon.  Given the unsafe state of my bike’s transmission, a rebuild was going to be required before round 6.  Jason generously offered to show me how to do the whole job in his garage in Sacramento, and we tore the bike down and found out which transmission parts we’d need.  After multiple delays with our sources, we had all parts but 3rd gear and no ETA on delivery.  Zoran came through as usual, dropping off that gear in Sacramento on his way to the track on Thursday evening.  Jason and I dug in and didn’t finish the rebuild until 8am Friday.  Jason went off to work without sleep and I crashed out for a few hours before packing everything up and heading for the track.  Between the parts delays and some challenges with cam timing and weird engine noises part way through the re-assembly (at 5am, mental mistakes happen), I’ll admit I had my doubts that we’d succeed.  I can’t thank Jason enough for pushing through all of this and making my weekend happen.

Saturday practice:

I spent the first session or so taking it easy on the fresh motor, giving the rings a chance to wear properly on the top end, and clicking solidly through the gears.  In hindsight, I wasn’t firm enough with the transmission.  The motor started popping back a gear in some places on the track – one of the two symptoms we were trying to fix with the rebuild.  I was pretty bummed about that, after all the effort we put in.  However, the more dangerous false neutrals weren’t happening at all, so that much was positive.  I finished the day with my best lap time at Thunderhill – a 2:02.7.  Ok, but Jason, Oliver and Gator were all running those times or better, so I wasn’t very optimistic about Sunday.

Race 1 – 650 Twins:

I found myself on the grid looking back to see Elena Myers gridded right behind me, a field of fast guys around me, and a transmission that couldn’t seem to stay in gear all the time.  Great.  Well, I thought, I’ll just take it easy through the first lap, see how it sorts out, and pick people off one by one, trying not to get badly beaten by a 14 year old girl on her first outting with this class in AFM.

Riiiight.  As the green flag came out, I was immediately swallowed up by riders who were actually hungry to get out in front.  As we went through turn 3, Jason ran wide while trying to get around traffic, nearly going well off-track.  I back off another notch, not wanting to get caught in anything.  When I finally get into some sort of rhythm, I’m well back in the field, chasing Jason, as he’d had another off-track excursion.  Rather deflated about the race, I circulate around with Jason, enjoying the chance to dice it up with him, but otherwise bummed to be so far back in the field.  After briefly going airborne over the curb in turn 11, and some gear jumping from my transmission,  I finish 15th, behind Jason, with a best lap of 2:02.2.  I pull into the pits rather disgusted with myself and my bike.  I know I could have done much better.

Race 2 – 600 Superbike:

Jason and I added this race as our optional/have fun race, since the Open Twins race was moved just before Formula IV in the schedule.  No sense blowing ourselves out before a race that mattered.   Jason headed for the hot pits as my bike failed to start.  After some failed attempts at bumpstarting, I pulled back into the pits, and watched the race start without me.  I pulled a plug to check for spark, and found the sparkplug holder was so loose it wasn’t even contacting the plug.  Some monkeying around, and I had a working bike 10 minutes later.

Race 3 – Formula IV

Before this race began, Zoran wandered over on his goofy 3 wheeled scooter to  congratulate Gator on his 2nd place finish in 650 Twins.  I mentioned the shifting problems I was still experiencing, and asked what else it could be, given that we’d replaced the whole output shaft’s gears on the motor.  In typical Zoran fashion, he said, “It’s not a pu***y”, making a rather graphic gesture with his finger, “It’s a lever.  Hit it hard.”

Before I headed out to the grid, I sat and collected my thoughts for a moment.  It’s the last race of my schedule, the bike isn’t that bad, and I’m not that thrilled with my performance so far.  Screw it, it’s time to let it all hang out.  Ride the damn bike, make it go into gear, push the tires til they slide, and most of all, go fast from the moment the green flag comes out.  If I have a moment or two out there, so be it.  At least I won’t have any excuses.

Green flag.  I get a great jump, getting by a few riders as we go into turn 1.  I find myself at about 8th place as we dive into turn 2, with a freight train of front runners in front of me.  Hell yeah.  Let’s do this.  I keep pace with these guys for 3 or 4 laps, keeping Hagan within 5 seconds of me for the first time ever.  As we come through turn 3, Oliver chucks his bike down in front of me in a shower of sparks and a couple of somersaults, but looks ok.  I’m getting worn out at this point, and I’m having a hard time keeping pace with the leaders.  I back off a bit, not wanting to make any mistakes, and just bring it home with a top 10.  No more than 3 turns later, I get shown a wheel in turn 9.  Crap.  That’s what I get for backing off.  I hold him off for a full lap, but he gets me in 9 on the final lap, and I see my 6th place turn into a 7th.  Oh well, I’ll take it.

I find out later that I turned a 2:00.7 the second lap of the race, my best time at Thunderhill by 2 seconds.  Better yet, the transmission never jumped out of gear, and I never had a hint of tire slide.  I guess Zoran’s advice was right on, as usual.  The bike’s solid, and I’ve got plenty of room to go faster.  I just need to keep getting on the bike and riding hard, and leave setup issues in the pits.

Aside from all this on-track fun, the pit situation was great, with Jen, Jason, Eric, Trogdor, Gator, Rick and Oliver’s bikes all lined up together.  One of the best crowds in town.  The Kneeriders.com party was off the hook – pictures from that event will probably find their way online somewhere else