AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

Round 4 – Thunderhill

After blowing up my motor last round, the past 3 weeks have been busy trying to get it put back together.  As the realities of a day job and the rest of life influenced things, it just didn’t happen.  I found myself swapping in last year’s tired 8k mile race/track day motor a few days before the weekend.

I showed up on Thursday night and woke up to Thunderhill’s version of hurricane Katrina.  40mph winds really make certain corners of that track exciting – not in a good way.  Add in continuing brake fade issues from Infineon, and it didn’t exactly add up to a useful practice day.  I was well off of any reasonable pace all day, seeing a 1:58 at best.

The wind was about half as strong on Saturday, and I pushed in early practice to get up to pace, but was working really hard with no forward progress on the laptimes.  After 2 practice sessions, it was clear we needed to make some bigger changes.  Chris Van Andel started pulling apart my brakes to tackle the lingering brake fade issues, we threw on a better rear tire, and I had a little discussion with Jason.

We had both received a setup tip from a KFG the previous day that seemed like it‘d be worth trying.  It was a drastic change, but Jason was willing to share with me how it worked for him in the morning.  I can’t say enough about how great it’s been to race with Jason over the past couple of seasons.  Our goals are to 1) win races 2) beat each other, in that order, but when it comes to sharing data, we’ve both had very open communication.  We want to battle each other on an equal footing, and also realize that with identical equipment we can split testing and learn faster together.  In this case, I liked what I heard, discussed with Chris, and made the change on my bike.

With brakes, the suspension change and a better tire, things all started falling into place.  We immediately dropped down to consistent 1:56’s on the 2nd lap.  Not earth shattering, certainly, but the bike suddenly felt like something I could push much harder.  A red flag brought the 4th session to an early halt, so I planned to use the tag team race as a bit more practice on this new setup.

The tag team event was a total blast.  A Le Mans start is something else.  If you’ve never tried to sprint in full leathers, all I can tell you is 40 ft. is a LONG way, and you get to look pretty ridiculous in the pics later on.  I got a pretty miserable start, but made up spots in the first turns and tried to head after the leaders.  However, I found myself fighting rear end grip, and could only manage 1:57‘s.  When I pulled in after 30 min and handed the arm band off to Jason, I found my thunderhill special hard rear tire was over-inflated.  Well, not exactly the practice I wanted, but definitely some laps dealing with rear slides.

Jason put in some solid laps in the 1:55’s, and brought it home for a 1st in the middleweight class.  After so much time battling each other, it was pretty cool to be able to race as a team and win together.

Sunday morning warmup on the same hard race tire, at a reasonable pressure, didn’t yield anything better than a 1:56 again, so I knew I’d have to really step up my game in a hurry, and trust the grip out of a fresh soft compound rear.

Race 1: Formula 1
Starting from pole, with Berto and Gabe to my right, I knew I’d have my hands full.  They’d both run 1-2 seconds faster in practice all weekend long, and weren’t far behind in the points.  A first attempt to start the race halted with a red flag after a bad crash on the starting grid.  With Gabe unable to get his bike back out for the restart, my main competition was Berto, with Lenny starting from the 3rd row… racing out of the championship points, just to have fun.

Getting the holeshot put me in the lead early, but Berto wasn’t having any of it, and came charging around me in the middle of turn 3 on lap 2.  Closing back in on the back straight, I grabbed the lead back on the brakes into 14 and led up the front straight.

Berto wasn’t having any of it, and passed me back in turn 3 in an instant replay of the previous maneuver.  Seriously?  Do I go that slowly through turn 3?!?!?  My next attempt to pass on the brakes into 14 came up just a bit short, and Berto slammed the door shut to keep the lead.  I managed to get by him a lap later, but as we came into 3 for the last time, the guy served me one more time, passing me like I was tied to a post.  A little bobble in 7 opened the gap a bit, and I found myself too far away to retry the pass on the brakes into 14.  Berto took a ridiculously inside line to protect anyway, so I lined up on the outside to wind up to draft up the front straight.  I didn’t time the 2nd apex right at all and found myself heading up the straight just outside of Berto’s draft with zero tow, and a checkered flag ahead.  He took the win by 1/10th of a second, and dented my lead in the championship by a few points.  With Gabe bringing in no points this round, it’s shaping up to be a battle between Berto and me.  Can’t wait for the rematch next month.

The best laptime from this race was a mid 1:53, matching my best at thunderhill from last year.  Not bad for being in the 1:58’s the previous morning, but definitely off the pace I knew we’d see from Lenny in the 600 races.

Race 2 – 600 Production

Sitting 3rd in the points in this class, behind Berto, I wanted to finish ahead of him, and redeem myself in turn 3.  That lasted for a whole 2 laps.  After an ok start behind Lenny and Tyler, I couldn’t get myself out of the 1:55s, and found myself passed by Jason, then Berto.  Tyler Oghe came by on lap 4, but crashed out shortly after, leaving me to finish in 5th.  Certainly not what I was looking for.  The SC1 I’d used in the previous race had definitely lost a bit of its grip, but I knew I was giving away time in 3 and 5 in a bad way.

Race 3 – 750 Superbike

2nd in points in this class, I planned to focus on holding onto Lenny for as long as possible, learn what I could, and at least finish in 2nd.  Things didn’t quite go that way, as Lenny never took off, and instead hung out right in front of me for a lap.  Expecting him to take off, I didn’t force the pass, and chose to hang back and learn instead.  Kevin Nekimken didn’t wait, and drafted us both up the front straight.  Not expecting him to gap us, I didn’t force the issue with Lenny, and hung on his back wheel, waiting for him to bring us both back to Kevin just before he inevitably stretched out the lead.  Big mistake.  Lenny hung around long enough for Jason to catch up to us before bugging out on the 4th lap to reel in Kevin for the win.  All too soon, I found myself with Kevin just out of reach, Jason passing me, and the checkers ahead.  A drafting move on Jason didn’t pan out and I finished 4/1000’s of a second behind him for a very disappointing 4th.  This race was a hard lesson in never assuming anything about your competitors.  How and when they choose to go fast, and for what reasons, has nothing to do with my race.  We’re sprint racing, and if I’m not within a second of the leader, there’s no reason to hold back.

Race 4 – 600 Superbike

After blowing up my motor last round, I was starting 8th overall, with not much to gain from this race, if I didn‘t finish on the box.  A good start put me into 4th by turn 3, behind Lenny, Tyler and Jason.  As Lenny and Tyler started to stretch things out, Jason started slowly creeping away too.  After a couple of laps of this, I finally decided to stop pushing and just focus on turns 3, 5 and the exit of 11, which were all giving me problems for various reasons.  As Tyler Oghe came past me to take over 4th, I used him as a gauge for improvement in my problem corners, and just focused on smooth laps without errors.  I finished in 5th, and actually pulled Jason in a bit at the end.  Looking at my laptimes afterward, I’d dropped back into the 53’s for the first time since the first race of the day, with the least energy, and the worst tires of the day.

Leaving this weekend, I feel like we’re on our way toward a really good setup for this bike, and I’m armed with some really good things to practice in certain corners.  A few minor riding and suspension adjustments, and I think we’ll be consistently a second or two faster next round.

Thank you Chris Maguire for your stellar tire support this weekend, Chris V for massaging my brakes back to life, tweaking suspension, and everything else you do.  Thanks Tom, Mikey, Kyle, Sam, Jason and everyone else who helped make this weekend happen.

Thanks Z2, Yamaha, David at Fast Bike Industries, CT Racing Pirelli, Leo Vince, Yamalube, Motion Pro, Race Image Graphics, Helimot, Suomy, Factory Body Works, Igartua, 4theriders, Sidi, Tech Spec, Ink Monkey, GP Frame & Wheel, CRG, Mach 1.