AFM 103 – Greg McCullough

On Thursday, I picked up my new toy – a 17ft. Carson toy hauler.  I finally decided it was time to take the plunge and be more comfortable at the track.  After freezing and sweating my way through a few weekends last season, taking advantage of Jenn and Jason’s trailer frequently, it was really inevitable.  With lots more space to store gear, a full bathroom & kitchen, a real bed to sleep in – even with bikes loaded – it’ll make my 40+ days at the track this year much more comfortable and productive.  Quality sleep isn’t overrated.

This picture’s from today at Reno Fernley with ZoomZoom.  After towing over the hill late Friday night, I spent 2 days working on body position, mechanics and some suspension setup.  RFR has great flow, but the pavement’s pretty beat up, and we don’t race there.  So… it’s a low key  opportunity to focus on the basics, and take some time to help other riders with lines and mechanics, and above all, make sure that all this motorcycle madness is actually fun.

Backing up a bit…

I ran back down to Buttonwillow shortly after round 1, to teach at a trackday with TrackXperience. While there, I found some issues with the Graves rearsets on the bike, and realized I wasn’t comfortable with stability under braking.

Thursday, 4.10.08 – Trackday with PTT at Infineon.

My goals were to just get comfortable with the R6 at Infineon, while mostly focusing on braking. I picked up some Woodcraft rearsets that really helped with basic comfort, and started really pushing my braking markers in turns 7, 9 and 11. Then I lost the front in 11. I haven’t crashed myself out in almost 2 years. It messed with my head a bit, but I borrowed a brake lever from another rider, re-teched and made it out for another 2 sessions. That helped, but my brakes felt really unpredictable.

Friday, 4.25

I signed up for the Red Shift trackday at Infineon with Jason, to see if I could work out my comfort issues. With a bunch of tech spec grip added to my tank, I set off to see if I couldn’t stabilize my body on the bike under braking, minimize handlebar inputs and gain some confidence. In 2 sessions, it was obvious that my brakes were simply not working right.  They were fading in and out when I really got on the hard.  No bueno.

The previous owner said the bike had a fresh set of Ferrodo pads, so I was surprised to be having issues. With only 1 option at the track, I visited the Galfer guys who were there, bead blasted my rotors at their tent, and slapped on some of their steel pads. In the process however, I discovered that the pads that were previously in my bike looked distinctly like OEM pads – marked as Sumitomo. I’m just going to assume the previous owner just slapped them in there before sale by mistake, and blame myself for not checking earlier.  Anyway, the Galfers were a massive improvement over the brake fade I was experiencing, but not as good as the Vesrahs I had on the SV last season.

During the day, the best time I could clock was a 1:48, matching my best SV time from last year, but that’s it. 7 seconds off winner’s pace in 600s. Must go faster.

Saturday practice

I ran over to Alex and picked up some Vesrah SRJL pads early in the day. My god. Those things are awesome. Great feel, stopping power with very little effort – not much more you could ask for.

My best times for the day were in the 1:49 range, but I spent my time working on body position and lines, based on a track walk I did with Jason the previous night. Absolute lap times wouldn’t change Sunday’s races much, as I’d be starting near the back of the grid in 2 of 3 races, without points from Round 1, passing as many people as possible.

Sunday

600 superbike was my first race, right after lunch, gridded around the 14th row. I got a decent start, getting past a few rows going into turn 1, passing a couple guys each corner for the first few corners. Around lap 3, I ended up behind a bunch of about 5 guys, all nose to tail. I guess I’ve become a bit of a wus in the off-season. I didn’t make a serious move on anyone for a couple of laps, instead letting them make mistakes one by one, picking up a few more positions by the end of the race. Thanks to some dbcom glitch, race results scored me in 60th, but hopefully manual scoring reconciliation will sort that out before official results are posted in a few days. I’m guessing I finished in 20-25th position.

Formula 1 was my only race with points from Buttonwillow, and I was gridded a decent 14th (4th row), which gave me a good shot at finishing well. I got a good start, heading up into turn 2 around 8th place. I held pace for a lap or so, trying to reel in Blaise, but couldn’t maintain it and gave up a spot to someone else. 1 guy in front of me crashed out, giving me back 8th, but I found myself basically out of energy by lap 5. Lame. Just lame. I was over riding the bike and wiping myself out, and not going all that fast in the process. Brian Esslinger took advantage of that and passed me, gapping me out a bit before the finish. 9th place. A top 10 isn’t bad, but I wasn’t happy with how I rode. It should be easy to clock a good pace for 8 solid laps without gassing.

Race 3 – 600 production

With only a 1 race break to reconsider my approach, I decided to focus on getting a good start, enjoy having a good ride, and continually remind myself to stay comfortable. It generally seemed to work. I started in 54th position, got a good jump up the outside, past 5 rows or so. I tried to not over-ride, and just pick off riders each lap.   I forced myself to stop being a wus and make some solid block passes, and started really having fun at it.  Racing’s fun when you’re working your way forward in the field.  I ultimately finished in 17th, running 1:47 flats, matching my pace from the previous race, but more consistently throughout, without running out of energy.

This weekend was progress. Not as much as I’d like, but not bad, given the brake issues. I wanted to finish somewhat respectably in each race, so I’d have points for next round. Most importantly, I wanted to learn and improve each day, which I feel I did, in a few small ways each day.

I can’t wait for the May 7th Zoom Zoom day at Infineon. It’ll be a great chance to go ride with Blaise and Jason and really disect the track better, now that my brakes work and I’m getting more comfortable on the bike.

I’m rather behind the times with posting, so here’s a little catch-up.

T-hill open trackday with KneeRiders.com – 3/18

Brian Davis (www.motoshoes.com) hooked me up with new Pirellis over the weekeend. I picked up my forks from Phil on Monday afternoon, refreshed and sporting 5mm of extra spacer to give me some preload adjustment, and headed for the track that evening with my brother. Aside from my specific goals for the day, I was looking forward to my brother’s first trackday, on my SV, and the inaugural kneeriders.com trackday.

My brother did great, picking up the lines and the pace despite being buzzed by faster traffic in the open format track day. All this, while fighting a pretty bad cold. A little discussion between sessions:

After a few sessions with Dave, I focused on my front end complaints early, expecting to spend the day making setup changes like crazy. However, after studying my braking in isolation on specific turns, I found that the bike was just fine, and I just hadn’t been very smooth in my application of the brakes down at Buttonwillow last time. The rear end stayed down just fine as long as I didn’t stab the brakes too hard at first.

I spent the rest of the day focusing on braking, mixing in some play time with Brian Esslinger and Jeff Gagne on their R6’s, and a bunch of other folks who showed up to the day. I was happy to see my lap times comfortably drop down to a 1:58.5, 2.5 seconds off my previous T-hill best, and the first time I’d broken a 2:00 on any bike. Front runners are running around 53’s, but dropping a couple seconds in one trackday is always a good thing.

All in all a great day… until I found myself coming down with my brother’s cold that evening. Crap… another first round at buttonwillow while sick? 2007 instant replay. Vitamin C and echinacea in massive quantities. Gotta beat this thing.

Race weekend

I showed up on Thursday night to take advantage of the Friday practice. We always get a bunch more tracktime there than we do on Saturday when the rest of the racers show up. My goals were pretty simple… focus on riverside to the horseshoe (the fastest section of the track) and figure out how to be on the gas longer through there. I did get that worked out a bit, dropping down to 1:56 flats, before my rear tire started moving a lot. I called it a day around 3:30 and had the Pirelli guys throw on a new tire, despite the previous tire looking pretty far from worn out.

While we were getting new rubber, Josh at the Pirelli tent ran through some tire pressures with Jason and I, telling us to forget cold pressure and work only from some new hot pressures he provided for us. That made a lot of sense to me, since setting cold pressure early in the morning seemed like a goofy dart throw, since the resultant pressure once the tires warmed up on track would be significantly affected by small variances in the ambient temperature when pressure was originally set. It’s something I should have focused on earlier, but at least it was good to get that guidance with a day of practice left.

Saturday practice wasn’t wonderfully useful in terms of lap times… not doing better than a 1:56.5. However, the back end of the bike settled down great with the new tire set to Josh’s hot pressures. Good stuff. Confidence in the setup is always good.

The cold didn’t seem to be getting any better… and I lost my voice that evening. I figured that was a good sign though, since I usually lose my voice just before I get over a cold. Hoping to wake up clear headed and well Sunday morning, I went to sleep early. This time, I borrowed a portable heater for the car and hooked it up to my generator, since I’d woken up the previous two nights in the wee hours, too cold to sleep. Probably not a good thing for trying to get well.

Sunday morning. I felt worse. Quite a bit worse. Light headed and nauseous. After some breakfast and coffee, I headed out for morning practice. Gotta find a rhythm I can work with for the day. After 1 lap I knew I was in trouble. I hurt, all over, and was losing feeling in my toes and fingers. I pulled in after 4 laps, parked the bike, and stumbled to the car feeling like I was about to pass out. The weather had warmed up to 70+ already, but I was freezing. I huddled in the car under all the blankets I had and shivered uncontrollably. WTF? After an hour or so, I felt a little better – enough to be able to sit upright without puking or passing out. I heard my first race start without me. That’s a sucky feeling. Lunchtime came, and I ate some food and took some Aleve in hopes of stablizing my head a bit. It did, a bit, and I suited up for race 7 early in the afternoon. Red Bull. More Aleve. Take the warm up lap, and see how it goes.

Jeezuz. Having been slightly delirious all morning, it was weird being back on track. However, feeling was 100% in my fingers and toes and I was feeling coordinated enough to not be a safety risk to anyone.

Formula I. Grided 49th – dead last. Given my current state of mind, I wasn’t going to be able to get too aggressive with the start, but I needed to get a lot of passing done in the first lap if I was going to pick up spots.

Green flag. I headed for the outside edge but got blocked off by someone in the row in front of me. Only passed about 5 guys in the first hundred feet. Headed for a gap up the middle as we headed into turn 1. Snuck by another row or two and drifted wide heading into 2. Stuck it up the inside of 2 more guys and tried to get a drive heading into cotton corners. Went up the inside, way inside, of about 3 guys, all trying to out brake each other. Got all but 1, and held off on passing anyone else until riverside. In the next lap and a half, I made a pass every couple corners. I remember going passed Brian Esslinger onto the front straight, then Trogdor exiting riverside, while chasing Ryan Teixeira through traffic. He’s a quick guy and started at the back of the grid with me this round. Always fun to have a rabbit.

I ran out of steam on lap 3, and gave up the chase. Red bull got me to 18th position, but I was done. Thankfully, I was in a huge gap in the field. Nearly a front straight’s worth of gap in front and behind. I cruised around in some seriously ugly form. Checkered flag came mercifully soon, and I finished with the same gaps front and back. 18th should result in a halfway decent start for Sears Point.

That was it for the weekend. I skipped 600 Superbike, with zero energy left to get it done, watched some of the other races, packed it in and headed home.

As I drove home, feeling better than I had all day, I had a long time to consider the weekend. It was painful to have not really raced. Wandering around in Formula I slower than I ran in practice wasn’t really racing. I’m glad I went out and gave it all I had in me at that moment, but it doesn’t make the weekend feel much better.

26 days until Sears Point. Need to get a trackday or two in before then, and find some speed at that track. Running 6 seconds off the pace isn’t going to cut it.

Friday – Regularly scheduled day with ZoomZoom down at Buttonwillow.  Saturday – stuck around for a day with Keigwins.

Lesson of the weekend: Set out very specific tactical objectives for tracktime.

I went into the weekend with the goal of hitting 1:54’s and the plan to break down the track into a detailed, written analysis of braking markers, line variations into good passing corners, etc.  The laptime goal is working backwards from the KFG requirement of 3 seconds short of last year’s winner’s best lap to be gridded in the 3rd or 4th row.  I’d rather not spend Round 1 running from 60th to 20th position in every race I enter.

In hindsight, that laptime goal is pointless, egotistical and distracting.  I will be as fast as I will be… the only thing that matters is working specifically on areas I can improve as effectively as possible.

The problem with my over-ambitious strategy of breaking the whole track down corner by corner is two-fold.  A)  I’m still trying to adjust to the new bike geometry and pace, so I’m still distracted by unexpected things the bike tells me.  B)  I didn’t approach it one corner at a time.  I effectively ended up just running laps, and making a cursory mental analysis of the whole track at lunchtime, when I had a convenient segment of time to walk the track in my head.  Not very effective for much of anything.

My 1:57’s for the weekend were definitely not what I wanted, but I did learn a few things… I think.  I can’t run a rear Pirelli anywhere near as long as I did the Michelins on the SV.  It’s rather obvious, but not having enough grip for 120hp is a much bigger deal than not having grip for 80hp.  My tire budget for the year just went up.  Second, and this is only in hindsight, since I didn’t have a gameplan for suspension testing this weekend…  I’m 90% sure I need firmer fork springs.  Basic sag puts me at the end of the sag adjustment.  I was having a very hard time keeping the rear end down under relatively light braking, and the zip tie was always down at the fork bottom when I checked.  I assumed that was due to the wheelie hill at the track, but thinking more about that braking behavior (worse than the SV), I suspect the front end is just bottoming out.  Hence, I need firmer springs.

Next up – 1) Tracking down some springs asap.  2)  Get signed up for the open trackday at T-hill on the 18th.  3) Get new tires.

Gameplan for that trackday:  Focus on corners 2 and 14.  Just those two all day.  Figure out just how deep I can get on the brakes.  Adjust fork settings until the front allows me to get on the brakes as hard as possible and still allows good feel trailbraking and mid-corner.  If there’s time, work on the rear end too, while the tire’s pretty fresh.  Try different preload settings, adjusting rebound accordingly.  No laptimer.  Maybe get someone to time me at the end of the day and measure cumulative improvement.

The off-season is over. It’s game time, baby.

I spent this weekend up at Thunderhill with ZoomZoom – one of many weekends I’ll be spending with them, since I’m a season pass holder this year. Among the convenience benefits, like getting tech inspection in your pit area, season pass holders get to ride A and B group all day long… twice the track time, at less than the regular price for the day (if you do the math for the whole year). Having that extra time is phenomenal. It totally removes pressure to “go faster” with each lap, and allows me time to coach other riders, play with body position, look at track surface characteristics, etc.

As Jason was betting, I never touched the SV. I got on the R6 and never stopped. I’m pretty sure I won’t be racing the SV at all this year, and it’ll probably be up for sale in May. Why? A) the R6 is way more fun, period. It’s great really having some power to play with. It’s only my ability that keeps me from chasing and catching nearly anyone on the track. B) The power delivery is so different on the two bikes that I’d be chasing my tail trying to develop my abilities/set up for a track on both bikes in parallel. Too many different things to manage. I’ll learn way faster on one.

I spent most of Saturday just trying to get used to the much higher corner approach speeds, and discovered some weird body position stuff. Apparently, I moved very differently for right hand turns vs. left hand turns. It took until Sunday morning to generally sort that out, but it made everything much more comfortable, relaxed and in control the rest of the weekend.

I was hoping to beat my best SV lap time around thunderhill by the end of Sunday (2:00.5), but I only managed 2:01’s. However, that was a very consistent, comfortable trackday lap time. Getting a new rear tire Sunday afternoon really helped… I was sliding around on the used tire that came on the bike, keeping me from getting on the gas early.

The best part of the weekend was just hangin out with the crew again. I’ve missed all my racing buddies and it was refreshing to dice it up on the track and BS in the pits over beer in the evenings.

This year might just be even more fun than last year.

Jason playing with Bailey.

http://picasaweb.google.com/greg.a.mccullough/NewBike?authkey=vCcWoP-ktlI.

I gave up on waiting for the weather to cooperate and took pictures in the garage after re-numbering the bike.

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and jumped in my car to drive 3.5 hours through torrential rain and wind to Buttonwillow.  Sounds like fun, huh?  Coming right back was even worse, with an extra hour due to flooding and accidents.  But in between, I picked up the new bike for next year – an ‘07 R6, previously raced by Scott Gilbert in WERA and AFM in ‘07.  He and his grandfather Joe were nice enough to drive up half way from Riverside to split the transportation effort.

The obligatory pictures will come along soon enough, but here’s a teaser pic from their classifieds listing:

It’s got all the goodies – Ohlins suspension and Graves exhaust, pegs, covers, etc.   Now, it’s time for me to figure out how to make it go.  Ok, well, in February at the first track day.  In between, I’ll fiddle with the suspension and change the stickers & numbers around.  What fun.

Here are a few pics Gator sent over from the weekend.

One of the best moments of the season – dousing Oliver with 5 gallons of cold water.  Had to congratulate the 2007 Top Novice properly.  Good season, coach.

A bunch of 2007 SV650 novices.  From left: me, Ricky,  Oliver, Christian (Gator), Jason and Jenn.

Buttonwillow backwards. Last race weekend of the season. My last races as a Novice.

I can’t help but think back to the beginning of the year; the first-time racer, struggling to figure basic AFM registration and tech processes. 8 race weekends later, I’m stunned by how much I’ve learned about myself, bikes, and racing; not to mention all of the good friendships that have developed. I can easily say it’s been one of the best times of my life.
I rolled into Buttonwillow Thursday night, to take advantage of the track-operated trackday on Friday. With no familiarity with the track, I needed the extra day to learn some lines, check out gearing, and try a new front tire I’d been given. By the end of the day, I think my best times were probably in the 2:05 range, based on some other folks I followed with laptimers. I didn’t bother to put mine on. I’ve realized that the timer just slows me down. Speed is a derivative of good lines, throttle control, braking, body position, and all the other little things you do in every corner on the track. Looking at the number each lap doesn’t tell you how to go faster. Listening to your bike and body every lap and watching others can tell you that.

Saturday practice started cold and windy, and the wind didn’t let up all day. It made some of the turns very interesting, especially the high speed Riverside turn (100mph+), with the wind pushing you wide. In hindsight, it was great practice, making it easier to rail through that turn on Sunday. My best times for the day were in the 2:03 range. I could only find a few 2:01s on other 650 twins riders timing sheets, so I knew I was in striking distance.

Sunday

Race 1: 600 Superbike

As my “optional” race, on a severely outclassed bike, I planned to use this primarily as starting practice, so see how many people I could get around by turn 1. Good starts have been the key to good finishes for me this year. Green flag. Starting in 54th position, the back of the pack seems to be nearly parked for the first couple turns. I dove for the inside line as fast as I could, throttle wide open nearly to the apex. Jason started in around 28th position, and although he picked up some spots on the start, he was only about 4 bikes away by turn 3. Grin. Starting from the back of the pack can be fun. Sadly, the race was red flagged for a crash 1 lap later. On the restart, my bike wouldn’t start for the warm up lap. I rolled it back to the pits to replace a spark plug holder and tighten down some other wiring. At least it wasn’t an important race, and I got my practice start.

Race 2: Formula IV

Second row start. I’ve done relatively well in this class throughout the year, and a few folks didn’t show up to this round, so I found myself in a great spot on the grid this time. Green flag. I got a good jump, diving into 4th or 5th position going into turn 1. In the next lap, I picked off Kevin Heiss, but was passed by Gator the lap following. A red flag shut the race down the lap following due to a 4 rider crash out in Club Corner.

On the restart, I got a bad jump, and found myself swallowed up by a few riders into turn 1. I have a pretty strong motor, so I expected to be able to get around some of these guys on the back straight, but Jay Kinberger proved me wrong. He’s got a rocket for a motor. I couldn’t reel him in until the slow technical parts of the track, and didn’t force a pass until Gator and Brian Harp came FLYING by both of us in 2 consecutive turns. Ok, screw this, time to go. A half a lap later, I found a good spot and got past Jay, but it was too late to get back in touch with the front runners. 4 relatively boring laps later, I finished in 7th. Not bad – matched my best performance to date – but I knew I could do better.

Race 3: 650 Twins

Due to the race schedule, we had a massive 4 hour break in between races, leaving me lots of time to ponder the game plan for this race. Due to my mediocre finishes in this race during the year, my grid position was 3rd row, right between Jason and Brian Harp, who both start pretty well. Not a good set of cards to work with here. Ok, well, I was pretty happy with the 7th place from the first race. This is the last race of the year. Time to just have fun, put my head down and go as fast as I can. These are 6 lap sprint races, after all.

Green flag. I nailed the start, jumping through 1 row instantly, and snaking up the inside to dive through turn 1 side-by-side with Jeff Hagan for a moment ( oh yeah! ), leaving only 3 riders ahead of me. As I ran through the Esses, I realized I was having no trouble keeping up, and in fact was off the throttle to avoid running up on them. As we get onto the back straight, none of them pull a gap. I guess my motor IS strong. This could be interesting. The next lap or two is a bit of a blur. I think I passed Bill Fox somewhere in lap 2, and find myself about 2 seconds behind Dan Sewell as we head onto the back straight on lap 3.

The back straight in the backwards configuration is called the drag strip for a reason. It’s forever long. On an SV, you tap out in 6th gear about 2/3rds of the way down it, just hanging out near the rev limiter, trying to make yourself very small on the tank and get that last mile an hour out of the bike. This gave me lots of time to think as I stared at Dan’s bike in lap 3. I was sitting in podium position for the first time, and would achieve my outside goal for the year if I finished like this. I was totally happy to finish right there. Ok, but that’s not the way racing works. I know that if I stopped pushing, I’d fall off pace and be swallowed up by the talented guys behind me. Remember the plan before the race. It’s the last race of the season. Let it all hang out. Ok. Dan, I’m going to chase your ass down and take second.

Bit by bit, I pulled in the gap. As we passed the white flag, I pulled parallel to Dan. He saw me and we both went diving into turn 1 way too deep trying to out-brake each other. My front end started pogo-ing as I hammered the brakes. Bam! Skip! Bam! Skip! I guess I could have used a little more pre-load on the front suspension. I overshoot the apex by at least 10 feet, but so does Dan, and I get the bike settled down and throw him a little wave to apologize for the hairball passing as I head into the Esses. 2nd place baby. I just need to keep it together for this lap.

As I come over wheelie hill heading into the last 6 turns of the track, I see Dan’s shadow behind me. I just need to keep a good pace on a protective line into turn 2 – the only good passing place before the finish line. As I come over the next hill, I see Jenn ahead. Oh crap. We’re going to lap her, and it looks like it’ll happen right as we head into turn 2. My plan for protecting the line is totally out the window. It’s going to be a free-for-all. I stay right on her rear tire on the entry to the turn, with Dan pulling up to my right. As Jenn turns left, I dive inside, thinking about sneaking in before the second apex of the double apex turn. Dammit, I can’t do it. It’s way too tight, and I didn’t carry enough momentum through the first apex. Dan was on the outside line, but as soon as I went in, he pulled right in behind Jenn, following her through the second apex. Crap, I painted myself into the corner here. I back off and let him through and focus on a good drive into the last turn.

We fly by Jenn on both sides, but I’m 2 bike lengths back from Dan going into the turn. Get on the gas! Get on it early and hard! Drive! Drive! Drive! Drifting wide, out towards the paint, I keep drifting, and I’m over the curbing with both wheels in the dirt. Oh crap. The front end goes into a big tank slapper, and I have visions of tossing myself onto the pavement 200 ft. from the checkered flag. The bike settles down and jumps back on the pavement. I get back on the gas, look back through my cloud of dust and see Gator’s too far back to close it up. Checkered flag. 3rd place. What a way to end the season.

I’m going to miss going racing every month with all the great folks I’ve met this season. It’s been a total blast, but the down time will be good too. I’ll probably be racing a 600 next year, but keep the SV around, now that it has a fresh strong engine and some new bits here and there. I love running with the 650 Twins crowd, so I’ll race as many of those as I can next year.

Until then, it’s time to get muddy on the dirt bike.

I put in the new shift star and spring (’05 model design) on Thursday.  While I was at it, I swapped in the shift shaft and “claw” from my blown spares motor.   Shifting on a stand in the garage didn’t tell me a whole lot.  The old Factory Pro shift star worked ok in a no load situation as well.  The ‘05 seemed a little more firm, but I’d have to test this on a track.

I headed up to Reno Friday afternoon to join Jason, Jenn, Ricky and the Zoom Zoom crowd for a trackday at Reno-Fernley.  Long drive, with snow at the top of Donner pass, but I’d never visited the track, and I needed an answer before I head for Willow Springs on the 15th.

The crowd was great, the weather was a bit brisk, and the transmission works!!!  That track is super-bumpy in spots, and has lots of leaned-over shifting going on.  If the transmission was going to act up, it should there, but NOTHING.  Not a single missed shift or false neutral all day.  As a reference point, Jason and Jenn’s bikes were bumping out of gear all over the track.  Jason’s ordering the ‘05 stars for both bikes this week.

Aside from some brake drag on the front wheel, which I’ll be fixing with caliper cleaning this week, the bike seems rock solid.  Here’s hoping it behaves itself through the end of the season.