Willow Springs, Ca
09/13/96 - 09/15/96

Tech Info (09/13/96)

Tech Info (09/14/96)

Tech Info (09/15/96)

Friday 09/13/96 (Fastrack Riders Practice):

The new suspension and frame work made the bike so much easier to ride. It's more planted, less dive on the brakes. The headshake problem has been greatly reduced. The front-down stance makes hanging off much easier. Follows bumps much better. Michael & Morris at GMD Computrack LA did a fantastic job!

The practice sessions were packed today. Lots of traffic, lots of hot-dogs. Spent most of my time chasing the same two or three riders around, working on passing strategies (thinking more than doing).

Now that we've got most of the headshake problems taken care of, the problem of shifting has reared its ugly head. Shifting into 6th is tough and takes a real yank on the lever. I pulled a few false neutrals downshifting into T9 (talk about a thrill). I don't know yet if it's me or the bike.

Tried running faster into T3/T4 without downshifting to 3rd, but I couldn't maintain the drive up and around T4 & slowed my run down the hill to T5. I'll stick with 3rd gear through here.

Although I'm getting faster thru T8, I'm not comfortable yet entering at full throttle. Until I get there, I started accelerating on the straight before T9 instead of hanging loose waiting for T9 to get there.

Met Tony Silvra (#556) today. Here's a fast guy on the move. Tony had a few tips to try:

T2
Stay wide to the outside (double apex) and run the straight between T2/T3 on the right side. Sweep to the inside of T3 for passing.

T8/9
Stay to the outside edge until 'you see the track disappear' and dive for T9.

T1 entrance & passing
Draft behind and to the right, pass when the rider hits the brakes, sweep T1 on the outside.

I ran more sessions and more laps today than ever before. I guess my meager exercise routines are starting to pay off. I've been climbing the stairs in my backyard daily for the past couple of months, but hadn't been doing anything for my upper body. I started with the simple stuff - pull-ups, push-ups and for my forearms, a 5-lbs wieght tied to a wooden dowel (imagine a 5lbs spring on your throttle, you'll get the idea). I lasted every session this month.

Running more laps created a problem I hadn't encountered before. I was coming around T9 and the bike started sputtering above 6K. If I kept it below 6K I was alright. I thought I had an electrical problem and limped my way around the track and back to the pit. I checked all the obvious things first, but didn't find anything wrong. The bike restarted fine and would rev as high as I wanted. Then it dawned on me to check the tank - yep, almost no gas left. Duh!

Rattlesnakes and racing don't go together! I came around T4 and found one laying on the track. The two choices were to steer the turn tighter and miss, or straighten up and run it over. Sorry Mr. Rattlesnake, I took the straight route. The guy in front of me hit the snake at full-tilt and low-sided off the track. By the time I came around again, there were snake parts all over the track.

Saturday 09/14/96 (WSMC Practice):

The motel goofed and gave us a wake-up call at 7am instead of the usual 5am. We got to the track at 8:30, missing the first session of the day, but I had more energy and was in better spirits because of the later start. Think we'll start getting up at 7am from now on!

Played park 'n ride all day long, again. I'd work my way through the slower guys and end up following one or two bikes around and around and around. They'd be just a bit slower than me, but I lacked the passing bravado to get by cleanly. I saw plenty of opportune lines to get around, so I just filed that info away until I pick my speed up more.

Danna (#697) relayed a trick she likes to use - draft down the front straight on the left, hold off braking until the guy in front brakes, zip by on the inside of T1. Watch your 9 guys.

Had one helluva tank slapper coming over the top of T6 early in the day. I've experienced a few minor ones before (T3/T4 transition), but nothing like this. The bars were moving so fast from side to side that I had to let go. I gripped the tank w/my knees while the deceleration pushed me up over the bike, staring straight down at the track. The front end came up off the ground between each slap - sounded like a 747 bouncing down a runway. Everything was dead quiet and the only thought going though my head was 'Man, this is going to hurt'.

The tank slapper lasted half-way down to the kink of T7, then as quick as it hit, it stopped. I sat back down and grabbed the bars. I was pointed off the outside of the track, amazed that I wasn't laying on my head, so I let it go off into the dirt & rode alongside the track, past some clapping corner workers (guess they expected me to land on my head too). I pulled back onto the track after T7, rolled into the pits and changed my shorts.

Best as I can recollect, I must have pulled the front end up going over T6, while transitioning from a right lean to straight up, but didn't let the front end follow the angle of the rest of the bike. As the front end touched down (pointed to the right), the slapper took over. Wish I could say it was skill & grace that saved my butt, but it was pure dumb luck. T6 dogged me the rest of the weekend.

Sunday 09/15/96 (WSMC Race Day):

I noticed that the leading edge of each tread section was starting to rise higher than the trailing edge of the section in front of it - mostly on the back tire. I pulled the bike over to the Dunlop trailer, but they said it was normal and not to worry about it. I've yet to experience any slides on these 364s, so I didn't sweat it.

The head shake monster came back a bit more when the front end gets light driving out of the turns. The T6 tank slapper from yesterday still had me a bit spooked too. I talked to Michael at the Computrack booth after the last practice session & asked his advice. Morris came over to our pit before the race and made some adjustments to the suspension:

I ran this setup for the race, but to be honest, I really couldn't tell if it made a difference or not. Guess I'll wait until next month to give it a good workout. The rear spring preload was measured from the first thread on the top of the Penske shock to the top of the threaded spring retainer collar.

I don't remember where I was gridded for the race, but I got a decent start and ran the first three laps in 9th place. This was the first month that I began using a 'drag race' type start - rev to 10k, slip / feather the clutch. I left the line fine, but lost some momentum heading down to T1. I need to get in the habit of leaving the throttle pinned all the way through T1 on starts - the speed isn't near as fast as a full run down the straight from T9.

I started running backwards on the fourth lap, getting passed out on T8. Watching the video that evening, I could see that I held my own everywhere else, but wasn't running fast enough through T8/T9.

I was also worn out by the fourth lap. My daily exercise routine helped a lot this month, but maybe I pushed it too hard on Friday and Saturday. By that fourth lap, my upper body muscles were limp pasta.

I finished the race 13th of 17 entries. Not my best run, lap times were down, but I kept it on two wheels & didn't finish last.

Work on for next month

Exercise more - I'm in the best physical shape since my high school days (which may not be saying much - I was a Band Geek in high school and a Computer Geek ever since!). I'll add some work w/free weights to build up my upper body more, and gear all the exercises towards building endurance.

Break the track up into specific sections and work on those sections until more proficient. Next month I'll work on these:

Bob 

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