Author: sam

Round two of the ASRA Team Challenge is here. Again the plan is to come out with a podium spot all while finishing the race. But first we have to make it through the other festivities. The weekend started on Thursday meeting John at his church to make the haul down to Kershaw, South Carolina. I opted out of Friday practice because you know, we’re talking about practice? I did some light work on the Team Challenge machine and the Superbike. Saturday morning would be my first session on the new superbike. While the motor was very strong the suspension was absolutely horrible. By far the worst set up Sv650 I had ever ridden. Made some drastic changes in the forks and it did help in P2 but it was still very far off. I raced the bike as is anyway. In both Ultralight Superbike and Thunderbike I nabbed the hole shot but with the bikes set up could not manage to run the pace. Finished 5th and 4th in those races. Days later I may have found out why the bike was so off, the preview owner or builder had installed lowering links.

Some Ultralight SBK action

The main focus was still the Team Challenge. Slapped some new Pirelli SC2 slicks and new Vesrah SRJL-XX brake pads on the endurance bike and Will went out for practice. Claimed the bike was perfect. So it’s time for the show.The grid was very light for the Team Challenge for our class, only 4 bikes. Team Mavros and Ducati Depot are in the show with their 1100 Ducati Hybrids so it was going to be a tough race to beat those guys. We fill the gas tank to the brim (6+ gallons) and head out for the race. I had not thrown a leg over the bike during the weekend until this point. During the warm up lap I felt something with the bike, something very very good. The motor was much stronger now then it was at Roebling. It was finally fully broken in and running silky smooth. The suspension was absolutely spot on. This is exactly how I wish the superbike would be. The flag dropped and once again my start was on point. I passed more than half the overall grid going into turn one exiting around 7th place (out of 20). Coming out of turn 5 onto the downhill straight Greg Melka on the Ducati passed me but when I saw him I knew I was ready to run his pace. The bike felt so unbelievable underneath me it almost felt easy to follow Greg. For a couple laps I was on his rear wheel doing 1:40 lap times which is over 3 seconds faster than my personal best at CMP. My best was a 1:40.701 which was the best lap time by any SV through the entire weekend. To make it feel even better (yea i’m gloating) this was done on pump 93 (the other top SV’s running MR12) with 6 gallons of gas in the tank.

We caught up to a middleweight machine and Greg manage to pass him and I got caught up. At this point I decided to back down the pace to a more acceptable level considering I still had to do 30 more laps. Around lap 22 I passed Greg back. But there’s a catch, he was sitting along the side of the track. This “pass” put us in the number one position. Around this time Seth Starnes had mounted the Mavros Ducati and was doing 2-3 seconds faster a lap than I was. I did 1:44’s for just about every single lap I was out there. There was a stretch of 15 or so laps where my right hand was very cramped and had to keep shaking it to help with the arm pump. It was a huge surprise that my lap times stayed as low as the 1:44’s considering those were my sprint times. I pitted in on lap 34. We had a near perfect pit stop and Will was on his way. Except for 1 or 2 laps he did 1:47’s for the remainder of the race. We crossed the line in second place. While it was great to get second place, it was basically handed to us with the DNF by Ducati Depot. We remain 2nd in points and Mavros extends his points lead by 5.

My teammate (Will Finnerty) and I made the decision late 2014 to compete in the entire 2015 ASRA Team Challenge series. The time has finally come to begin on this journey. First stop is Roebling Road Raceway which neither Will or I have ever been. So we made the trip down a day early to do a practice day. Along with Todd and Tony, we left Wednesday night to escape the snow. Arriving into beautiful Savannah on Thursday, we were greeted with amazing 80 degree weather. In 18 short hours we were at the race track Friday morning but not greeted by 80 degree weather. It was low 30’s like we had never left the north east. The cold winter had killed my battery so we had to jump the bike from Tony’s truck battery each session. Luckily Tony owns a Buell and having an extra source of juice to power up those thundering beast is a must. Eventually a new battery was purchased as we cannot have a dead battery for the Team Challenge.

Weather was looking up for Saturday and with the addition of Chai, Ben, and some other friends it was bound to be a good day. After noon it was 65 and sunny. First sprint up on the chopping block was Ultralight Superbike. This is always one of the best races and it started off great. First 4 laps was quite the battle and then the rear tire kept slipping. I knew the tire was in bad shape but couldn’t have been that bad. I decided to back off so I slipped from battling for 1st place back to 7th. Came back in and checked pressure…. yea.. I pulled the ultimate novice move. Didn’t check rear tire pressure. It was sitting at 45psi, about 23lbs too high. Time for redemption in Thunderbike. Horrible start and then it happened. I couldn’t downshift coming into turn 1. I was stuck in 6th gear and limped it through the race. I managed to catch 3rd place but crossed the line in 5th with 4th and 3rd within half a second.

The sprints weren’t the purpose of this weekend, it was all about the team challenge. So now I had to get to work sorting the clutch issue. Ripped the side cover off, took the plates, lathered them in oil, put them back in, and that pretty much seemed to fix the issue. Only question is why did it stop disengaging and would it make it through the team challenge race.

Bike makes it through practice no issues. So now it’s time for the show, 2 hour team challenge race. One of my main concerns before the race started was a slight issue with the overflow vent with the gas tank. It this came into play right away. I got a good start and passed quite a few middleweight machines. I had a few fantastic laps battling with Tommy Wilson who was riding an R6. I passed him around outside of turn 8 and felt his front wheel try to take my leg off. At this point I started to pay attention to the overflow. The long hose and over flow can quickly got filled up. I had to put in early on lap 13. We crimped the hose and sent Will on his way. Will was putting in some amazing laps and got us back in contention. We had lost 2 laps on the early pit stop. Then with absolute perfect timing as Will was pitting in the race got a red flag. This saved us from having to do another pit stop. 2nd row for the restart, I just put my head down and tried to do solid laps till the end and hope for a 3rd place. Turns out that red flag wasn’t the only lucky event to take place. The class leading Ducati ran into some mechanical issues and had to fall out of the race around lap 38. I got the good news that we had finished in 2nd. This was a big step in the right direction compared to last years disastrous first round at CMP. Congrats to my good friends Ben and Todd finishing third and Mike coming in 4th. Bike needs some adjustments but will be ready for CMP in a month.

Well this was just a disaster of a race day. After only 2 hours of sleep I had to wake up at 4 am to pack up to leave by 4:30. 1.5 hours later, in record time, I was on the off ramp into Millville. There was a dump and I could hear something start to drag from the trailer. Quickly pulled over only to find my gas can dumping special fuel all over the road but that’s not where it ends. Fuel had gotten on the rear tire and melted the rubber which means I now have to purchase one, not in the budget. Needless to say, this did not put me in a good mood. Arrived to the track at 6:30, slowly everyone got up from the alcohol induced slumbers. Dunlop was open early, tire on, ready to go. Practice went well, had some fun with McGlade.

Supertwins was up first. Race #1 of 4 and it was a good one. Hoffman and myself battled every lap, back and forth. Clicking off 1:32s with ease, never riding out side of my comfort zone. Hoffman put a pass on me on the last lap but I knew if I could come around the last turn on his rear wheel I could draft him for the win. Everything was going according to plan until the front end decided to give out. Low sided with 2 corners to go.

Check back soon for write up. I’ve been slacking. Sorry Ben.

Results
Ultralight SBK – 3rd
Thunderbike – 2nd
Team Challenge Endurance – 4th
Supertwins – 3rd
Lightweight SBK – 8th

Will saying “I love you” right before my stint.

Busy weekend. 5 sprints and the Team Challenge, except that’s not where the weekend begins. Let’s rewind to the prior weekend where some discomfort starts to show up in my left flank (kidney area) while working on the bike. This goes on for the entire week and gets worse on Friday before it’s time to leave for NJMP. At this point, I assume it’s a kidney stone. Since everything is already packed I thought it would be a good idea to go to the E.R. just to make sure it’s what it appears to be. After couple hours in there I get the news that there is no infection and it’s a large kidney stone (1/4″) that is stuck. That is the information I needed to hear to send me on my way to Jersey. They wanted to hook up i.v. for pain relief but opted out as Jersey is a 2 hour drive and this time it was a 4 hour drive due to some traffic in the Philadelphia area. It was all worth it as I see the nice welcoming crew waiting at Jersey.

Ben says I need a photo of the ER wrist band for the next “Am I a Racer?” post.

Goals for the weekend were very simple. #1: Continue the moment from Summit and improve on lap times. #2: Finish the Team Challenge. Both were very met with flying colors.

Saturday’s racing couldn’t have gone much better. My previous best lap time was a 1:34 flat and in the GTL almost every single lap was a 1:33! The last lap however was not a 1:33, it was a 1:32 and did this get me excited. 7th out of 15 riders was pretty good for my short expert career so far. Next up was the Ultra-light Superbike race, again this couldn’t have gone much better. Got the holeshot and lead the first lap. Bart passed me on the front straight before the line but from there the race was on. Great battle with Bart, Hoffman, and McGlade. I finished the race almost touching Bart’s rear tire who was in 3rd place. This race was a gigantic confidence booster for me. I’ve never been able to keep up with those guys for 3 corners let a lone an entire race. Also another personal best lap time of a 1:31.789! I had back to back races, next was Supertwins. Here I battled with Eaton on his Ducati for 2nd place. Hoffman got away in the front but towards the end Mike and I started to real him in. Had another personal best in this race, 1:31.725.

Sunday started off with Lil Mazz testing the bike in practice. He said the bike was great everywhere but turn 2 which had some bad headshake so we were going to use McGlade’s damper which we got mounted up and then Markbilt shows up….starts making too many adjustments to the rear shock. I was worried with this as the bike was on rails Saturday and didn’t think anything needed to be adjusted. And I was right, the bike had major rear traction issues during the Team Challenge. Head shake gone but that is thanks to the second steering damper. Will started the the race and his goal (from me) was to be in the 1:35 range, possibly 1:34 range and he did it. Also threw in a 1:33 one lap. Our pit stops were a bit slow because of the slow dump can but we didn’t use much fuel. Mazziotto went out second with lap times ranging from 1:31 to 1:34. I went last and instantly almost highsided 3 corners in. Feet over rear tail. For the 18 or so laps out there it was scary. Rear traction was gone and it was very slippy. Still managed laps in 1:34-1:35 range. We were running in 3rd place when my stint started. We got lucky. 2nd place had some kind of radiator issue and had to DNF. We were 6-7 laps down from first but a 2nd place is more than alright in my book. Couldn’t be happier with the way Will and Anthony rode this bike that was lacking traction. I’m really kicking myself for letting Markbilt go near my bike, but live and learn.

Weekend Results
GTL – 7th
Ultralight-SBk – 4th
Supertwins – 3rd
Team Challenge – 2nd
Thunderbike – 5th
Lightweight SBK – 4th

Very happy to see the LWT Racer guys on the podium in #2 and #2 spot.

Katie snaps one during the TC

Fixing the gas cap before my stint in the Team Challenge.

Goal for the weekend, ride my own bike for every race. Mission accomplished. While it was a very up and down weekend with lap times and the bike. Overall everything went very well. Bike felt good, only needws to make a few clicks with the front forks. Power was down which I will look into but my friend Ben was able to pass down the straight at a good 10mph+ faster. This made it very difficult to get decent laptimes. Practice on saturday went decent turning 1:24 and 1:25 lap times on crap rear tire from 2010. The first race of the day did not go well either. Way off the pace, loosing focus. After this my spirit was pretty low but that would all change later. Next up was the Ultra-light SBK race which was very fun. Ben and I had a great race together but he edged me out in the end (damn his new fast bike). Ben rode fantastic, very happy for him and his new personal best laptimes. Something special had to happen in Thunderbike to save the weekend and it did. While the end result wasn’t the best, the race was great and the ride was good. I was able to catch up to Rob on his Ducati the last lap and pass him on the outside of turn 8. Even tho he motored me and finished it front of me, I knew there had to be a good lap time in there and there it was, a high 1:22. In no way shape or form did I expect to hit a 1:22 with this weekend running this dud of a motor. But it happened and it lifted my spirits for Sunday.

Sunday for the first 8 hours was a whole lot of nothing. Practice was about the same but there was a gigantic gap between practice and the first race, Thunderbike. Thunderbike went very well. I was stalking Jason Zelibor for most of the race in which allowed me to string together 5 laps in the 1:22’s. Fastest of a 1:22.4 which is a personal best by .5 a second. Finish in third a couple seconds behind Jason. But this race was boring compared to the race to come, Ultra-light Superbike. By far the best race I’ve ever had the privilege of entering. Wheel to Wheel for all 7 laps. 2nd through 6th place were attached. Swapping positions every lap, almost every corner. I went from 2nd, to 5th and everywhere else. You could throw a blanket over the bunch of us. I ended in 4th place at the line directly behind Mark Every who was on the rear wheel of 2nd place.

Saturday Results
Thunderbike : 5th
UltraLight SBK: 6th
Lightweight SBK: 8th

Sunday
Thunderbike : 3rd
UltraLight SBK: 4th
Lightweight SBK: 5th

Just like New Jersey, the weekend with my bike was over with in the first lap of practice. Since Saturday was a practice day this gave me all day to get something figured out. There was no fuel being sprayed. Bike was turning over, fuel pump was priming, just no fuel spraying through the injectors. Once again friends stepped up and lended me some bikes to ride. Wayne, who was back after a 2 year hiatus, took a session off and let me ride his. A bit later in the day I found myself once again on Chai’s SV. Track time is track time.

Sunday morning rolls around and I still have no bike to race. Brian rolls in with 2 SVs, one being the bike I rode at New Jersey. In practice he was kind enough to let me ride his superstock bike which was a great learning experience as the suspension set up was very different from any SV i’ve ridden before.

The only race to do on Sunday was Thunderbike. This I would pilot Wayne’s bike in. Managed a couple low 24’s but this was only good enough 9th place. There was a group of 4 riders in front of me that I managed to keep in my sights but unwilling to go any faster on Wayne’s machine.

Monday, no bike to practice on. Chai’s bike would be the bike for the Ultra-light superbike race. The front suspension felt like a jack hammer in a few corners and 11th out of 13 riders is the best I could manage. Can’t thank Chai and Wayne enough for letting me race their bikes.

The weekend started off a bit sour. First practice, second lap, motor died. Start tearing everything off bike to see what happened. Rear exhaust valve bent. Thought the weekend was over for me but some good friends stepped up and found/got me bikes to ride. First up was Chai. Second practice he went out and did a couple laps then came into hot pit where I would mount up and give his SV650 a try. It was very noticeable that his bike could use some help in the handling department. Back at the pits, after talking with Chai and measuring his suspension, we added 3/4″ to the rear shock which is quite a bit. AFter Chai came back from his first race (GTL) it was clear he as happy about the change. I took it out then in Thunderbike and wow what a huge difference. The bike could now hold a line, didn’t have to fight to keep it leaned over, and the exiting was loads better. The bike and myself were able to pull off a 7th place finish. Next and last race of the day for us was the Ultralight superbike race which Chai was in. This is where Vadim’s SV650 came into play. Never rode the bike but got out there. This race did not go near as well as the Thunderbike. I think after it was over some good steps could now be made by Vadim to improve his bike. The suspension was very stiff and the clutch was almost impossible to pull in. During the day I had given Brian my airbox and Power Commander so he could get his newly imported SV650 from Ireland running. The bike gets running which will come in handy for me on Sunday.

Brian decides he didn’t want to ride the new bike and stick with his SS bike. I was able to ride this machine in practice and in the Supertwins race. Altho it was sprung way too heavy for me the bike handled amazing. It did lack some speed up top but still an extremely fun bike to ride. I got the holeshot and lead the first lap of the Supertwins race before getting passed by a Ducati 1199. The next lap by another SV and then finished the race in that order. With some more time on that bike and softer springs, I believe I could have beat my personal best time.

Thunderbike – 7th
Supertwins – 3rd
Ultralight SBK – 11th