Wow what a day!
Last month the opening round didn’t go so well for me. Because of everything that has been going on I waited until the last minute to start getting things ready. It seemed everything went wrong. I ended up with leaks on the air shifter that ended up causing me to screw up the regulator. I finally found a temporary replacement at 4:30 pm Friday before the Saturday race. Test and tune was rained out that night, so I went into it cold and hadn’t made a pass since last October.
My preparation showed, the bike was fine, but I sucked. I raced two classes. We are able to buy back in after a first round lost. So I lost in 4 efforts, 3 due to red lights. I left with 0 points for the meet.
I spent a bit more time working on my reaction times before this round. I went to the Test & Tune on Friday Night before the round. I get it out of the trailer and it will not start. I had just ridden it into the trailer 3 hours before. Off comes the seat, up with the tank, I start going over everything I had worked on the previous week looking for something I had had screwed up. I had just had the clutch safety switch apart 4 hours before, maybe that is it. Off with the side fairing, tail. Finally I decided to look at it like I had never seen or touched the bike before. What do you know, a blown ignition fuse.
Ok, I’m beyond stressed, I had better get it to tech. Later, I had a small problem with the autoshift changing the settings but everything else went well. I left the night close, but still no 9 second pass. Regardless, I was a bit more at ease for the next day. …… but what if it won’t start when I get it off the trailer.
The next morning I rolled it out of the trailer, I had looked at the logs from the previous night and saw where I could improve on the fueling. I made a few changes to the map. On my 2nd pass, it felt great. When I picked up my slip it confirmed how it felt. The all elusive 9 sec pass. 9.95, I backed it up the next pass with a 9.98.
I always enter both Street E/T and Pro E/T classes. Same basic rules, same tree, However you are allowed to run slicks, wheelie bars, delay boxes, and 2 steps in Pro E/T. The competition is a bit harder but it gives me twice the practice. Both of the E/T classes get more entries than the other classes ( I think there were about 40 SET bike) and you can buy back in after the first round if you lose. It is kind of fun to pull up besides an 8-9 second bike equipped with a slick, bar, and all of the electronics on the dash. Sitting besides “Goliathâ€, I’m David on a stock arm bike. At least I’m not still foot shifting this year.!
I start off by red lighting the first elimination pass in Street E/T.. All well, at least I can buy back in for $10. I win the first round in Pro. Not only that, I have the best reaction time and there is an odd number of bikes in round 2. That gets me a bye run, another win! I’ll spare you the round-by-round, but after we go a few rounds, they want to speed up things in the 2 E/T classes. This is to try to get all of the classes on the same round to run all of the finals at the same time. So instead of running SET, PET, the other 6 classes and repeating, it was SET, PET, SET, PET. Now THEY are getting tired of waiting for me to get back for the next run. The poor girl in the Time slip booth just does not understand why I keep coming through every 4-10 minutes and finally had to ask me. Then she is encouraging me and started getting excited when I get to the Semis.
Now I’m starting to run into traction problems. I now have about 52 passes on my Mickey Thompson Shootout tire. That is about as far as they go for me. I have to adjust my dial in a bit, heat it a bit more and hope it sticks.
Wow, after last month I never thought I would be here. Last year I lost in the PET ¼ finals and SET semi finals. I thought that was tough, but you really don’t have time to rest in the end. So now I find my self in BOTH finals. I’m up against Rocket Rick. We met last month and talked a bit in the staging lanes back and forth, great guy. I think he went 2 or 3 rounds last month and he was having a great day at this race. I got there first due to a bit better reaction time.. Margin of victory .0124 that is close. Wow, my second PMRA Win in Street ET. What a day my 9, SET Victory and I’m in the finals in the Pro E/T class. But they are going to have to wait for me to get back to run it. Good think I don’t have to cool it down, change a nitrous bottle etc. Just add a ½ gallon of fuel every 4 runs.
Next up PET finals with Dan Rollman. Dan is having a great night as well. He is starting to master the delay box he installed over the winter and it shows. I cut a .033 light to his .066 light. I’m dialed in at a 10.10, I run a 10.141. He is there first with a 9.41 on a 9.50. He breaks out .009. I win Pro E/T also.
I get to go home with $600, a 5 foot trophy, a plaque, 2 t-shirts, 2 cows (don’t ask), and a bad sunburn. I was worn out. I was coming in the gate at 9:30 AM and Left about 10:30 PM. One long day I will remember for a long time. 20 passes in one day!
Thanks to all of the Hayabusa.org members that came by and took the time to introduce themselves. I wish I would have had more time to talk some more. And a great BIG THANK YOU to Captain and Mrs. Captain for all they did as well. It means so much to have friends like you there with me.
Last month the opening round didn’t go so well for me. Because of everything that has been going on I waited until the last minute to start getting things ready. It seemed everything went wrong. I ended up with leaks on the air shifter that ended up causing me to screw up the regulator. I finally found a temporary replacement at 4:30 pm Friday before the Saturday race. Test and tune was rained out that night, so I went into it cold and hadn’t made a pass since last October.
My preparation showed, the bike was fine, but I sucked. I raced two classes. We are able to buy back in after a first round lost. So I lost in 4 efforts, 3 due to red lights. I left with 0 points for the meet.
I spent a bit more time working on my reaction times before this round. I went to the Test & Tune on Friday Night before the round. I get it out of the trailer and it will not start. I had just ridden it into the trailer 3 hours before. Off comes the seat, up with the tank, I start going over everything I had worked on the previous week looking for something I had had screwed up. I had just had the clutch safety switch apart 4 hours before, maybe that is it. Off with the side fairing, tail. Finally I decided to look at it like I had never seen or touched the bike before. What do you know, a blown ignition fuse.
Ok, I’m beyond stressed, I had better get it to tech. Later, I had a small problem with the autoshift changing the settings but everything else went well. I left the night close, but still no 9 second pass. Regardless, I was a bit more at ease for the next day. …… but what if it won’t start when I get it off the trailer.
The next morning I rolled it out of the trailer, I had looked at the logs from the previous night and saw where I could improve on the fueling. I made a few changes to the map. On my 2nd pass, it felt great. When I picked up my slip it confirmed how it felt. The all elusive 9 sec pass. 9.95, I backed it up the next pass with a 9.98.
I always enter both Street E/T and Pro E/T classes. Same basic rules, same tree, However you are allowed to run slicks, wheelie bars, delay boxes, and 2 steps in Pro E/T. The competition is a bit harder but it gives me twice the practice. Both of the E/T classes get more entries than the other classes ( I think there were about 40 SET bike) and you can buy back in after the first round if you lose. It is kind of fun to pull up besides an 8-9 second bike equipped with a slick, bar, and all of the electronics on the dash. Sitting besides “Goliathâ€, I’m David on a stock arm bike. At least I’m not still foot shifting this year.!
I start off by red lighting the first elimination pass in Street E/T.. All well, at least I can buy back in for $10. I win the first round in Pro. Not only that, I have the best reaction time and there is an odd number of bikes in round 2. That gets me a bye run, another win! I’ll spare you the round-by-round, but after we go a few rounds, they want to speed up things in the 2 E/T classes. This is to try to get all of the classes on the same round to run all of the finals at the same time. So instead of running SET, PET, the other 6 classes and repeating, it was SET, PET, SET, PET. Now THEY are getting tired of waiting for me to get back for the next run. The poor girl in the Time slip booth just does not understand why I keep coming through every 4-10 minutes and finally had to ask me. Then she is encouraging me and started getting excited when I get to the Semis.
Now I’m starting to run into traction problems. I now have about 52 passes on my Mickey Thompson Shootout tire. That is about as far as they go for me. I have to adjust my dial in a bit, heat it a bit more and hope it sticks.
Wow, after last month I never thought I would be here. Last year I lost in the PET ¼ finals and SET semi finals. I thought that was tough, but you really don’t have time to rest in the end. So now I find my self in BOTH finals. I’m up against Rocket Rick. We met last month and talked a bit in the staging lanes back and forth, great guy. I think he went 2 or 3 rounds last month and he was having a great day at this race. I got there first due to a bit better reaction time.. Margin of victory .0124 that is close. Wow, my second PMRA Win in Street ET. What a day my 9, SET Victory and I’m in the finals in the Pro E/T class. But they are going to have to wait for me to get back to run it. Good think I don’t have to cool it down, change a nitrous bottle etc. Just add a ½ gallon of fuel every 4 runs.
Next up PET finals with Dan Rollman. Dan is having a great night as well. He is starting to master the delay box he installed over the winter and it shows. I cut a .033 light to his .066 light. I’m dialed in at a 10.10, I run a 10.141. He is there first with a 9.41 on a 9.50. He breaks out .009. I win Pro E/T also.
I get to go home with $600, a 5 foot trophy, a plaque, 2 t-shirts, 2 cows (don’t ask), and a bad sunburn. I was worn out. I was coming in the gate at 9:30 AM and Left about 10:30 PM. One long day I will remember for a long time. 20 passes in one day!
Thanks to all of the Hayabusa.org members that came by and took the time to introduce themselves. I wish I would have had more time to talk some more. And a great BIG THANK YOU to Captain and Mrs. Captain for all they did as well. It means so much to have friends like you there with me.
