My entire motivation for attending this round of the WMRRA series
was to get our ZX6RR working more efficiently through faster
corners and to just get some seat time at a fast track. As you
will read below, it turned out to be a lot of work but well
worth it as I had a total blast with several friends and competitors
from the US.
I loaded up the Van somehow managing to squeeze in everything
I would need for the weekend and set out for the thirteen
hour trip to Spokane, Washington. It has been a few years
since I have sprint raced in Spokane, so not only was I going
to have get re-acclimated to the very fast twelve turn track,
but I had also decided to go alone and do the total privateer
thing for the weekend. It's good for me to do this at least
once a year so that I don't become complacent with all the
support I usually have. Not surprisingly, I realized just
how much work those guys do and was reminded to thank them
profusely. :o) Also, I need to thank Barry Wressell, Don Beck,
Mike Sullivan, The Gua's and the HDFFC crew for their hospitality,
friendship and help over the weekend. Thanks guys.
Notes on practise
Day one - Practise
Practise Session 1
Weather conditions - Dry and hot
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 6
Best time - 1:34.417
Concerns/problems - Gearing too tall - shift &
braking points needed.
Notes: As this was my first time here with the
600 I had to make an educated guess as to the gearing that
would be required for the long straight. Unfortunately, I
was a little too optimistic that our 600 could pull taller
gearing and found that I was only getting into sixth gear
just before turn one. Also, I was just feeling my way around
getting familiar with the layout once again so at no time
did I really run the bike hard into any of the turns.
Practise Session 2
Weather conditions - Dry and hot
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 5
Best time - 1:34.10
Concerns/problems - Gearing too short - bike isn't
finishing turns
Notes: I changed the gearing, however now I
was tagging the rev limiter in sixth as I went down the straight
limiting my top speed into turn one. Also, the bike wasn't
turning as effectively as I would have liked causing me to
run wide at the apex.
Practise Session 3
Weather conditions - Dry and hot
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 6
Best time - 1:33.21
Concerns/problems - Gearing is good, bike still won't
finish the turn.
Notes: Despite making a small change to the
rear shock in the efforts of improving the bikes turning ability,
I still wasn't satisfied with how it was working. I talked
with my suspension sponsor, Dave Hodges (GP Suspension), over
dinner and we decided to change the rear spring to a slightly
heavier unit to cope more successfully with the cornering
loads from the high speed turns.
Day 2 notes:
Practise Session - Morning warm up
Weather conditions - Dry and hot - strong headwind
Tires front / rear - soft front - soft rear
Total laps - 4
Best time - 1:32.4
Concerns/problems - Bike is turning more effectively,
but still not as I would like. Also, the headwind is so strong
that I am not able to pull sixth gear down the straight. I
decide to drop the gearing by a fraction and also make a rather
radical geometry change in the last few minutes before the
race. It's a gamble but if it works we should be competitive.
Race 1 - 600 Superbike
Weather conditions - Dry and hot - strong headwind
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 10
Best time - 1:31.7
Result - 4th
Concerns/problems - Blew the transmission up
in the third lap.
Notes: As WMRRA grids by points, and I have
none, I was at the back of a twenty six rider field looking
way up to the front row. I was going to have to get an awesome
start. I didn't. When I let the clutch out the bike seemed
to "pop" into a neutral and I just sat there as
the field roared away down the straight. This was not how
I wanted to start my day. I eventually got the bike into gear
and took off in pursuit of the pack. By lap two I had worked
my way up to seventh and was making up considerable ground.
The geometry change I had made was paying off in spades as
the bike was turning and going where I wanted it to quite
comfortably. I was now getting better drives from the corners,
but the gearing was now slightly too short. By lap three I
had secured fourth position, however, on the exit of turn
six the bike jarred violently under acceleration which repeated
on the exit of turn seven. The transmission, it seemed, was
giving up. This effectively ended my charge forward as I had
to use taller gears through the tight turns destroying any
drives out of those corners. I managed to keep the position
to the checkered flag but the rest of my day was essentially
done.
To be honest, I'm not upset that the transmission failed.
Not only is it the first one I have had go south on me in
my career, but as far as timing goes, it really couldn't have
been much better. (Gotta see the good in it right?) The bike
is already at the Zlock shop where we planned on going into
the engine at this time anyway to find some horsepower. The
only thing that lingers is a slight time crunch as the next
WMRRA round is only two weeks away.
Stay tuned.
Oliver
Please click on image to enlarge
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The ferry ride |
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View from the ferry |
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Our pit |
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Barry Wressell
Barry's
website |
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The pits |
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The pits |
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Ross DeLong and Todd Horn
Their website
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Horsepower in a can |
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Don Beck
Don's
website |
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Sullivan's bikes |
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Mike Sullivan |
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Dave & Byan from GP Suspension |
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Dave & I |
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Sully & I |
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