| Author | Message | ||
     Smoke |
Off to Carolina Motorsports Park for the twin Sprint and Team Challenge race this weekend. the TC race is Sunday and we are looking for a good result. see you at the races, tim | ||
| Aeholton |
Good luck Tim! | ||
| Tnxbrider |
Tim got on the road early today 5AM post... I'll be there Friday evening, should run both Saturday and Sunday if all goes well. T | ||
| Tnxbrider |
Sure would like to see some C3 support if you can make it!!! T | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Wish I could be there. Good luck!! | ||
| Shred |
I'll be rolling in tomorrow night with some 3%er support  | ||
| Smoke |
got back late last night. found out that my van does not like to pull the 16' dual axle trailer. i made it back but the trans had some occassional rumbles and the engine was running warmer than i had seen before. i ended up pulling off in the afternoon and finishing the run home last night. Carolina Motrorsports park is a fun technical fast track that i had a hard time wrapping my brain around. on Friday i felt awkward and slow and started out turning 1:57's with many of my bad habits surfacing. the worst was early turn in and trailbraking with the front through the turns. i got bit in the first practice session on lap 4 at the slowest turn at the track (turn 14) and tucked the front. i popped back up, got the bike out of the impact zone and proceeded to my pit where the yellow duct tape took care of business. i missed the next session while making repairs (and changing the front tire just because) but was able to do the sessions after lunch. i worked hard and got down to 1:49's by the end of the day. Tom Bumpus and Michael Buffington came in to ride in the Team Challenge with me and we got ready for Saturday. i skipped first practice and Michael took the Buell out to try and learn the track during the Team Challenge practice. Tom and I went out in the next practice and i tried to show him around the track. somehow he was unable to keep up and i managed to get down to the 1:46's. the first race for us was GTO 25 minute solo and it got started without a hitch. i blasted forward and got a good start up to about 3rd. unfortunately i made some errors and slipped to a 5th place finish with Tom finishing 6th on his 1125r. we next went out for Supertwins where i got another decent start when 2 riders in the front row waited for the 2nd wave when we were in the first, fought with Bill Sylvester for 3rd and was unable to catch and challenge for 2nd. Tom came in 7th. we had a little break and gridded up for the Heavyweight Superbike race. there was good competition and a decent grid. another good start but after spinning up the rear accelerating out of turn 5 into 6(a big r/h sweeping turn) tried to toss me off the bike i lost some positions and managed to come in 8th and Tom finished 10th. Heavyweight Supersport was our last race of the day and it was a lot of fun with many challenges. the bike tried to spit me off again, this time as i applied throttle coming out of 12 into 13 which is another big r/h sweeper and i settled down and came in 7th with Tom just behind in 8th. i had some brake fade issues in this race as well which slowed me down considerably as i was having to test the brakes early to make sure they would be there when i would need them. needless to say there was serious maintenance happening that evening in preparation for Sunday's races. i managed to run some 1:44's which i was very happy to see and the goal of 1:40 was set for Sunday. more to follow. tim | ||
| Smoke |
so saturday night i pulled the front caliper, cleaned it real well and put in a new set of pads in order to try and rectify my fading problem. it also dawned on me that the worst of it was after trying to highside myself and recovered. the next turn was brake hard from speed and dive in and that was where it really got my attention, pumped hard after the lever came to the grip with eyes real wide and downshifted twice and made it through. anyhow, i put it all back together in the morning and got ready for the heavy weight supersport race. practice was uneventful and the brakes felt as they should. so, it was on and i got an excellent start up to second but i left just enough room on the inside of turn 1 for another bike to get in there and force me offline for the next 2 turns and i ended up on the gatorback rumble strip on the way into turn 3 and then in the sand doing the motocross thing while everybody including Tom went by. i didn't let off much and just rode it through throwing a sandy rooster tail and fistailing front and back ends until i got her back on track and then i just tried to catch and pass as many as possible. Tom told me after the race that i was blazing when i went around him in search of the next victim. i ended up with my fastest lap time of the weekend at 1:42.06 and finished 6th when i ran out of laps and Tom finished 7th. the Team Challenge 65 lap/2 hour race was next up and we moved our stuff to pit lane. Tom made the start and we had decided on 20 lap sessions. Tom put in a steady performance but someone crashed hard in the fast paced kink on the back straight on his final lap and the race was red flagged. we waited a long while and i saw the rider moving a little by the time the ambulance rolled up. we were on the red flag longer and the helicopter showed up and some more time was lost. eventually the helicopter left the track loaded with the rider. someone called back later in the day to let us know that the rider, Dennis Espinosa, was going to be ok and that he apologized for holding up the racing. we lost about 45 minutes and they greenflagged us from the pit. unfortunately we planned incorrectly and assumed that the race would start from the pit. When Michael left out on the bike i turned around and saw the 5 board on the grid, asked the pit official what was up and he said regrid and restart. i hauled butt down to the end of pit road in an attempt to signal Michael to stop on the grid but when he came on the front stretch he was at speed and focused on turn 1 markers and didn't see anything. he blasted past the grid and we ended up being docked 1 lap. Michael pitted the next lap to ask what was up with all the waving arms so we didi our mandatory stop and go pit stop and off he went. he was supposed to originally ride 14 laps but i tried to split the time left and tried to signal him to pit early but he was focused on turn 1 and never looked up. his daughter Natalie was our most excellent pit board girl and did a great job but Michael never looked away from the brake markers. he finally noticed me in full leathers, helmet and gloves hanging over the fence waving violently and came in. i jumped on to finish the race and got in 10 laps before the finish and caught an passed a couple and then got hung up by a rider with nice lines that i didn't want to block pass that late in the race with no ability to advance our position as she was in the 600 class. so i followed her the next 2 laps to the checkers trying to see if the lines she was taking were applicable for me. she was getting earlier drive out of turn 14 and turn 6 which with my later braking on the end of the straights put me on the brakes hard when we arrived together for the turns. good fun! we equaled our Daytona results with a 12th overall and 6th in class. i ran the fastest lap for the team at 1:43 something. the next race for me was Supertwins later in the day but Tom had ended up doing another race and he finished 8th in Heavyweight Superbike. Supertwins came up and we were off. my start put me in 4th and i was settling in and trying to put my head down and stay with the 3rd place rider as 1st and 2nd took off together and were disappearing. i made a mistake letting Doug on his 848 to gap me and i was surprised by Bill on his 999 as he went by while we were moving up to the expert on the back of his grid. i went back by Bill and Bill went back by me as Doug was getting away. we were having fun and i as i came inside Bill at the fast backstretch kink i was watching his front tire to see if he was coming further inside so that i could adjust further inside if necessary when his front tire let go and he was tumbling in the sand on the outside of the turn. i don't know if he just touched the brakes or what but there was no contact and when i got to the end of the straight and turned he was up and moving away from the track. good for that as that was the same place that Dennis got airlifted from. i put my head down and caught up and passed the expert rider (who had crashed hard saturday at the kink as well) and could see that i was gaining on 3rd. unfortunately for me the expert wanted to play and it was back and forth for a couple of laps and when he finally relinquished to follow i ran out of laps (but was still closing) and finished 4th. i managed a fast lap of 1:42.886 and another good solid race weekend with another new track under my belt. next up will be the WERA round at Barber and the Team Challenge event at Blackhawk Farms on 23 may. see you at the track! tim | ||
| Smoke |
oh yeah, i checked on Bill after the races and he had a sore knee and his Ducati was beat up but he appeared to be ok as he was loading up his gear  . he told me he would see us at VIR in june! tim | ||
| 99buellx1 |
Good stuff Tim! We will see you at BHF. It will be our teams first time running TC, and will actually be my first race weekend. | ||
| Shred |
Thanks Tim for letting me be apart of the Thrashed Bike Racing team. After all of these years wanting to race a Buell you made it happen, thanks again Tim, Thought you and Tom did a great job. Tom had a good start and Tim got it done and took the checker'd flag. I learned a few new things, this being my 1st TC and with CCS. After the three minute board if an official waves the green flag and someone yells go! Don't go! LOL !!! Glad it all worked out, can't believe they just let me lead the race...knew something was wrong but wasn't getting any flags from corner workers after I went out. They didn't flag me in until T 13 after the first lap, lol. But it wasn't funny to me at the time. Glad they only took a lap from us Anyway......its all good . I kept my promise I didn't throw your bike down and take us out of the race. Thanks again Tim for the ride and treating Natalie like part of the team. She enjoyed it. Thanks Tom for letting Natalie and I ride you sm400 around and laughing it off after I dumped it in the grass. Glad nothing was broke, I started to pull over and pull the grass out of the pegs and thought....toms cool! I can see why you have such a good name with your dealership. Hope to race again with you and share the pits Seeing all the Buells in the pits and meeting some of the fellow Buellers was great. Lots of talent and cool down to earth people like Al and crew. Nice to see a few folks that race WERA too. Kevin, Eric the Drummer team. MB (Message edited by Shred on April 15, 2010) | ||
| Shred |
Nice to meet Ray and crew too.....s Posting from the iPhone is so cool, back to work, lol | ||
| Esa |
We had a blast this weekend despite the high speed get-off in the kink. Crew took lots of pics of Buells in various races..I'll send them out soon. Buells crash well! But rider needed Vicadin and BenGay to get back to work Monday.. Tim, sorry if I held you up (Sunday), my racer instincts got the best of me, then I remembered how much I was grunting under my helmet! See everybody at CCS - VIR later. Cheers! Eric | ||
| Playhard |
Eric, that was one heck of a crash. We were all glad to see you walk from that one. Smoke / Shred, that was some funny Shit during the T/C. Wish I had a picture of the starters face as he watched you blow by. It was priceless! Glad it all turned out ok for you guys. I had a lot of fun watching from the pits. Great Job! I was down and out on the Buell most of the weekend, but between Kevin's help and all the encouragement from you Buell faithfuls, my spirit is slowly coming around. The bike is getting better with each time out. I'm still not as fast as I was on the SV, but getting close. Darrell made some huge improvements and got down into the 1:43's during the LT WT SS Race. I had an absolute blast hanging out with all you guys. Can't wait until VIR. We need to designate our own little Buell Pit Area. Thanks everyone, Al Smith | ||
| Fuzzy |
love reading you guys! i was part of a bonneville team that blew by a starter a couple years ago (but big meeting with officials and we didn't get to play anymore (were already on thin ice for out of date cage)) best of luck to all of you! | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Great job guys!! Go Buell Racers!!! | ||
| Smoke |
no worries Eric, that's racing. i had a good time and i am glad that your getoff didn't discourage your competitiveness. when you got back in front i was hoping that you would tow me up to Doug! we'll have more fun next time! tim |
