| Author | Message | ||
     Blake |
What I did this weekend... With the weather forecast for Saturday changing from rain to dry, I began preparation on Thursday by removing my '97 Cyclone's tank and tail section. Off came the turn signals, headlight, tail light, their wire harnesses, the mirrors and the rear pegs; I safety wired the oil filter, and installed a catch can into the crankcase breather line. I also removed the rear fender/belt guard and the rear header pipe's heat shield. On Friday I removed the kickstand safety switch and shorted its mating connector (crammed it with aluminum foil and sealed it with tape). I checked all fasteners for proper tightness, topped up the oil tank with a cup of Mobil-1, verified the integrity of my suspension settings, and reinstalled the tank and tail section. I added a half cup of NOS octane booster to the tank, fired up the beast, and ran it down the street to confirm all was well. A quick detailing and on went the Armor Cloak cover before the dew started to fall. I gathered a pessimistic collection of tools and maintenance paraphernalia, packed up some food and drink and got to bed. Saturday morning after hitting the snooze button twice I rousted myself from bed at 6 am and was loading the bike onto my buddy's trailer by ten till seven. My good friend Keith (aka "Skulley") and I arrived Oak Hill Raceway at 7:30 am. We were there to attended CMRA racing school, he on his recently aquired 1985 Yammer FZ600 Lemon Racer (it's REALLY REALLY yellow), I on my '97 Buell Cyclone, the eBay Special. If we pass the school (pass a written test and avoid crashing during the track sessions), we would receive our CMRA provisional novice racing licenses. A CMRA license along with a tech approved bike would qualify us for track access during any CMRA practice sessions. We would also qualify for reduced rate track rentals anytime it is available. I rode a total of almost 70 miles (37 Laps) around Oak Hill Raceway. I imagined for a moment on one lap that I was Ben Bostrom with the rear end getting all out of shape accelerating hard uphill coming out of turn 3. Besides the 30 odd racing school students, Saturday also found the track occupied by an equal number of licensed CMRA racers. All student racers wore their taxicab yellow race school t-shirts over leathers so that veteran racers knew who to give a wide birth. School was fairly simple and refreshingly poignant... learn the flags, learn the gridding procedures, learn the basic rules and regulations. My favorite test question... "What is the first thing you should do when you crash?" Answer: "Get off the track." I was the lone Bueller out of 60 or so bikes at the event. Surprisingly, the comments I got during the day were ALL positive. Some of the more notable ones where... "That Buell really goes! I didn't know they were so good on the track." "Cool! We need more of those in CMRA!" "You are running D205's?! How the hell can you ride like that on street tires?!" "That Buell is by far the best sounding bike on the track." (this with a 748, 900SS, 996, RC51, and a plethera of SV650's also belting out the sweet sound of a four stroke twin) "Don't let it get you down, that guy on the Aprilia Cup racer passed EVERYONE." "!@#%$ #$^&% $@!#" (from the guy who low sided RIGHT in front of me on turn 2) The motorcycle constituency was comprised mainly of repliracers, SV650's, a few GP bikes, and the odd mini. Pretty much an even mix of liter bikes, 750's and 600's. I even dualed with a 748. My stockishly powered M2 flat out kicked the 748's ass; of course this track was made for a Buell; I never saw more than 90 mph; never saw 5th gear, rarely saw 4th, and was thankful for the old lower ratio 2nd gear.) Breakdowns?... An SV had to withdraw when it began piddling fuel while gridding. A paddock neighbor's CBR929RR wouldn't fire. The '97 Cyclone had zero problems, no pukage, no brake fade, just scrubbing sidewall and laying tracks lap after lap. We gotta do a BadWeB track weekend here sometime. | ||
| Kahuna |
Thanks Blake!! That was a great read. | ||
| Blake |
Bikes  | ||
| Blacksix |
I've been looking for this write up in the Storm Fronts. You had a great day by the sound of it. I'm 20 minutes from you. I want to get over and check your bike out. Shake your hand as well. | ||
| Court |
COOL BEANS ! | ||
| Blake |
The track   How many turns do YOU count? | ||
| Buelliedan |
I count 14 | ||
| Blake |
Me too. They call it an eight turn track though!? I guess they want to limit the number of corner workers required ( 2 per turn) to a reasonable number? No big deal, it just makes padock talk a little more difficult... "You know the 2nd turn after turn #2, the one just before turn #3..." I guess what we have is... Turns 1A, 1B: Moderate speed left handers at end of Start/Finish straight. Turn 2A: Deadly sharp 120o lefthander at the end of the longest straight. Turn 2B: Right hander Turn 3A: Right hander Turn 3B: Sharp hairpin lefthander Turn 3C: Sweeping lefthander Turn 4A: Sweeping righthander Turn 4B: Easy righthander Turn 5: Righthander at creek Turn 6: Hairpin lefthander Turn 7A: Wide lefthander Turn 7B: Super sharp lefthand hairpin Turn 8: Killer decreasing radius righthand hairpin Oh, the track runs counterclockwise. | ||
| Blake |
Turn numbers shown in "( )".  | ||
| Blake |
New Web Site!... www.oakhillraceway.net |
