My name is Hugh Earl and, at the age of 45, 2014 will be my first season racing motorcycles. I will be campaigning a 2006 Ducati Sport 1000 in the Battle of the Twins Lightweight class in the Southern Ontario Association of Racing (SOAR).
I am also a member of the Prairie Dogs Racing Team, which consists of myself, my brother Steve and our friend Allen. We have put together a 2003 GSXR600 which we will run in SOAR's GTU Endurance Class (basically, a 3-h race with multiple riders taking turns).
I have been track riding since 2010, mostly at Cayuga (Toronto Motorsports Park), but with occasional outings to Mosport and Grand Bend. Six of the 2014 SOAR rounds will be at Grand Bend on the various configurations there. One of those is a joint round with RACE, and then SOAR also has another joint round with RACE out at their home track of Shannonville.
My bike is pretty unusual for a race machine, being a 1000-cc air-cooled 2-valver. However, SOAR's rules allow me to enter it into a number of classes, competing against 600-cc inline fours if I so choose. Here is the bike:
Modifications from stock include a DP slipper clutch, WASP intakes and fueling mods (with Dynojet PCIII), WASP top mount steering damper, Traxxion Dynamics fork cartridges and springs, Penske shock, Arrow 2-1 exhaust, Airtech fairing on an Endurance Engineering stay with a Gustaffson windscreen, Catalyst Composites bellypan, LSL (Spiegler) footpegs, Brembo wheels and 4-piston / 4-pad front calipers, Shorai Lithium Battery relocated under the seat, Tech Spec tank grips, 14 / 41 final drive gearing, Motovation frame sliders and RhinoMoto bar and axle sliders and probably some other stuff I am forgetting. I am running Bridgestone V01-R slicks with Bickle tire warmers. The bike has been safety wired according to SOAR tech requirements, and the crankcase breather is vented into a catch can mounted in the front fairing. There is also a brake lever guard and a rear sprocket "shark fin" guard (both Woodcraft) as required by the rules.
I have registered with SOAR under novice race number 282, but won't be officially licensed to race with them until I complete the race school on Friday May 23.
With this bike I expect to be reasonably competitive in the Battle of the Twins Lightweight class, but am also very curious as to whether on not I could hold my own against other novice racers on inline-4 600s. SOAR has a special class for rookie (first year) racers on 600s, which I may enter if I can convince myself that I could make a good show of it (i.e., not be dead last). So far the signs are encouraging. Last Saturday SOAR had a test day at Grand Bend on the "Modified" track layout. Watching youtube video of rookie 600 races on that layout from previous years, it seemed like 1 minute flat would be a respectable time. So, on Saturday I went out with the "Red Group" (what was I thinking...holy smokes those guys are quick), and quickly managed to average 1:00.x, with a few 0:59.x in there for good measure.
Here is some video, which unfortunately ends with my oil cooler exploding. The fellow at the end is trying to signal to me that my bike is smoking, but of course at that point I already knew. I really should have exited the track sooner (rookie mistake), but fortunately the leak wasn't bad enough to drop any oil on the track surface.
I've ordered the parts I need to fix the bike and so expect to be ready for Round 1. If not then I will just do the endurance racing for that round and wait for Round 2 to get the Duc out there.
Got some laps in on the endurance bike as well. I was 2 - 3 seconds slower on the Gixxer, probably because I have not ridden an inline 4 for so long (over a decade!) and so had no feel for what gear to be in. The bike seemed to work reasonably well though. We have it on Dunlop Q3s, which seem to be really wonderful tires.
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