Plans for 2015
Well, it wasn't easy, but despite my injury last year, I was somehow able to convince my wife that it wouldn't be completely insane to do a little more racing in 2015. That was six months of pretty tough negotiations, let me tell you...
I will be running the Ducati Sport 1000 in the Battle of the Twins Lightweight class again in SOAR. Rumor has it that we will have a few more entries in that class this year, which should add to the challenge and fun.
There have been some changes to the way SOAR is organizing its series this year. Instead of class champions being decided based on six rounds, there will only be five rounds for that purpose. However, anyone who manages to accumulate 95 points over the season will qualify to compete in the "Provincial Championships" which brings together the best riders from SOAR and its sister series in eastern Ontario, RACE.
This is all great, except for one thing: I will need to miss Round Three, because of a planned trip with my daughter and nephew. With only five rounds total, that puts me at a real disadvantage in the series points. To make matters worse, the new points structure favours consistent participation over outright finishing position:
1st - 40
2nd - 37
3rd - 34
4th - 31
5th - 28
etc...
So, only 3 points separate subsequent positions from 1 to 11, then from 11 to 15 it is 2 points difference per position. That really magnifies the penalty for missing a round or having a DNS or DNF. Anyway, no matter - we will just treat every round as an opportunity to try for a podium position, and let the points fall where they may. On the positive side, in a small class like BOTT LW it should be easy to accumulate the 95 points needed to earn an invitation to the Provincial Championship round.
The Prairie Dogs will also be back in the GTU Endurance Class on Humpty Dumpty the GSXR600.
Round one is next weekend (May 24), on the Long Track configuration at Grand Bend. Watch this space!
Test and Tune at TMP
After smashing up the bike in Round 4 last year, it spent the winter in my basement workshop, slowly getting repaired as time allowed. I ended up installing Woodcraft bars and a quick-turn throttle, repairing and repainting the fairing, reshaping the belly pan a bit to get better clearance from the exhaust and, for good measure, I wrapped the exhaust. I also sanded the blood stains from the inside of the fairing (!). Front suspension got a thorough rework with new springing and a cartridge mod to give me compression adjustment, and the shock was sent out for maintenance. Complete rebuild of the steering damper, then all the standard tune-up work (valve adjustment, etc.) and she was good as new. Well, okay, good enough...
Having not been in the bike for nearly 9 months (or any bike for 8 months), some practice was in order. I also needed some serious time to work on suspension adjustments, having made so many hardware changes from last season. I wasn't able to attend the SOAR practice weekend, so instead took advantage of a Thursday track day, run by Red Dawn Entertainment, at Toronto Motorsports Park near Cayuga.
I have done many, many laps at TMP since 2009, but had not been there at all in 2014. So, I was curious to see if my lap times had improved as a result of a season of racing experience with SOAR. My best lap there in 2013 was a 1:23.0, on Dunlop Q3 tires.
Red Dawn runs their track days in a unique fashion. Essentially, it is open track all day (no groups). This is a great situation when you need to work on suspension tuning, since you can enter and re-enter the track without waiting for your group to be called. The downside of course is that you encounter riders running at vastly different paces, and so it is sometimes hard to find clear track to set a time.
Here is the bike in the pits, waiting for the first run of the season:
My Prairie Dog Racing teammate Allen also showed up, with his new ride (still on crap street tires, but otherwise nearly ready for racing):
It is a BMW Boxer Cup Replica - another big air-cooled twin. So, Allen and I will compete head-to-head in BOTT LW this year. So cool! Plus, the PDR pit is starting to collect some pretty darn funky machinery. We might not beat all of the SV650s and such...but we will look good trying!
It was super cold over night (radiation frost) and so the tarmac was very cool in the morning - cold to the touch even in the direct sun. The first few sessions were crazy. The bike would be fine right off the warmers, but then after just a few laps the rear would get so cold that I couldn't use any significant throttle exiting corners, and I even pushed the front a few times. Not the best situation for a rusty pilot just trying to get comfortable on the bike again! I was spooked and was running 1:32. Yuck. Allen and I agreed that the day needed to be first and foremost about making good decisions and going home in one piece, so we both took it easy and didn't force the issue.
Fortunately the sun kept beating down and by 11:30 or so the track really came in. My times were coming down by a second or more per session, but I eventually got pretty tired and sore (legs, groin, neck), and couldn't manage to get under 1:25. Not great in comparison to my previous best, but on the other hand, not terrible for the first outing in a long time, on last year's worn-out tires. It was easy for me to see where I was losing time (especially Turn 6), but I just couldn't force myself to do better.
Importantly, I managed to ride within myself and not give myself any real scares, but there were a few occasions setting up for Turn 4 where some combination of moving myself across the bike, the new throttle tube, new lower bars, etc. resulted in my inadvertently applying a tiny bit of throttle when I didn't mean to. I definitely wasn't getting locked into the bike very well and so was likely using my hands too much to hang on. I need to work on finding a more effective body position. I also was not steering the bike as hard as I normally do.
Here's some video that pretty much shows how the day went. Note that a lot of the bikes were wearing their license plates and didn't have the brake light taped. Weird.
Edit: Here are a few photos from Melanie MacMurchy. Thanks Melanie!
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