bmitch996
Race 3 Preparation
May 24th & 25th is the next race weekend. I'm going to try new gearing, changing from 15/40 to 14/40 to start. I'll have a 41 & 42 along with me in case I want to make some additional adjustment.
I've added an aluminum sub frame in the last week. Thanks to Lawrence of Monroe Motors in San Francisco for offering it to me. Also thanks to Warren of Arctech Precision Welding in Santa Cruz for adding the aluminum sheet on the bottom of the sub frame and the two additional support struts between the upper and lower rails. The parts that Warren added are marked with red tape in the first photo.
Paul851
I've been following this thread with interest , please keep the reports coming . The bike looks great , I just wish I could actually see it race 😄
Paul
griff851
Go Brian Go! The evolution of a race bike. What a great thread. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Love the Al electronics tray. I made a C/F one, but my bike is for the road not the track.
Griff
bmitch996
Round #3 Race Report
Race 3 is now history. The changes to the bike since round 2 were the aluminum sub frame and lighter Sharkskinz tail section. I had planned to make a seat out of self adhesive race seat foam to replace the Corbin seat and bump pad. However the material didn't arrive in time so I put the Corbin seat on but not the bump pad. This proved to be a bit of a problem on the starts. The Corbin seat is rather slippery and without the bump pad in place I was sliding backward on the seat at the starts. This made it difficult to shift into second gear and keep the bike driving forward. I now have the seat foam and am in the process of making the new seat and bump pad.
I weighed the bike on my Intercomp racing scales prior to loading the bike into the van. It weighed in at 400lbs. without fuel, a full 25lbs. lighter than it was at the first race of the year. I've got a couple of other things to do prior to the next race, I expect it to weigh in at around 395lbs. for round 4.
Round #3 Infineon Raceway Sonoma, CA
We left Santa Cruz Friday afternoon at got to the track at about 7:00pm, a two an a half hour drive for us. We meet up with Paul and Nadia and pitted together as we usually do. A couple of our other racing pals didn't make it, Craig and Tracy as well as Andy and Catherine. Maybe they knew something we didn't? Paul, Craig, and I are on big twins RC51, 996R, and 851 respectively. Andy races a SV650.
After we got the Dodge Sprinter unloaded and everything set up we ate and turned in early. On these race weekends we sleep in the Sprinter. In the middle of the night it starts raining, hard enough to wake us up this isn't good.
I'm up and off to registration at 6:30am and the sky is dark and overcast threatening rain. I get through tech, and am in practice group two. My first practice session is OK but it's cold, traction isn't great so I'm taking it easy. The new gearing I tried 15/42 up from 15/40 previously, seems good so far. However, as the session goes on I'm getting these little slides in left hand turns. Towards the end of the session a rider in front of me is having problems. At first I think it's starting to rain as small droplets are appearing in my face shield. Shortly after this that rider in front crashes exiting turn 9 his bike is in the middle of the track and leaves an oily mess. The session ends. Back in my pit I discover the droplets on my shield are not water but oil from the rider who crashed. I also discover the cause of the slides in left handers. The new chain I put on was throwing off some excess grease on the rim and sidewall, some of it had worked it's way to tire surface. A good cleaning fixed this.
Session two goes without incident the bike feels good and the rain is holding off.
Paul comes in a lap or two early from his session in practice group 3. He's got water on his shield and five minutes later it's raining steady the track is cleared. It's about 11:15 am. It continues to rain throughout the day and at 2:00 the Race Director announces that's it for today. Clubman races are scratched and Formula 40 is moved to the end of the day race #13 on Sunday, weather permitting. Our club doesn't run in the rain, and this track is especially slippery when wet. It seems that we have enough people crashing on a dry day due to either a high testosterone level or low IQ or some combination thereof.
So we spend the day huddled in the Sprinter, I catch up on my sleep and my girlfriend Oi Wah reads her Chinese books on CD on the laptop. By 5:30 it's no longer raining and we can get outside. Paul's got the BBQ going and things are looking better.
Sunday morning and it's up early registration/tech and the weather is looking good. We all get one practice session in before the riders meeting then the races start. I'm in races #6 Open Twins, #11 Super Dinosaur, and #13 Formula 40. I brought other sprockets, and might have tried 14/40 or 14/41 if practice hadn't been washed out, so for the races I stuck with 15/42.
All the morning races went off without a hitch. No big crashes, the ambulances didn't roll, no delays. Lunch Break.
Race 6 rolls around and I'm gridded on row 5 position 20 of 24 starters. Warm up lap and we are in position, Open Production are behind us in the second wave. Paul is a row ahead of me on the RC51, along side him is another friend Chris Page on his TLR1000. Beside me is my another racing buddy Joe "Hit Man" Hittner on his new 1098. It's GO TIME, one board, sidewaaaays, GREEN FLAG off we go. Everyone gets off cleanly, my start is ok but as I said earlier I'm sliding back on the seat. Joe gets past Chris in Turn 2 and I slot in behind Chris. Joe starts to pull away a little but not by a lot. Surprising since he's on a 1098. I'm trying to pass Chris, but I can't get by just yet, so I just dog him for now and show him a wheel when I can. About this time(lap 3) the leaders from Open Production are catching us. A few of them pass us and get between us and he gets a bit of a gap on me. Next time around I've caught back up to him and I'm right on his tail through the esses the chicane T9 and into the hairpin T11 he runs it wide and I go underneath but he catches me on the straight and passes me into T1. I give chase up the hill and in T3 I block pass him and it sticks and I get away. On the next lap Chris crashes out on the exit of the T9 chicane. In the end I finish where I started, 20th. Checking the results, my buddy Joe's best lap time on his 1098 was only 1.5 seconds faster than mine on the 851. So the 851 finished ahead of a TLR1000, a 1098(he must have crashed), and a couple of others. I did get lapped on the last lap by the winner Brian Parriott on his pumped BMW HP2.
Things don't go that smooth in race 9, 650 twins, with two red flags and restarts. People needing medical attention, track clean up all add up to big delays.
Finally they get Race 9 complete, but Races 10-13 have all been shortened by two laps.
Race 11 Finally happens. There are four waves first is 650 production, second is Formula Singles, third is 500 Twins, and fourth is Super Dinosaur.
In Super Dino I'm gridded on the second row in position eight of nine on the outside, which is actually a good position entering T1.
The first two waves go off without a problem. In the third wave someone stalls on the line before the green flag. He can't get it going so they push him off to the side. Finally their off. Next it's us in Super Dino. The green flag drops and one of the guys on the front row stalls, luckily everyone gets through OK. I passed two people at the start and then just held my ground. With the multi wave starts we start to catch some of the other classes. Also because of the guy stalling before the 500 twins start, the front runners from the first wave got mixed in with us at the end. So in the end you don't really know who you are racing. In end I finished 6th, up another spot and I beat the two people who finished just ahead of me in race one in March. The weirdest thing was they red flagged us on the cool down lap because someones bike spewed oil all over the track between the esses and T9 about four people crashed and all three ambulances were out there tending to injured riders.
After I got back to the pits it was 4:30 and they were still cleaning up. I decided not to wait around for the Formula 40 race, so I packed up and went home.
We don't race in June, the next is Round 4 at Thunderhill Park in Willows, CA on July 5th & 6th.
Until then, Ride On.
Paul851
Great write up Brian , nearly as good as being there 😎
Paul
griff851
Thanks again Brian. Very entertaining.
Griff
Ken L
Good job Brian! Both the riding and the 'writing'. I agree, following the 'birth and early sruggles' of a race bike and rider is a great story. Very entertaining!
Reminds me of when I raced my baby..sniff....
Keep having fun, keep only the two round black rubbery things touching the ground (plus knee pucks!).
Ken.
bmitch996
Race Bike to Street Bike In under an hour!
Well I missed the only track day I had scheduled before the next race because I caught a cold😡 In June no less!
So I got some seat time on the street. I had used some parts from my street 996 and incorporated the brake light from the 851, then fiberglassed and epoxied the unit to my spare tail section. This was necessary due to the new Aluminum sub frame and electronics tray. To make a long story longer, as the title says, I can now convert the 851 race bike back to a street bike in under an hour.
So Monday I went for a nice 300 mile ride from Santa Cruz out through Hollister via Route 25 and Cieniga Road to Route 198 to Coalinga and back.
The first 40 miles and last 40 miles are nothing special but everything in between is spectacular.
Paul851
Great work Brian , You must have had a blast on your ride , though I doubt you would have managed 100 yards in the UK with those tyres what with our wonderfully typical summer weather 😏
Paul
gianpaolo
Wonderful bike and place, Brian. But you are a lucky man not only for the bike and the place but also for the tires if you can use that kind on normal roads. Today I did a trip on a lake 90 km from Milan in the north of Italy with my 888 SP3. Along this lake (14 km) there were five police checks. If you use slick tires the police "kidnaps" your bike and you have to pay a very high fine. A lot of problems also with the noise.
Ciao Gianpaolo
bmitch996
I don't normally use slicks on the street, but they were still in good shape after the last race. Around here the police would just give you a "fix it" ticket about a $50 fine and you have to go to the police station to show that you have fixed the problem, put on street tires.
bmitch996
AFM Round 4, Thunderhill Raceway Park
July 5th & 6th, AFM's race number 4 at Thunderhill Raceway Park located in Willows, California. This track is situated in northern California's central valley about halfway between the state capital of Sacramento to the south and the City of Redding to the north. To the east is the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range and to the west is the Mendocino National Forest. This is mostly agricultural land and as you drive along Interstate 5 you pass a lot of cornfields, sunflower fields, rice patties, groves of fruit trees, you get the picture.
This is the furthest track from home for me and Oi Wah, about a four hour drive north from our home in Santa Cruz.
Thunderhill is a track I've grown to like over the last couple of years. Prior to my starting to race in 2006 I had only ridden this track a handful of times. Since racing there and doing quite a few track days it has really grown on me. It is a long track, 3 miles in length and 15 turns with a long start/finish straight and some pretty good elevation changes.
Race prep, on Monday/Tuesday I returned the bike to race trim, on Wednesday I mounted fresh Bridgestone slicks. Since the the last race I've made the following changes to the bike. All of the brake rotors have been changed to Braketech Axis floating cast iron rotors with Ferodo CP211 race pads. The race tail section now has the seat/bump pad made of foam rubber in stead of the Corbin street items. The new rotors and seat have shaved another six pounds from the bike. Now weighing in at 394 lbs without fuel.
I stick with the same gearing as the last race, 15/42, more on this later.
We arrive at the track at around 7:00 pm on Friday July 4. Our friends Andy & Katherine have saved us some space in the pits. Friday was an open test day put on by the track and many racers took advantage of this. The temp when we are setting up our pit area is about 85 degrees F. Saturday practice temps are expected to be in the mid 90's and Sunday's temps are expected to be 100+!
I'm not sure if it was because it was a holiday weekend or it's the economy, but the attendance was noticeably down. Both from the last race and from a year ago this race.
Saturday is the usual routine in the morning. Up at 6:15am go to registration by 6:30, tech at 7:00, riders meeting at 8:00, and practice starting at 8:30.
I'm in practice group 2. Where we are pitted is a long way from the track entrance and this turns out to be a good thing. Since it's about 85 degrees at the start of practice and only getting hotter, I'm waiting until the third call for my practice group to head to the grid, as I don't want to sit there overheating myself and the 851. As a result I'm the last person on the track for my practice group in each session and therefore get 2-3 clean laps before I get into traffic. By this time I'm up to speed and can practice passing and picking good spots to pass.
I get three practice sessions in before lunch and everything goes smoothly, very few crashes and delays for cleanup. This is partly due to the relatively low turnout and partly because the previous three rounds have weeded out a lot of the "crashers".
After lunch I go out for one more practice session. Although there is an additional four lap session for each group, because the morning went so smoothly, I forgo it. It is just to HOT!
It's about 3:45 pm and the rest of the day will be devoted to the Clubman(novice qualifying) races and the Formula 40(Crazy old Man) race.
I've opted out of Formula 40 from here on because the grids are getting to big and there is too much carnage. I honestly don't know how some of the people in F40 got there racing license. Since joining AFM my only close calls or someone putting a hair ball move on me have come in F40. To illustrate further, Michael Boyer the winner of the first three Super Dino races and leading that class,which I am running the 851 in, crashed hard in Saturday's F40 race. In the process broke his collerbone and a couple of ribs and couldn't race on Sunday in the class he is leading. Nuff said!
From here on I'm only racing the 851 in Super Dinosaur and Open twins.
Sunday Race Day;
On Sunday the schedule is a little different than on Saturday. That is we go straight into practice after tech then have the riders meeting and then the first race. The schedule is races 1-4, lunch, and races 5-12.
I'm in races 1(Super Dinosaur) and 10(Open Twins).
I go out for practice and just try to get myself loosened up and make sure the bike is working properly. Everything is good. I go to the riders meeting and stand under a tree for a little shade as I'm in my leathers and ready for race one. By the time I'm heading for the grid for race one at 10:00am it's in the high 90's.
As a side note, I have not put my tire warmers on all weekend!
Race one is a four wave start as none of these classes are very big.
Wave 1 - 650 Production
Wave 2 - Super Dinosaur (Me)
Wave 3 - 500 Twins
Wave 4 - Formula Singles
Super Dino has only seven entries this race, as compared to 9-11 for the first three races.
We take the warm up lap and get into position, for my wave I'm row one position 3 from the left which is a good position since T1 is a left hander.
The first wave goes off without incident.
Now It's our turn!
Two board, one board, Sideways....., Green Flag!!!!!!!!!!
I get a good start, not sliding backward on the old Corbin seat like last race, but everyone sort of holds there relative positions and I go into T1 in fourth position.
I'm following David Crussell on the #117 Kawasaki in third. David's a multiple time Vintage Champion in our club and race winner in this class. I show him a wheel in a couple of places but can't make a pass on the first lap. So I settle down, as it's the first lap. At the end of the first lap I pass him on the start/finish straight, now I'm running in third(yeah, I know there are only seven in the race, but it still feels good). I'm holding on to third, when with two laps to go I get passed in T7 by #45 Ed Haazer a long time veteran of the class and winner of two races in this class last year. So I try to stay close figuring I can make a pass in the start/finish straight. I stay close but not close enough as we have to go around another rider before T15. I figure I've got one last shot on the last lap, again if I can stay close , but we come into more traffic and Ed puts two riders between us before T15 and I can't get close enough to do anything on the straight. So I end up fourth in SD this time around.
Race #10 - Open Production/Open Twins
It's now about 2:45pm and around 100+ degrees F did I mention it's hot!
Our race gets called and I head to he grid. Some of my friends that I usually race with in OT have not made it this weekend. Paul, Craig, and Joe are missing. But my friend Scott Miles on his 999s is lined up just to the left of me and my pal Jason Ross on his 1098 is one row ahead and to the right of me at the start. I think only 18 people made it to the grid in Open Twins this race, down quite a bit from last race. The Open Production guys went off in the first wave. These OP guys are FAST! The top racers in the club, Cory Call, David Stanton, James Randolf, Michael Ernest, Martin Schwarc, David Bell, Ect. I know that Cory Call has at least one AMA Pro Championship to this credit. My goal(as always) was to keep the top OP guys from passing me as late in the race as possible.
The OP guys go off without a hitch, then it's us. Again, no problems, I get a decent start. I pull Scott on his 999s and almost take Jason on his 1098 into T1 but have to back out of it and give up the position. Jason starts to get away a bit and I just concentrate on my ride. At the end of lap two Scott catches me and makes a pass between T7 and T8 but doesn't get away, I try to stay with him as best I can. To my surprise the top three OP guys don't catch me until halfway through lap four. On lap five one of the OP guys ran off at the end of the start/finish straight and crashed his bike which caught fire and started a grass fire. At that point the race was red flagged and called as it was past half distance. I ended up 16th of 18 in Open Twins.
All in all a very good weekend for me, had a lot of fun and the 851 was flawless. My only issue was gearing again. I think it was too tall again, but having missed my only track day here between races I didn't have a chance to experiment.
I'm doing a track day at this same track next week and am planning on trying a 14/41 gearing set up. I'll post up some feedback on the gearing afterwards.
Our next race is August 16 and 17 at Infineon Raceway.
griff851
Thanks Brian, another winner in the literary stakes.
Griff
bmitch996
AFM Round 5, Infineon Raceway
Round 5 Infineon Raceway, Sonoma CA August 16-17.
If you have been following this thread, last weekend was round 5 back at Infineon, just north of San Francisco.
Everything went pretty well I had the fuel pump replaced and was using 14/42 gearing for this race. I'm still not sure about the gearing thing? I seem to be stuck in the same place as far as my lap times, I need a break through!
The long and short of it is I finished 5th out of 7 entries in "Super Dino" as you will see my bike stalled out on lap 6. After pulling off the track I did get it restarted and finished the race, but lost a position. Overall I am in fifth position in this class with an outside chance of getting third by the end of the season.
In the "Open Twins" class I finished 20th out of 27 starters.
Rather than me describing the races, you can watch them for yourself.
Thanks to Geoffrey and Robin Linder at Axial Video. Enjoy.
Click on them directly to view in web browser. Right Click on them and
select the option to Download Linked File to save them to your computer.
Here are direct links to use for web posting at forums and emailing out.
http://www.video.axialvideo.com/851/851_Open_Twins_Lg.wmv
http://www.video.axialvideo.com/851/851_Super-Dino_Lg.wmv
http://www.video.axialvideo.com/851/851_Super-Dino_Web.wmv
http://www.video.axialvideo.com/851/851_Open_Twins_Web.wmv
The "Lg" files are full rez and require a fast web connection to stream
smoothly. The "Web" versions are reduced resolution and will stream smoothly
for anyone who has trouble with the larger files.
bmitch996
AFM Roun 6, Thunderhill Park
Sadly nothing to report on this round. I couldn't make it as it was my son's birthday on Sunday so I spent time with him.
The next race is September 28th back at Infineon. The final race of the year is at Buttonwillow in late October. I plan on doing both races, and will give a report on them.
Any feedback on the video? I might have the camera on for one or both of the final two races. Hopefully with better results. At least Buttonwillow would be a different track.
Ciao
B. Mitchell
AFM#851
hqracing
Lucky people out there in the US.
Here in the netherlands we have one of the greatest circuits in the world (Assen) and your not allowed to make any more noise than 95 dB. That was the end of the open race cans and back to the original cans loosing a lot of power.
Wish me and my buddy Rhett could race our 888's in the US.
Altough there is hope on the horizon with the ducati 3Ds cup next year Riding on various GP circuits in europe.
See ya
Hans
https://www.hqracing.nl
bmitch996
Hans,
I feel your pain! Laguna Seca is less than an hour from my home and their noise limit is 92db. Many bikes with stock exhausts get black flagged there. Right now I am turning my 03 999R into a dedicated Laguna Seca bike with a quiet exhaust system.
bmitch996
AFM Round #7, Infineon Raceway
AFM #851 Open Twins, Super Dinosaur
This race weekend is run a little different from our usual format. At this round we have our annual 4-Hour Endurance race. Regular practice is moved to Friday, with the Clubman and Formula 40 races moved to Saturday morning and Sunday's last race, respectively. This allows a full day of practice Friday. However, if you're not doing the endurance race or have a clubman race you sit around all day on Saturday.
Since Pacific Track Time had a track day at Infineon on Thursday, I signed up for that and skipped the AFM practice on Friday. Using the time at home to mount fresh tires and check the bike over before Sunday's races.
After Round #5 at Infineon I spent a lot of time going over the video of my races. In doing so I was mostly watching the top two finishers in the Open Twins race that lapped me. Studying their lines for the brief time I could see them. As well as the leaders of Open Production when they came past me. Also from listening to the audio I found places on the track where I just need to turn the throttle more and get on the gas!
In addition I changed the gearing back to 14/41, that seems to the right ratio for me at this track.
At the track day on Thursday I spent the whole day working on turns two through seven. In an effort to shed a couple of seconds from my lap times. Looking for that breakthrough that I needed. It probably would have been a good idea to have a lap timer on the bike for this? I know I have one somewhere. Anyhow, I left the track on Thursday feeling that I had made some real progress and feeling good about the upcoming races.
Oi Wah and I got to the track on Saturday evening around 6:30. On the way in we saw a couple of our fellow Open Twins riders, Jason Ross and Scott Miles and pitted along side them.
Going into this weekend I had two goals. One, not to get lapped by Brian Parriott and Matt Green at the end of the Open Twins race. The second was to finish ahead of Ed Haazer #45 in Super Dino. Ed and I had been battling for third and fourth places in rounds four and five this year. Me ending up fourth both times. Neither of us made it to Thunderhill for round six.
Sunday morning I was up and through tech early. Morning practice was just about getting new tires scrubbed in and going over some of my new reference points on the track surface from Thursday's track day. Everything seemed good during practice. First up was Open Twins race number three of the morning.
After the riders meeting and National Anthem I go check my grid positions, row #5 position #20 second from far left, for race #3 Open Twins. Race #7 Super Dino has me on row #4 position #18, on the far right.
Open Twins is called and I head to the grid. I'm lined up right next to our good pal Joe "Hit Man" Hittner #622 on his Ducati 1098s. We're starting in front of the Open Production racers this time. Warm up lap, two board, one board, Sidewaaaaayyyyssss, green flag and off we go. Joe leads me into turn two but I stay right with him. For the next five laps I dog Joe right on his back wheel,but just can't get past him. His 1098 has just too much power for the old 851. Over the last two laps Joe puts a few bike lengths between us. As we get the white flag I realize something, Brian Parriott and Matt Green haven't lapped me. This is where I really get serious, forget about Joe, I just want to hold off the top Open Twins riders on my last lap. And this I do. Overall I finished 18th of 22 finishers and 24 starters.
Super Dino, race seven is the third race after the lunch break. Super Dino goes off in the second wave, after 650 Production, and in front of 500 Twins and Formula Singles. Warm up lap and we're in position. Were lined up on row four, me on the far right position #18. When the green flag drops it's business as usual, Michael Boyer and Guy Hyder lead us into turn two followed by me and my arch rivals Ed Haazer and Cary Hilt. The only difference this time is that Ed does not pass me in turn seven. I hang with the leaders for the first two or three laps but lose touch as we get into traffic. In the end I hold on to third place and earn my first AFM trophy. Or any trophy for that matter.
All in all it was a very good weekend for me. The things I had worked on that Thursday at the PTT track day dropped my lap times by 4+ seconds, into the 1:54 range.
We have one race weekend left, October 18-19 back at Buttonwillow where it all started. I have a chance of taking over third place in the Super Dinosaur class, but we shall see, I'm currently in fourth.
griff851
Big congratulations on the trophy, Thanks again for the report, it's a great read as always.
Griff
philthy
gianpaolo wroteWonderful bike and place, Brian. But you are a lucky man not only for the bike and the place but also for the tires if you can use that kind on normal roads. Today I did a trip on a lake 90 km from Milan in the north of Italy with my 888 SP3. Along this lake (14 km) there were five police checks. If you use slick tires the police "kidnaps" your bike and you have to pay a very high fine. A lot of problems also with the noise.
Ciao Gianpaolo
What 😯 A problem with noise? in Italy ? The world's gone mad 😡
