Race #8 – Buttonwillow Backwards, October 18-21
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Your Bike Won’t Wheelie |
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We were excited to spend four days
in Buttonwillow or rather for
Buttonwillow, the last race of the season. We had a track day planned for Thursday,
an optional test day for Friday, AFM’s practice day on Saturday and race day
on Sunday. Turns out, we needed ALL of those days… |
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Sherwick wheelies the bike at Infineon |
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October 18- Track Day |
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We had many items on our agenda for
Thursday. New brake pads demanded proper bedding in during the first session.
We also planned on experimenting with gearing. Recall from last
year that Buttonwillow in the reverse direction, or “wolliwnottuB” as it
was affectionately called, showcased a super-long back straight and the right
gearing was essential for fast lap times. Last year in the race, we reached
165mph on the .7 mile section and we were eager to improve upon that! At those incredible speeds bumps
get amplified. There is a small rise about three quarters of the way down
which made the bigger bikes wheelie. We saw the revs increase briefly as we “jumped”
this little change in pavement and if you weren’t ready for it (as we weren’t
the first time), you could find yourself floating in mid-air as the bike
descended. Once your head was out of the protection of the windscreen, the
wind would threaten to snap it off! We were also greeted with another
surprise at those speeds- the coolant overflow tank spitting fluid inside the
windscreen. We quickly put a stop to that with what is in every racer’s
toolbox of tricks – duct tape! In the morning, we were able to run
2:03.30 with a 39-tooth rear sprocket. Jami timed the track as two sections:
the fast, flowing part and the slow, twisty part. Surprisingly a change down
to 38 teeth lead to an improvement in both
sections. We were now at 2:03.08 with a max speed of 161mph! The rest of the
afternoon saw continued improvement down to the low 2:02’s which put us faster than our race times from last
year! Nevertheless, our tires started to complain as we spun up the rear
several times coming out of both the Star Mazda corner as well as |
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Track Day best lap = 2:02.30 |
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We changed from a 39 to a 38-tooth Vortex sprocket
“Duc” tape comes in handy! |
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October 19- Test Day |
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We decided to run Friday afternoon
practice after getting some much needed rest in the morning. After a one-hour
fartlek run and some not-so-healthy breakfast at Denny’s, we returned to the
track to test our shift points and passing lines, the bumps on the track (we
counted seven serious ones) and to calculate our fuel consumption. We were
using up more than a gallon every five laps so Jami proposed to fill the tank
with two gallons per race (instead of our customary one gallon per race) just
to be safe. After a string of 2:00 flats we decided to call it a day. Our new
top speed was now up to 164mph! During our last session, we had a
brief run-in with Michael Earnest (known fast guy and current AFM #3 plate
holder) when we squared up a slower rider in the Star Mazda corner only to
find Earnest on the inside, ready to pass us both! We felt his front tire rub
our inside leg as he narrowly avoided a collision and in return he gave us a
long stare as he blew by us on his GSX-R1000. A talk in the pits later
cleared up everything which was good. |
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Test day best lap = 2:00.81 |
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We would see 167mph by Saturday!
Unfortunately our new PR of 2:00 would not get
challenged in the race |
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October 20- Practice Day |
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On Saturday, Jeff Tigert and Brant Wiwi
arrived and pitted in the spots we had reserved for them on either side of
us. Jeff and Brant are two of the fastest riders in the paddock and we were
excited to learn whatever we could from them. The morning turned up very
windy with gusts of up to 30mph. Dust was everywhere both in our pits and on
the race track and we were not able to improve upon our times although our
new max speed was now 167mph (with a tailwind)! We changed out both tires and
at the suggestion of Jeff, let him test our bike during the last afternoon
session when the winds had died down a bit. 'The front and rear seem to not be
tracking” was the first thing he said. “1:58 is all I can do without
crashing” was the second thing he said. “Your bike won’t wheelie” was the
third thing he said. We checked all the engine mounting
bolts, the triple clamps as well as the chain alignment and everything seemed
to be in order. We then decided to ask Eric Gulbransen (2005-2006 Open Twins
Champion and ex-Ducati rider) whether this was a normal “Ducati” trait
inherent to the steel trellis frame (most other motorcycles rely on an
aluminum frame with a very rigid “twin spar” design which is not as flexy)
but he was nowhere to be found. So after changing out the dirty air filters,
we decided to retire for the day. We knew that we could ride the bike as it
was and were very used to it moving around. |
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Practice day best lap = 1:58.812 (Jeff) |
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Jeff test rides the 999 |
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October 21- Race Day |
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The next 12 hours we would rather
forget. Sunday morning came and we found
Eric Gulbransen walking by our pits so we took the opportunity to pick his brain.
Eric suggested we change to the slower steering geometry to increase
stability. We had been running the steep geometry all year because our new
triple clamps allowed for more trail, which theoretically should have
provided enough stability. But Eric knew what he was talking about when it
came to racing Duc’s so we decided to comply. Eric and Jeff changed the
geometry (which raked out the front wheel dramatically) in plenty of time
before practice. Higher-end Ducati’s come with a trick adjustable steering
head eccentric which makes adjustment easy and this was the first time we
actually saw it being changed. As is usual with racing, just as
Eric walked off satisfied that we were good to go, we ran into another
problem. Because our aftermarket upper
triple clamp had been moved backward due to the adjustment, the steering
damper was now interfering with the key lock. In a moment of haste, we
decided to dremel down the plastic covering of the key lock in order to
obtain additional clearance but after several minutes of grinding, we
realized that it would be easier to remove the cover entirely. After we
removed the cover, we were faced with a new problem. We could not simply
discard the cover. This is why. Ducati’s have an anti-theft immobilizer
“feature” which requires that a chip in the ignition key be situated in
delicate proximity within an antenna ring. Ducati had decided to glue this
antenna ring, inside the cosmetic
plastic cover which we had now ruined. In our rush to remove the glued-in
antenna (we were now inside first call to practice), we accidentally broke
three strands of the wire which turned out to be continuously wound! Now our
bike wouldn’t start! After combing the entire paddock
for another antenna during which time we collected the help of Scott Jenkins
and Lance Williams from Desmoto Sport, Mike Lawrence from Nichols and “Zip”
Showket from Viets Performance, we finally found a spare but by the time the
bike was running, we had already missed our practice. And to add insult to
injury, we had to return the geometry to original in order to get the
steering damper to fit! Lesson learned: NEVER make any drastic changes on
race day! |
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Sunday practice best lap = DNS |
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We got some help from Jeff
And some more help from Eric
But scrambled to the bike ready in time for the race |
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Race #1- Open Twins |
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Open Twins was the second race of
the day and we barely had enough time to catch our breath. We were gridded on
the second row in the 6th position. Sherwick recounts the brief race: “I
got a decent start and just like six other starts this year in this class, I
managed to out-launch my row as well as Eddy Gonzales in the first row! In a
manner reminiscent to his start in AFM6,
Eddy’s 1098 lurched abruptly off the line, but this time he veered across
from the inside to the outside, one foot off the peg. This opened the door to
the inside and I immediately accelerated past Eddy who was wallowing in what
seemed to be 2nd gear. Lance Williams who was gridded next to Eddy
was already at the turn, wild locks flowing behind him. Due to the lower
entry speed from the standing start, I revved out 3rd gear
(instead of downshifting from 5th) and proceeded to tip it into
the late-apex corner. No sooner had I started focusing on the end of the apex
when all of the sudden, BAM! An impact from the rear found me sliding off the
track. THAT was the extent of my race weekend!” After getting a ride back to the pits
thanks to Alex Florea, we got out of our dusty leathers and collected our
dusty bike from the crash truck. As we iced our battered ribs, we surveyed
the damage:
Our weekend then continued along
its downward spiral. We learned that four bikes were involved in the crash,
all of them failing to restart the race, explaining the sparse turnout in the
results. Having not heard from Eddy, we went over to his pits to check on
him. That’s when we were shocked to not only find out that he had blacked out
during the crash but also that he believed we had “T-boned” him thanks to a
rumor spread by his friend Ace Robey who happened to be watching from the
sidelines (courtesy of his crash from Sunday morning practice which made his
bike unride-able). We could not believe what we were hearing! We spent the rest of the day
listening to accounts of the crash from other riders on the grid as they came
by to check on us. The “T-bone” rumor lost its momentum soon after everyone
reviewed both the damage to our bike as well as Eddy’s machine. A more
parsimonious hypothesis finds us hit from behind (and to the left) with the
impact bending our left footpeg forward, marking our swingarm and gouging our
rear tire. We were then pitched onto the right side which subsequently got
destroyed with our right footpeg leaving scars on the asphalt leading up the
apex as it was being ground down. We invite you to judge for yourself what
actually happened after your own close examination of the evidence as
depicted in our complete documentary. |
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Open Twins: DNF |
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Damage on the left, aft of the footpeg
Bent footpeg, scratched swingarm and gouged rear tire
Extensive damage to the right side after going down |
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Race #2- 750 Superbike: DNS |
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Race #3- Formula 40: DNS |
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At the
beginning of the weekend, we were sitting 9th in two
championships. We only needed to finish close to Steve Metz who was 9 points
adrift of us in Open Twins. We simply needed to finish the race in Formula 40
because Eric Arnold, only 3 points ahead of us, was a no-show. Unfortunately,
we did not accomplish either goal. Steve rode a smart and conservative race
(with a fast lap of 2:02) and took over our 9th place spot. We
were shuffled back to 10th in Formula 40 with Eric assuming 9th
after William Bouch made up 46 points from scoring a spectacular third place
finish! During
times like this we often draw upon our “other” race experiences. The Ironman
often puts things in perspective. Unlike the Boston Marathon which has seen
the quality of runners diminish (e.g., the number of finishers under three
hours has dropped dramatically over the years from around half to just a
small percentage), the Hawaii Ironman has become tougher and tougher to get
into let alone race. Some triathletes, realizing that they have absolutely no
chance of qualifying (the chances are similar to qualifying for an AMA Superbike national) have resorted to
the lottery system as random luck seems to offer greater odds. We find
ourselves fortunate to have qualified for the Big Show five times. In 2000,
we were tested to the supreme on the |
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We are now looking towards 2008 as
the “Year of Change”. Almost everything will undergo a transformation but we
won’t spoil the surprise right now! The only thing that will be familiar will
be our Team JaS colors: Black, White and Red. Stay tuned… |
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Enjoy
the ride! –- Team
JaS
Special thanks to: |
