Well, I raced at Brainerd over the weekend on my SV1000. I haven't raced there since 1997, and I haven't seen the track since 2003 when I was a consultant for Safety First Racing.
But, honestly, the track is pretty much the same as it has been for a long time. The first time I raced there was in 1988 on my 600 Katana race bike. In 1989, WSB came to Brainerd, and they changed turn nine, which was scary; it used to be a third gear corner that had a steel barrier two feet off the track. At the end of the turn, the barrier ends, but the bridge begins.
I took the wife, kids, and the dog. That's kind of different for me because I just have so much going on with the business side of racing that it's hard to take them places. But with school being out and all, I invited every one to come.
We left Thursday evening, and it was a warm drive. The AC in the bus has been down since about 2003, and the system is kind of strange being a shuttle bus and all. We made it to the track around 11PM, and we picked out our spot in the dark for the weekend. Friday is practice, like Blackhawk. There was a threat of rain all three days, and, honestly, Brainerd is spooky in the rain; you use WFO for about a mile. It's fast.
I started the morning with my Blackhawk gearing, 17/42. I'm not sure if that's the right Blackhawk gearing yet, but it's what I've ran. Stock is 17/40. The track really didn't require me to learn much as I've been there, but I needed to remember where some of the bumps were. I did run out of gear. Turn one is WFO in sixth with your knee hitting the ground. I changed to a 17/39, and I think I started running speeds of around 174 or so on the speedo, so it's probably 157MPH or so. The rain did come in the afternoon, so we sat around. I went out in the last session to try 17/40, and I liked that a bit more than 17/39.
We ate at Famous Dave's that night, and we watched "Invincable" on the small screen in the bus.
I thought that I had both my raced on Sunday, but found out that I had Heavyweight Supersport on Saturday. That did help me out in that we'd be able to leave sooner on Sunday. Supertwins was the first race on Sunday.
I started to jack with the suspension a bit. With the track being so fast, the movement of air has a tendancy to lift the chassis and increase trail when you don't what it to be increased. So, I started by adding some rear preload, then taking out front preload. Ended up taking the rear preload out of the back in the end to just keep the bike a little lower so I could get through two a bit better, fifth gear with your knee on the ground.
I couldn't do anything better than a 1:49 for a lap time. The SV1000 just doesn't have any poop all alone. I can't keep up with a decent rider on a 600 in a straight line I was going to line up for the Heavyweight Supersport race with 30 other guys on GSXR750's and all the other 600's. The start kind of goes as planned from row three. I start and then we start shifting, and I move back. I still make up some space and I think I'm inside the top ten. I have a little thing with a guy for a couple laps, but I dispose of him. Inspite of the power and weight of the SV, it works well enough for me that my advantage is mid corner speed even over a lot of 600's. There's a group ahead of me, but they just provide me with a hole in the air to move through. I finished seventh with times in the 1:47 range. Suzuki should pay me for the finish in Heavyweight Supersport too, which will be nice.
Overnight, I replace my front tire. It was finished on the right side with all the fast, rough stuff. I really cleaned out the front calipers with some Simple Green to get rid of all the front brake drag, and that helped a ton. Additionally, I ground down the stop on the front brake lever so that it would rest further out and, hopefully, not putting on a little bit of front brake. I put on an old tire for Sunday morning practice, and saved my PR3 that I ran in HWSS for the race.
Practice went fine. I don't like the way my bike transitions from left to right quickly. Really, I think it needs more rebound in the front, but with the stock forks, it just won't do what I want it to do. So, I went back to my original settings. The Supertwins race was uneventful. I got a good start, and I led every lap.
I'm not sure how quickly Suzuki is paying on their contingency anymore, but I'll cover some of my expenses, then I'll donate the rest to the Ride For Kids pediatric cancer program.
Nice. those are fast times regardless of what type of bike you're on at BIR.
I raced a ex500 this past summer and made every event besides september. 2:01:xx was my fastest lap of the year on that bike.
you'll have to come back next year to see the new short track. last weekend, the last race weekend, you could see the beginning ground work for the new short course. turn 8 will be a carousel and the short course will end up with 13 turns I think. it will dump back on the old course right before one after a sharp right hand corner. it'll also do away with the high speeds in one and two with a chicane between them.
I was racing an SV1000. Fun bike, but it won't keep up with a fair running 600 in a straight line.
I was back up for the August event. Did pretty much the same thing. Seventh in HWSS and I won Supertwins.
Yeah, you can see where they are kind of going with the new layout. A friend of mine was up there for the September races, and said there was more stuff happening.
Hi Dave,
We haven't met yet but we may recognise each other from the track.
You finished 7th in HWSS in June, and you got into the 47's. I STUNK that day, finished 23rd and barely got into the 54's.
I am happy to report things did get better (the grids sure got friggin small though).
In August you finished 7th again with a 1:48, I managed to finish 11th with a 1:50. That was a good weekend for me, and I managed some laps in the 49's for the first time ever. Personally, I'd like another season on the big track to try to drop my laptimes further. I do look forward to the challenge of the new short course though.
July, August, and September all had small grids in the HeavyWeight classes. There was a whole crew of guys who quit during the year and sold their shit (including the #1 plate, Matt Losen). Unfortunately most of them were MW/HW riders, so I think our grids were hurting the worst. It must not have been club-wide, the report from Kitty said we made money and the club was looking good.
Those grids in June were huge by recent CRA standards. I imagine that was a money paying weekend for multiple manufacturers, and there probably wasn't a CCS round running that weekend. The new Trackaddix race series has also pulled some racers from our club, some of those racers aren't coming North anymore.
Hopefully with a repave, and a new circuit to challenge us, there will be more riders on the grid in 08.
The CRA site says we will be the first group to race the new circuit... and that isn't scheduled until the Sept 08 weekend.
Well, I guess I have plenty of time to figure out that gearing change.
My Brainerd report...
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