Race Report CCS Team Challenge GT Lights @ RA
First off, I just want to thank the folks who came out and gave us a hand. Jeff, Duke, Dirk's friend Mike, and Tom Swagert all gave a hand during the race and it was GREATLY appreciated. We also had moral support from Dirk's son Henry and Mike's nephew Tony.
Dirk, Henry and I headed up on Wednesday night so we'd be up there and beat some of the long lines that CCS had last year. I remember standing in line for a hour and a half to get registered and I pre registered too. Thankfully, they changed how things operated and we flew through signing in.
Thursday we was a practice day for us so we brought the SV650 and RC51. We had made some minor changes to the bike from the Moto-ST round. I installed a 16t countershaft sprocket and rebuilt the forks with some thicker oil. Also Thursday morning, we installed a Yosh slip-on that Dirk picked up. Practice went well and Dirk was actually able to sweet talk his way into the LW group on the 51 to tow me around and give some advice. Dirk's practice did have some incidents in it. Somehow, the 51's front fender came off the bike while he was breaking for turn 5. He then proceeded to run it over! Luckily, he didn't crash but I'm sure it was an eye opener. We also had a issue with the oil catch can leaking but we did some trackside engineering and fixed that.
After practice, we did some changes to the bike to turn in better. We then used Friday morning practice to evaluate the changes. We both were happy with the bike's handling so we left it.
Unfortunately, Paul was unable to make it up to RA so we had a strategy meeting and came up with a plan. I was going to start the race and Dirk was going to clean up my mess. :>) We got everything set up on hot pit road and then waited for the noon start. We then quickly figured out, it wasn't going to start at noon since all the corner workers were just starting to eat lunch. I went and found Bill Ferman who runs things and asked when is the Team challenge going to start since it's already past noon. He said it would start at 12:30. 5 minutes later, they made an announcement letting everyone know. Makes me wonder, if I didn't go ask, if they would have made the announcement.
They finally started making the calls for the TC. I rolled up to the grid for the start and promptly got smoked since I've never launched a SV before. At least I did keep the pack of SV's in sight and somehow a 600 got in the middle of our SV pack. I wasn't all that impressed with whoever was riding the 600 since a pack of SV's were surrounding him. I would pass him in the corners and then he would fly past in the straights and the fun (not) would start all over again. He was really annoying me since he was screwing up my lines. He finally woke up a few laps later and cleared off. I was then able to reel in the next SV and we passed each other a few times. The pack I was in then started to go for their rider changes. I stayed out since we were only doing one rider change. I rode for 15 laps and then turned it over to Dirk.
Our pit stop went pretty smoothly with the exception that I couldn't see our pit sign. Duke then started waving his arms around when he noticed I looked lost. You also have to remember that pit lane doesn't have a speed limit so I was traveling pretty fast. I came up into pit road with the throttle to the stop and grabbing gears. In the confusion of trying to find our pit, I wasn't able to leave the bike in neutral. I jumped of the bike and proceeded to get it into the neutral while they had it on the rearstand. The crew dumped in the fuel and Dirk then took off.
Dirk started ripping off lap times about 10 seconds quicker than mine. Dang skinny people with more skill than me! :>) While Dirk was out in his stint, I stayed geared up in case something happened and I had to go back out for what ever reason. We were trying to figure out where we were in the standings but they don't have a monitor with the information. So we had no clue where we were but we just kept pushing.
When it got down to the last 5 laps, I went and changed out of my leathers. They finally waved the checkered flag and we all stood up on the wall to wave at Dirk as he roared by!
We then started taking down our pit while we all wondered how we finished. It wasn't until a little while later when they asked for bike #30 to come up to victory lane!!!!!!!!!!! and let me add some more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We finished SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The factory Buell team, The James Gang was the only folks to beat us!!!! Holy Crap! We couldn't believe it. So we had to take the bike up and do the whole talk to the announcer and take pictures and all that jazz! The James Gang also complimented us on our pit stop and how smooth and quick it was. They were pitted next to us during the race.
Wow, we kept saying to the announcer that we did not expect to be standing here talking to you. This was a very cool moment for Team SSDI / COMPoST.
So we finished 11th overall and 2nd in class. We completed 35 laps and The James Gang completed 37 laps.
Next stop on our little journey is Moto-ST at Heartland Park August 17Th. Then, the following weekend is the CCS Team Challenge at Blackhawk on August 23rd & 24Th.
Chuck
PS: I guess I better do some maintenance on the bike now huh?
__________________
'07 SV650, '04 FZ1, '02 RC51, '97 XR400, '85 XR4Ti
|
Linear Mode
