2008
Season, Race of Champions - Daytona, Oct 17 - 19
I was told that winning at Daytona
means coming home with you and all your equipment in the same
condition as when you left home. Well, if that is true then
we didn't win at Daytona!
Race of Champions. Daytona International
Speedway. If you have never been on the banking at Daytona,
pinned in 6th gear, then there is no way anyone can accurately
put words to it. It is scary. It is violent. It is intimidating.
In a word, it is ... ridiculous. It is like nothing you have
ever experienced.
During the Team Hammer practice
day on Thursday, I was really not getting along with the banking.
The GSXR 1000 is a really powerful machine and I had it geared
for top speed. I just could not get used to the craziness of
the banking during the morning sessions. It did not help that
we only had 4 sessions to learn the track with this whole "banking
weirdness". Thankfully, toward the end of Thursday I was
starting to figure out how to keep the Big Jiggy pinned (well
almost pinned anyway) all the way around the banking.
As Thursday afternoon was coming
to an end and Friday quickly approaching, I was more than a
little nervous and was having a hard time relaxing. My team
mate Art Lohman came around to the garage and prayed for all
of us that were sitting there together and I was reminded that
I needed to take a deep breath and simply trust in the One who
is ultimately in control of all things and far more powerful
than me.
On Thursday night, my wife encouraged
me to recognize that this was simply a new track and that I
have always done well at
learning new tracks quickly and getting up to speed. I have
to admit that my wife had more confidence in me than I had in
myself at that point. I am indeed blessed to have a good woman
who is so encouraging and supportive.
In fact, I had my daughter Rachel
with me and my team mate Stephan Hall had flown in from Kansas
to wrench for me. Art, Don and Mike from CSBRacing were also
there. I was indeed surrounded by support. Yep, blessed man
indeed.
Friday, Oct 17
Team Challenge (44 Laps) -
DNS (it went boom!)
Mr. Brian Wink, legendary NESBA
Control Rider and long time friend, let me borrow his GSXR 1000
to bring down to Daytona so that I would have a back up bike.
In order to get some badly needed track time and to get the
back up bike dialed in, my buddy Erik "the Flying Burrito"
Rodriguez and I planned to use Wink's bike to run the Team Challenge.
We went through the bike completely from front to back on Thursday
and got the bike ready for the first race of the event.
On Friday morning, we picked
up some VP U4.2 race fuel and then during the first morning
practice, I took Wink's bike out to dial in the setup before
turning it over to Burrito to give him some track time on the
Big GSXR. After running 4 laps, the bike was running strong
and feeling pretty good. I
came in and handed the bike to Erik and he took it out. After
only 2 laps, the Big GSXR 1000 threw a rod through the front
of its engine.
As if doing Daytona were not
expensive enough, now we just add the cost of a new motor. Well,
so much for doing the Team Challenge.
GTO (25 minute) - 4th Place
(I apologize for the shortness
of the videos, I am having issues with camera turning off during
the races)
The gearing for Daytona is far
taller than any other track I have raced. I was not prepared
for how hard it is to get the bike off the line with such a
tall first gear. As a result, I got a terrible start off the
line and went into turn 1 well back in the field. I then spent
the first half of the race, trying to figure out my brake markers
at race pace. Turn 1 was especially giving me troubles as many
of the Daytona veterans were outbraking me into this tricky
long decreasing radius corner.
Around mid-race, I was able to
get into a decent rhythm and began to work my way forward as
I continued to learn the track, learn how to setup the draft,
learn the faster lines and the appropriate brake markers. I
spent most of the second half of the race fighting for the last
step on the podium with a guy on a green Kawi. As a result,
I got a lot of air time with the race announcers which was pretty
cool. I really wish my onboard camera would have not shut off
on me so soon because it was one of the closest, highly contested,
back-and-forth battles I have had all year. Absolutely exhilarating
racing!
At the end of the race, I was
inches away from getting on the podium but I made a small mistake
on the last lap and allowed him to slip past. I guess this is
a game of inches isn't it?
The camera did pick up some of
the craziness in the early part of the race though. On lap 2
for instance, I guess some guy's engine blew or something on
the banking and he was just coasting along the straight away
between Nascar Turn 2 and the chicane. As you can imagine, at
top speed the motorcycle is very very difficult to get to change
directions when you are pinned at full throttle in 6th gear.
I came entirely too close to running straight into the back
of this guy. In fact, I actually hit him with my left elbow
hard enough to knock my left hand off the handle bar as I went
by him. In the video, you can see the whole bike shake as I
hit him while I blasted past him.
ASRA Superstock Qualifying
- 9th Place
Since qualifying for the ASRA
race at Road America was rained out, this was my first qualifying
experience. It was actually pretty nice. Lots of open track
and I did pretty well. I dropped my times down another second
or so and qualified 9th with a 1:54.2. A couple of the front
runners, were running in the 1:48 and 1:49 range with several
other experts in the 1:52 and 1:53 area.
I felt good about being in the
top ten in such a competitive class at a premier National event
like this one. More importantly, being on the track with some
faster racers showed me several places on the track where I
was losing time. This is awesome cause class was once again
in session.
Saturday, Oct 18
Unlimited Supersport - DNF
Man, I was all excited about
this race. I spent all night going over the track in my head
and I felt really comfortable during the morning practice.
On the grid, Matt Hall was gridded
right next to me and he was very encouraging to me as we lined
up and prepared for the start. Matt is one of the fast guys
and he has been somewhat of a mentor to me at several tracks
this year, always willing to provide helpful feedback and insightful
critique.
I got a decent start and was
fighting hard for positions in the top 5 when my bike's motor
decided to eat itself all of the sudden on the second lap. The
big 1000 seemed to have an insatiable hunger for valves and
decided to ingest one and destroy a couple of pistons in the
process. I immediately pulled off the track feeling really bummed
out.
Stephan Hall, Burrito and I spent
the rest of the day on Saturday disassembling both GSXR 1000's
looking for enough good parts to put one working motor together.
In the end, it was not to be. As a result, I was unable to compete
in the rest of my races.
Sunday, Oct 19
Unlimited Superbike - DNS
Unlimited GP - DNS
ASRA Superstock
- DNS
Summary
Daytona is like no other track.
The banking is simply insane. The top speeds is just horrendous.
I have never spun up the rear tire so much in my life, it was
just crazy.
Other than a few more NESBA dates,
this event is the last event of the 2008 season. It has been
a wonderful first season of racing. They say that racing has
some of the highest highs and some of the lowest lows. It is
indeed a rolling coaster ride, full of excitement and adversity.
Again, I gotta give out major
props to my sponsors, I absolutely
could not have done it without all your support this year.
