Team Charm 2001 Season

Index at a glance:

Looking ahead to 2001 in Jan from team headquarters

3/3/01, Daytona International Speedway, CCS Sprints

4/14-15/01, Virginia International Raceway, CCS Sprints

 5/4-6/01, Carolina Motorsports Park, CCS Sprints

5/12-13/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints

6/9-10/01, Summit Point Raceway, WERA Sprints

6/23-24/01, Roebling Road Raceway, CCS Sprints

7/7-8/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints

8/04/01, Summit Point Raceway, WERA 6hr Endurance

8/05/01, Virginia International Raceway, CCS Sprints.

9/02/01, Roebling Road Raceway, CCS Sprints.

9/8-9/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints.

10/13-14/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints.

Jan, 2001

 Year 2001 promises to be a much better year to Team Charm. We ended off 2000 going fast & winning races in the 1'19's range at Summit Point. Currently we have 3/3/01 Daytona Supertwins event on the billet, and plan on doing the CCS Mid-Atlantic series hoping to win the regional Supertwins title. We plan also on doing a few WERA endurance events (perhaps even Portland, visiting the Masson's) as well. Rich STILL does not have a bike yet, but the house is on the market to perhaps 2001 will find Rich back in the fray. Stay tuned for details.

The Team Charm TL1000R received minimal preparation for this years Bike Week CCS opener. As normal, CCS put its club event at Daytona International Speedway the weekend prior to the AMA 200 miler, is on the Mid-Atlantic schedule as a double points event. While the list of CCS club racers from the Mid-Atlantic region that have pondered the inclusion of an event in Daytona Beach, FL on a Mid-Atlantic racing schedule is long and distinguished, and further why that event is a double pointer – making it mandatory for those with championship aspirations to attend, no reasonable insight has been presented other than CCS sure needs LOTS of club race entries to cover costs.

It is with the glum realization that winning a regional expert championship is difficult without securing a reasonable finish at every double points event that Steve decided to make the long haul down to Daytona. Astute readers of these chronicles will know that the last race that Steve completed at Daytona was the Oct. ’92 CCS Race of Champion’s Sportsman event wherein Steve demonstrated to Brian Summers once and for all who is the faster racer.

Bike prep for this weekends event was minimal, consisting of changing the original OEM air filter on the might TL1000R, installing the fairing, new tires, and guestimating the gearing at 17/39, same as stock ratio. Travel arrangements would prove to be a more difficult matter. Rather then attempt to drive down earlier in the week to get enough practice to insure a good finish, and thusly increase both cost and time commitment, Steve made the choice to make a last minute arrival for the Saturday race. While depending on ability, and not practice time, to get a reasonable finish has historically not proved to be a racer’s best agenda, the costs of making a hearty effort in time and money were prohibitive. Putting the word out he needed folks to help with the drive, Steve’s financee', Anya, decided to be pit crew for the weekend, and help with the driving. This would be her first trip to the "Worlds Center of Racing." Realistically Steve hoped for a 20^th place finish, which due to the double points would be the same as a fourth place finish at a normal event.

Leaving Gaithersburg at 6:15 am on Friday 3/2/01 the two set out for what amounted to an uneventful trip to the Days Inn across from the Daytona Speedway. The only note worthy event along the route was the loss of the right fender off the trailer in southern Virginia. Presumably the corroded mounts gave way, Steve’s pre-trip refurbishment of the trailer lights did not reveal any problems with the fenders.

As southern progress was made, gradual adjustments of the car’s heater from first full hot, to warm, to cool, to final activation of the air conditioning demonstrated in mercury the 10-degree loss of latitude that the trip marked.

Getting what proved to be the last good sleep for the next 24 hours, the two went to bed early on Friday night to get up in time for registration at 7am. Daytona has a well-deserved reputation for silly rules enforced by rather rude guards. We are happy to report this is still the case. Being directed to "unload your stuff and get your car out of here" we were lucky to find Donnie Unger’s pit to leave our stuff at. Donnie is the motivating force behind Duc Pond Racing, and a hell of a nice guy to let us pit with him.

Getting thru tech and reading for practice was, a breeze, undoubtedly the result of Steve meticulous preparation of the TL1000R. Steve made his first and only practice session of the morning with time to spare, as this picture Anya took of him in line shows. While the pictures are not great (blame the camera, not Anya) they are at least authentic. We also took time to weight the TL on the CCS/NRRS official scales, which came in at a portly 460.5lbs with a full tank of gas ready to go. Yieeksss!

Practice revealed that the bike was 100% right. The gearing, which Steve thought was going to be a tad too short, ended up being just fine given the 20 mph easterly prevailing winds. We had about 500 rpm below read line in top geat coming into the chicane, and 1000 rpm coming into the tri-oval to spare. Daytona is the fasted track in the country. It takes a bit to get used to the alien environment of holding wide open throttle for 30-40 seconds per lap on the high banks. But as Steve discovered on the 600 ten years ago, once the novelty wears off, its pretty tame. Unlike the 85hp FZR600, which hits perhaps 150mph on the high banks, the TL1000R, with its 120hp gets up to 175mph. One has to get use to looking "up" to see what's ahead, rather than the normal straight ahead or side, much in the same way one looks up to see where you are going when banking a aircraft. In the infield the TL handled great, with Steve playing catch up to get his shift and turn point set in the all too brief 4 laps of his only practice set.

The race was run in the afternoon with even more of an easterly wind than the morning. Steve had a last place grid position on the 11^th row, so far back from the starting flag that he could barley see the starter. The five lap race was noteworthy because if its inclusion of Scott "Mr. Daytona" Russell who has won more 200’s there than any other racer. He was getting some extra track time on his Duc 996 in prep for next weekend’s premier 200, and it was amazing to witness his tire smoking, wheel standing antics in the club race field. Getting a poor start Steve was just about last going into turn one, but quickly began to dispatch slower riders working his way up thru the pack starting with a daring pass that put him way outside the line in turn three, in the marbles on the first lap. Motoring past Donnie Unger (if you can’t do it with skill, do it with power), or rather, sucking the paint off his bike, in the tri-oval was a poor way to show thanks for letting us pit with him. Donnie returned the favor by diving under Steve going into the turn three horseshoe , but Steve out motored Donnie down the short shoot to the dog leg, which Donnie answer by tucking underneath the second horseshoe turn. Steve waited till the banking to drive low on the banking and skillfully out motor Donnie. Steve then ended up getting into a two lap long dice with a unknown TL-S mounted rider. Closing up behind on lap three Steve found out the TL-S was just as fast as Steve’s TL-R on the banking, but Steve just ran out of time putting together a pass before the 5 laps were over. On the final lap coming out of turn two Steve tried to get position to out brake him into three, but was not able to make it stick. Steve blew the drafting possibilities on the banking, the result of missing a shift on coming out of the chicane.

Final finishing position of 13^th out of 40 puts Steve with a good starting position for a 2001 CCS Mid-Atlantic Expert Supertwins title chase. On the cool down lap Steve lofted a 2^nd gear wheelie out of the turn three, a nice finish to a great, albeit short, race. Too bad Anya, miss the wheelie.

As Steve said; "It was really great for Anya to help me with all the driving and everything. She has been a real trooper. I’m real happy I got a 13^th, I was just hoping to get some points, and I have. I know I could have done better if I had more track time, I didn’t really get my brake, shift and turn in points down about until about ½ thru the race. The bike is really, really fast. I saw 180mph on the speedo, but I’m sure its off. It was way faster than the 600 I last rode here, but once you get use to it, its fine.

Anya said of the experience, "All the rage in the pits at Daytona are those cute little electric powered scooters. Where can I get one?"

Due to the projected weather for the Mid-Atlantic region, Steve and Anya decided to drive thru all night to get home before the snow in. Original the two planned to drive home Sunday 3/4/01, staying either in Daytona or Savannah Saturday night. The two only stopped for four hours to sleep in route, arriving home at 10:45am on Sunday. This makes the total trip time away from home 52.5 hours, a total driven distance of 1654 miles all for four laps of practice to get ready for a 5 lap race, placing in the top third of the field at a track Steve hadn’t raced at for six and a half years!!!

NOT TOO SHABBY!!!

Leaving Friday after work, Steve opted for the maximum west Rt 81 scenic route to Danville, Va for the weekends CCS events at VIR. This route, while perhaps 50 miles longer, avoided the traffic wasteland of Friday night holiday weekend traffic leaving the Washington DC area. The drive also tracks thru some of the prettiest sections of middle Virginia, especially Rt 501 from Rt 60 to Rt 29. Arriving at the track about 10:30 at night, we were surprised to find out that VIR charges the normal $20 gate fee person, plus a $25 "camping charge" to stay over night in the pits. The good news is this "camping charge" includes all the 110 voltage you need, but does not include hot water in the shower, but more on that later on. While the pits were quiet, Steve managed to find a spot next to the Duc Pond Racing team to park at, crawled of the van & fell asleep to the distant wailing of some wild (perhaps domestic, donno) animal.

Arising Saturday morning Steve managed to get registered & thru tech without any problems, it was nice to see all the racing friends after the long winter break, not withstanding the 9 hours at Daytona in March. First practice went pretty smooth. Steve, for whom this was his first time at VIR, took a careful look at the new track. The course reminds one of a cross between Louden and Mid-Ohio. There are lots of elevation changes, and lots of tight turn one after another in rapid succession. Bill Dietz's motor stuck a exhaust valve during that first pratice, striping his timing belt and sideling him for the day. Bernie Huntt managed to crash going down the hill "roller coaster" on a borrowed bike, but was fortunately not hurt. The second practice revealed a better idea of what should be happening, but the cadence of the fast sweepers before and in the uphill back section are difficult to get the 460lbs TL in and out of. This was a problem that would plague Steve all weekend, but more on that in a bit as well. The track has a very exciting fast sweeper on the front straight that is taken at the top of 5^th or the bottom of 6^th, depending on drive. This is a great spot to stand at and watch the bikes go by at 150 mph or so, as one is about 10 feet from the racing line on the inside of the turn. You can feel the pressure wave coming off the bike as it goes by. The weather on Saturday was perfect, almost too cool in the shade, and just warm enough in the sun to get a nice warm up.

Steve entered the 30 minute GTO event on Saturday afternoon in order to get some more tack time to get his lines and shift points down. The race was flagged off late in the afternoon with a Steve at the very back of the 8 row grid. Notably, national fast guy Eric Wood was gridded just in front of Steve. The race ran about four laps when the red flag came out due to a incident at the top of the hill in the back section. A racer had crash, and was standing in the middle of the track holding his bike up. The gas tank sheet metal was peeled up and over the top of the bike, looking like the bad guy in Terminator 2 after getting shot with the grenade launcher, and the airbox was on the racing line, 5 feet from the bike. Gas had spilled which need cleaning and was the cause of the red flag.

On the restart Steve resumed his practice, getting the course down during the race. After about 5 laps, Steve came out of turn two and had a pretty long slide, out of the next three turns, again the rear started to come around. Going up the hill he slowed the pace, but again the rear was coming around as if the bike was hard under power. In the "roller coaster" turn Steve had a very big rear drift, that did not come back with a reduction of throttle. Putting his hand up Steve pulling into the pits two turns latter to make a change to the rear suspension and retake to the course, but the checkered flag came out before he could. This proved to be a very good thing, but more on that in a bit.

Unlike most tracks, VIR has a liquor license. Most places in the racing community only serve your lower grade of adult beverages. We are please to report that the VIR track management has invested in providing higher quality brews (for example Yuengling Lager) on draft for a not unreasonable $3.00 per 16 oz cup. There are few things nicer than having a few pints after a day racing. We were happy to join the Duc Pond folks, who, except for Donnie, were not having the best of days, but were able to find sanctuary in the pavilion over a few suds over looking turns three and four.

Saturday evening the over all great impression of the track was marred by the discovery that the hot water capacity of the showers was woefully deficient. While a cold shower on a hot day is not, by itself, a bad thing, but the fact that one pays an additional $25 for this please leaves a somewhat unpalatable taste. Also, this track is about 20 miles from the nearest place to buy bottled water or food, unless you purchase it at the track, you're in for a long drive.

Sunday morning the day started overcast with the threat of rain for the afternoon. The premier twins race, Supertiwns, was on the schedule as the second race and was hopefully to run before the lunch break and associated quite time of 11am-12pm. This would allow Steve to get home in time for Sunday Easter dinner with the family. There was only one practice session on Sunday morning. Steve was in practice group four, and while practice group two was out he discovered, while checking his tire pressure, that his rear tire was flat and had a 2mm hole in it!!! Clearly all of the bad warning signs he felt during the Saturday race were cause by the rear loosing pressure. Yanking the rear wheel off and trotting down to the Dunlop vender, Race Tire Services, Steve was able to purchase a new tire. The awesome folks at RTS were able to get the replacement tire mounted in time for Steve to make his practice to get the tire scrubbed in before the race. Hats off the to RTS guys.

The Supertwins event was delayed till after the lunch break due to a red flag in the unlimited super sport event preceding it. Promptly at 12:05pm the Supertwins field took to the course for their warm up lap. Steve was gridded behind just about everyone on the 5^th row. When the green flag waved starting the race Steve got a so-so start and was the first one of the second main group going into one. Coming into turn three the leaders, who included Steve Keener, Donnie Under, Sebastian DiPinto, Fred Stucky, and a few others, were pulling out. Steve set off to chase them down. After coming on the front straight for the first time, Steve was able to reel in the trailing elements of the lead group, but the race leader, and eventual winner, was pulling away reportedly doing smooth high 38's lap time. Steve was able to get around a really fast 916 and get behind Unger and DiPinto to stage for a third lap pass . Steve made good on his plans, swooping by Under and Dipinto on the straight, but the two quickly showed their familiarity with the course by immediately re-passing for position going into turn one and two. Steve followed the two around the course for yet chance to pass, while a 916 managed to get around. Climbing back up on the front straight Steve was able to get a really good drive and solidly pass the three going into turn one on the next lap . Steve tried to put some distance between himself and the pesky 916, but at this point was having trouble keeping to his bike on his lines. At this point Steve ran is best lap time which was reportedly in the '41 range according to Dennis Woods. The combined effect of not having enough track time, compounded by the tight nature of the track, was taking its toll on the Steve, who was getting fatigued riding slightly over his head. While he managed to open a little bit of a lead over the 916 rider , it was quickly lost when Steve had a major rear wheel slide going up the hill into the back section. The bike got further sideways than Steve had ever had it. Snapping back it shot him up out of the saddle as the bike violently righted itself. Fortunately Steve landed back on the machine and was able to keep going, but was clearly rattled. The 916 rider drafted by on the straight as the two took the white flag. Steve attempted a rally, to draft at the finish line, but the debilitating effects of fatigue, fear, and a careful lap on the part of the 916 rider prevented it. Steve took fourth, we think, but more on that in a minute. The 916 rider was reward third place and in second was Steve Keener, bike number three, who was having a great race and a great day to that point. Here is the 2^nd, 3th and 4^th places on the cool down lap . First place went to Stucky, who was completely out of sight. As Steve said:

In order to make it home in time for Easter dinner with the folks, we had to leave the track before the results were actually posted, so we do not actually know what the final results were. We will update this page as soon as we know.

Special thinks to Mr. & Mrs Bernie Huntt who kindly took all the above pictures, and of course, thanks to the Duc Pond crew for putting up with us in the pits, we promise we'll pit elsewhere next time…J

 5/4-6/01, Carolina Motorsports Park, CCS Sprints

Coming into this weekend's event we pleased to find Steve fourth in the points for CCS's Mid-Atlantic Expert Supertwins regional points chase. According to CCS's web page as of 5/4/01 the point standings hashed out as; in first place with 171 points Fred Stucky, in second place with 138 Jeffery McKinney, in third place with 130 Thomas Fournier, with our own Steve in fourth place with 129 points. Rounding out the top seven spots include local guys Steve Keener with 126 points and Donnie Under with 118. The good news is that while the season has not started off with stellar finishes on our part, the meat and potatoes of the championship is going to be decided at our home track of Summit Point where our home town advantage should certainly come into play. It was with this understanding that the trip to CMP was merely a necessity to maintain our position near the top of the point chase. CMP, which we are sure has a enthusiastic following in some circles, is not a fun track to ride on a 460 pound motorcycle with 120 hp. The track has a number of first gear parking lot speed turns that just are a wrestling match to get the bloated TL-1000R in and out of, especially for a weakling like Steve...

9am Saturday morning found Steve leaving alone to drive the 477 miles to South Carolina's premier motorcycle road racing venue. The drive was uneventful, save for a hellish traffic jamb cause by NASCAR fans going to the Richmond 250 race. Steve decided to forgo any races on Saturday and just do the supertwins race on Sunday. Arriving at the track Saturday evening around 5:30pm Steve set about to pit with Sebastian & Ro of C&A racing. Thus far this year Steve has had to pit with other teams at the track. Conspicuously absent has been Team Charm founder Rich Sturges who has not had a functioning race bike since 1998. While numerous people have asked Steve "Hey what ever happened to that nice guy you used to hang out with" we can only hope that the concept of Rich Sturges being distantly remembered at the race track will soon go away. Originally the plan was for Steve to sleep @ the track in a tent, but the relatively low cost of hotel rooms made the invitation to share a room with Sebastian too much to resist. A bed and hot shower can do wonders for one's race track performance, and watching Sabastian's attempt to avail himself of a romantic interlude with some local waitresses proved to be entertaining.

Sunday morning the weather was perfect, perhaps a tad on the warm side. Things at the track, however, were not all well. Moving the bike back to the pits from tech inspection, the engine was only running on one cylinder. The rear cylinder exhaust pipe was noticeably cooler than the front, so a fouled spark plug in the rear cylinder was diagnosed. With the combined practice groups, Steve had to hustle around to get a replacement plug, install it, and make his practice. Thanks to help from Admir Steve made the practice. The first lap of practice proved rather exciting when a rider ran into Steve entering one of the ultra slow right hand turns in the back section of the track. The impact almost tossed a very surprised Stephen on the ground as the impact centered on the left handlebar's, resulting in an unexpected and forceful steering input...it also snapped the clutch lever clean off his bike. Apparently the rider was attempting a tight pass on the first lap of morning practice, which is not a good thing. The unknown rider crashed seven turns later in an unrelated & second mistake of judgement. Thinking this was going to be his only practice set Steve decided to remain out & work on his lines & shift points without the use of the clutch. Upshifts without a clutch are routine in road racing, but down shifting without a clutch is rather challenging, requiring precise timing of specific amounts of throttle "blip" to get the gears spinning at the correct speed in order to engage the lower transmission ratio. Fortunately the TL-1000R is equipped with a "slipper clutch" that limits back torque applied during engine braking. Even a ham-fisted meathead like Steve found it easy to shift up and down sans clutch without grinding the gears.

Getting back to the pits after practice to repair the damage, had the air of urgency for Steve, due to the nature of the bike. The problem is the stock clutch on a TL uses a hydraulic master cylinder, a rarity on most race bikes due to its inherent poor feel when trying to get a good launch during a start. A local vender (Marietta Motorsports) had a replacement clutch lever for $15, so Steve was back in business as far as the bike was concerned, if not a little rattled from the experience. In a early morning start windfall we got second practice before the race started, which help to confirm Steve dislike for the course.

The supertwins race was second race of the day, and ran before lunch. Flagged off for the warm up lap under the five minute board, Steve made his way around the course for his fourth row grid position for the start. Following what had to be the slowest sideways turning of a 1 minute board, Steve got a rather poor start and was 2nd from last going into turn one. Getting a great start was Sebastian Dipinto, but more on that in a minute. 2nd thru 9th places cascaded thru the first five turns until the group reached the back straight where horsepower could stratify the mass. Make skillful use of his throttle, Steve managed to pass a few bikes & start climbing up the group. Several riders who were clearly more familiar with the course we able to re-pass going into the dreaded slow section, but next time around on the straights the superior horsepower of the TL quickly dispatched them. The combined effect of the cluster was to slow everyone down for the first three laps until the group could sift out be lap time. Up in front Sebastian was running '45's from the first lap and was able to open up a very substantial lead in the first two laps. After the midway flag the race settled with 2nd thru 5th place in a loose gaggle starting to close on the leader. At this point Steve was in fifth behind Bill Dietz, Donnie Unger and unknwn 916 rider. Again, as played out while working thru the group, the drama hashed out on a function of Steve being passed or following thru the turns, only to re-pass for position on the straights. Bill lowsided shortly after being passed, and was fortunately not hurt. Steve and Donnie exchanged places three times, and the effect slowed both of them down and allowed the 916 rider to work out ahead in second place. On the last turn of the last lap coming onto the front straight Donnie was ahead, but graciously pulled to the side as the Steve on the TL motored cleanly past to take third place behind the 916. Steve reported;

The 56 points for third place should move Steve up in the standings, especially since the points leader apparently choose not to attend this event. The first three races of the season have been at away tracks, with very specific compromises having to have been made to keep viable a first place finish in the championship point tally. Next event is CCS at Summit Point 5/12-13/2001. We hope that with a return to our home track that our results will take on a more competitive tone. Be sure to come out to watch, see you at the races!!!

We arrived at the track without a motorcycle on Friday evening 5/11/01 to do registration & tech inspection for the MARRC Road Racing School. Due to making the not-so-mighty Team Charm TL1000R a static display at the "Guppy Gala" fund raiser at the National Zoo on that Friday, we did not avail ourselves of the fine opportunity to join in the MARRC practice day on Friday 5/11. This proved to be a mistake, as will soon be apparent.

During the week between this event and the last event at CMP we had a chance to run the TL1000R on our sponsor's Dynojet Dyno. Dave Yaakov at Cycle Accessory Discounters (301) 977-9177 ran the bike thru its paces on his most excellent Dyno and discovered that we are only making 118hp at the rear wheel, which is a little less than we expected. With almost 5.5k miles on the odometer, the TL has seen a lot of use in the last 3 years (5k of it race track miles). Clearly the TL is in need of some maintenance. As this is being typed the TL is up on the operating table at Team Charm's racing facility in Gaithersburg, MD, we hope to have favorable developments with respect to power in the very near future.

Friday afternoon, Rich took the TL to National Zoo for the above mentioned fund raiser to have children crawl all over it & spill ice cream on the gas tank. Oddly, most kids did not feel the bike was a "real" motorcycle, until Rich would periodically start the engine and allow the full 108 db roar from the V-twin engine confirm to all within ear shot that, yes, indeed, this was a working race bike.

Saturday 5/12 we awoke at the track and spent most of the day helping out with the School. In a departure from our normal tire selection of the last year and a half, Dunlop 207's, we mounted a set of Dunlop 207 GP "Stars" for the weekend. Unbeknownst to us, there is a slight difference in circumference between the two tires, the former being slightly longer and the latter being slightly shorter, more on this in a bit. This was a Team Challenge race weekend, and originally Steve and Rich had thought about racing in the 200 mile race on Saturday, but the commitment to help with the school prevented our riding on Saturday. Again, this proved to be a mistake, as we'll get to. The rain held off for the day, and everything with the school went great. Saturday evening we were able to see lots of friends, as this was our first event at Summit Point this year, especially nice was the lively debate on Geo-politics in the Stringfield camp...

Sunday morning we awoke to find cool temperatures and clear skies to be a promise of a great day at the races. We missed our first practice due to helping Rick Beggs complete a motor swap on his ZX-6. Fortunately there were two practice sets and we got a chance to do a single practice set prior to the supertwins race. Unfortunately during this practice, aside from being just plain slow, we were running out of RPM on the front straight. For the last year we have used a final drive ratio of 15/39. While there was a slight tail wind down the front straight, the fact we were hitting the rev limiter before the braking cones ment our gearing had been changed and the only thing different on the bike was the rear tire. Unfortunately Steve did not bring a complete set of gearing with him, instead thinking that every thing was dialed in, except for a lone 16th front sprocket. This is a 6% change in final drive ratio, when only about 2-3% was needed. Given the choice to be too short or too tall for gearing, conventional wisdom dictates that being too tall is better. With our race the second of the day, before lunch, Rich and Steve set about to swap out the front sprocket. The traction of the tires seemed good, but they handled slightly differently than the 207's.

Warm up lap did not reveal any problems, and our 4th row grid position was not bad for post entry. The flag flew and Steve got a fairly good start, going into T1 about 8th or so. The lead group began to creep away, while Steve soon discovered that his shift points were all changed due to the higher gear ratio. This necessitated extra up and down shifts at unexpected locations on the track, and served to keep Steve confused. The leader settled into the low '19 range, while 2nd thru 3rd were dicing

. In fourth was local fast guy Bryan Beimisderfer on his 100hp Buell, with Steve in fifth closing slightly on Brian . Most of the race played out in this order. On the 2nd to last lap another local fast guy, Evan Semoff, also mounted a TL1000R (painted white), came around Steve in T7, the same place he passed Steve in practice . The combined effect of being disconnected gearing wise, not having had enough practice, and generally being slow, prevented Steve from rallying for a counter attack re-pass. At the checkered Steve was 6th. As Steve sez:

Next event is CCS at Savannah 6/23-24/2001. We may also attend the WERA 6/9-10/2001 event at Summit point, as it would appear we need remedial help at our home track...:-( 

Be sure to visit our sponsors: Cycle Accessory Discounters, Dunlop and check out photographer Glen Ouye's new web page.

On Sunday Team Charm founder Rich Sturges returned to action after a year of goofing off. In fact, he has only ridden twice in the past two years, both events being the WERA Endurance race held each year in August at home track, Summit Point. Last year Brian’s Yamaha R6 was the sled of choice, and in 1999 the team used Steve’s TLR1000. The last race bike Rich owned was sold in late 1998, so with Rich's return to club level sprint racing, the weekend promised to be good deal of fun. Rich's return was not on his own bike, but rather he got a chance to ride borrowed equipment in the form of Eric Norhelm's nimble SV650 and Steve's mighty TL1000R.

Friday night saw Eric get to the track, driving down from, CT, with the plan that he would work on his lap times at Summit to get down to figures respectable enough for him to be the third rider in the upcoming 6hr endurance event. This would also allow Rich a chance to ride Eric's SV to see what it was like. Rich, still busy from just having moved into a new house, spent Saturday at home unpacking and "honey-do'ing" at home. He came up the track in Saturday evening, just in time for dinner at our favorite no service restaurant. Steve on the other hand made it up to the track late on Friday night, being busy at work and unable to get away early. After Steve's poor performance at Summit Point last month, he felt he needed some remedial work to get back to his choice lap times.

Saturday saw both Steve and Eric enter solo 20's. The weather was perfect, hot, but not too hot, with low humid. These events are 20 laps instead of the normal 8 laps. Sort of like a longer sprint race. Steve missed all of his practice in the morning finishing some much needed work to the TL. Readers of these chronicles will recall that at last month's CCS event Steve and Rich had a last minute frantic change in final drive gearing to get done to the TL. We had a 15/39 that we changed to a 16/39 just before the supertwins race. Well, Steve discovered Saturday morning that he had put a 17 tooth front sprocket on his bike instead of the 16 tooth. This is the reason Steve reported his shift points being way out of wack. In addition to changing the gearing, Steve swapped the stock 530 chain for a lighter 520 conversion. After some fits trying to get the right ratio selected (thanks to Brian Roach, who can disturbingly calculate gearing ratios in his head) Steve finally settled on a 17/43 final drive ratio of .395 which was the correct 3% higher he needed over the 15/39's .384 ratio. Needless to say the 17/39 of the prior weekend was 12% much too high. Oh well. Finally Steve made some changes to the fuel injection computer based on information gleaned from Dyno runs at Cycle Accessory Discounter's.

Saturday afternoon Eric's race ran quite well, he got into a good dice with a blue & white Suzuki GS550 novice number 93 that had to be the cleanest example of that bike we've ever seen. The rider proved to be quite a scrapper over next several laps. Eric managed to get around him and make it stick for a few laps, even opening up a slight lead over the next few laps. Slowly the rider began to reel Eric back in and pass again. Just before the red flag came out the two made contact in turn ten, bending Eric's clutch lever and ripping a 12 inch hole thru the tail section of the #93 bike. Steve's solo race on Saturday was pretty much a wash out has he kept pitting to make changes to his suspension, but the good news is that the changes were meaningful and made the bike work better for Steve. Saturday evening was a perfect, Rich brought the AMA superbike race on video tape (recorded that afternoon) that we all enjoyed watching.

Sunday morning the three awoke to stellar weather conditions that promised a great day or racing. Rich promptly registered for several races on both the Steve's TL and Eric's SV.

Rich took Eric’s SV650 out in the first practice, and came back very impressed. "The SV is the best handling bike I’ve ridden since the TZ250. It seems a little slow, but what a blast to ride!" Shortly afterwards he took the TLR out for practice, and came in a bit less excited. At 50hp more than the SV, Rich’s primary feeling was not that of fun but rather fear. "The acceleration is brutal, and the turns, especially T3 and T5, come up so quickly that it’s frightening" he bemoaned. He also complained that the heavy bike was difficult to handle through the esses. No duh.

Rich took the SV out again, gaining speed and re-tuning rusty skills. Kudos to Eric for building a fine machine; Rich made only one suspension change but did recommended different tires. The rest was damn near perfect. Finally, despite his fears, Rich was convinced to ride the TLR once more in practice. The second practice on the beast went much better, and Rich agreed that he should race the TLR in the new CORC (Crusty Old Racers Club) race for those over 40.

Eric was first up in D superbike. His race went pretty good, he finished 6th out of about 15 or so novices. Sorry no pics.

Rich’s first race of the day was on the TLR, against about a dozen bikes of varying sizes. This was the "Crusty Old Racer Class" or the old guys race (you have to be over 40 years of age to enter). At the start there were two fast guys who simply took off, and while Rich started from the back of the pack, nearly all other bikes disappeared behind him as the TLR came up to speed. Into the first turn Rich was 4th, behind the two fast guys and another TLR. In the heat of battle Rich paid less and less attention being a’scared, and more and more on trying to chance down third place. Running primarily 1:26s, with a best of 1:25, his riding was far from flawless. Slowly he would gain on third only to make a mistake and lose ground again. He finished 4th, but more importantly was finally getting used to riding the TLR.

Next out was Steve in B superstock. Steve got a poor start, and was dead last going into turn one. The field leaders were turning times in the 1:18 range, and Steve's best times during the race were only in the low 1:23's. Steve was still feeling out the gearing, and the rear tire was not inspiring confidence on the right side. Steve managed to pass a few people, but it was not a great showing. Sadly, fellow twins rider and local fast guy, Evan Semoff, crashed in the carousel causing a red flag. Fortunately he was not seriously hurt, but he would miss the premier twins event later in the day. As Steve said: "I want to flip the rear tire around, it cold tore on the right side and has never recovered from that, lets get it over the Dunlop truck now!"

Rich’s next race was on the SV, but unfortunately against a large field of much faster 600cc four cylinder bikes. Rich was last into turn one, eventually chanced down one rider in order to avoid a DFL, and spent the majority of the race all alone having a great time spanking the SV. Lap times were 1:27 to 1:26, just about the same as on the big bike!

In Rich’s third and final race the SV650 was not at much of a disadvantage. Again starting from the back of the field, Rich lacked aggression diving into turn one and slipped back to last place. Again rusty skills left him re-learning old tricks, and two or three laps passed while Rich tip-toed around the slower riders. By the time he could start chasing the lead group, they had gotten too far ahead . Rich finished 7th, and was surprised to learn that his times were a little slower than his first race on the SV. Best lap time he got down to was a high 1:25, almost as fast as he went on the TL!

Steve's Heavyweight Twins race was next. Gridded on the third row, Steve got a horrible start and was the last expert going into turn one. Former track record holder, Bryan Bemisderfer was on his "B" bike, which does not have the 100 hp the his "A" bike has, but was putting in a valiant attempt to out ride the grid, most of whom had over 120hp. Steve got around the first expert on lap one, and on lap two drafted past Bryan at what had to be a 10mph split on the straight away. Lap time were in the low 1:21 range. The next rider, a RC51, was out braked going into turn one after getting a great drive out of turn ten , putting Steve in 3rd place on the third to last lap. Once Steve had gotten clear one ran a 1:20.7, his best of the day, chasing down 2nd place TL rider. On the straight just before the braking markers, about 150mph. Here is the two in turn 10 on the following lap. On the last lap Steve had closed in & was ready to take over second place, but the tire the he had flipped over was sliding a lot in all the left turns. Coming out of turn five the RC51 rider got on the inside going into the carousel. Steve attempted to out drive him coming out turn ten to the checkered flag, but the finish line needed to by 100 yards further to effect that. Steve ended up fourth in the hotly contested race, first place went to Brandon Bayshore who got away clean doing high 1:19's.

Eric's last race was a real break thru for him. First he managed to get third out of about 15 or so riders ,but could have done better, more on that in a minute. But he did manage to get down to 1:27 lap times. At the start he looked pretty good. Leading a novice , and on his first full lap he did the '27, his best. Next lap around he drilled up behind a expert while 1st and 2nd place were just ahead. Then he proceeded to follow the expert around, for reason's unknown, and go slower and slower, ending up in the 1:29 range . We yelled at him to pass, but he just didn't listen.

All in all it was a very good weekend "The SV is very easy to ride" remarked Rich. "with some practice I think 1:23s are very do-able. And a hearty thanks to both Eric and Steve for letting me beat the snot out of their racing machinery. I really looking forward to the 6-hour!" For 2001 WERA has bumped the race to a 6-hour, up from four hours, and with the successful indoctrination of Eric Nordholm into the cult, his SV650 will the treated to six hours of delicate abuse.

C U @ 'da Races!!!

The bad news: the weekend was an epic road trip for Team Charm. Steve spent a total 19 hours driving while gone from home only 36 hours, traveling alone, to his dog Savannah's namesake, to continue our chase of CCS's Mid Atlantic region Supertwins points. The good news: for all his efforts Steve took first place on Sunday, firming up is points lead for the regional championship. There is more news for Team Charm, but more on that in a minute.

Coming into this weekend's event Steve was in the lead, barley, with 233 points. In a very close 2nd Fred Stucky had 231. In not too distant third was Steve Keener with 222, followed by Donnie Under with 212 and rounding out the top five was Jeffrey McKinney with 198. Unfortunately Rich couldn't attend this weekend's event, so Steve had to go it alone. Since the supertwins race was Sunday morning, and rain was forecasted for most of the weekend earlier in the week, Steve made the choice to forgo practice day on Friday and races on Saturday. This would be also limit the amount of time gone from home, as he did not have time to take off work as of late.

Leaving Saturday morning about 9AM or so, Steve made the nine-hour drive to Roebling Road Raceway, outside Savannah, GA in an uneventful, if not boring trek. Steve, to make the trip go faster, had loaded up on recorded books and spent the trip listening to Paradise Lost, and Five Days in London. Arriving in the pits after 6PM Steve managed to find Steve Keener's pit to unload his bike and trailer. Thanks to Keener for making his pit resources available, as Steve was traveling very light, with no van, and would have been very uncomfortable without someone to hook up with. Also, big thanks to Kevin Norris. When Steve made the discovery at about 11PM on Saturday night that Kevin was traveling alone, he most ungraciously invited himself to sleep in Norris's huge RV. That is one nice way to travel.

Sunday morning we awoke to find it hot & humid, but the predicted rain showers were not present. Tech inspection revealed that a bolt holding the clutch cover on had backed out almost all the way. The Tech Inspector looked funny at Steve when he stated that he has over 5.5k racing miles on the TL and has never had the clutch cover off the bike. Faced with the necessity to purchase new tires, Steve opted for the Dunlop 207's at a bargain price, still thinking it might rain (it didn't). Making the first practice Steve remembered why he named his dog "Savannah" after Roebling Road Raceway years ago. This track is a true joy, despite the numerous sections of sealer and tar strips. The gearing, 17/43, was just about perfect, leaving a choice of two different gears for each turn, and perhaps 300 RPM short of red line on the straight. Electing to not do his second practice of the morning (and if Rich had been there he undoubtedly would have been beating Steve over the head with a fork tube) Steve was confident that both he and the bike were dialed in.

The combined supertwins field was sent out under the five minute board around 11am. Gridding up in his third row position Steve got his characteristically poor start as the green flag flew sending the first wave off. Coming into T1 Steve was in about 9th or so position, out of a group of about 15 experts. The first lap revealed no passing possibilities until the field herded out on the front straight, where Steve passed a fellow TL1000R rider on the exit of T9. Going into T4 Steve braked underneath #69 Kevin Norris. This set Steve in a position to draft past #3 Steve Keener on the straight on the start of turn three. Ahead, two riders, Unger and McKinney, had open a .5 second or so gap on the rest of the field. Steve was able to close up the gap by the time the freight train roared into turn nine. Getting a good drive out of nine Steve motored pass Unger going across the start finish line, and set the cross hairs on McKinney who was in first place as the fourth lap started. Steve was unable to pass McKinney thru the infield. Roebling Road, due to the long sweeping nature of its turns, is a track that requires a person to know exactly where they are going at the start of a turn. It is difficult to put a fast lap in if your entry does not have your exit in mind. Fortunately Steve has a lot of time at this track, and was able to use this knowledge to set McKinney up for a draft pass on the straight. Steve passed McKinney as the two took the half way flags. After that Steve put his head down an proceeded to put about a second and a half per lap on the group containing 2nd-5th places for the remaining four laps. The group had slowed themselves down somewhat, and Steve had a clear, unfetter track ahead. While nobody was getting lap times on the Steve (or pictures for that matter, sorry, editor) Steve Keener, who was at the tail end of this group, reported that he turned a 1:19 during the last 1/2 of the race. Times for Steve were probably in the '18's, which is much better than the last time (1999) we were at Savannah. On the last & white flag lap, Steve, after checking that nobody was on is 6 o'clock, back off the pace a little, and took the checkered flag for the race win. After the race, while still in his leathers, Steve rode the bike up onto the trailer to load up for going home. As Steve said after the race;

Steve promptly left the track, and spent the trip home thinking about all the changes that 2001 have brought to Team Charm. Rich has finally bought a SV650 after a two year hiatus following 11 years of racing EX500's as his main sprint ride. Steve has gone from really hating his TL in 1998 and 1999 to very much enjoying it in 2000 and 2001. More importantly the non-racing changes for the team: a new house for Rich & Leslie, a new job for Leslie, a move towards a new territory for Steve looming in the next month or two, and Steve's wife Anya is now expecting their first child, all make for a rather busy year for us attempt another regional championship. The good news is we are now solidly in the lead of the points chase, Steve with 298, and are looking forward to (hopefully) more 1st place finishes for 2001.

 7/7-8/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints

On Thursday 7/5/01, after celebrating our Nation’s 225th birthday, Rich headed out to Summit Point for a Roger Lyle sponsored practice day. Scooter Ball met him there, with Brian Yamaha R6 in tow, and Rich was equipped with Steve’s TLR and the Team’s new Suzuki SV650. "After riding Eric’s SV last month, it was a obvious that I needed one" quipped Rich. He bought a race-prepped bike setup nearly identical to Eric’s.

Practice laps soon revealed some key differences, however, most notable the fairing on Rich’s SV was larger than it should be. It’s off a TL-S, and the added length interfered with proper leg positioning. It was so bad that Scooter could not shift the bike until the lowers were removed! Other than that the bike work great, and with near perfect weather Rich got several hours of training in on the SV to polish some of the rusty riding that had developed over the last 2½ years of limited riding. Although lap times were not low (dipping just into the 1:27s??), the seat time was fun and beneficial. A few laps around on the TLR were all it took to remind Rich that he simply can’t handle the beast. Scooter’s day was not as busy, since the R6 spouted an oil leak and stayed on the trailer. Scooter did a few laps on both Suzuki’s, and was quite impressed by the SV650. But despite the fun he had on the SV, Scooter is still convinced that he should buy an Aprillia Mille, at $18,000+, instead of spending $6,500 on a race-ready SV. (Editor's note, Scooter bought the Mille on 7/11/01) There seems to be an imbalance of money and brains. Rich spend a few hours Friday tweaking the new SV, cutting down the fairing to achieve better ergonomics.

Friday night saw Steve meeting Eric at the track for the record participant turn out for attendance at Summit Point. Pit space was hard to find this weekend, and while it is good news that the local racing scene is getting so popular in the last few years, we can't help wonder if getting to the track Friday night is getting to be required to get a decent pit location in the paddock. Saturday morning found Team Charm assembled in full strength with Rich showing up with the new SV650s and Steve's with his TLR first thing in the morning.

After practice Rich replaced the well-worn DOT tires that came with the bike with a shiny new pair of Metzler-Pirelli slicks. Steve ran his the TLR for one practice with the intention to get the bike hot enough to change the oil & filter. After coming in from with a hot motor, Steve promptly pulled the drain plug, and the aluminum threads pulled out with the drain bolt. More on the ramifications of this in a minute.

The first race of the day was Formula Forty, and Rich is now fully qualified for this "Old Man" race. But his unwillingness to learn to ride the TLR is a big disadvantage in this big-bore class. He flogged the SV as hard as he could, and was happy with an 8th place finish, but if you want to compete with the big boys, then you need to ride the big bike.

Eric managed to turn his mid pack grid into his first ever race win in the novice GT-lights. While Steve was busy doing the MARRC classroom with Brian and could not get any pictures, Eric managed to run a fine race, starting in the top eight going into turn one of the first lap, and slowly reeling in and passing everyone who was in front of him. Finally, when he passed first place to take the lead himself, he started putting a gap on the field with lap times in the low '27 and high '26 range. As Eric said, "I kept passing people and thinking that the leaders had to be up ahead as I lost track of where I was after the start. I had no idea I won the race, or was even in the lead, until I came into the pits." Not bad for his first race win.

Rich gridded up for the Expert GT-lights with a mid-pack start, and was about 10th into turn one. With high confidence in the slicks, he was up to 7th by the end of the first lap, and with 29 minutes to go he started the chase. In a few laps he had caught up to Michael Parr and initiated the battle for 5th place. Parr’s SV is equally matched to Rich’s, and for 4 or 5 laps the pair swapped positions. Whoever was behind headed down the long front straight could easily draft past prior to turn one. Finally, Rich put in some solid 1:25 laps and walked away from Parr. The front group of three were all turning 1:24s and 1:25s, so with some better riding (particularly in turns one and four) Rich thinks he could be up front with the bike as-is. But today it’s Rich’s first trophy in three years and a $30 check to boot!!

Saturday night brought a steady rain, with a light drizzle still falling for the one practice session Sunday morning. Rich switch to full rain tires and headed on-track for wet practice. "Today marks the first time since 1986 that I’ve actually enjoyed riding Summit in the rain" remarked Rich. The new pavement no longer left riders putzing around with a death grip on the handlebars.

Since Steve had disabled the might TLR by ripping the threads out of the drain hole, he decided to take Rich's SV out in the supertwins race rather than attempt a repair that the track. Steve fortunately has a very good points lead, and with all the fast out of towners going for Suzuki money, he decided to cruise around for points on the drastically slow SV. Besides, since the grid was combined expert & novice, it would give Eric a chance to catch Steve...NOT. When the five minute board went up and Steve took to the track for his warm up lap, it became clear that we had made a very bad choice to mount full rains for the race. The track had a dry line. At the green flag, Steve was under-whelmed with the power of the SV as the field left him in the dust from his pole position grid spot. On the fourth lap the race was red flagged due to George Venskos (spelling?) get off in T6. While this was bad news for George, it was good news for Steve as the rain tires were not going to last much longer on the dry track. The red flag turned into a delayed start till after lunch, giving Steve time to get slicks mounted. At the re-start Steve again experienced the joy of being at a gunfight with a knife as the field took off with the drop of the green. Steve managed to cruise around to twelfth, just behind second place in the points, Steve Keener.

Eric went out for his last race of the day just before Rich. Here he is passing someone. And again on the last lap after the pass .

Around 2pm Rich headed out for Lightweight Superbike, to battle against many of the same riders he saw (or never saw) in the GT-lights race of Saturday. The weather was still overcast, but in the upper 80s and nearly 100% humidity. Unable to match his earlier speed , he limped home a tired 6th place. Apparently he really does belong in the old man race!

Next up, 7/22/2001 at Savannah, Steve defends his points lead, hopefully with a working TLR!

 8/04/01, Summit Point Raceway, WERA 6hr Endurance, and, 8/05/01, Virginia International Raceway, CCS Sprints.

In a Team Charm first this weekend, Rich & Steve and newly recruited Team Charm member Eric Nordhelm, competed in the WERA 6hr endurance race at Summit Point on Saturday, then Rich and Steve packed up their pit and drove down to VIR Saturday night to race in CCS sprints on Sunday. Results in the 6 hr endurance were 16th out of 38 overall, 3rd out of 9 in class for lightweight superbike. Sunday's results were; Rich 10th out of 15 in lightweight superbike, and 10th out of 17 in formula two with Steve taking fifth in supertwins out of 12 registered.

The weekend started with Eric & Tara plus daughters Brook & Courtney (and Sheila the dog) coming down from CT Thursday night to Gaithersburg to stage for the Friday open practice day at Summit Point. Friday morning the Team Charm juggernaught (or perhaps "Chugger-Not") arrived at Summit Point, converging from two different directions, with Rich driving the van & trailer up from his house.  Friday was yet another difficult practice day. Not in relation to any track activities, but rather in the sense that it’s so difficult to squeeze a week’s worth of work into four days that it’s sometimes impossible to get away from the office. Once the team rendezvoused at Summit Point on Friday morning we were frazzled enough that most of the morning was spent just de-compressing from the rat race. By afternoon we were ready to ride, and each of Eric, Rich, and Steve got a solid 15 minute practice set. We were scheduled to repeat that order in the next and last round of practice, but Eric had an argument with gravity during his outing.

During his second round of practice Eric, after passing a Randy Dalmus going into five, got out of shape in six, finding himself wide with more energy than he expected. The result was a fairly simple lowside after the front end washed out. Damage to the bike was minor while Eric suffered some bruises and stains from tumbling in the grass. It was Eric's first experience in crashing on the track. Fortunately just about the time Tara was aware that he had crash, she was also aware that he was not hurt. The damage to the bike was not bad, mainly cosmetic, with the right side control supports wasted. The new dents and scratches finally gave the bike a little ‘character’. Steve and Rich spent the remainder of the day fixing the damage, with the help of Brook and Courtney, while Eric chattered about what happened. Camping at the track that night was great, not to hot and very little rain.

Saturday gave us an opportunity for one more round of practice, plus a 30 minute Endurance only practice. Steve opted to use the regular practice to test the TLR, which had just had a motor swap and the fork rebuilt by Traxxion Dynamics. Rich and Eric checked out the SV. As always, the little SV ran flawlessly, and thankfully no hidden crash damage was found. During the endurance practice we ran through our pit-stop procedure, and pit-master Scooter Ball organized a smooth sequence of fueling tasks. Scooter on gas can, Bernie as gas-cap guy, Navy trained Bill Ball as the safety observer and fire watch, and the non-riding racer as the bike-catcher and spill wiper-upper. The two riding racers have a very simple job; one gets off and gets the hell out of the way, and the new rider gets on and then goes like stink. Every person has the same job at every pit stop, a key rule for efficient fueling, the dividends of this paid off in the race in way of pit stops under 30 seconds.

Finally we headed out for the pre-grid, with Eric as the first rider. There were 38 bikes on the starting line, with ?? in our lightweight class. Eric got a decent start, and was just getting into the groove when the red flag flew on the third lap due to a wreck in T10. After a short cleanup, Eric repeated the start and began rattling off a series of laps in the 1:29?? range. His right knee was bruised from the crash on Friday, and clearly it had eroded a little of his confidence, as he had been doing 1:27s in practice and even some 1:26s last month during his glorious victory in Lightweight GT. But again the red flag flew, and again Eric was required to restart. Scooter reworked the timing coordination so that the combination of Eric’s three rides totaled a full hour (at 5, 10 and 45 minutes??). With that Rich prepared to take the reins, and our first pit was quick and efficient, as they would be all day.

Rich immediately settled into the SV, picking off the other lightweight teams and battling with a number of the middleweight riders. "After my embarrassing performance last year in the four-hour, I knew I needed some practice this year. Between the weekend on Eric’s bike, and the weekend on my own SV, I finally feel that I’m getting back up to speed. 1:25s were very comfortable if traffic was light, and I could do 1:24s without sliding the tires. In heavy traffic the pace slowed to1:26's or 1:27's till it cleared out. I think 1:23 were quite possible, but the tire wear would have been too detrimental to the overall race effort." Rich was left out for 70 minutes, and both he and the gas supply were completely spent at that point.

Steve went out for what would be his only stint in the saddle. During Rich's prior 70 minutes the after-marked race tach that Eric had installed (editor's note, does anybody know of a any after-market tach that works for more than a few hours...) crapped out. This would end up being a problem for Steve, who couldn't tell where the power was, and as such couldn't tell when to shift. " I was lost out there as far as the motor was concerned. I just didn't know when to up or down shift & hit the rev limiter a too many times. I found myself going thru T10 in sixth gear by mistake a few times, and manged to get into T1 in 4th as well. The power band is so flat and there is not that much of it that it is hard for me to tell when the power is coming on or off. The TL I can shift without looking at the Tach, but the SV feels like a lawn mower by comparison...." Steve's best lap time turned out to be a 1:25, but most were 1:26's with a clear track, and 1:27's or 1:28's with heavy traffic. Tires were still holding up fine. At the conclusion of Steve's hour and five minutes he came into to hand off to Eric for his second stint. Antonmy of a pit stop:

Here Steve comes to a stop and starts getting off the bike. If you look at the right side background, just above Eric's shoulder, you see a man taking a picture. This is that picture he took a few seconds later as Steve gets off the bike. Next, Steve tells Eric the tach is not working will the fuel pours in. Bill Ball stands ready with the fire bottle. After that the gas cap is replaced and Eric sets off. Here Steve finds out they are currently 13th overall, 3rd in class.

Eric's knee was starting to give him more trouble, effecting his ability to hang off on all the right hand turns, which the majority of turns at Summit Point are rights. His lap times suffered, with most of his 45 minute second stint in the 1:30-31 range. Towards the end of his 45 minutes he started to slow even more as his knee cramped up, finally once he saw 1:34 on the board he signaled that he was coming in.

At four or so mark Rich took to the track again. By now the race was testing everyone’s stamina. The weather was brutally hot and humid, and as rider’s crashed out you had to wonder if they were getting brain-fade from the heat and exertion of racing. They don’t call it an endurance race for nuthin’. Team Charm uses a fairly simple set of pit signs, giving the rider his lap time every lap, but also showing when ¼, ½, and ¾ of his ride has elapsed. Riders must check the board every lap, partly because it’s good information but more significantly because he needs to see the all-important "Pit In" sign when it is shown. Sometimes traffic will distract the rider from scanning the pit board, but under the grueling command of Pit-Master Scooter the dedicated pit-wall crew holds out the little brown board every minute and a half for six solid hours. Thanks, guys!! "I was getting pretty tired, and the tires still good but no longer new, and they were sliding if pushed under the 1:25 mark. Steve and I talked about tire wear before I went out and agreed that I should not hold back for the sake of the tires. Steve was willing to take the last hour on greasy tires if necessary. But the truth is that I was getting damn tired, and it takes more effort to ride and slide at 1:24s so I backed off a little. Well, not really backed off, but rather physically could not muster the leg and arm strength to go faster! I missed the half-way board and after a while I was thinking to myself that if the ½ board comes out now, I’m sunk, I can’t possible ride another 35 minutes. But out pops the ¾ signal, and I regained confidence once I knew I wouldn’t let the Team down with an early pit stop."

At 5 hours xx minutes, it started to rain in turns 1, 5, and 10. Race Director George Mood had announced that morning that the race would be stopped if rain fell, but Rich ran two very cautious laps before the red flag was finally shown. We would have restarted once the track was fully wet, but there was lightning in the area and when it was apparent the we would not be able to restart before the 5½ hour mark, the race was declared complete. A very special thank you to Scooter Ball, Bill Ball, Bernie Conatser, for their critical help during the race. We would not have been able to get the job down without you!!! Also thanks to Tara Nordhelm, Leslie Sturges and Anya Harris for dealing with us.

Total gluttons for punishment, Rich and Steve headed south after few celebratory beers and photos. Using Steve’s new WAAS compliant GPS navigation toy, the two arrived at Virginia International Raceway around midnight. VIR was resurrected in 2000, and Steve had raced there in April but it was a new track to Rich.

"Both the track and the facilities are top notch. Great pavement, tricky course with some real interesting turns. It will take me several trips to VIR before I figure that track out!" reported Rich. "The pits are nice, and there’s even a bar lounge atop the cafeteria that serves great beer. Two thumbs up."

With a full day of CCS sprints, and the supertwins race not till the very end of the day, Rich and Steve cut out & went to the town of Danville in search of food and fuel after morning pratice. The TL was pretty much ready to go, perhaps 250 RPM short on the main straight, so Steve planed to change the overall gearing upon return. The freshly motor swapped TL has a slight hiccup below 3k RPM, dropping to one clyinder, so Steve also planed to double check all the electrical connectors for the FI in Ing systems. Rich was still coming to terms with the new track, not liking to be the slow guy, but dealing with the stress.

In Rich's first race he was 10th out of about 15 in lightweight superbike. In his second race he was again 10th but this time out of 17.

Steve got a pretty good start for the supertwins race, the second to last race of the day. Russel Masecar dove around the field into T1 in a rather stout move, followed by Brandon Bayshore, McKinney, Keener then Steve in fifth. By this time of the day the races had been shorted to four laps each, so there was not much time for passing. The leaders, Masecar and Bayshore, started to check out while McKinny, Keener, Harris and Fred Farzanagan were in a pretty tight group. On the first lap McKinny lowsided on the top of the hill in the back section, Keener almost going off the track with him. Steve drafted past Keener going into T1 on the second lap, by skill manipulation of the throttle, only to be promptly out-braked by Keener. Steve settled in to pace Keener for the draft & pass at the finish, when Farzanagan stuck a wheel underneath going up the hill. Steve spent the next two laps being pre-occupied with what was going on behind him (rule number one in racing, what is behind me does not matter...) while Keener started pulling away, running like scalded cat. Finally Farzanagan made his move on the last lap, and stuck it to the finish. Steve ended up fifth, loosing points to series leader Keener, but not by so much that we don't have a chance still.

"I choked, I could have set Keener up for the finish line pass rather than motor him on the first lap, but Fred was chipping away at me and I let it effect my judgement. I have a really hard time wrestling the 460lb TL around this course, and am glad that CCS is not coming back again this year so I do not have to bring the TL here again. Next year we will do the endurance race here on the SV and that will be a lot more fun. Hats off the Fred who ran a great race"

Next up, 9/01-01/2001 at Savannah, Steve attempts to re-take the points lead, hopefully with a working TLR!

 9/02/01, Roebling Road Raceway, CCS Sprints.

Steve traveled over twelve hundred miles alone to do one race at Savannah, a rather discouraging theme repeated too many times thus far this year, but at least we are closing in on Keener in the points. Rich stayed home with a newly purchased race bike, we are still trying to figure out the dynamic on that one, but trust his garden is free of weeds...

As readers of these writings know, our own Steve Harris forfeited his points lead in CCS's Mid Atlantic region over then second place Steve Keener back in July by missing the 7/21-22/01 Roebling Road event. We missed this due to mechanical failure (ok, so it really wasn't a mechanical failure, you shouldn't tighten drain bolts that hard..) of the mighty TL-R. Coming into this weekends event at Savannah the points were as follows; Keener in first with 472, Steve with 437, Donnie Unger with 357, Charles Walker with 337, and rounding out the top five was Bob Seitz with 322.

Leaving Saturday at 8:30 Steve hit some horrible rain on his way down to the race track. Apparently the rain we experienced on the way down was not as bad the flood of biblical proportions that happened Friday night at the track, but did slow us down none the less.

Arriving at Savannah at 6pm we quickly determined that camping out in a tent was not a very smart idea, so we took this as yet another opportunity to visit wicked visions of ungratefulness upon the Duc Pond Racing crew. Sharing a hotel room with Donnie & Rob may not have been much of a behavioral surprise for Steve, but we doubt they'll ever forget it.

Sunday the weather was forecasted with the possibility of rain, but mercifully overcast skies kept the temperatures down. Tire choice was the same as for the last 3 years. Dunlap's discontinued D207. While we don't doubt others go faster on newer tires, we make out fine on these in the dry. The 207's also have a better tread pattern for rain, but the rain never showed up, so this was not an issue. Thanks to Rob safety wiring we were able to make 3 laps of our second practice to scrub in the new tires.

What was an issue was the leaking fork seal on the port fork leg. Mike at Traxxion Dynamics had just flushed the forks during the WERA national. In the 3 years and over 6K racing miles, neither fork had leaked. Fortunately Mike was at the Roebling this weekend, so after 2nd practice we humped the fork tube over to him to fix the leak. He polished the tube and thus far that seems to have the leak fixed.

The supertwins race was the second to last race of the day, meaning among other things, that the drive home would not start very early. After we got the front end of the bike put back together we left the track for a hour of R&R at the 8th airforce heritage museum. Highly recommended. We got back to the track in time to load up & connect the trailer to the car for a quick egress at the conclusion of the race.

The race was sent out under the five minute board just before 4pm. Steve's grid position was at the back due to his failure to pre-register for the event. Uncharacteristically Steve got a fairly decent launch, and with skillful application of the throttle was able to drill his way up to second place going into T1, just behind McKinney. Coming out of T2 Steve drifted the rear out as he got a better drive up the inside of McKinney. This set him up for a "around the outside" going into T3 pass, the fast left hand sweeper being one of Steve's favorite turns. After that it was clear sailing for Steve, who put the hammer down, and in the next two laps opened up a gap over several second gap over second place. Here he is alone in front, going thru turn four. Unfortunately Steve picked a poor time to loose his focus, because while he was coming off pace slightly, Walker had gotten around Unger (who had passed on the inside going into three at the same time Steve passed McKinney) and was making a determine run to chase down Steve. On the white flag lap Walker drafted past Steve going to one. Steve tried to rally for a re-pass, but there was not time, and the attempt to draft pass at the finish line proved undoubtedly to Steve who has the faster bike. Walker took first place, with Steve a close second. As Steve sez;

Speaking of points, series leader Steve Keener had a poor weekend. He blew up the motors in both of his SV's, and loaned his R6 out to someone who did a most unspeakable thing to it. He had to borrow a 748 Ducati for the race. He managed to finished 8th on the unfamiliar bike, but has a busy week ahead of him to either re-build the SV's or finding a borrowed bike to use. We hope he can got something going, a series this close is just too much fun! Currently the points going into this coming weekends event as thus; Keener leading with 516, Steve in 2nd with 497, third is Unger with 407, and Walker in fourth with 402.

Next up, 9/8-9/2001 at home track Summit, hopefully Steve will be getting solidly back into the '19's. Come-on out to the races!!!  

 9/08-09/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints.

The season is winding down, this weekend's past events being the second to last of the season for Team Charm. Our standing in the supertwins points chase is somewhat unclear, due to differences in CCS's web site and their information at the track this weekend. While knowing what the points are will not change what we will do (we are going to go as fast as we can, and the competition, when not consumed in needless self doubt, appears to be intending to do the same) we would like to be able to report to our fans were we stand. From what we can piece together we came into this weekend 19 points behind Steve Keener, and left only 10 points behind him. Stay tuned.

Saturday, Rich and Steve punished another group of new rider school students by incessant lecturing, while Eric prepared for two-wheel battle in Lightweight GT. Still a little off the mark since his career-first crash in August, Eric turned several slow laps at the start. Steady improvement throughout the ½ hour race resulted in a last-lap best-lap in the low 1:27s, but the leaders got away early and Eric finished a lonely 4th place. A $35 prize check eased the pain of his poor first-lap performance.

The MARRC Roadracing School practice and mock race is always entertaining, but this weekend’s was especially exciting. Alex Schwatz rode the mighty TL-R and was called in by the corner-workers for excessive wheeling...:-) Steve rode Brian's R6, while Brian rode Rich's SV650. In practice we had a bike catch fire exiting turn 10, and during the race we had one of our instructors, Mid-Atlantic’s #1 rider Ed Morgan, taken out in turn 4. Ed’s buddy who was taking the school, was knocked down by another student, and in turn took out Ed. X-rays revealed no serious damage but he did have a concussion and is bruised and stiff from head to toe.

On Sunday the Team Charm riders were free from any school duties and were able to devote all of their collective energy on the task at hand… waiting around all day for the chance to race. The opportunity would come first for Eric, in Lightweight Supersport. Although starting from the back again, Eric applied lessons learned from Saturday and quickly got down to business. His first lap brought him past 75% of the field, the result of immediately turning 1:28s and 1:27s. While the two front runners were battling each other, Eric was passing every bike he could find, and by the 4th lap, 3rd place was secured. First and second were going a little faster than Eric, but no other riders were in the 1:27s. Great job, and more prize money to boot!

After lunch Eric was up again, this time for Lightweight GP. With a fabulous start Eric moved from 21st to 13th in the first two seconds, and was up to 7th at the end of the first of seven laps. He picked of a few more , and had worked up to 5th (behind the same four guys who beat him in LWT GT and Lwt Supersport- Matsey, Rega, Shilling, and Anderson) but a TZ250 mounted rider slipped past to leave Eric in 6th. Another solid ride with good, consistent lap times.

Rich was up shortly afterwards, for expert Lightweight Superbike. The start went well, but since all the other riders also launch properly, no advantage was gained and Rich remained dead last into turn one. Huge thanks to Gary Foreman for taking the picture. Rich dispatched with a few riders on the first lap, while Dave Yaakov ran away with the lead. Rich fought to move ahead against the other stock SVs. In a battle for 5th with Danny Josephs, the duo ran laps in the 1:24 range but were slowing each other a little in the process. Just past halfway the pair saw Bernie Huntt dancing away from his bike outside of turn 5, the victim of a elusive electrical problem that was causing his engine the sputter, then catch, and toss him off the top.

Rich commanded 5th place entering the last lap, but Josephs was faster at the exit of turn one and passed entering turn 3.

Observers noted that senility may have been a factor in the mistake.

Finally, in the second to last race of the day, both Rich and Steve headed out for Supertwins. With a stock SV650 Rich was completely out-gunned, but heck, it’s only for fun anyway.

Steve's was gridded on the front row thanks to a pre-entry months ago. Although local twins fast guy, Fred Stucky, was on the grid sheet, he had left on Saturday with problems with his bike, and was not in the race. The grid was further thinned by the absence some of most of the mid-atlantic twin riders, so the race started with about nine bikes. With the realization that most of the twins racers who get into the 'teens were not there, Steve knew that the race would be a good opportunity for a win. It is in cases like that one wants to avoid a repeat of last weekends brain fade. To wit, Steve put on his race face and decided to make sure his last lap was as fast as his first. At the green flag, Keener (on a SV700) and Norris (on a RC51) got the hole shot, but the skillful application of throttle rapidly placed Steve into the lead heading into T1 for the first lap. Huge thanks to Gary Foreman for taking the picture. The next few laps Steve was able to pull ahead, out pacing Bill Dietz on the plutonium powered 851 down the straight, only to have Dietz reel Steve back in going into the infield. When the 1/2 flags came out, Steve checked his six o'clock and seeing Deitz, redoubled his effort to not to fade . Huge thanks to Gary Foreman for taking the picture. He was rewarded with a increase in split time and managed to further stretch the gap over Bill and 3rd place Keener, taking the checkered flag having lead every single lap. As Steve said after the race:

Rich had a few less ponies on tap, and tiptoed into turn one in last place. While the big boys worked the front of the race, Rich and two or three others fought over the scraps. Rich worked up as high as 5th place by lap three (ok, so there were only nine experts) but had a moment exiting turn five.

Rich’s determination to maintain 5th place dwindled rapidly as the pain of the landing on the gas tank (editor's note, if you are not yet understanding what the specific type of pain we are talking about, please re-read the header above) took effect, and the next lap saw several riders slip past. Rich worked back up to 7th, but was mostly just happy to finish on two wheels.

Next up, 10/13-14/2001 at home track Summit, hopefully Steve will be getting solidly back into the '19's. This last event is a double points event, and with the gap as close as it is between us and Keener, it will be a winner take all dash to the championship that promises to be as exciting a ever. We're going to have a keg party on Saturday night, so make sure you come on out!! 

 10/13-14/01, Summit Point Raceway, CCS Sprints.

This weekend's events were marred by tragedy as fellow racer Scott Gowland (Expert #48) of Lutherville, MD, died in a single-bike accident when he lost control of his SV650 exiting turn ten and crashed during the Heavyweight Sportsman event, the first race of the day, on Saturday Oct 13, 2001. While we at Team Charm did not have the pleasure of knowing Scott personally, we knew him in the way we know many of the racers at the track, and are deeply saddened by his untimely demise. On the upside, Steve blazed to a 15 second lead over the competition on Sunday's big race, taking the race win and the championship.

The weekend started off well, the team arriving in full effect on Friday night with keg in tow. Also arriving Friday night, and setting in their normal spot, Rich's family came for the semi-annual "Sturges World" camping extravaganza. We managed to get the keg tapt'd just in time to not help out with tech inspection for the RRS. Brian arrived later, with his quad as a pit vehicle, but more on this in a minute. After getting everything unloaded & set up, we went to bed pretty early (for Team Charm standards) in anticipation of Saturday's events.

Saturday morning we awoke to what promised to be a great day, not a hint of rain, mild temps, and a full cheering section to egg us on. Speaking of egging on, Rich managed to hose himself pretty good with egg goo at breakfast in "Sturges World."  Practice was uneventful for Rich and Eric, while discussed hunting seasons in New York with Mr. Sturges.  After lunch the Red Cross had a benefit to raise money for the disaster relief effort just after lunch. Basically you make a donation to be allowed to make a few parade laps around the track. Tara decided to take her daughter's XR80 out for the parade lap benefit. Impressed that she had enough gumption to take to the race course (she had to be talked thru the "upshifting" process), Steve and Eric decided to join the fun on Brian's quad to video tape Tara. Steve would drive the quad while Eric sat in the back seat with the video camera taking shots of Tara on the track. If anyone want a copy of the footage, ask Eric. It is was hysterical running the quad flat out in top gear trying to get the inside wheels off the ground in the turns.

We were all feeling pretty giggly after the high-jinks during the parade laps. When the first race of the day started, only to be red flagged after the 1st lap, by the enormity of the Scott Gowland death, which happed in front of everyone right by pit out, it really pit a damper on things. Racing had to be stopped while the State Police were called. Of course, there is never a good time for a racer to be killed on track, but since September 11, everyone has been a little edgy. Coming to the racetrack this weekend everyone was looking forward to spending a weekend at the races, not watching CNN, instead having fun. This cold sobering shock reminds us of the preciseness of life and the importance of living it. Info on Scott's funeral can be had from the MARRC web site http://marrc.nova.org/html_docs/news01/1014.gowland.html.

First up was Eric ran second in GT Lights until the last lap, took third. Rich's Expert GT Lights race was immediately followings Eric's Amateur GT Lights race. "The tragic events early Saturday afternoon put all of us in a quieter mood," "Rich remarked, "and to be honest I don't really recall much about the seven laps at race speed for the GT Lights race. I know that the front runners in that race, Steve Keener and Bernie Huntt, are running in the 1:23-1:24 times, but I doubt I turned better than a 1:26 or maybe a 1:25."

The RRS went off without any hitches, winding down the events of Saturday. We had Tom Fitszpatrick make several announcements on the PA that we had brought a keg with us to the track. While we adjourned to Sturges World for dinner, folks availed themselves the opportunity to drink on us. After the third overstuffed meal of the day down at the Sturges World campsite, the racers returned to the pits to find a nice little party centered around the Team Charm keg (appropriately a keg of Victory Amber, and tasty too). Around midnight the group concluded that Johnny must have given up driving by then and pulled over to sleep in the truck, but just them he rolled into the pits complete with a dinette set he pulled from the garbage on his ride down from Utica. A lovely addition to the pits, indeed. Dawn on Sunday was ominous, and the sleepy crew immediately started packing up the pits in anticipation of imminent rain. Although it was misty and occasionally drizzled, the track stayed dry the entire day.

The threat of rain put the sanctioning body, CCS, into rush mode. Steve spent most of the morning pouring over his TL-R that was up on the work stand, changing plugs, battery (it stopped holding a charge), tires, and brake pads. Steve skipped practice, his normal habit of not wanting to waste his brand new tires. They ran seven races before the lunch break, including Eric's Lightweight Supersport race. Eric took his first 2nd place trophy after a nice dice.

After lunch both Rich and Eric ran in the combined Lightweight GP race, and here's Rich's sorted story. "I got a great start but of course some of the faster bikes beat me into turn one. As we twisted and turned through turns 3, 4, 5, and 6, I kept expecting the two strokes in front of me to leave me behind, but then it dawned on my dimwitted brain that these guys were so fast! I dogged them through 7-8-9, but didn't pass. I hounded them in turn ten, but didn't pass. While Keener, and crew slipped away with the lead turning no better than 1:24's, I was sheepishly following a couple of Aprillia Cup bikes. Sure, they had acceleration down the straight, and my exit speed in turn one is still slow, but I should have zipped past and left them behind. As it was, my lack of aggression allowed Thane to catch up, and he showed me a wheel going into turn three. That got me going a little, and I finally passed between seven and eight, determined to keep Thane behind. It worked, and the effort brought me a fourth place trophy. It should have been 2nd!!

Eric on the other hand had a big moment on the first lap when the guy in front of him lost it in turn six, almost taking him off the track. If you look close you can see the down rider sliding into the tires, and Eric way too wide at the exit. Eric also did a nice pass for the camera in turn eight

Racing, as Steve and Rich constantly remind our new students, is an endeavor in repetition. You strive to repeat the same action lap after lap, entering and exiting turns at the same speed time and again. Consistency allows you to understand the dynamics of the bike's reaction, and to slowly improve your lap times with a reduced risk of crashing. An expert rider should be able to turn lap after lap without varying more than .1 or .2 seconds. Repetition brings confidence, and consistency wins races. Sunday, however, found Rich with sporadic lap times, inconsistent corner-speeds, and an inability to totally focus on the track. Others described his performance with phrases like "he choked", and asked probing questions like "what the hell is wrong with you?" Rich could say little to defend himself.

The last race of the day was the premier twins event, Supertwins. Steve Keener, CCS number three, was leading our own Steve by four points. Due to this being a double points event, this was a winner take all, dash for the championship. If Keener beat Steve, he won the regional championship. If Steve beat Keener, he won the championship. All hands were on deck to watch and cheer for their favorite rider. The threatened rain never showed up, 3rd call was given on a dry, but blustery track. Also on the grid sheet was Fred Stucky, another local fast twins racer, who can consistently do low '19's and has done high '18's reportedly. (Editor's note, we found out after the race that Stucky did not make the grid, his bike sprung a oil leak earlier in the day sidling him).

Using tire warmers for the first time (they do make a difference) Steve went out for his warm up lap and found that he was already "warmed up." Steve took his front row grid spot, sandwiched between points leader Steve Keener on his left and Rich on his right. The green flag flourished sending the first wave of experts off. Getting a weak pick up on the flag, Steve was a little slow off the line, behind Rich and Keener at first. However, with a very skillful metering of the throttle plates, Steve was able to quickly shoot out into the lead, and entered into turn one in first place. After this Steve put his head down and started putting several seconds per lap on the rest of the field, working especially hard in the infield, like turn six. Trying hard to not fade, and thinking that Stucky was right behind him, here is Steve just before the half way flag. If you look close in the upper right hand corner, you will see the blurred image of 2nd thru 5th places just coming out of turn five while Steve is entering turn seven, or about 10 seconds behind Steve. On the white flag lap Steve looked back twice, and eased the pace a little. Taking the checkered flag, the race win, and the regional championship in one split second of great joy, Steve savored the "cool off" lap, unzipping his leathers to get rid of excess heat and pumping his arm for the crowd. As Steve sez;

Rich managed to finish the race, still somewhat spastically flailing. It was great to have a large cheering section at the track, hollering from the stands for Steve, Rich, or Eric whenever they were on track. Huge thanks to all the that showed up; including the Sturges clan (Sterling, Judy, Leslie, John, Dave, Emily, and James); the Harris's (Don, Ellie, and Anya); the Summers (Brian, Jake, and Jessica) plus Tara, Stu, Rui, Bernie, and all the other great friends who cheered us on or stopped by to say congrats.

Thanks to all those that took pictures for us this year, Gary Foreman, Rui, Steve, John, and "Mrs.Huntt."

Thanks to the families who put up with our risky habits.

Finally, we would like to dedicate our 2001 regional championship to the memory of Scott Gowland, who, in 9/18/99, took the MARRC Road Racing School, and like all racers, enjoyed what he did despite the risk. Godspeed Scott.