ARRA, Willow Springs February 17-18

I flew out to visit Ed on Thursday night, and we spent all of Friday working on the EX, installing the Yamaha front end and other maintenance. Saturday morning we awake early to rain. With four of us, John volunteers to suit up for the back of the pickup as Ed explains "don't worry, as soon as we leave LA the rain will stop and by the time we get to the desert it will be nice and warm. Two hours later we're at Willow Springs and so is the rain. I register and have to fight to get signed up as a novice. Practice costs $50 in addition to the race and two-day ARRA membership. I practice all morning; it is cold and drizzling, even snowing, but the track stays fairly dry. After getting the bike somewhat sorted out and finding my shift points, I am running around 2:00 laps. Turn 9 is frightening but with the high winds you don't even have to brake when it tightens up at the exit. I run the race and take third to an RZ350 and Nick Inetchez's 600 single. My times were in the 1:48's

On sunday Ed crashes in practice in turn three, but very lightly. Later in the day he takes eighth place in ??

WERA Regional Sprint, Summit Point April 14-15

After completing the engine mods, I tried to run the EX with stock CV carburetors. The results were very disappointing. I had the jetting OK on Saturday; it was running too rich and stumbled when applying the gas. I ran the best I could and qualified pole position in Clubman. Three minutes later I was protested for an illegal bike. Turns out there's a typo in the rule book and it should read not 500cc twins, but 500cc air cooled twins. Oh well. I rejetted and ran the Formula II and D-Superbike heat races. The bike still stumbled on anything less than full throttle, but I managed to qualify 12th and 17th, both out of about 40 bikes. The best part was that on the straight I was toasting the stock FZR400's, but still getting out-powered by worked FZR's and exotic race bikes like TZ's.

Returning Sunday I got two practice sessions, each with a jetting change. It's running the best yet, and I race Formula II. On the warm up lap it runs perfect, but with each successive race lap it stumbles more & more. I quit the race on the 6th lap. I once again rejet the #@&%**! carbs and wait for D-superbike, the second-to-last race of the day. Once again it runs perfectly; but at the start of the race it dies on the starting line. I restart DFL and later pull in on the 4th lap. Monday morning I ordered a set of Keihin 35mm smoothbores. Now the price of the EX is $2000 plus about $2500 in high-perf parts and the head flow work.

AMA/CCS, Summit Point May 5-6

The bad news is that last weekend Ed Brush crashed and got run over. He had multiple compound fractures in his right shin bone and will be out of work for many months.

The bike ran flawlessly and after a wet practice on Saturday morning I raced Lightweight Supertwins (under 750cc) and placed third. I was a bit wimpy about passing a few guys, who incidentally weren't even in my race. I dropped my gearing one tooth (8%) and on Sunday I took second in Sportsman and third in Heavyweight Supertwins. The same two guys, on EX500's similar to mine, were beating my by about 3 seconds a lap. It was rather fun passing a few worked Ducati's that probably cost $9,000.

WERA National Qualifier, Summit Point May 26-27

I didn't have my usual mechanic this weekend as Lisa went to Cape Cod for the nice weather. I picked up Mike Sorrells and we arrived at a very wet track at 8:00 Saturday morning. Hung around until the officials finally canceled the heat races at 11:30. I hear that it finally stopped raining later and they did run some (wet) practice. Returned (alone) Sunday and they announced that there would be but one practice session for each group. I was group one so I suited up for a wet track (although it was not raining) and went out. Half way around the first lap my clutch cable broke. I didn't have an extra so I spend the next two hours trying to find someone who did. Finally got a guy to loan me one for the day. Running again, I went and late registered for an second race, Dsuperbike. It started to rain again so they broke for lunch early, after the 3rd race. Didn't rain the rest of the day but the track never got sticky so times were up 23 seconds. John and Holly Daniel showed up just before my first race, Formula II. I went out for the warm up lap and when I pulled into the grid the officials pulled me off. Looking down I see oil. Drip, drip, stream. Great. Blew the clutch cover gasket. Naturally no one has any (including myself) so John and I carefully clean the mating surfaces and apply bondo goop. We wait, and wait, and check the bike just before race time (2. 5 hrs after applying goop). Run up and down pit road at 11,000 rpm and it doesn't leak so I race. I was gridded dead last as I registered late, and also it was two waves. If there are lots of bikes they split the group with a 510 second pause. I pass 10 guys when the flag drops catch another 5 on the first turn. 5 laps later I'm behind a RZ350 who's in 5th place and I just can't get past him. We had a great race for 2.5 laps and then came up on bikes number 3 and 4. The RZ tries to pass the first but get shut down so I pass them both in turn 8. I charge for the next guy and we come out of the last turn, last lap with me chasing his butt. We cross the finish lime within an inch at 100+mph, totally tucked in the fairing and snarling at each other. It was the most fun I've ever had, even though the scorers gave him 3rd, so I didn't trophy. Also saw the most crashes in any one day (no one hurt badly) and turned my best times. (1:36.11) It was a long weekend for 8 laps of racing. This week, Road Atlanta!!!!!!!

AMA/CCS, Road Atlanta June 2-3

Ok, my first away race was this weekend at Road Atlanta. Drive down with Ray Sheldon Friday night, 10 hours. Get a good night sleep but wake to rain. Went out for wet practice because I need to learn the track. It was incredible. 2.5 miles, 12 turns. Pavement has lots of traction, when dry. Things dried by my 1st race and I took 2nd out of a field of ... 3. I was turning laps of around 2:00. Short break, then I ran the 600cc GTU race (24 laps) just to get practice. Eventually worked down to 1:48's and 1:47's, placed 19th out of 56, beating everyone except the 600s and two RZ's. GTU doesn't distinguish between novice and expert. On Sunday I went to a higher gearing and ran wet practice. Felt better, and was getting 139 mph on the long back straight (which included two hills and a left right s turn, all at, gulp, full throttle) So then we get to sit around and wait for races #9, which happened around 3:30. I get a lousy start and run a fair race taking 2nd to an RZ350, not the EX500 that has been beating me the last 6 races. His bike overheated and he had to quit. OK, so the last race of the day (I'm still shaking just thinking about it). Heavyweight supertwins, Novice, with Experts in the same race. Flag drops, I get the jump on Mike, but he passes me on the 3rd turn. I spend first lap getting around about 6 expert and then I am alone for two laps, I see Mike and chase. Right hander at the end of the straight, down to about 80 mph, and under a bridge for a totally blind turn! I'm now directly behind Mike, gassing it out of the turn when I lose the back wheel, and I mean 90 degrees lost it. The bars go lock to lock two, maybe three times and somehow I don't crash. Take the next right hander with a pounding heart and outbrake Mike on the next. I crank it up and turn my best lap of the weekend (1:44.70) and two laps later have trouble getting around the #3 expert. This lets Mike get behind me on the last lap, but I know I've got the top end on him for the back straight, all I have to do is get a good drive onto the straight. Mistake #2, I over juice and slide through the turn, and Mike passes me on the inside with a much better drive. I finally catch and outbrake him at the end of the straight, through the right, down to the last right and I take it 5% easy, thinking I've my first win. He drives inside and exits the turn to cross the finish line 2" ahead. Damn. Mistake #3.

AMA/CCS, Summit Point June 16-17

Lisa and I arrived in time for the first practice session and the track felt good. My old tires were causing a wallow on the straight, but I took one more practice and then replaced both tires and the brake pads. John and Holly Daniel and Rik Harris showed up and at 2:00 I took the warm up lap for Lightweight Supertwins. I was gridded front row of ST, with Expert ST in front of me and Lightweight Superbike in front of us. I got a great start and was the first Novice into turn one. Mike passed me in turn three in a crowd of Superbikes. Things spread out quickly and I didn't waste much time passing people. On lap 3 I caught up to Mike and followed him around. We were turning 1:35's and passing a few more superbikes and a lapped rider occasionally. When the white flag came out I tried to outbrake him in turn one but he saw it coming and we went into one very fast. Mike maintained the line with much scraping and sliding; I bailed out to the widest possible line and thus got a terrible drive. Mike hit lapped traffic in the infield so I was right behind him as we passed two riders in turn 4. On the back straight we caught up to a Harley and Mike slowed to pass him in turn ten. I broke early for ten and went inside the Harley with excellent speed and got a great drive out, beating Mike to the finish line by eight inches. Finally a win!!!!!!!

Roe and Gwenadine arrived right after the race and stayed for the afternoon. Gwenadine really enjoyed it and plans to return. John & Holly, Rik, Lisa and I camped out under a beautiful starry night. I was pleased to be able to sleep by 10:30. I had feared a noisier crowd.

Sunday was another perfect day and I went out for first practice. Made a few suspension adjustments but didn't get to test them as there was a 7-bike wreck in turn 10. Brian (of Reston?) was hurt on the head and flown out to a hospital. The long wait for my Sportsman race was broken up by the arrival of a dozen additional friends. Tee shirt sales soared. At around 2:30 I suited up for Sportsman. There were 6 Experts gridded up front, I was on the Novice pole and there were maybe 20 other riders behind me. I got a great start but somehow that damn 500 interceptor beat me into turn one. We passed a few Experts and I finally passed him on the third lap going into turn one. In the infield I lapped someone. There were many rookies. Coming out of nine I checked my back and Mike was right there, 1 second back. I tried to concentrate on running fast laps, which must have worked 'cause we were turning 1:33's with my best a 1:32.54 Yow! I had been checking my back on turn nine and Mike was right there every time. Coming out of turn seven on the last lap I was about to pass a rider (for the second time) and Mike took us both on the outside of eight, beating me into nine. We were both grinding pegs and had at least 30 mph over the rookie. I couldn't catch him and he won by two bike lengths. We beat all but one of the Experts.

On the warm-up lap for Heavyweight Supertwins Mike blew the base gasket on his EX, so he was out. I got a great start but was behind two Ducati 750's. I tried to pass twice in the exit of turn three but ran out of track. On the fourth lap I passed the first in th chute but didn't brake hard enough and tried to take five around the outside. Got a big front wheel side and almost fell. I checked my back on the straight and there was no one close so I just followed behind the Duke's for a third. We were turning high 1:35's

AMA/CCS, New Hampshire International Speedway June 1

After over-sleeping, Lisa and I arrived at Steve's house around 11:00. Liz did not go, so it was Lisa and I and Steve. We watch practice from 6:00 til dark, then went to bed early. The track is still under construction, and quite a mess. It's 1.75 miles, 12 turns and very sticky. There is little or no run-off on most corners. The LRRS runs the race and they have some strange rules. Only two races per bike, they don't take credit cards, and there are three classes, novice, junior and expert.

I had to change my number plate colors so I missed one practice. Got about three sessions, just enough to figure where the turns are. By the time my race came around, everyone had arrived. Mom and Dad, John and Rachel, John Bloomer and family. The warm-up lap was my best practice, and after the first race lap I was well out front. I turned 1:35's for 4 laps and then lost the front tire in a downhill lefthander. I still don't know why I lost it. It just tucked in as I was aplying the gas and hanging off more than usual. I pushed the bars straight and kept riding. My last two laps were 1:38-1:40 and a dude passed me at the end.

The sportsman race was large, with 30+ bikes. Steve and I started even and he beat me on the inside of turn 1. I passed him braking into 3 on the next lap and on the 3rd he passed me on the straight. We were turning 1:31-1:33's and were in a pack of 5-6 bikes. I was cut off several times by squids and ended up with fifth place, half a length behind Steve. On the last lap the dude who won Supertwins crashed in front of 4 of us, I was lucky to not hit him.

WERA, North Carolina Motor Speedway July 7-8

Drove down alone on Friday, six hours even. I walked the track before dark and was amazed at the steepness of the banks. At 7:00 I got to the end of a long registration line so all my heat races were second wave. Practice went well, but my rear Metzler was over heating even at 40 psi cold. In the first heat race I messed up the turn coming into the infield twice, and placed just into the first wave. In C-Superbike I ran better but was nearly last. In D-Superbike I ran a consistant 4 laps and qualified 10th. Guess I was turning around 1:12-1:13. After one practice Sunday I switched to a 150 Dunlop rear tire and got one session on it. The air was way to low and it wobbled badly. When racetime arrived I ran with 30/31 psi cold and ran C-Superbike first. Got DFL. Immediately following was Formula II, where I got a terrible start and ran a pretty good race for about 15th place. Almost caught Mike but couldn't pass a 400 on the last lap. Dipped into the 1:10's. After a wait, we ran D-Superbiek where I started 4th row. A fair start, then I ran 1:11-1:12's for a 12th place. The bigger tire was wearing me out.

AMA/CCS, Summit Point July 20-22

On Friday there was an open practice, so I took both the EX and my new '90 FZR600RA out to Summit. I tried a few needle changes on the EX but ended up where it was all season. Got to take the 600 around the track and fell in love with it. Saturday was nice in the morning and I was turning 1:39's in practice. But it rained before my race and the LWST race was a race of attrition. Mike Lewis passed me but crashed, and I just couldn't catch Pat on his Hawk. I was suprised that my laps were very consistant; they were 2:15's. Steve and his parents were there.

On Sunday Lisa, Liz, Brian Hill, Tom Broglio & his brother showed up in addition to Steve and his parents. HWST ran around 2:00, and I dogged the start. Passed everyone but Mike on the first lap, but in the process Mike got a 15-20 second lead on me. I got to work and eventually caught him at the start of the last lap, severely outbraking him. Lap times were 1:36's. I really needed that win, and the fans loved it. Later on it started rain. Steve pulled sixth in lwsb in a downpour, and we both raced Sportsman on a wet track. Turns 2, 8 and 10 were wet and I pulled 2nd place while turning 1:55's

The EX hit a false neutral (between 4&5 or 5&6 ?) twice. And I hit neutral twice in the pits. Must check this out.

WERA, Summit Point August 19

I took the FZR out to Summit Point Sunday. For some unknown reason we had only one practice session, about 10 laps. Picked up the pace on the 2nd lap and then on the next, while headed down the straight, I had to move to the right to pass a handful of guys. Although I could find no bumps to explain it, the bike went into a violent head shake. I cranked up the steering dampener all the way but the wobble never really went away (over 135mph). Could be fork fluid problems or bad tire match. (or old tires) Anyway I was geared for 145 and that was fun. After lunch I ran C production, but since I skipped the heat races Sat I had to start at the end of the pack, with 24 guys in front, but more importantly in the 2nd wave (510 seconds behind first wave) Still haven't figured out how to launch the thing, so i got a fair start and for the next three laps just passed everyone in sight. I had clear track for laps five and six, and turned my goal time of 1:30's (1:29.27 to boast) Ended up with eight place, and $50 from metzler. Had I started up front, I could have stayed there. But next year I'll be in the expert class anyway (they were turning 1:24 with pipes on)

The big excitement was that as there is a national event at pocono this weekend, lots of the big names were racing at summit. Kurt Hall and Britt Turkington were stomping on the local favorites.

WERA, Pocono International August 24-26

I didn't race but Tom and I went up for kicks. It was fun, and I witnessed Kurt Hall and Mike Smith doing 170 mph on the front straight. Rich Oliver, Tripp Nobles, Nigel Gales, and many other big names were there.

AMA/CCS, Roebling Road September 1-2

Tom and I drove down Thursday night and Friday, and camped outside the track gate. The track is 2.02 miles, nine turns, all of which are constant radius. The medium straight allowed me to use Summit gearing. Practice Saturday was uneventful; I started turning 1:38-1:40's and feeling out the track. There is loads of traction, but a few bumps. Very fast cornering speeds. I ran lightweigt supertwins and was out front the whole race. Sunday I ran Heavyweight and passed into first place on the second lap. My start was poor due to poor shifting. Late in the day I had to fight with two RZ350's for a win in sportsman, leading for the most part. On the second lap an expert rider up front blow his engine, then crashed. Four of us novices where 5 seconds behind him, and I went outside of a large oil puddle. However, my front tire found some more and slide out for a milli-second. God must not want me to crash yet.

They red-flagged the race and performed a cleanup, but the last ambulance made a hospital run and we had to wait an hour before we could restart. I got a better jump at the green flag and was in second. I passed the dude and ran two laps without noticing anyone near me. With two laps to go I checked my shoulder when getting onto the straight, and saw three RZ350's about two feet behind me! On the last lap the faster guy embarrassed me braking into 1. I followed him around, and drove extra hard through 8 and 9, beating him to the checkered by a bike length.

AMA/CCS, Summit Point September 15-16

I raced both bikes this weekend but I sucked big time. Saturday I practiced on the FZR600 and after the first session realized that nine months and 1500 miles on the street had ruined the race tires, so i bought new ones. Got a 110 up front instead of the 120, and it seemed to make the bike less than neutral, wanting to fall into turns. The whole bike was like an epileptic coming out of turns, and I was bumming. Talked with a seasoned rider of 600's and he helped me change my suspension settings.

Next time out was the 20 lap race, and it worked ok in the turns but the 140mph wobble was back. The race was GTU, the only race that mixes Novice and Expert. I was on the front line and when the flag dropped I got a stellar start, floating the front 4" right through third gear. I was the first guy into turn One, with 40+ dudes behind. All the way to one I kept thinking "where is Murry, Szerek, etc who are so fast?" Halfway around one about four guys went zummin' by. But for 20 seconds I was in the lead. I had trouble with the rear wallowing, and more trouble with my concentration. It was so bad that around lap 12 I backed off and took a slow lap just to get my shit together. Did better after that, finished 11th but was 46 seconds off the times I turned with the 600 last month!

We (Stu and I) camped out and had lots o fun, things were really relaxed as many titles were already decided. There were two practice sessions Sunday AM, and I used both bikes each one, doing the quick swap half way. Played with the fzr suspension but still it was wrong. First race of the day was novice prod. 600, and I got a good start. Was second into One and held it through 24. Then I spasmed and ran off turn five. Came back on the track in 6th place, then lost about a spot per lap afterwards. The high speed wobble was getting worse and I had to back off at the end of the straight. Finished 15th?

Ran the EX500 in Heavyweight supertwins, and totally dogged the start. Was last into One but managed to pull a third. First time I have been beaten by a Harley. How embarrassing. Compression test yesterday showed my EX down 30% in one cylinder, 10% in the other. Guess I'll rebuild for Daytona. Though it felt slow. All-in-all a pretty disappointing weekend, but I had lots of friends there and we had fun.

AMA/CCS, Daytona October 25-28

Having heard horror stories of three hour registration lines, Stu, Tom and I drove all night to arrive at the track at 5:00 Thursday morning. I sleep in line for two hours and they opened the windows at 8:00. By 9:30 I was picking out a pit spot. Had we arrived at 9:30, we would have been through the line at 9:40.

Friday morning I started the EX and it ran fine around the pits. Around 9:30 Stu and Tom showed up just in time for my first practice. Seems that they had a late night and hence we coined the phrase "2 Drunk Crew". The track was cold and slick and many people had already crashed in the east horseshoe. I ran three laps, slowly building speed; but on the fourth lap the bike sputtered bably on the straight. I was convinced that it was an ignition problem.

We checked the charging system and ignition system. I thought that the ignition box might be breaking up at high temperatures, but couldn't find any spares. We checked for loose wires and went back out for practice. Again, the bike ran well for three laps, then started to break up.

This time I started to listen to those that had been telling me to jet the carbs for dry, sea-level air. We went from the 125 mains to 130s (two steps). The final practice on friday saw five trouble free laps.

Saturday morning I went out to finally get a chance to work on my lines and shift points, but the bike died on the first lap. We pulled the plugs and I had three people give me their opinion. Everyone said that it sounded first like a fuel delivery problem, but we had twice checked the filters, petcock, etc for good flow. The vote was two for a leaner jet and two for richer; I counted my vote double and jetted up to a 132. Of course the bike ran fine around the pits.

For each of my three races, I was gridded on the front row. But when the green flag dropped for Lightweight Supertwins, the EX was losing one cylinder from the first turn. By the third lap, it was running on just one all the time, and I had droped back to about 14th place. Suddenly the bike ran well, and did so for the last two laps. I worked my way back to 8th place.

Quite frustrated, I returned to the pits with the bike running well but obviously with a problem. We tore into the bike to get a reading on the plugs, which looked fine. But one of the coil wires fell of in Tom's hand. Was that the only problem? A problem, yes, but with my next two races back to back, it was hard to be confident.

Suddenly the air filled with a smell of burning wood, and Stu spoke up. "maybe the gas tank is not venting properly." That had to be it! 2drunkCrew high-fived each other and we cut the gasket in the gas cap the ensure air intake. I went out for Heavyweight supertwins at about 2:00.

The race was uneventful. I got a fair start and was 7th into turn two. I worked up the what I thought was 5th in a couple laps, and stayed there. On my sixth lap, Fabian Cortez passed me at 170 mph. Yeow! I was topped out at a pleasent 143mph. I must have missed a pass or a crash 'cause the results had me in 3rd.

I can directly back to the grid for Sportsman, and due to the lack of cool down time the EX overheated. I was able to convince the grid marshals that it was just water and they let me take the warm-up lap. At the flag I got a good start, but was maybe 10th into turn two. The first two laps I passed many of those pesky little RZ350s. The I got into a dogfight with a particularly fast 350. I passed him twice a lap for laps 4 through 7, able to get a good charge off the last corner, last lap and hold a bike lenght lead to the checkered. I had counted 4th place but again got 3rd.

In the two races that the Cowasaki was running, I was beaten by Mike Lewis on his EX, a Moto Guzzi 948 and an RZ350.