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BREAKING AWAY
The Adventures of team R.A.W.
in Indiana
Fasttrax Putnam 3 hour Endurance
event
By Wes Orloff
I’ve always had a soft spot for Indiana,
and especially Putnam Park... This was the first track I ever
rode, the first track I ever touched a knee to tarmac, first
track I ever raced at, and still rates highly as one of my
all time favorite places to ride a motorcycle. Unfortunately
there were falling outs between a number of motorcycling organizations
and the track, and no race events had been held there for
a number of years, so the opportunity to race there again
didn’t exist….until last week. To my surprise/delight,
Fasttrax, who normally run a Nelson’s Ledges based road
race series, held a 2 day event at Putnam, including a 3 hour
endurance race. Despite being held on a Monday, the opportunity
to race was too good to pass up and I quickly recruited my
old supermotard endurance race team, Team R.A.W., to fill
out the rider and crew needs. I ‘borrowed’ Leah’s
XB9R to thrash around. Everyone’s enthusiasm was incredible,
being tempered only by the fact that it has been 6 years since
Rick had been on a road race bike and never been to Putnam,
Andy had only raced a road race bike once in the last 5 years,
crashed heavily last time at Putnam back in the 90’s,
and would be flying in from a vacation from Italy the night
before the race. Still, despite challenges, we were still
determined to make the best of it.
Honestly, by Sunday afternoon, our departure day from Milwaukee,
I was questioning the wisdom of this whole adventure. I had
been up since 6am prepping Leah’s XB9R Firebolt for the
event. The bike is essentially a stock XB9 with some suspension
work and a pipe/muffler, even retaining the stock belt drive.
It turned out to be quite a challenge re-setting the suspension
normally set up for a 100lbs flyweight to work with the much
higher density of the Team RAW riders. I was also trying to
get the second XB9 finished which required a new cylinder
and piston, so that the whole team could have something to
practice on. I finished the bikes up just in time to pick
up Team Raw members ‘Euro-trash’ Andy and Lindsay
at the airport, dump them at their house , finish packing
the trailer with help of RAW members Leah and Rick. We headed
to Indiana, picking up ‘Euro-trash’ and Lindsay
on the way down. Of course, our planned departure time of
7pm turned to 8:30pm….resulting in bleary eyed arrival
at 2:30am local time at Putnam’s gate. Everyone decided
to say screw the hotel, and we somehow managed to sleep 5
(uncomfortably) in a Van packed with gear and two bikes. Morning
came way too early and we slid our way into the pits and got
registered.
It felt good to be back at Putnam, the track and facilities
were as beautiful as I remembered them in the bright Hoosier
sunshine. This was looking like it was going to be a great
day, no matter the results. Our first experience with Fasttrax
was an excellent one, with a super friendly and accommodating
staff, allowing us to run all three practice classes to get
the whole team time on the bike. We unloaded the bikes, and
to my surprise, they both started and ran. Euro trash and
Rick went out first practice session on the two bikes, followed
by me on the endurance bike the second session. I quickly
discovered that the rear tire and brakes on the XB9, which
last saw duty at Daytona where Leah threw the bike down the
track, were essentially crap! On the other hand, the front
suspension sucked as well, being way out to lunch from an
adjustment stand point. At least the bike ran well. I was
also running into an unexpected problem with my riding, as
they say in the corporate world, there was plenty of opportunity
for improvement. Despite having a ton of laps around Putnam
in the 90’s as an amateur, returning back to my roots
at Putnam 7 years of experience later, I found I was reverting
back to my old amateur bad habits. It was a constant struggle
of knowing what I should be doing vs. the muscle memory that
had been burned into my being doing laps around the place
as a beginner racer. Surprisingly, despite hundreds of more
laps around Putnam than my team mates, I was probably in the
worst shape from a riding standpoint from surprisingly fast
Euro trash and ever improving Rick.
We still needed to address the bike however, specifically
tires and brakes. We swapped out the Daytona pads with some
new EBC HH compound pads for the race, and made a visit to
the Michelin man for some new rubber (apparently Rick and
Andy didn’t want to chance using my marginal take off’s….).
The Michelin guy had a close out sale on some new 2004 style
H2 medium compound DOTs, and thought the rear ‘should’
make race distance. We figured it had to be better than my
selection and bit the bullet for new tires.
This was also the scene of our first holy intervention, when
on a whim Rick stuck his finger in the front wheel bearing,
only to find it about 3 revolutions from being fully seized.
A spare wheel was quickly swapped in its place…
We had a couple of hours until the start of the race, so
we set up our pit area. Leah and Lindsay, despite the fact
that I think they both would have preferred to be riding,
did an awesome job getting things set up (including delicious
sandwiches…..). They were the pit bosses and did everything
from keeping track of laps, signaling, filming, ordering us
around and telling us to ride faster (or slower in Euro-trash’s
case….). Their contribution to Team RAW was incredible
and much appreciated! We were lucky enough to pit by the Bloomington
Harley-Davidson Team, who despite running the same class as
us (with Formula USA pro rider Josh Guyer no less….),
were great people and willing to help out any way they could.
The guys on the other side of us were great too, and may have
even had been relatives of the Hayden’s based on the
Kentucky accents and speed on the track…
Although I was originally supposed to start the race, we
voted Rick in my place as I had never run on new tires before
(no comment….I must be part Scottish). It was a big field,
and our class was gridded way back on row 19. Rick made a
great start, with Josh Guyer on the Bloomington Harley-Davidson
bike getting the hole shot ahead of us and a gaggle of SV650’s.
To our surprise, Rick, despite a 5 year layoff from road racing
and never having been to the track, put the hammer down and
was flying, keeping us in 3rd place in class, and eventually
2nd place, but more importantly never letting the Bloomington
bike get away. Rick put in an incredible ride, and on Lindsay’s
signal came in and handed off to me at the 45 minute mark...
The pit stop went like clockwork as I went out on the track.
Divine interaction #2 struck…
As I pulled out of the pits, Euro trash noticed one of the
shifter linkage bolts had back out of the shifter, despite
being locatite’d and safety wired (this had happened
to us before…..). As I made my first lap, I noticed a
tremendous amount of activity at the pit wall, being flashed
the ‘in’ sign frantically. Thinking I must have
been meatballed, I finished the lap and came in, only to see
the shift linkage bolt dangling out of the shift being retained
by a couple of threads at best.. Again, the pit crew did an
awesome job and we were back out on the track in less than
a minute.
I had an interesting session to say the least. As I settled
down on the bike, things began to click and I began experimenting
with other lines, brake points and shift points. As the session
went on, things were going well, and I found I had to be a
gear higher than I was in practice in a number of different
spots. I found I was slowly breaking away from the following
pack that had passed me earlier. Everything started to click
and I was finally able to overcome the bad habits of my amateur
days. Putnam was fun again. It was during one of these braking
experiments about a ½ hour in that disaster struck
…
I had been testing my brake markers for turn 1, waiting later
and later every lap. A couple of times I was braking hard
enough from 125-130mph that the rear wheel was lifting up.
Around the halfway mark of my shift during one of these braking
exercises, the engine suddenly sputtered and started running
on 1 cylinder, never clearing out during the lap. I thought
the engine was toast and limped back to the pits, just as
Lindsay was displaying the ½ mark for my shift. The
pit crew frantically jumped into action as I slid into our
pit box, pointing at the tank. We re-fueled, and not sure
what else to do, sent me back out. The engine sputtered through
the first turn, but eventually cleared out and ran like itself
again. The combination of heavy braking and low fuel load
had been drawing fuel away from the fuel pump pick up, causing
a big air bubble to be sent through the system. Once I was
confident with the engine, I put my head back down and continued
my re-acquaintance with Putnam Park...
We had talked about doing 45 minute shifts (about as much
time as we could get out of a tank of fuel), and my unexpected
pit entry was right at the half hour mark, so I was expecting
to see the pit-in sign from Lindsay within a 5 or 6 laps.
After what seemed like an eternity, I was shocked to see her
display the ½ hour board! Again!!!! It’s funny
what you find yourself thinking as you are hot lapping on
a race circuit. I once heard Miguel Duhamel say in an interview
that he crashed because his pit crew had displayed a confusing
pit board. At the time I passed it off as a lame excuse for
crashing, but suddenly found some validity in it as I ran
wide two corners in a row, trying to decipher the pit board
I just saw displayed. I guess I only have so much brain power
to go around… The following lap as I passed the pit,
I signaled by shrugging my shoulders and raising my hand in
question, only to be answered by frantic waves to keep going.
It suddenly occurred to me what was going on, that we could
eliminate a final stop for fuel on Andy’s shift since
we had filled up unexpectedly during my shift. I put the hammer
down and continued for another 20 minutes on the now slightly
greasy tires, being careful on braking not to starve the fuel
pump, finishing my hour and twenty minute shift and handed
off to Euro-trash.
We refueled Andy and he took off, absolutely flying, setting
the fast lap of the group on the now marginal tires. I noticed
the Bloomington guys were in the pits with no bike, only to
find out they had broke during my shift. Surprisingly they
asked if were leading, as we had been exchanging the lead
with them! I ran to the scoring tower, and was elated to find
out we had a 3 lap lead over second place. Despite knowing
better, I ran back to the team to tell them the good news.
This, of course, cursed Euro trash and he unexpectedly entered
the pits with a broken shifter, this time the heim joint on
the linkage failing. Incredibly, Leah and Lindsay had had
the fore sight to have a full replacement shifter ready to
go. We thrashed and got a replacement part on the bike and
roughly adjusted to the right height. Andy took off, with
35 minutes to go. We only lost a lap, and Andy made that up
within 3 laps…
It was nerve racking watching the finish of the race, Andy
was still pushing hard on the now wasted tires, visibly sliding
everywhere. We figured it was in Andy’s best interest
not to know he was leading the class at the moment. It was
about 10 times more stressful watching than actually riding…the
Gods of speed were smiling on us in the end though, and Euro
trash brought it slithering home in one piece, first in class.
A true team effort. Later inspection showed the Michelin Man’s
estimate of the tire lasting the entire race may have been
optimistic, and it’s a testament to Andy’s riding
that he kept it up.
After a celebratory Mexican dinner in Lafayette, Indiana,
we said goodbye to the Hoosier state and arrived back in Milwaukee
around midnight, tired but completely satisfied. Mondays don’t
come much better than that…
We would like to thank the following for their support:
Team RAW un-sung heroes Leah and Lindsay
Glenn Veatch Motorsports
Buell Racing
WFO Engineering
Eagle Harley-Davidson
Wiseco Piston
Cometic Gasket
Advanced Sleeve
Spider Grips
Our buddies at Bloomington Harley-Davidson
R/J Performance
Fuel Café
Café Lulu
Michelin
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