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Putnam/Road America Race Weekend
Report
3 Podiums and a Buell-neral
By Wes Orloff
After a fairly serious drought of racing this
year, we suddenly had the opportunity to have a dream race
weekend: Solo 20 modern class racing and vintage racing at
Putnam on Saturday, and the premiere superbikers II supermotard
event at the brand spanking new Briggs and Stratton go kart
track at Road America. The big problem was that as of two
weeks before the big weekend, I still didn't have any running
race machinery! 3 bikes sat forlornly in the garage in desperate
need of attention: the RD was sitting in shame collecting
dust in the far corner of the garage without any cylinders.
I had been so disgusted with its unreliability and multiple
piston seizure from the last outing that I had refused to
work on it, much less look at it. Although I hadn't touched
the bike in a while, I did send the troublesome cylinders
and a new set of Wiseco Pistons to Millennium Technologies
with a note begging for some help trying to make them live
more than a race or two…..What I got returned were a
beautiful set of diamond honed, fully chamfered cylinders.
They looked impressive, but with all the problems I was having,
I wasn't convinced they would be the fix. The bike needed
a thorough going through…..carb rebuild, new swing arm
bushings, a thorough cleaning, etc. A lot to do in 2 weeks,
but entirely possible. Unfortunately, the Yamaha wasn't the
only bike in need of attention….
I hadn't raced much modern machinery this year, and was
anxious to run something again. the GSXR600 was too far off
to get finished, but the Buell X1 was tantalizingly close.
I would have to run with a stock engine and suspension, but
it was reasonable to believe I could get the bellypan finished
up as well as safety wire the entire bike. I knew it would
be a challenge to run the Buell against fully race prepped
600's, but I was anxious to see how it stacked up.
Last on the list for prep was my Suzuki RM250 dirtbike/supermotard
(a change of tires was the only difference between configurations…..).
the fact that it hadn't run last time I tried to start it,
and that I had already pre-registered for the supermotard
race added a little more pressure to the cooker.
Needless to say, the last two weeks were a thrash. We managed
to fully prep the Yamaha and Buell, but didn't have time to
look twice at the RM. I loaded up the freshly completed Buell
and RD Thursday night and headed south to Indiana, still not
even had started the RD! I had taken Friday off and planned
to go out on a country road and break it in for an hour or
two. 7 hours later, we had blasted a deserted runway access
road at least 150 times doing main jet and needle fishhooks,
looking for that perfect combination. To my delight, we ended
up with a good carb calibration and the RD was running stronger
than it ever had. We spent the next 4 hours with Bob Foist
in his pole barn, going over the bikes with a fine tooth comb,
correcting anything we could find suspect. I wanted to go
to the track, dump gas in the bikes and race! rebuilding engines
at the track was a drag and wasn't making racing very much
fun….. For the first time in a while I could relax, knowing
we had done everything in our power to prep the bikes for
Saturday.
As always, Saturday Morning came awful early and we were
on the way to Putnam by 4:30am to insure a decent grid position.
Both of the bikes passed tech (much to my relief!). Dale Coffman
had showed up with his Beautiful CR450 GP bike I was to ride
in V2 and V3. Combined with the middleweight solo 20 on the
Buell and Formula RD and Formula 500 races on the Yamaha,
that made 5 different races on 3 bikes!
We went out for practice on the Buell first, and with what
would be a harbinger of things to come, were promptly run
into by an out of control squid on the first warm up lap of
the first practice! God I hate the 600 class! We managed to
keep it up on two wheels and got a feel for what the Buell
would do…..Not surprisingly, the suspension was way too
soft and we weren't getting great feedback from either end
of the bike. What did catch me off guard was our disadvantage
on the straights, as our 87hp just wasn't enough to keep up
with the majority of 600's out there. On the positive side,
I found there was a lot to Erik Buells mass centralization
theory, as I could slam the bike so fast from side to side
in the turn 4/5 transition that it would break the tires loose!
definitely some potential there!Overall, not too bad of an
impression, although we would be a little over our heads trying
to mix it up with the 600's.
Jumped from the big Buell right on the little RD….just
about polar extremes as far as feel go. While the Buell felt
like a torquey couch, the RD was just the opposite: stiff,
light, high revving with a distinct powerband. Practice on
the RD went extremely well, as we were going pretty good and
the bike wasn't doing anything funny at the limit. The front
tire got a little greasy at the end of the session and we
ended up getting a couple of big slides we were able to catch
with the throttle. At least we had found the limit.
Next up was the long CR450 with a powerband somewhere in
between the RD and Buell. The CR450 was running pretty well,
although we were still sorting the carbs a bit. It was pulling
real good and felt fast. Judging by the competition, it looked
like we could probably do ok in the V2 race and maybe even
win V3. We were pretty excited…..until Dale removed the
cam cover and discovered we had burned up another exhaust
cam. What a bummer….. I felt terrible for Dale as he
has so much work into this beautiful bike and these little
bugs keep nipping us lately. I have full confidence Dale will
get her straightened out though…..maybe the CR needs
to sit in the corner of the garage for a couple of months.
seems to have worked for my RD!
First race of the Day was the Formula RD race. Our biggest
competition would be Stan Lippert, current favorite to take
the Formula RD title this year and winner of every formula
RD race he's' finished this year, usually unchallenged. We
started from inside the 2nd row and managed to get a decent
start. Got a clean holeshot right up the middle and entered
turn 1 in the lead. I put my head down and put in some hard
laps, trying to gap Stan with no success. Stan and I made
a pretty good break from the rest of the field and stretched
out a big lead over third. I maintained the lead through lap
6 of 8, but had the feeling Stan was messing with me like
a cat does with mouse right before it kills it. I knew Stan
had more motor than me, and he finally showed it on the straight
of lap 6, drafting by to take the lead. I pursued as hard
as I could, although by now, the front tire was again getting
pretty greasy and had slid on me once already, sending the
RD skittering to the outside of turn 5. I just managed to
catch that one with a hand full of throttle and a little berm
action off the turn 6 rumble strips….. I kept it close
to Stan until the hairpin, where we caught a lapper. Intentionally
or not, Stan timed it perfectly as he slipped by the lapper
on the entrance to the hairpin, while I got caught out for
the next two turns. Stan got a gap on me as I attempted to
get by the lapper and I just didn't have anything for him
as I crossed the line in 2nd place. Considering the bike has
broke in all three prior races this year, just finishing was
an accomplishment being able to hang with Stan made it even
better!
I pulled in the pits and immediately jumped on the Buell
for the middleweight solo 20. After riding the RD at the limit,
the Buell felt totally foreign to me on the warm up lap. Not
surprisingly, I was the only V twin in the race! We were gridded
in the 2nd of 3 waves. I got a decent start, but was soon
passed by a bunch of 600's before the first turn. As the groups
thinned out, I just pushed as hard as I could safely determined
to bring it back in one piece. I started hearing something
dragging in left turns and thought it was the footpeg. About
3/4 of the way through the race, I went to toe the shifter,
only to realize it wasn't there anymore! Apparently the toe
piece of the shifter lever had been dragging and broke off
in the last left hand turn . I limped it back into the pits
and DNF'd. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the performance
of the bike, all things considered. We'll do something about
the horspeower and suspension and see what we can do next
year! The bike got a lot of attention and it was fun to race…..
My final race of the day was formula 500, basically an unlimited
engine modification race for vintage two strokes up to 500cc.
My 350cc Formula RD bike would be at a disadvantage since
it was built to Formula RD spec which requires 28mm carbs.
We were also starting from the 4th row. Again, the holeshot
gods were smiling at us as I momentarily made it up to 2nd
place into turn 1 before getting passed and knocked back down
to 5th. We started scrapping and had some great racing. By
the halfway point, I had been able to reclaim 3rd spot and
put a gap on 4th place. By this time 1st and 2nd had checked
out, so we pretty much had a lonely race from then on, finally
bringing her home in 3rd place.
Overall, a pretty decent Saturday….it was now 6 p.m.
and I had to make a 5 hour drive back home, finish up the
RM250 supermotard, and leave again at 5:30am in order to make
to Road America by 7:00am for the first ever supermotard race
of the superbikers2 series….we arrived home at 11:00
p.m., unloaded the RD and Buell, took a long look at the RM
and decided it best to try and get some rest and start prepping
early the next morning…..trying to be on the road at
5:30 am meant we had to start turning wrenched at 4:30….
Super-Motardin'
4:30am came pretty damn early and we stumbled our way into
the dimly lit garage to see if we could get our 1990 Suzuki
RM250 super motard prepped. Preparation was minimal, as we
already had a used CD-5 Goodyear dirt track tire mounted out
back and a Pirelli MT-90 dual sport up front. We drained the
coolant and replaced with water wetter, safety wired the tranny
drain plug, threw it in the back of the truck, and headed
for Road America 1 1/2 hours north.
I had entered the premiere Superbikers2 super motard race
at the new Road America Briggs and Stratton go-kart complex.
Although I had the RM250 out on Putnam once at an open track
day, I had never raced a supermotard before, and never ridden
a track as tight as a go kart track. I really wasn't sure
what to expect, but since this was the first race of series,
I knew I wouldn't be alone.
upon arriving at Road America, I quickly realized my equipment
may be at the lower end of the trickness spectrum….lots
of European 4 strokes running around with monster disc brakes
and 17" wheel with road race tires. I pulled in to the
pits next to a bunch of well dressed foreigners, only to realize
it was none other than the HMC AMA superbike team complete
with Mitch Hansen, Slick Bass (ex-Fogarty, Russel WSBK wrench),
and Andy Meklau's full works Husky super motard! Turns out
these guys are super nice people and were very friendly. also
kept us well fed on Brauts all day!
We managed to get the RM250 unloaded and started without
too much trouble. I decided to leave the super tall Putnam
gearing on for practice (mainly because I was sick of working
on bikes). I rolled into tech and got through without too
much problem…..I was notified however that I might have
to give up my #34 to somebody else! No way man…..that’s
my number! Nobody's getting that! Turns out the somebody else
was Kevin Schwantz. Uhhhhhh……we're not worthy!,
we're not worthy!. Turns out Kevin didn't show up, so it didn't
have to get ugly at tech.
The track looked wild. It is only 1200 meters long (about
3/4 mile for you 'mericuns) and has plus or minus 14 turns
in the configuration we ran. The trick part is its built into
the side of a hill, so you have massive elevation changes,
rises, off cambered corners, cambered corners, and a series
of turns which do a pretty damn good impression of the corkscrew
at Laguna Seca! You are constantly throwing the bike from
one side to another. Entertaining doesn't do this track justice!
this is the most fun you will have on two wheels. Period.
Nothing……NOTHING even comes close.
A hot lap of the track on board an over geared, under-tired,
under-braked Suzuki RM250 with hapless motard wannabe (yours
truly) at the controls: You bomb down the front straight WFO
headed toward a kink. You leave it pinned through the kink
and lean her on over as the front tire chatters in protest.
Shift up to 4th gear and are doing 80-85mph up hill as you
jump on the front and rear brakes for the quickly approaching
chicane. You kick the rear end out sideways with the rear
brake banging downshift to 1st gear, letting out the clutch
as you ease of the rear brake to keep your rear end sliding
on the chicane entrance. You feed in throttle to hook up the
rear and slam the bike first right, then left, immediately
going to WOT in a crossed up wheelie toward a wide entrance
to turn 3. Turn 3 is weird, as its negative camber on the
inside and positive on the outside. You cross it up on the
entrance and pitch it in apexing the corner early. You finish
the corner on the throttle sliding the rear around. Just as
you are finishing the corner, you hit a rise which sends the
front wheel into the air as you start heading down hill. You
shift into second and carry the wheelie till you just bump
it in third and finally land your front wheel. You kick it
sideways for turn 4 which is a highly off camber left…..really
easy to cross it up too much are go to deep here. Turn 4-5-6
is a left-right-left combination that has you slamming the
bike from side to side at WOT trying not to wheelie too much.
Theres a Laguna corckscrew like approach to turn 7 as you
dive down a hill and bottom through a tight right hander being
careful with the throttle on the flat and dusty exit. Turns
8 through 13 are an exercise in throttle control, all of them
being very flat 90 degree corners with short 1st gear straights
between them. Turn 13 is a 110 deg corner that shoots you
up on the front straight banking and the scene of numerous
near high sides…..You're trying to turn tight by spinning
the rear up and accelerate at the same time. This leads to
the finish line and your back where you started. what a gas.
This event was a blast! There was tons of practice time……almost
more than you could want. The limiting factor for me was fatigue
as you really got pretty tired and had a lot of arm pump after
throwing the bike around for 10-15 laps. The race format was
pretty much run what you brung, meaning my lightly modified
dirt bike would be competing against everything up to and
including a full factory husky motard bike. We basically ran
10 lap heat races, with the first 6 from each heat race transferring
to the 'A' main, and the rest going to the 'C' main (didn't
have enough bikes for a 'B' main). I finished a mid pack 8th
place in my first heat race (first of the non-17 inch tire
group though….), sending me directly to the 'C' main.
My bike wasn't working very well (prepare for infamous racer
excuses), as the rear shock was sacked out doing no damping
at all even with the adjusters maxed out. My used Goodyear
dirt track tire was wearing very quickly and unevenly, and
I was unable to get any drive off of the last turn. The combination
of sliding rear tire and sacked out shock nearly sent me over
the bars at turn 13 an average of 3 times per race! Gearing
could be optimized a little better, as although it worked
great on the course, it was difficult to get a good launch
being geared so high compared with the other bikes. Brake
fade turned out to be a problem as well, as we were boiling
the fluid out of both the front and rear brake. Even so, we
managed to sneak out a second place finish in the 'C' main
and had some great races throughout the feature. More fun
than one deserves to have!!!!
Overall, this series is great……I'll never know
what its like to ride a GP500 bike, but this gives you the
opportunity to race something that reacts just like scaled
down one. I learned more about braking, throttle modulation,
and traction control in one day of supermotard racing than
3 years of road racing. If you crash, no big deal as your
velocity isn't as high as road racing and your just crashing
a dirtbike. No 500$ bill for new bodywork!
I just can't stress enough how fun this is! if you have a
dirt bike, why not try it? next event is September 9th at
road America. Check out the web site at www.superbikers2.com
You won't regret it! I guarantee it…..
WFO
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