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Return to Putnam
AHRMA Putnam Round, August 17th an 18th
By Wes Orloff
You could say I could have used some more sleep.
It was 2am Saturday morning (barely) and I was bombing through
an eerily deserted down town Chicago towards the next Putnam
round AHRMA national road race series, my now seemingly small
Dakota packed to the gills with race bikes and equipment.
My late/early departure was in actuality an attempt to try
and get some additional sleep in my own bed, as I had come
up sleep deprived the days prior due to a hectic work schedule
and a Buell in dire need of a top end assembly.
Ahhhhhh….the Buell…..After suffering DNF’s
or DNS’s in the last prior rounds due to everything from
glazed brakes to bent valves, I had finally gotten it to the
point that I felt confident that it would be a trouble free
weekend. Every time it had come apart, we did a little extra
massaging to try and squeeze a few more Horse-ees from the
heard. This iteration had bigger cams and bigger valves (thanks
Rocky) with promises of over 105hp at the rear wheel. Hopefully
the late nights of meticulous assembly would pay off. Yee
Haw, this was going to be fun! Those Damn SV’s will be
begging for mercy….
Also along for the midnight ride was Bob Hurst’s ex
#1 plate RD350. Bob had asked if I would like to ride his
old 350 at Putnam in the Formula 500 class, as he had two
new RD400’s to ride himself…All he was asking was
that I supply the gas and numbers and transport it. Hell Yes
I’ll ride it! Its not often you get a chance to ride
such a nicely set up bike, as it was loaded with goodies like
big carbs, a TZ front disc and 400 transmission. At over 50hp,
it would also be the most powerful RD I had ever ridden. Of
course Bob neglected to tell me his own RD400 was making over
70hp! (I would soon find out). He also forgot to mention to
me until after the weekend that the tires were, uh… lets
just leave it at ‘mature’ (its probably a good thing
I didn’t know….).
We arrived at the gate of Putnam relatively intact at about
6:00am Saturday morning. I tried to get some sleep, but my
internal alarm clock had gone off and I had caught my second
wind (it’s pretty sad when you’re catching your
second wind at 6:00am in the morning….). We got through
the gates and began setting up camp. Team Hansen and Dale
showed up shortly after, and before you know it, we had the
pit completely set up and the bikes through tech.
First practice was with the RD with an upside down shift
pattern. Practice went very well with it as Bob had already
set it up for Putnam. The bike was running a little rich,
so it was a bit soft, but it was plenty fast enough to get
re-acquainted with the track. Putnam’s smooth surface
felt awesome after running over all the seams and transitions
of mid Ohio and Grattan. The RD was really nice….it felt
as light as it was and had an incredible front TZ brake, easily
as powerful as most modern bikes. The bike was working great
other than a very manageable push through a couple of the
higher speed turns.
Next up was Dales CR450. Dale had fixed her up very nicely
after our little meeting with an air fence at mid-Ohio, and
had gone as far as replacing the transmission that was popping
out of gear at the prior round. We had also converted to an
upside down shift pattern on the CR as well. This was my 3rd
weekend on the bike and we had finally begun to develop a
good trusting relationship with each other. I had finally
figured out how to ride the bike safely at the limit and knew
what felt right and what felt wrong. It may not be the quickest
turning, best handling bike out there, but it was very predictable
and consistent, and most importantly didn’t have any
bad habits. This was critical at Putnam, as the relatively
high speed, high load turns could really twist up a miss-behaving
chassis
(Bob Foist and I have been there before!). The only negative
to the practice was that the bike developed a high speed miss
that wouldn’t go away.
Next up in practice was the Buell…..with a street shift
pattern. All I can say is I wouldn’t suggest ever trying
to run 3 different bikes with 2 different shift patterns!
There were a couple of points on the track were I literally
froze in mid-thought brain lock up as I couldn’t decide
which way to move my foot for the all too quickly approaching
upcoming turn! On the positive side, the beast was pulling
like a locomotive! All sorts of new found power. I had hooked
up in practice with the #1 plate holder SV650 and was able
to easily pull him down the straight. WOOOOHOOOO! We might
actually have a chance at doing well! IM READY TO RA……….BRRRRRRRRAAAUUUUUUU
pingpingping tik tik tik blahhhhhhhhhhh PFT PFT….. PFT
PFT…..PFT PFT. And just like that, she was gone.
Now I won’t bore you with all the swearing, jumping
up and down, and threats of jamming inanimate objects through
imagined orifices of the Buell, and I must apologize for those
of you who witnessed it. Long failure analysis made short,
it spun the cam drive gear on the crank, causing all the tiny
little moving parts in the head to hit the pistons, destroying
the entire valve train (at a minimum). Fix-able? Yes……but
we have to give it a couple of weeks before I find the desire
to even look at it. On the plus side, its perfect Formula
2 Twins finishing record is intact. Dale was kind enough to
remind me that we were pretty much in the exact same position
a year ago with the 450, struggling to even make it through
practice without breaking something. He was exactly right….maybe
it will take a year to get the bugs out. We went through the
same thing with Bob Foists CB350 as well. If you don’t
have hope, what do you have? (An SV650????? Did I just say
that???????). I can laugh about it now and am confident we
will get the Buell back in action and competitive, but for
this weekend anyhow, we were through.
That left the RD350 and CR450 to concentrate on. The rest
of the practices went well, with a jet change really waking
up the RD, although I could never get 100% comfortable with
the front end like I did during practice at Grattan a couple
of weeks prior. The CR450 was handling awesome without a hint
of chatter and I had tons of confidence in it, as it was absolutely
doing nothing wrong. The mysterious engine miss was back though,
and it seemed a little worse even. We tried changing batteries,
needle position, spark plugs…..all to no avail. It was
getting late to make changes, so we just decided to live with
it. If it blew up, it blew up. Time to race…..
First up was the RD. I was gridded last on the 2nd row of
the 2nd wave of the Formula 500 class, with the Sportsman
500 bikes in the wave ahead of us. Due to my grid position
and the bikes ahead of us, I had to sort of lean to the side
in order to see the starter. At the drop of the flag, I hammered
the throttle and dropped the clutch. When combined with my
skewed body position, we sort of left the line in a nearly
vertical wheelie traveling fairly quickly toward the grass
on the right side of the track. Just about the time I was
about to hit the eject button, the bike came off the pipe
and dropped back to earth. I banged 2nd gear and was surprised
to find myself in 2nd place going into turn 1 behind Bob…..I
had a notion of stuffing it up inside of Bob through two,
but decided it would be better off not to, him owning the
bike and all! For the next 4 laps we kept it close to Bob,
although it was difficult to capitalize on my strong parts
of the track as he had some motor and I couldn’t get
close enough, soon enough to do much. We were into lappers
pretty heavily by the 5th lap. It was almost comical my luck
with lappers, as Bob seemed to slide by on the entrance to
a corner, while I would get stuck behind for a corner or two.
This literally happened 3 times in a row, and I slowly lost
touch with Bob. By now, the front was chattering in protest
a little and I decided to play it safe and bring it home.
We crossed the line in 2nd place! (Although for some reason
I was originally credited with 4th) Great start to the weekend!
Next race was the 500 premiere race on the CR450. I was psyched
as I finally had a front row start. My plan was to pull an
Eric Bostrom and run the quickest first lap I dared and see
who would come along for the ride. This was the first race
of the weekend for some of the fast guys and I had an advantage
of riding here a lot. On the warm up lap, I pushed as hard
as I could to try and get some heat into the tires (especially
the left side). I lined up on the grid row 1 inside….this
was it.
For what ever reason, my plan for a good start went south,
as I had an awful start. Maybe it was the difference in clutch
feel between the RD and CR, 4 stroke vs. 2 stroke. Whatever
the reason, we were 5th going into turn 1……and pissed
off! We chucked it into turn 1 and slid by two bikes for 3rd.
We got up to 2nd between turn 2 and 3, and took the lead going
into the Bus Stop. I put my head down for 3 solid laps before
looking back and noticing I had a comfortable gap! Sweet!!!!!
Let’s end this race!!! I went by finish line expecting
to see the white flag for the last lap, only to be crushed
as we got crossed flags for halfway!
The next four laps were pure hell, and possibly the longest
of my life. The bike was missing worse and worse…..the
tires seemed to be moving around a lot. It was tough to concentrate.
All sorts of strange mechanical noises seemed to be suddenly
coming from the engine. We finally did get the flag for the
last lap and we tried to keep it as smooth as possible….my
excitement was growing as we bent it in for the last corner
and headed for the finish line. WE GOT IT! WE GOT IT! WE GOT
IT! Our first AHRMA win!
It was fitting it was at Putnam too…..as it was exactly
1 year and 1 week since the same bike broke at the same track
to put an end to an abortive 2001 season. Dale and I were
both ready to quit at that point, as the bike was un-ride
able and un-reliable, and I can probably speak for Dale when
I say we weren’t having any fun! This speaks volumes
for all the work and sacrifice Dale had put into the bike
since that day. It was possibly the best feeling in the world
to bring the bike home in 1st place for Dale and Team Hansen.
Sunday dawned a bright, relatively cool (for Indiana in August)
day and practice went well on the RD. The Yamaha seemed to
really appreciate the cooler air and was running and handling
great. I was having a tougher time mentally, as after all
the excitement from the prior day was struggling trying to
stir up the red mist, lacking both in concentration and the
appropriate amount of race face.
The CR was handling well in practice, but still had an awful
miss and still seemed to be down on power. We were about to
give up when Terry Naughtin noticed the petcock valve dripping
like a siv! We got that taken care of and the miss was gone!
The bike was running like its old self again….I was getting
a little more psyched for the race now!
Due to threatening weather, all the sprint races were shortened
from 8 laps to 6. The Formula 500 race on Sunday was pretty
much a repeat of the Saturday race, although Bob must have
had his wheeties, as he checked out after a couple of laps.
I tried to follow but had no confidence in the front tire.
There was no chance of hanging with Bob and the last thing
I wanted to do was throw away his bike he was so kind to let
me borrow, so I kicked it down a notch and brought it home
in a safe and lonely second. So far, so good…..
I was probably a little over-confident for the 500 premiere
race. Attrition had taken out a few competitors and I was
only with 1 other guy on the front row, with a second row
full of snarling Norton’s (my arch enemy’s…..).
If my start on Saturday was bad, my Sunday start was horrific!
I burned up the clutch slipping it on the start, and then
couldn’t get it into second! The entire 2nd row went
by me into turn 1 and I got bogged down. By the end of the
1st lap I was in 3rd place behind Stu Carter and Chuck Davis,
both on Norton’s.
The Norton’s that race in Formula 500 in AHRMA are extraordinary
machines. Some of the top Nortons are making in the neighborhood
of 65hp! We were working with around 50hp….but its 50hp
in an awesome chassis, so it was closer than it sounds. I
knew we only had 6 laps to get to the front and I was a little
panicky as both of the guys ahead of me were riding well and
had picked up the pace from the day before. I slotted in behind
Stu as the laps counted down, studying him for an opportunity
to pass. I was getting through turn 1 and 2 pretty good, but
Stu was gapping me on the straight too much to be able to
do anything. I decided I would have to make a run at him,
and on lap 4 I held off a little on the straight, and threw
it into turn 1 as fast as I dared. I carried enough momentum
to catch him through turn 2 and pulled it in tight for the
right hand turn 3, just barely managing to squeeze it underneath
him cleanly to make the pass. Luckily, Stu was running a good
pace, and although Davis was 20 yards ahead, he wasn’t
getting away. I wasn’t sure if we could catch him, but
we were certainly going to try. To my complete surprise, we
reeled him in within a lap, just as we took the white flag
for the shortened 6 lap race! As much as I was praying for
the race to end early the day before, I would have given my
first born to go the full 8 laps today! I didn’t have
any time to study him, so I just tried to run it in hard in
my strong areas. I pulled up beside him in turn 2 and turn
5, but couldn’t make a pass. Time was running out, but
we had one last chance as we were coming up on a lapper into
turn 9. I made a fatal mistake through dead bear however,
running wide and losing a couple of feet to …..There
was nothing I could do as I followed him across the line for
2nd place. Could have, would have, should have….
Racing is funny. One of my proudest moments ever came in
a battle for 5th place, so it seems strange to be disappointed
about a 2nd place finish, but I felt like we had the bike
to win that day….all in all though, what an awesome weekend.
Thanks to everyone who made the trip to Putnam to watch!
It was awesome to have a bunch of close friends there and
I appreciate all the help/support everyone gave. Thanks again
to Bob Hansen, Terry Naughtin and the rest of Team Hansen
for the great support and the opportunity to be part of the
team. Dale, what can we say…you built an awesome bike
and it’s a pleasure to be able to ride it! A big thanks
also go out to Advance Sleeve and Cometic Gasket for their
continued support of Team Hansen. With our win and 2nd place
at Putnam, we clinched the AHRMA Masters of the Midwest Regional
series in 500 premiere for team Hansen. What a way to go into
2003…..
WFO
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