Wilmington Weather Woes
and Breaking More Records!
If there
ever was a bad weather weekend for racing, July 6 & 7 had to
have been it. We arrived early at the track on Friday and fought the rain for
most of the way there from Hurricane, WV. We left Hurricane and ended up in a
Monsoon!
The weather
was so bad that we had to tech bikes in the trailer and then we were lucky
enough between breaks to run them down to the tech lane. Tech went fairly well,
but we had to “adjust” the rear brake a bit to ensure enough travel.
The next
morning we were up bright and early to welcome the rain once again. The radar
shot looked like the entire Gulf of Mexico was being dragged up North and was
going to rain on Ohio for another week as a high pressure system was stalled
off the East coast preventing this low from moving off shore.
But, we
loaded up our breakfast sandwiches that the folks at the General Denver hotel
make special for us and went to the track anyway. A mandatory drivers meeting
is held each meet rain or shine. As we all stood around with our umbrellas
during the meeting, a canopy was hastily assembled and most of the people took
advantage of it.
Drivers
meeting complete, it was time to go back to the pits and see if there was
anything else that needed to be completed. The tires were checked, the swingarm
filled up with nitrogen and then the waiting began once again.
FINALLY, in
the afternoon the weather broke and we were able to make a shakedown pass. This
was only a motor pass and somewhere about the half mile and at 168mph we
disintegrated a bird when it hit the bike. I know we are in the bird control
business too, but this is not exactly how we prefer to do airport bird control!
The rain
came once again and that was the end of Saturday.
Sunday came
with another 5am wake up and we were off to the track for gates opening at 6am.
The early bird was going to get the worm today! The sky looked like a tornado
could whip out of it at any moment, but the rain was holding off so far.
The bike was
4th in line and when the turn came to go, we launched and poured the
wood to it. The humidity was so high that about 50 yards out Mark E. Dotson’s
helmet immediately fogged up to the point that visibility was challenging. It
cleared up a little, but with the nitrous coming in at 2nd gear, you
really want to actually see down this narrow course at 200mph. At about the ¾
mile marker, the shield was still a little hazy and he rolled out a bit and
then got back in it and rolled through the traps at 220mph to take the
MPS/BF-1650/4 record.
After a
quick change of the nitrous bottle and weighing it, there was an issue. We were
9 mph off to begin with and the next pass would confirm if there was a problem.
Got the bike
back on the tire warmer and in the pre-staged area. Waited for the tire and
nitrous to get up to temp and for our turn to go. The weather was still holding
and the bike pulled to the starting line. The launch went well and the shift
points were hit beautifully. The bike just didn’t seem to be pulling hard and
ran through the traps at 223mph. This pass put us in the record books again by
beating the old MPS/BF-3000/4 record, but confirmed that something was not
right.
After
reviewing the data and weighing the second bottle, it was only just over a
pound used. The tank was pulled up and the nitrous solenoid was swapped out with
a new one. Changed out the bottle, pumped the swingarm up and ran back up to
the line as the day was getting late. Put the bike back on the warmers and then
the rain started once again. A bike cover was hastily put on and the laptop
pulled out and a map change was made back to the original map. We figured that
if the beginning of the nitrous problem was at the last event and fuel was taken
out and this new valve worked, we were going to be picking up pieces of this
motor on the track for the next week if we didn’t go back to a fat map.
The rain
stopped and the track dried. We were just about to finish with the tune and
pull the bike off the rear stand when we got the news that a rider friend of
ours went down on their bike at over 200 but were OK.
We now hold
ALL the Modified Partial Streamlined Fuel and Blown Fuel Records from 1350cc
through 3000cc!
In September
we will be defending our title of The Fastest Street Legal Bike in The Nation!
Alisyn Oil, Applied Racing Components, Brisk Racing, Brock’s Performance, Canaan Printing, Casto’s Motorcycle Sales, Catalyst Racing Composites, DW
Photos, Fish’s Customs, Parton Signs, Petron Plus, Pin Point Auto, Port-Tech Heads, Schnitz Racing, Tiger Racing, Two Wheel Werkz, Web Cam Racing Cams, Woolich Racing and Worldwide Bearings.
