Hot Asphalt In the Central Valley
AFM Road Open Twins Series - Round 4
Thunderhill Racetrack: June 13th and 14th. 2009

Why the AFM holds the mid-summer rounds at the hottest of the tracks in Northern California is beyond me – but “ours is not to reason why” to paraphrase Tennyson writing about the Charge of the Light Brigade. Fortunately there were some high clouds in the sky during the weekend, and the temperature topped out at a bearable 90degF.

All the dedicated training I’ve been doing in the gym and the bar – sorry – yoga studio was working, as I felt comfortable and focused on my Ducati all weekend. What wasn’t working so well was my shock, which had a nasty tendency to pogo the rear end of the bike a coupla times as I was driving off the faster corners. It was quite frustrating to have to hesitate a moment for the bike to finish its jiggy thing before applying full throttle – although it seems I’m in good company as I read the MotoGP boys have been experiencing a similar problem on their D16’s.

Saturday practice day was spent changing shock settings, trying to get the bike to settle down. My rule of thumb is if you feel the bike moving either with your butt or with your whole body, then the problem is the rear end. If you feel it moving in your hands only, then it’s the front end – the two can be easily confused. I got my friend Jim Williams from Catalyst Reaction – Dave Moss’s technical partner – to revalve my shock during the lunch break trying to contain the initial squatting movement of the shock by adding to the compression shim stack. In the two afternoon sessions the shock movement felt more contained, but the pogo was still alive and well.

Saturday afternoon’s Formula Old Geezer race came up at about 4:30pm, and mentally, at least, I was ready to attack. My start was not inspirational from my 3rd position on the grid. I was in about 6th spot through the first coupla corners, but I managed to pass one of my main rivals on the outside in off-camber turn 3 - which was really satisfying. The next few laps was less than fully enjoyable, as I had to ride within the limits imposed by my shock and watch the boys in front slowly walk away from me. Then, just as we passed the half-way crossed flags, the race got red flagged because someone somewhere on the track had crashed and was lying in the way and/or needed immediate attention. I thought the race was finished and went back to my pit …only to be told there was a 4-lap restart and to hightail it back to the grid.

This time I got a great start and found myself in a solid third place, sitting 50 feet behind the second place dude, a guy I’ve been beating recently. We ran around for a lap or so, and coming into turn 9 right on his tail, I heard a huge roar of exhaust and thought “ah-ha! his exhaust pipe’s blown a leak, I’m about to get handed second place”. But exiting the turn, I realized the noise was coming from MY exhaust system, dammit, and without further ado I pulled over and limped back into the pits. My rear header pipe had completely broken in two at the weld by the cylinder head. My mechanical DNF had robbed me of a podium finish, the bragging rights that go with it, and also of my third place in the F40 points championship. “That’s racing!” I had to keep repeating to myself.

That evening I got the header pipe off and over to Kevin Murray’s shop in one of the T’Hill garages, and they welded it up a treat for me.

Sunday morning practice showed the welded exhaust to be working fine, although still no magic from my shock.

The 750 Superbike race, which I run as a warm-up for Open Twins, was just before lunch, and I was looking forward to a good race, being in 10th place in the points and therefore on the grid. Right off the start the guy next to me bumped into me and I went completely limp thinking about poor Eric Arnold who got smashed into on a race start at Infineon earlier this year with consequent terrible injuries. After a moment I realized I was still upright and in one piece, so I accelerated on, but a dozen racers just shot past me through the first few corners, as I was really disconcerted and had no will to compete. I decided to tough it out and struggled thru the race to finish in 20th place. Back in the pit, I thought through what I had felt, and decided that if I was going to continue to race, I had to be prepared for trouble - which means sticking my elbows out on the start like a motocrosser, and not to give an inch.

Finally my main event, the Open Twins race, came up later that afternoon, and my last chance of the weekend to recoup some self-respect as a race-mechanic-turned-racer.

I was gridded in my fave place – outside position, front row. I launched myself into a happy third place right off the start, behind fast guy Matt Green and young phenom Craig Smith (on a 999R belonging to Pat Blackburn, whose engine was built by Munroe’s technical guru Matt Prentiss), and in front of my archrival “Tiger” Steve Metz.

It took 9 corners before Tiger Steve passed me down the hill into turn 10, and then I could only watch as he and the other two eased away from my pogocycle. Couple laps later, riding alone in a solid fourth place, I saw a large cloud of dust on the outside of turn 10. “Don’t look” I told myself, but next time around, last lap of the race, I couldn’t help but look and saw tiger stripes, and sure enough I finished the race in third place because the TigerBike had decided to go roll in the dirt.

So a mixed-up weekend at Thunderhill – a lousy DNF while expecting a second or third place in F40, but then a third place for free, served up on a Tiger skin - my first podium in Open Twins this century!

Thanks as always to: the crew at Munroe Motors; Jim Lubin of Vehicle-Systems.com: Linda from Jungls Catering; Terry, Wes, Dennis and the boys at Dunlop; Jim, Dave and Nikki at Catalyst Reaction Sus pension; Phil Douglas at Aftershocks; Brendan from Ducati North America; a very special thanks to Pat Blackburn for the loan of the bike, and Bud Anderson for the support; and finally to Michael and the PTT crew for the fastest track days.