My riding is improving, but I wish the bike was running as good NOW as it had been when I was learning and relatively slower!
This track is every bit as good as Barber as far as being a racer's track; not quite as near perfect of a SURFACE, but every bit as nice for variety, challenge and speed (maybe higher on the longer straights). The facilities are almost as nice, too.
SUNDAY, Practice & Race 2:
Beautiful day today, but for some reason, AHRMA decided to step things up and limit practice to one round only.
I immediately got to work on replacing my clutch lever. Well, right after getting the coffee pot brewing of course. I had to drill the cable root hole bigger to acommodate the larger cable nub, then drill the threaded hole for the adjuster to allow the larger Triumph style captive adjuster to slip into the smaller modern style adjuster hole. I got it done right as the first group was headed onto the track, tossed on my leathers and helmet, and just made it out.
The bike seemed okay out of the pit lane, but was still sour on the top end, so I pulled in after one lap. Yanked the plugs-normal. Scratched my head for a minute and pulled the carb bowl drains - Yipe! Both drain plugs were full of crud. Pulled the bowls; one was nearly full of scale, must have had a bowl full of water sitting in it from the time between races. I'm guessing flakes were swirling around and plugging the main, in an on-and-off scenario.
I cleaned everything up real well, nipped the bowls up and safety wired everything. In hindsight, I should have at least glanced at the new clutch lever...
Our race came off second after the lunch break, so it wasn't long before the call came. The grid was set the same and I slotted in right as the first wave went green. I launched really well, as the row in front of us was short one man so I had a nice hole to shoot for. I went into the first turn 2nd in our class, but got passed in the second turn, then again in about the 4th turn. After that, I held my ground pretty well as the problems seemed to be cleared up. About the 3rd lap, the bike seemed to be a tad flat on the top end, so I was winding it out, then backing off just a hair to keep it carburating cleanly.
I kept 4th place in sight, but couldn't gain on him. I got in a good dice with a 250 GP guy, but on the 4th lap, I lost the keeper bolt on my new clutch lever! For the last 2 laps it was totally clutchless which was pitiful. Anyway, I managed to keep the GP guy behind me and never got lapped by our class leaders (all weekend).
So, all told, a 4th and a 5th. Looking at my tires before loading up, I see that the chicken strips are nearly gone now, even though my overall speed seems to be down due to the bike's issues. I've got more than 2 months to pop the head and make sure my valve seats aren't getting sucked in, have a look at the cams & pistons, and just clean it up really well and replace the rocker shaft o-rings once and for all.
Looking forward to Grattan, Michigan next weekend!
By the way, never saw norbsa all weekend, although I left him a free admission pass at the registration desk...