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JBall SV1000 racer - intro
The Race Story -
Part 1 (Jennings GP)
The Race Story - Part
2 (Nashville)
The Race Story - Part
3 (Grattan Raceway)
The Race Story -
Part 4 (Finally got it painted!)
The Race Story -
Part 5 (Race Report Nelson Ledges....and crash!)
The Race Story -
Part 6 (Finally got it back together)
The Race Story -
Part 7 (My Road Atlanta.......)
The Race Story -
Part 8 (Going to Daytona...2005 season is near)
Some facts and figures
(2004 season)
By JBall
Last weekend was the second outing for racing the SV1000 with a fun
trip to the Nashville Superspeedway. After the previous event in
Florida I was a bit discouraged seeing the speed and lap times the
other expert big bore riders were turning, but this event showed
signs of progress that look good for the future.
The Nashville track is a NASCAR 1.33 mile oval with a few extra
turns thrown in to make it into a 1.6 mile road course. There are
some safety issues there (it's surrounded by big concrete walls) but
after you got used to it, there were some features which made the
riding exciting. The track uses the front tri-oval turn which is
banked about 15 degrees which drops onto a left hand corner. The
transition from the bank to the flat is a big bump which is taken at
about 130 mph. It goes on to a very tight left, a short chute, and
another hairpin right. There is another short chute and then a left,
right, left which goes up onto the banked back stretch of the oval.
This is a short straight which then drops off the bank to a left,
right, right, left chicane. The exit goes into a long sweeping left
hander which finishes on the front straight with another big jolt
transitioning onto the front straight. The feel is like a mini
Daytona in some ways.
Usually we pit under canopies which are sometimes in the grass (or
sand like Florida). Here we got to use the NASCAR garages. They are
built for about 50 or 60 cars so there was plenty of room for well
over a hundred bikes and all the various riders, crew, friends and
family. Electricity was available so there was not the drone of all
the generators for tire warmers that normally is heard. This layout
was also neat because everyone is close together and I got to visit
with lots of the guys I know that are usually spread throughout the
track in their separate little camps.
After driving down Thursday night and arriving at four in the
morning we slept in the truck until the gates opened up. Not a good
recipe for rest. There was an open practice Friday but I spent the
day puttering around with a little suspension work and just took it
easy. With two hours of sleep I did not feel I was at the level of
concentration needed to be safe. My partner for the weekend was Pete
Lindquist who I had my fun race with in Florida. I put a different
spring on my shock and Pete installed a new Penske is his GSXR600.
Our friend Ryan from Florida had a garage roped off for us and was
working on his TZ-250 framed Yamaha with a 426 dirt bike four stroke
motor. Hybrids of this sort tend to need lots of care and feeding
(more about this later) but are good for pit discussions and people
stopping by to check out his progress.
My changes since the last event was changing the 425 pound shock
spring for a 400 to give a bit plusher rear end and to tackle the
wobble that had come with the Dunlop rear tire. I also installed my
rearset plates I got off the SV1000 board and a new GSXR1000
windscreen that fit much better than the 750 screen that had been on
there and raised the clipons about 10 mm from where they were
before. The rearsets gave a better riding position but with the
angle my feet were pushing back on them I folded the pegs up a
couple of times. I am going to look into solid pegs.
Saturday practice went OK with times dropping down in each of the
two sessions. The bike was till wobbling after hitting the big bumps
and on the banking as well. I managed to make the situation quite a
bit better by not giving it the death grip which was feeding the
road forces back into the bike. I pushed myself forward over the
tank which helped some too. In the second session I cranked half a
turn of rebound and compression into the front which helped as well.
Best time in the first session was a 1:16 with a 1:13 in the second
round. I saw 157 mph on the front banking which is just before you
hit the bump at the exit onto the flat. It felt like it would do 160
but when it was picked up off the lean it actually dropped to about
155 due to the gearing difference caused by getting onto a bigger
diameter of the tire. This is the first time I have felt that
phenomenon.
Saturday afternoon was the 4 hour endurance event. Pete ran his 600
and I was acting crew chief for the race. His team started dead last
and they moved from 36th to 23rd through the race and got fifth in
class with over 140 laps. Ryan was going to ride a SV650 for another
team but their motor expired in practice. (There will be a theme
here. Ryan was riding our endurance bike in Florida when it
expired.) There seems to be some reliability issues with the 2003
650's. So far the 1000 seems to be running great. Saturday night was
a big dinner with two endurance teams with lots of beer and bench
racing.
Sunday started out 20 degrees colder than Saturday (which was
beautiful). It was a steady rain which greeted us at the track and
it was off to the tire guy (thanks Paul at Dunlop) to install a set
of rain tires. It was so crappy out that the practice was one long
open practice with all different types of bikes out at the same
time. Usually it is split into about five groups of Experts and
Novices with several different size splits as well. Ryan was the
first one out and took about ten laps all by himself before any
other bikes came out. He got over 20 laps in but then he didn't come
around. You could hear his single all around the track so it was
obvious when he was not circulating any more. They brought him in on
the crash truck. He had low sided after his motor locked up. A later
diagnosis was a busted rod which took out the crank. He was unhurt
but his weekend was over before it started. His lap times would have
won the Clubman race.
My rains were finally mounted and I went out and got about 15 laps
in. The Dunlop rain tires were working great and I only came in
because my shield was so fogged up I could hardly see. Gradually the
rain stopped. I worked up a tape fix for my helmet and went back out
for a few more sighting laps. I was passing guys on DOT tires right
and left but the banking was already starting to dry and I came in
to not burn up 350 bucks of rain tires. I put DOT's back on for the
races.
My first race was Senior Superbike ( a class for over 40 guys like
myself!). I started sixth and out dragged two 600's into turn one.
After that I followed a TLR1000 and was gaining on him with my best
lap coming in at a 1:09.5. My best lap was better than his but I
just couldn't make up the difference from the start and I finished
fourth place less than half a second back of third. We talked after
the race and said he could hear me coming.
My heavyweight twins race was back to back with the first race. My
crew gave me a drink of water on pit road and I immediately went out
for the hot lap. I started on the third row but ended up the last
expert into turn 1. I chased the same guy I chased in the previous
race. The novice leader passed me and I was following him closely
until he left about a fifty foot trail of sparks when he almost
crashed going into the turn two. I backed off a bit and cruised to
the end. I did beat the one expert that crashed. My times were in
the 1:09 region again.
The positives of the day were that I got passed by only one novice
in the twins race and none in the other race and I beat two experts
in the superbike race. I also managed to not get lapped by Tray
Batey who won the twins race by about 40 seconds over second place.
He broke the track record on a 750 in another race and lapped me in
Florida. My suspension adjustments were making a difference and a
pointing the way for the next weekend. I probably should have
stiffened the front end up some more but I left it where it on
Saturday because I didn't want it too stiff for the wet practice. I
am getting more used to the bike and the feeling of it moving all
around. As a heavy bike I think its just going to move more.
On a side note my 1997 Dodge Ram truck turned the 100,000 mile mark
on the way home. About half of that is driving to the races. I hope
it keeps doing the job because I really can't afford another truck
at this moment!
Rubber Side Down,
Ryan's motor. This is why racing is expensive.
Picture by Ryan, all rights reserved.
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