 One Step Forward and Two Steps Back
By David Podolsky
Racing is a tough game, really tough. Most sports are team endeavors where 50% of the guys win in any particular game; in racing there is 1 winner and 29 guys who didn’t win. Other individual contests lack the whole equipment and management skills that are needed in motorcycle racing.
What I mean is that getting the motorcycle sorted for the motor, gearing, suspension, spare parts, tow vehicles and trailers, etc.. is much more involved than a sport where you need to be focused mostly on you, like with the 100 meter dash, boxing or tennis. Sure you have to keep your racket strings tight etc.., but racing motorcycles can be organizationally and technically challenging.
 This is on my mind as I re-count the recent races we contested at Carolina Motorsports Park (CMP).
Leading the WERA Mid-Atlantic points in the Heavyweight Twin’s class, we had just come off 3 race wins in a row - Nelson Ledges, OH - Summit Point, WV - and Road Atlanta, GA. I was feeling confident and the bike just kept getting better as we tweaked the chassis with Mark Rozema of MarkBilt.
I can never leave well enough alone and I was curious about the chassis changes other Ducati guys had been talking to me about; basically dropping the nose and raising the rear of the bike. The result should give a better/easier turn in and quicker transitions when the bike had to change directions.
 The bike felt a bit twitchy but fine after the changes as I re-acquainted myself with the CMP circuit. I liked the chassis change and started to pick up the pace by the 3rd session. Now fast corners are always key to any track and the kink at CMP is no exception; you roll off at about 155 mph, brake a bit and throw it on its side through the turn at about 140.
I was going quicker than I realized, thinking I needed to get going and start to pick up the pace, so I ended up turning in a bit early. This meant I was going to exit a bit wide and, not wanting to run off the outside of track into the sand pit, I leaned it over a few degrees more......... and neatly tucked the front in an instant. Sliding, sliding and sliding to the sand…tumble, tumble stop. I was okay, but the bike looked a bit “rugged”.
Now where the tennis player would just get another racket, we began repairs. Usual items- handlebar, throttle, brake lever, fairing mount, sand in the dry clutch, body work, etc... It took the rest of Friday and some of Saturday morning since we had to drive to get some dumb part for the brake perch.
Should we modify the chassis geometry? Nah, I said “rider error” the bike is fine. Saturday we got on track and turned decent lap times in the Unlimited race. Sunday morning had us posting the fastest laps of the Twins competitors in practice by about .8 second.
My plan A was to make a break, get the lead, push for a couple laps to get a gap, then control the pace from there. Since only Jason Peters was even close to my practice pace and can sometimes be a bit “excited” in the opening laps, I thought if he was hell bent and wild I could also settle into 2nd and wait till the end to make a move....this was Plan B. In the race Jason got the jump into turn one, but I quickly got past a few turns later and lead down the back straight. Already with a bit of a gap (which I didn’t know of) I wanted to hit the kink the best I could and...... brother did I hit it hard.
 Perfect turn in, right on the apex and Oh No…………..tucked the front. Again. Slide, slide, tumble tumble and OOF the bike landed on top of me. I got to my knees and stayed there head hanging down and collected myself. The bike was not getting on track again and I just walked away to the tree line. I sat and watched Jason win feeling like it was mine to lose; I had just dropped and broken what had been in my hands.
This time the bike and I were a bit worse off. Gas tank leaking, handlebar, throttle, brake, foot peg mount, body work, fairing stay, sand in the clutch, etc... I had used all my spares a day ago and had no time anyhow to make repairs. Physically I knew I broke some stuff in me too- my right foot hurt and was getting bigger and my ribs ached and were showing bruising signs within like 20 minutes.
I was depressed and pissed. This lost me the points lead and was going to be very costly to the old wallet. Why did I give up tennis again? Screw it. I had my Mini Mono which is a Yamaha 426 powered single, looks like a 125GP bike, weighs 215 lb, makes maybe 55 HP, and it was in my trailer ready to run.
We asked the officails if we could bump it up into the Twins class for the 2nd race and got permission. Points, contingency money, pride, a chance to be doing something other than sitting there lamenting the situation.
I raced it hard and, believe it or not, took 4th place beating a handful of heavyweight twins since the Mini Mono could go through corners as if on rails. Amazing actually; we had lap times better than some guys on 1098 Ducatis on that little “giant killer”. We got some Michelin money for 4th and began to polish the old self esteem.
 There were still two classes the Mini Mono was actually entered in; Clubman and Lightweight Superbike. We won them both. Clubman was lightly contested with only 7 or so racers and our true race bike slaughtered the barely modified street bikes in the class; we won by over 52 seconds in a 6 lap race!!
Lightweight Superbike was challenging and, since two classes of racers got totally mixed-in on the track, I had to make a lot of hairy passes to keep up with the leader who was Ducati 800 mounted. Bit between my teeth I managed to reel him and take the win.
It was some consolation to have the 4th and two wins after such a nasty way to start the day. A couple of good pain killers once the day was over, and I was thankfully on a plane home to begin licking my wounds and figuring out what repairs would be needed.
It looked like starting over on the chassis geometry would also be in the cards.
Thanks to Chicken Hawk Racing and our Sponsors: Ducati NA, Michelin, Seacoast Sport Cycle, MarkBilt, Catalyst Bodies, Heroic Leathers, Speedy Moto, Ferodo, Shoei, Sidi Boots, DucShop, Ohlins
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