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Pike's Peak: August 2001
By Dale Whelan

Test and Tune

August 24, 2001
7:22am: Friday morning, eyes open.

Time to go to registration. People are already lining up at the dyno.

8:00am: I'm registered and the bike is together, so I take it to tech.
8:30am: Bike passed technical inspection, so I take it apart and do a leakdown test.

Bottom cylinder passed. Top cylinder passed. Discovered a new physical law, during a leakdown test the exhaust plug will pop out a minimum of three times.

9:09am: Bike is back together.
9:16am: Tire warmers are on, thing are starting to heat up.

I'm in the next practice, getting dressed, waiting for first call to practice.

9:30am: Electrical power is dead.

Ty's generator is going, so my tire won't be totally warm. Bike won't rev past 12,000rpm... (usually pulls more than 13,500). Power band normally hits at 10,500 with these cylinders, but it is hitting at about 9,000... really isn't much there. I guess some of it is the altitude.

I started to get lazy at the end of practice, in the beginning I'd plant my knee on the ground while I was still on the straight at, I don't know, maybe 130mph. Later on I stopped doing that.

Big bump in turn one, trying to find a way through it. Seems if I don't hug the line it works a bit better. Still catching one of the bumps, it'll knock you out of the seat. If I weight the pegs it helps, but it's a bit unnerving because you're going 90 or 100 with your knee on the ground when it happens. I have to find a way to make the bike stay planted, it's killing my speed out of that turn. Entering turn 3 on a low entrance has a nasty bump at 130+, a wide entrance, over 1/2 track width smoothes the bike down quite a bit. Rear-end clunks a bit under braking, it seems to spend a lot of time off the ground. Sounds like the chain. I downshift 4 gears, if I do it right and hold speed it pulls out of the turn pretty good, if I don't commit properly I come out bogging, if I leave it leaned over it picks up the revs, if I stand it up and get it on the center of the tire I end up on the larger diameter of the tire, this drops the revs and kill acceleration.

Approaching turn 4 I'm catching 3rd, drop 1 gear, braking soft, turn in is pretty good but not carrying quite enough speed. Got the bike a little unsettled, with the front tire moving around a bit, but I have a lot of track left over at the end.

I carry second into the esses, earlier I was taking the last turn in first, later I found if I take a wide entrance and leave it leaned over I can carry second and need third at the exit of the turn. It seems to make a difference on the straight.

I have no speed on the straight and the bike will only pull 12,000rpm. The bike doesn't mind if I get pretty aggressive with it. Nor does it mind being pitched from one knee to the other. Actually, I think I heard it laughing at me.

Need to stay aggressive in one, find a good reference point, find a smooth line, stop driving by the seat of my pants and get a plan instead. Found myself not looking far enough ahead early on, then when I caught Andy I found myself target fixing on him. I started looking past him and began catching him, not quick but I was closing. I felt like I was doing a better job when I stopped looking at him and started looking past him. I can pretty much guarantee that Andy will go faster, his bike isn't much faster than mine (and he has a fast bike), so he just doesn't have it set up right yet. It will be faster in the next practice.

Barometer 24.90
Humidity 3%

11:33am: Temp 92 F.
1:55pm: Adjustments.

Change ignition timing from 2.2 to 2.0, drop main jets one size. See if timing will let it rev. Careful on right handers, there is only 2 of them, tires won't be as warm.

Second practice. I don't think my times were real good. Man is it hot out there.

Temp: 102 F.
Barometer: 24.9

Second gear is a bit too tall almost everywhere. Unless I can figure out how to carry a bit more speed and a bit more lean angle. Front brake rotors are cracking so I have to replace them. Fork adjustment: increase compression damping 1 step, increase preload 1 step. Installed new brake rotors.

Andy went faster in second practice, he dropped from1:03.6 to 1:03.47, I went from 1:03.88 to 1:03.08. However, his second fastest lap was quite a bit faster than my second fastest lap, so it is far from over. Looks like 21 people here and only 18 of them can beat me, pretty handily. I would really like to get a 1 minute lap time, but I'm not sure what I need to do to make it happen. If I can't consistently generate enough speed in turn 3, I think I'll install a tall first gear so I won't have to use second gear in turn three. It might hurt me on the start, but I'll be gridded at the back anyway.

Went to the grocery store and Fazoli's with Ty for food and dinner.

Test and Tune Day Two and Qualifying

August 25, 2001
8:00am: Light rain, wind from the north, more rain north.

Saturday morning practice: Fired up the bike, it was running on one cylinder... rode a lap on one cylinder, came in and changed a spark plug and the bike is fine. With the new brake rotors the brakes felt funny for the first several laps. They seem to be working pretty good, the lever feel isn't quite as good as it was though. I guess it is just cleaning the rust off the rotors.

Tried carrying fifth into turn one instead of sixth, speed is lower, but drive is better when I can find my line. Alot less busy because I only have to make one down shift, believe it or not this makes a huge difference to me. I do however think that sixth is the fastest way to do it. Ty tried sixth in turn one and liked it better. I'm still undecided, I like having only one downshift but I think my speed is too low. The bump is not killing me. I'm not sure if it's different line selection or lower speed that's not crushing the front end. Highest revs out of turn one on the right line was about 10,700rpm. Not catching sixth on the back straight but the bike is revving harder (and I have a head wind on the back straight), I don't mind the 500 extra revs.

Infield turn three: using first allows me to hold a lot tighter line and get on the gas a lot sooner. So, I think I'll change to the tall first at the end of the day.

Turn four, second gear is working better, I'm looking further ahead. Getting easier to come onto the banking consistently. Things seem to be working a little better. Still not cranking it over real hard in the rights, both of them.

The wind is blowing like hell, trying to blow my tarp away. Heat race will probably be at 4:00pm.

9:50am: I'm on rainy day schedule.

Just got word there is a storm coming in from Denver, About 100 miles away with 70 mph winds, I don't see evidence of it, I don't hear anything about it on my weather Radio, but I'll keep an eye out. Top cylinder is about one jet size off from the lower. Robert Vallejo from Shoei just brought me a helmet, talked about his wife just graduating, getting a raise and going to take a vacation to Jamaica, which is pretty cool. Another graduate from Texas came up and said hi. He is a mechanic and works for Dunlop at the races on some weekends. Grant is a graduate that used to work for Yoshimura, now works for Bruce Transportation Group, a Formula Extreme team. Looks pretty busy.

Starting Pro Thunder heat races and I decided to take my transmission apart and change the first gear ratio. If you had to guess, what do you think I am watching?

12:53pm: It's raining again. Although it didn't rain last night, this morning they were using a jet engine dryer to dry the track, now that it just stopped raining, they are driving ambulances around the track to dry it... I don't get it.

Time to eat lunch, ham and cheese sandwich. 1-1/2 hours behind schedule, but if we don't take a lunch break we'll be there. Besides, I already ate lunch. I went slower in practice, I knew I did. The bad news is Andy hit 1:02.4. I Only hit 1:03.4. I think I can get him though I was trying some stuff and feeling comfortable but we'll see how much time he drops. I'm putting in the VP MR#8 so we'll see how it works. Looks like I missed 6 laps of practice changing the spark plug. Not too bad I guess, drive a lap on one cylinder, find out what cylinder, take the bike apart, swap the plug, put the bike back together, drive back out to the track and miss 6:18 of practice. Sure would have liked those 6 laps.

Looks like we are on schedule again. I'm in the second heat race, row 3 position c; there ain't many of us and I am last on the grid. Just going over what I've done to the bike and realized there is no water in it. Doesn't seem to need water in the pits though. Worst I do in the heat race is 11, expect 10, if something amazing happens maybe 8.

Killed clutch on start, slipped for about 2 laps. This is an ongoing thing... I must be doing something wrong. It's beginning to piss me off...  Think...

I figured out what is up with the clutch: It could be I've been setting it up like a street bike/wet clutch instead of a GP race bike/dry clutch. Hopefully I'll have it sorted out. I'll find out in practice tomorrow.

My lap times sucked! 10 in heat race. Row four outside for the race, I think that's where I would like to be, as opposed to the inside.

Race Day

August 26, 2001
Woke up this morning very cold... accordingly, I hid under the blankets for an hour. Finally, after it warmed up a bit, I decided to get up and going. It was 48 F. in the van.

Looks like the 600's are out on the track. I'm in the second practice and the tire warmers are on the bike. I added some preload to the forks. I really need to get some 1:02s this time out. Last night I was jetted a bit rich on the new fuel, I should be pretty close now, we'll see. I just met an instructor from MMI Orlando, I think his name is Terry. He has worked for the school for about 11 years, and the AMA for about 2 years. Said he's seen me at several races, just didn't know I was an instructor. I make a note to myself to record the weather and not to forget to check the tire pressure before going out!

Got about 20 laps in. Hands were getting tired, forearms were getting tired, thought I better get in before I wear myself out, I need to be fresh for the long race. Average lap time Sunday morning 1:03.97 Best 1:02.82 worst 1:05.35. Good news is I hit 1:02s, bad news is I only got 2 of them. I can hit 10,500rpm out of turn one without working at it now. I can hit 11,000rpm but I've got to work at it and I get a two wheel drift when I do; rear first then the front lets go. This is happening at about 100 mph, it's ok but just a little un-nerving.

Time to take the bike apart again to check the piston color for jetting. Let's see if I can get it right for the race. It felt pretty close, it may have been a bit off, but that's alright, we'll find out. Andy is a little faster than me, about the only chance I think I have is if I can hang on to him and poke a wheel in under him once in a while just to get him mentally rattled, maybe I can wear him down and get him at the end. Problem is I'm not faster. Sean Ray held me up a little bit. His bike seems to be a bit faster. Down the front straight I could pass coming on to it, but he could pass going into one and I still had the throttle pinned. He was a little bit in my way in turn one.We'll see, I don't want to get hung up behind him, that will put a gap between me and who I want to chase. I don't wish to lead Andy. I don't want him to learn anything from me. I'd rather learn from him instead! I'll have to exercise a lot of patience because the fact is if I can get Andy I probably can't get the guy ahead of him. If they're close and I catch Andy, that just puts him behind me going to school on a faster bike. It'd be nice to beat France, who I think will be in front of Andy.

The front end needs more preload still. The rear needs more preload also. I'll increase the rebound damping to go with those changes. It's nice to finally be riding fast enough to need to make suspension changes. A little nervous, I've got to guess how far off the jetting is, figure how many jet sizes to correct for how far off the jetting was, then I have to look at what I think the weather is going to do for the race and correct for that.

Change in plan: if I can pass Andy, I am going to. Sport is not called winning, it's called racing so I'll race him the whole way if I have to. If he beats me hopefully my lap times improve anyway.

A couple of weeks of work, five days on the road and it all comes down to 60 kilometers on the motorcycle, followed of course, by 844 miles in the van to get home. I've done everything I think I need to do to the bike. I like the decisions I've made and it's 26 minutes 'till show time. Eating a Nutrigrain and a Gatorade. I'll probably need the energy...

4 minutes: I've got butterflies, but they are not to bad.

We're on green and the race is on.

Hit over 11,000 exiting turn one, didn't seem to matter much. I seemed to have good speed there but I don't know, seems to be missing something. I notice that I carry good speed out of it, but it seems the other bikes pull away after that pretty solidly. The clutch adjustment worked. Brakes got to feeling mushy, couldn't one finger them too easily. As I finished, I wasn't the last running bike to cross the finish line which is an improvement from Laguna Seca! Not the result I wanted, however. Not near as many bikes here, so I guess that is something.

Bought some tires from Bruce Lind for $180. Needles were $30, kit gaskets were $60 from Ed Sorbo, Entry fee was $175. I went faster hear in '98 but this is the third time on the track since I wadded myself up in July 2000. Andy was way faster than me at Laguna, and a little faster at Pikes Peak. Last month I was 6 seconds off my previous Laguna times. Today I was off by about 1 second. My best times at Willlow are about 1:32, it is my worst track, I plan to set a new personal best there September 17. I cleaned up the pits and spent one more night at the track. I feel I've earned the rest. I got 18th, I think Ed got 10th, and Ty got 6th. With his practice time we thought he would be 16th or so, he surprised us good and I don't think it could have happened to a nicer guy. As a side note, Ed may have saved my life by having me do a leakdown test on Thursday. Like I said all weekend long, "thanks Ed"

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