Diary

Page 1

June 21, 2008

June 16, 2008

May 24 - 25, 2008

May 10, 2008

Mid Michigan Motorplex, Stanton MI (June 21, 2008)

No Wallys yet

Saturday, June 21, 2008 - by Kevyn Ashbay (Crew / Driver #2)

It was another great day for racing. It started raining at home so I left a little early to avoid the majority of it because I don't have any windscreen wipers and I knew the further north I got, the less rain their was. By the time I left Grand Rapids, it had stopped and made way to sunny skies for most of the day. Some cool clouds were up north but never reached us. We also had a fairly stiff head wind which slowed both of us down a bit, but all in all you couldn't ask for a better day.

Things started out good when Bob ran right where he left off last week. And I was running right where I left off 2 years ago. Which in some ways is bad, because my lights were just as inconsistent as ever. I tried just about everything I could to get a system down but have yet to find anything too promising. Just when I thought I had something, I really didn't. And on the "other side of the pit spot" note: Bob had a .000 reaction in his second time trial. I am not sure how many of those he has ever had, but I am sure it is too many. So that should be one of those time slips to save.

Going into eliminations, things started well when out friend Larry (on a bike in the Pro class) got his first win of the year! Bob came out and put together a .024 package together which would win most any round, except when the guy in the other lane has a .000 light and ran dead on. There's no way to win that one. So Bob bought back in and then started on a tear. Meanwhile, I got a bye for the first round. In the last two years I've been there with Bob and Shelly racing, I can't remember getting a bye. And I come in and get one first round. That just seemed weird to me (I know, I know it's random, but still!) I took it as a chance to test another way to leave the starting (Which didn't work so hot either). I guess, Bob and I just needed to get out of 1st Round because after that it just started flowing. I made it to the semi-finals where I had problems running my car and Bob made it to the quarter-finals where the bike ran just a touch slower than anticipated.

Once we both got through Round 4, I made the mistake of trying to figure out how we would get both my car and Bob's bike in the winners circle together with both Wally''s. There isn't much room over there so I figured I would start to solve the problem early because we could have disarray in the circle, could we? So, as karma goes, that was the downfall point. Mental note for next time: Keep your head where it is, not where you wish it was! And although we didn't get the trophy we wanted, sky gave us some thing just as cool to look at...

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Mid Michigan Motorplex, Stanton MI (June 16, 2008)

"Fair weather racer"ed out? not quite!

Sunday, June 16, 2008 - by Bob Boruta (Rider)

Weather forecast was for 50% chance of showers on and off all day. (So Kevyn “fair weather racer”ed out on us.) Woke to sunny skies so we headed toward the track but about the time we pulled into the track, the clouds began rolling in and the wind started picking up. The car count looked to be very small in all the classes (16 in Super Pro, a couple more than us in Pro, about 10 in Street and a light turnout in Juniors), so we expected things would move along quickly and low and behold it did. Time trials went smoothly except for the water pump for cooling down quit, first time this year BUT only 3 races on it. I guess we always need at least one problem. The pace of the race day was very quick (to beat any bad weather that may be approaching). Every round the bike was slowing down because the lack of cool-down time but we did our best to anticipate how much it would slow down each pass.

1st round (12:16pm): We won on an opponent break-out.

2nd round(12:48pm): Opponent broke. (Luckily, I did not break out because I took off first and did not look back!)

3rd round (01:29pm): Somehow got away with a 0.161 light (!) when I pushed out the other lane (another opponent breakout).

4th round (01:53pm): They put us on a ladder. With the pristine light from the last round, we lost lane choice, and went into the left lane for the first time. Took the round with a stellar .003 light to the opponent’s 0.089.

5th round (semi finals - 3 vehicles remaining) (02:13pm-normally would be at about 5:00pm): As usual, we had to race and Cody Anderson got the bye run. But, because of the 0.003 reaction of the previous round, we had lane choice so we went back to our preferred right lane. We had even added some time back into the delay box but went red by 0.007 sec. (Cody took the next round against the guy I lost to and took the pot again!) It never did rain and by the time we left the track, there was still a stout breeze but the sky was blue and sunny. All in all, the day was a success mechanically and psychologically. We recouped a little money and helped our points standing a little bit.

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Mid Michigan Motorplex, Stanton MI (May 24-25, 2008)

No brakes, no problem!

Saturday, May 24, 2008 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)

T Only slight technical difficulties on this day: A broken brake line on the truck, small electrical gremlin, and broken body mounts couldn't stop the bike from being a beacon on consistency. Even the "run for the money" round was dead on with an 8. Too bad we can only dial to the hundreds place. As of right now we are heading into 2nd round and the day light is starting to wane. This brings in new problems with humidity, reaction time and temperature. I am not exactly sure what we will do with any of it, it will have to be a last minute decision. A lot of it depends on how smoothly things go. Eight pairs into the day we had an oil down. Although it was only at the starting line but after a couple other small beaks, things seem to have settled down so I believe we will get in 2nd round before the sun light break. (Mid Michigan shuts everything down when the sun gets down to the horizon because if you have the left lane, you have to stare into the sun to see the tree).

Well, all the best laid plans seem to have failed. We pushed the tree a little too much in the second round and turned on the big red bonker by .008. And with that in our heads we added a bunch back into the box but I guess that wasn't enough either because in the 3rd round we went .006 red. To make it even funnier, we added even more right before we went under the tower, so I was pretty shocked that it still went red. But overall, I can't remember a more consistent day by the bike. It posted times that we so predictable, we almost won the "run for the money" cash. Hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Once again, it is perfect weather for racing. The sun has dipped behind some hazy clouds and the wind has picked up but because it is a cross wind, it doesn't seem to effect us at all. It is between first round, again, and everything went perfect to get here. Bob had a .008 light to a .051 to his opponent! That enabled him to get on the brakes to make sure he did break-out, and even if he didn't it would have ran extremely close to our 6.13. On the brakes it ran a 6.16 at only 104 MPH! It feels like rain so I am checking the radar as I type. Thanks to Mid Michigan's Wireless Internet! (Although I have to go to the tower to use it today because the wind is heading in the wrong direction and it must be taking the signal with it...

Same story as yesterday... We just can't get by 3rd round. Second round Bob had a .001 red light. 1 One thousandth of a second from perfect. That's how little of time we are dealing with. Just that much can change a race and change a day. Great leaps were made in consistency this weekend, though. The bike is running better than ever and that's a good sign for weekends to come. I'd like to send this bike out on high note, win a race before the 'busa debuts in a few weeks. With more weekends like this, that can't be too far away. It is just running too well!

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Mid Michigan Motorplex, Stanton MI (May 10, 2008)

Some say it's "Tuning and Testing"

Saturday, May 10, 2008 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)

T The new season is finally here! The weather has been so crappy on the weekends that it was impossible to come out without some sort of testing. We started with everything set just like last year and then started changing from there. The new belt took some tuning to, and might be a few more runs before it comes around. The weather was imaculate up until about 4:30. Then the clouds went away and cooled everything down fairly quick.

As for the new 'busa, things are coming together. The frame came back from the welder, so the body is starting to be final fitted. The engine should be back in the coming weeks and more can be done to finalize things. The official word I got today was by the end of July, so it can be paraded around at Indy for the bracket finals!

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