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<< Previous Page :: Page 3
Route 66 Raceway, Joliet IL (May 5 - 7, 2006)
Any Brina weekend is a good weekend
Friday, May 5, 2006 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)
Well, we made it to Stake n Shake after a tour of north Michigan City . I guess we got off at the exit before were supposed to and took the long way around. Besides that there was a lot of traffic trying to get up to the tollbooth. I cant say how long it took exactly because I was asleep off and on about 10 times and it didn’t seem like we were getting anywhere. I think it was about 12:30 by the time we reached the gate and there were already 5-10 trailers ahead of us. A few of them got together and had a portable fireplace thing. I just wish I had some marshmallows to make smores!!
Saturday, May 6, 2006
It is a good day to test. There is
nothing but sun and a little wind, which is as good as no wind around here. We
interchanged quite a few parts trying to get it to settle down with the rebuilt
Micro Belmont clutch. Few found it coming out quicker with that stock Polaris
clutch even though it was on the 2step at a much lower RPM. So we were trying to
get this one to engage lower and hopefully make things smoother. As of now, we
haven't quite found that sweet spot and I think we are running out of time…
Sorry, Bob informs me everyone is waiting on me to go up to the lanes. Cross
your fingers.
Sunday, May 7, 2006
We did get everything figured out
yesterday but it was after another change of the clutch. After our first run
today, I am certain we got the setup right and that's something we didn't even
have all of last year. The only down side is that we
have no prior information under different conditions. Or any runs for that
matter. So these time trial runs are extremely important and will be the only
thing we have to dial off of.
It was over an hour after we got to the lanes before we got to run because of two separate oil problems on the track. We did get to see Brina make her first round pass. She had a .017 light and ran a perfect run (on her dial with a zero) but lost by .001 at the stripe. I never thought I'd see her lose on a holeshot. Not to say a .017 is bad by any means but in this situation, it was too slow. Our run came a while later. Both Bob and Donnie got off the line a little late and both broke out on the other end. But Donnie was a touch less under than we were and that put us on the trailer. It wasn't all bad because we left the track about 6 PM and they had just ran second round of bikes. So if we would have gone to much farther, we wouldn't have got home until Monday morning. But Donnie was still in after the second round and I don't know what happened so good luck to him!
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Route 66 Raceway, Joliet IL (April 21 - 23, 2006)
On the edge of too much fun
Friday, April 21, 2006 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)
This trip was one of the quickest
rides down here yet. A short stop in Burns Harbor to get some fuel, and very
little traffic going through, and getting to, the tollbooths. We set up camp at
the gate again and it wasn’t long before we had company. As you can see we sit
right outside of gate 11 just off 52 south of Laraway. Again, Bob and I squared
off at a game of Tourist Trophy racing bikes. I don’t think he beat
me once, but I won't say anything because he’s probably gonna practice at home
so my dominance won’t last long.
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Today was about as much excitement I want in a race
day! Last time we were here the bike jumped the lights, on our last run, when
Bob went on the 2step but we didn’t think much of it. When it continued to do
this when we began warming the
bike up this morning, it started to worry us. Turns out it was missing a roller
off the clutch, and those are one of those parts that you can only get in Grand
Rapids, MI (which doesn’t help us when we are in Illinois). We contacted
Micro Belmont
(who makes our custom clutch) and they were going to send someone down to open
the place so we could drive back and get one. We THANK them for that!!!
But we decided to stop to a local Polaris dealer and purchase a “new-to-us” bare
clutch and try and make it work. Which I think we did. We made some surprisingly
quick 60ft times on most of the test runs. That’s a lot farther than I thought
we’d get after the morning we had. The best thing is that we are at least going
to be there for Sunday’s points race.
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Am I glad we stuck around, or what? First of all, I have to congratulate Bob on superb driving. The team took the runner-up stop in the first points race for the season. So if my calculations are correct, that puts us in second place in the points already. It makes a lot of peoples jobs easier when your rider knows how to race. All the time and thought put into rendering a dial time, and he just throws it out the window every run on the brakes at the far end! You'' never check me complaining when the win light keeps coming on on top of the scoreboard. After yesterdays fiasco with the clutch, its a definite moral-boaster to know we can take brand new parts with no time on them and turn it into a final round appearance. I'm already looking forward to next weekend double race. Saturday and Sunday are points races #2 and #3. I know its early but having two in one weekend can make or brake an entire season. You only have to remember back to last year to know that the two runner-up finishes in the double of race #1 and #2 put us on a high all year long!
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Route 66 Raceway, Joliet IL (April 14 - 15, 2006)
Something new, Something old
Friday, April 14, 2006 - by Kevyn Ashbay (crew)
Well, its a new season with some fun new
equipment. Although the bike is the same, I'm sure you know now of our recent
purchase of a 48' trailer.
We (mainly Bob) have been working hard at it all winter and even though we took
it this weekend its now quite finished. As you can see, its kinda large to carry
only a bike, but by the time you get the living quarters cut out and the extra
stuff we take with us, its just about right. Route 66 even lets us park in the
driveway the night before so we are first in line the next morning and can get
every second of sleep we can.
On the way today we stopped by the Blue Beacon to get everything washed from sitting over the winter. I was surprised by the lack of trucks in line (we were only number two) so we were out in less than an hour. And let me tell you, for all the work all those guys do, I'll let them have it for the price. The evening ended with some PlayStation II. For all the driving Bob does on the track, you'd think he could keep his Pro Stock car out of my lane!
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Being that its the first time sleeping here, I
was kinda scared to oversleep. So when we heard cars driving up, we weren't sure
if they had opened the gates or what so the sleeping in thing didn't go well.
But the racing is. There was a long wait between our 2nd and 3rd run but a lot
of that was because we went up there so quick and there were TONS of cars. And
but 
TONS of cars, I mean
TONS of cars. They had pro tree cars in our lane so there were all 6 lanes full
almost all of them back to the turn. It looked like a national event. There were
even some really cool cars on top of the normal ones. Mike Bruno is here with
his IHRA Pro Stock car to make a few passes. Its a brand new GTO and it decked
out. Carbon fiber everything, the works. Brina is here with her dragster and her
corvette. See can drive anything with wheels, some things without! I was kinda
hoping one of the NHRA teams from around would be here because its their off
week and its such nice weather but there isn't. The bike is running great. Even
to the end of last year I felt it wasn't quite where it was supposed to be. It
would through it a really quick run here or a really slow run there but
everything was right in the weather-band today. That makes for great confidence
going into next weekend test n tune of Saturday and race number 1 of the points
season on Sunday so my next entry will include how everything went there. Good
bye for now!
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Diary
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