Arizona bike Week Nationals

Arizona Bike Week Nationals

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We packed up the trailer and left Fort Bragg for Phoenix on Thursday April third. We arrived at Phoenix Friday afternoon and set up for the Friday night test and tune. Due to the overwhelming amount of cars participating we only got one test pass. I ran a 12 .21 second quarter mile at 96 MPH. Something was VERY wrong. We could only dwell on the problem until Saturday morning.

We got up bright and early and raced to the track to begin working on the motorcycle. The only thing that we could physically see wrong was a possible jetting problem; a shot in the dark. I made my first qualifying pass and ran an 11.84. The bike ran terribly, cutting out most of the way down the track. I had observed previously that it would stall for no apparent reason on the way to the staging lanes but didn't think anything of it. With further investigation we found that the kill switch, which is designed to kill the engine in case of an accident, had gone bad. The slightest movement of the kill mechanism would turn off the motor. We made some adjustments to the kill switch and then waited for the second round of qualifying to test it out. My second round of qualifying I ran an 11.04 at 121 MPH. That qualified me sixth out of eighteen. My third round of qualifying I ran an 11.004 at 121 MPH and I ended up qualifying seventh in the class. We left the track feeling relieved that we had fixed the major problem.

We arrived back at the track Sunday morning at eight o'clock. I was not scheduled to have my first elimination pass until one o'clock in the afternoon. I ran an 11.24 at 120 MPH in the Sunday morning practice session. From the results of the practice run we decided to make another jetting change. We waited for hours until the first round of eliminations.

Around 1:30 PM my class (SE) was called to the staging lanes. I lost the first round by breaking out. I ran a 10.889 at 122MPH. I had even closed the throttle before the speed trap that houses the quarter mile timing light. I almost fell over when I saw my time slip because I never imagined the motorcycle would perform like that, especially with the ET's I had all weekend. We packed up the trailer and headed for home. It was a good learning experience, the first race of the year always is. We determined that I can't rely on the motorcycle and would have to rely strictly on my skills as a rider. I will be going back to the sand-bagging game like I did last year. I will finish each race just barely ahead of my opponent. At least I am expecting this problem and will make up for it at Las Vegas in May.

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Arizona bike Week Nationals

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