A great day to be at the track. Hot, sunny and nothing but blue sky.
At the riders meeting, they announced that we would get 2 Test and Tune runs, before we stated the elimination rounds.
Great, I can use the practice.
12:03 pm, Test and Tune.
I dropped the clutch and the bike took off. It was awesome. 7.918 seconds at 88.9 mph.
That time is 0.08 seconds faster than my previous best time at this track
And it’s only 0.047 seconds slower than my best ever 1/8 mile time.
60’ time of 1.90 sec and 1/8 mile time of 7.918 sec. @ 88.9 mph.
12:56 pm, Test and Tune.
I dropped the clutch; the bike took off, and I had an average run.
60’ time of 2.08 sec and 1/8 mile time of 8.292 sec. @ 88.2 mph.
On my second run, I had a poor launch. Not horrible, but not ideal.
The bad launch made my 60’ time almost 0.2 sec slower, which made my 330’ time 0.3 sec slower, which made my 1/8 mile time 0.4 sec slower.
The whole run depends on the launch.
And practice time was over. It was time to pick a dial-in and go racing.
On Saturday, I made 7 runs down the track.
I had the big wheelie on the last one so it doesn’t mean much for time.
On 2 of them, the bike had a big stumble, and ran the 1/8 mile in around 8.45 seconds.
On 3 of them, the bike had a small cough, and ran the 1/8 mile between 8.2 and 8.3 seconds.
And I had 1 pretty clean pass and did the 1/8 mile in 8.11 seconds.
When I went to bed on Saturday night, I was thinking of picking a dial-in time of 8.1 seconds.
Then on Sunday, I make the freak run of 7.92 seconds.
On my 2nd test and tune run on Sunday, I had a time of 8.292 seconds.
Kinda funny, because the average time of my 6 good runs on Saturday, was 8.292 seconds.
The last time I was in Rimby, I said
This time I knew the bike would run 7.9 sec., but that was at noon.Off Road wrote: ↑Thu Jun 15, 2023 12:13 am My best time of the day was 8.27 seconds.
...I thought that the bike was quicker than 8.27, but I wasn’t feeling an 8.0 run, so I picked a dial-in time of 8.15 seconds and went racing.
...I really should have used my fastest Qualifying time (8.27 sec) as my dial-in time.
How’s it going to run in a couple of hours, when the temperature increases, and we get to the Eliminations?
When it came time to write a number on the bike, I knew in my heart that it could run 8.0.
But, history shows that it’s more likely to run 8.2.
Damn the torpedoes, I picked a dial-in at 8.05 seconds for the Street class.
I ran the 1/8 mile in 8.06 seconds @ 89.1 mph. Whoop, Whoop.
Now that’s how you pick a dial-in.
I am the man. Not.
I lost that race because I had an incredibly slow reaction time of 0.433 seconds. WTF?
That time was more than twice as long as my next worst reaction time.
Well, that was disappointing, but I had no time to dwell on it, because I was sitting in the staging lane waiting to make the elimination run for Hot Twin.
I left my dial-in at 8.05 and was racing a Harley that had a dial-n of 8.25, which meant that his light turned green before mine.
I staged the bike, and as I’m sitting there, waiting for the light to turn green, I catch a glimpse of a Harley front wheel coming up into my view.
An instant later, my light goes green and I’m off.
I passed the Harley, before shifting into 2nd gear. I shifted to second, pinned the throttle, waited for the shift light and then shifted to 3rd.
I was out in front, and didn’t want to break out, so I didn’t take it all the way to redline in 3rd gear.
I shifted to 4th, pinned the throttle for a second, and then started to roll off and coasted across the line.
I was a bit surprised, and a tad miffed, when I saw the win light come on for my opponent.
Despite my efforts to slow the bike down, I still went to fast and broke out.
I had my best 60’ time of the weekend, and another 7 second 1/8 mile time.
60’ time of 1.889 sec and 1/8 mile time of 7.968 sec. @ 87.5 mph.
In the last 5 years of racing at this track, I’ve only had one 7 sec. run.
Then, on one day, I have two 7 second runs. Damn.
So, I went to the track to test my racing skills, and found them to be lacking.
I picked a great dial-in time for the 1st race, and lost because I was sleeping when the light turned green.
![[smilie=ext_sleep.gif]](./images/smilies/ext_sleep.gif "ext_sleep"){kind=small}
Should have won the 2nd race because I was waaay out in front, but I wasn’t smart enough to back off the throttle.
But, winners make rounds, and losers make excuses.
I’m looking forward to the race in Edmonton, next weekend.
The CMDRA is part of large NHRA event that is happening.
It’ll be fun, but it’s not going to be cheap. More than twice as much as it cost at Rimby.
But, the prize money is also much bigger, and they have a payout for the Final, and the Semi-final races.
If we get 12 or 16 entries in each of my classes, like we did at the previous races, then 1st place in each class would be $1200 to $1500.
Ya, I could use some of that. And all I have to do is not fuck up.
