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Calgary Nationals June 8th 2003

Calgary Nationals june 8th 2003

This weekend was about Tire Choice .........

Honda Canada was kind enough to deliver our new CBR 600RR this weekend.

We received the bike on friday for the first practice and through the day we set up the suspension. If that's what you want to call what I did. It probably should be called, how long before we toss Chris off the bike.

On friday, Chris got his times to where he was 2nd fastest overall, 1:20.7 gearing 15/43 (info for me)

This was the first day on the bike and he was lapping at about his fastest times on his old F4i, Honda.

I expected Chris to come in after practice and tell me how much he hated the bike. This is usually what he does. I guess every new bike feels different and he just has to express those feelings to me.


We should have left well enough alone. We didn't.

The problem with bikes is you always want to make them better. Some times you shouldn't. The old saying, if it ain't broken don't fix it, applies here. (should have applied here)

On saturday, he would probably have gone faster if I hadn't touched anything. I was asking all kinds of questions, like I always do and I just kept messing up everything. The bike kept bottoming out in the front and I kept tightening down the front spring to stop the problem. I stopped the problems so good, he had no damping left and would ride off the track a few times.

I could go on about all the dumb stuff I did, but I already beat myself up enough. Anyway, we messed it up so much, I actually learnt something. I'm better now than I was before I screwed up. The only nice thing about saturday, is how good Chris was about the fact that we were still learning. He never lost his cool or composure. I did point out, that I don't get mad at him when he tosses the bike or he makes a mistake. He understood.

What he did lose was a good grid position. he went from being the 2nd fastest to 10th on the grid.

That's not really that bad, but, when you know it's not his fault it doesn't make you feel good.

By Saturday afternoon I asked for some help. This is very strange of me to wait so long, usually I asking people for help, before I need it.

Jim from Bow Cycle pointed out, I plan to much and then, I don't have to do, what I planned for. Silly me.
Jim was great, he brought out his trailer, tuner, and a spare bike (I'll get back to the spare bike later)
Ari, brought lots of food and helped out all weekend. Bill of course did most of the work.

Fortunately for me, Honda Canada had a suspension Guru from Traxxion Suspension, Max.
Max fixed the bike on saturday, just before the Superbike qualifier and Chris did his best times all weekend. 1.20.4 Why didn't I just ask Max before? Who knows.
He raised the rear, lowered the front, set the sag, added oil to the forks, fixed the compression and rebound and off we were again.
When Chris came in, I asked if he wanted me to do anything, he said, " No, it's perfect leave it." Ouch, that hurts. He'll get over it.

Sunday, the weather sucked. It changed every 10 minutes. Weather changes cause way to may decisions. In the 600 race we decided to use a cut D.O.T. Normally we have both choices mounted, a set of rains and a set of D.O.T's, because we just took possession of our new bike we didn't have any spares. I still can't believe we forgot about the spare bike. But we did.
Anyway, off we went to pit lane empty handed. The riders get two sighting laps to determine which tires to run. We had no choice, we had mounted cut D.O.T.'s, this would give him a little advantage if it stopped raining.
The race started and on the first lap one rider went down in corner one and 4 riders in the north end. The race was red flagged and we had an opportunity to change tires again if we wanted to.
Chris said his bike was sliding all over the place. Bill said he shouldn't go out. Chris said he wanted to and that's the riders choice. I also thought it would be good practice, sliding in the rain would help him understand the demands of wet conditions. I'm a little of an optimist.
Then, Honda Canada came to the rescue, they changed both front and back with a new set of Pirelli tires. That's love.
Race starts again, Chris gets a great launch, he's in second place at the start and as the track starts to dry he's running in the top three, then Crevier gets around Chris and as Chris tries to get back, he crashes in the 2nd to last lap. To Bad, he was running great.

For the Superbike race, we work like fools to get the bike ready, with the help of everyone nearby and the spare bike, thanks again Bow and Jim (at least now, we remembered we had a spare) we get it ready in time.
The weather still sucks. Same conditions, every ten minutes new tires. We decide to go with cut slicks again. Bill steps in and changes all our minds, Rain tires this time. We all bow to his decision.
The right decision it was, for the first half of the race and really the right decision to have made but the weather kept changing.
After the sighting lap some riders changed there tires for d.o.t.'s instead of rains, they finished farther back than Chris.
The race starts and Chris goes into corner one, 2nd, then after only two laps he's in 1st place for about 3 laps. Unfortunately this is a Superbike race against 1000's and he's on a 600, and the track is starting to dry ( I got lot's of excuses) with a brilliant race under horrible conditions, Chris finishes the race in 5th. Fantastic, to have lead a Superbike, that was way to Cool.

Another interesting point, the Honda CBR600rr, is the first bike Chris has liked right away.

I forgot to mention, If you've already read this articule, to bad.

In the reginal 600 and Superbike, Chris finished in First place in both events.

Anyway that's it for now.

We were very happy to have set up the bike for the next AMA round at Brainered. I'll up date then.

Photo links

 

More stuff about the race, written by a proffessional

 

Taylor takes Race City Superbike win
June 8, 2003

Mike Taylor, on his Orion Motorsports Honda Canada CBR954RR, won this afternoon's Parts Canada Superbike race at Race City.

Taylor, 1994 and 1996 Superbike Champion, exchanged the lead early on in the 16-lap feature race with Chris Peris, also on a Honda. Peris was riding his 600 Sport Bike machine which couldn't match the power of the larger displacement bikes and eventually dropped back to finish fifth.

Taylor's last win was in the 1999 series, and this win brings his all-time Canadian Superbike tally to ten. "This is the happiest win of my career," commented Taylor at the podium following the race.

Canadian Kawasaki's Tom Kipp looked strong near the half-way point of the wet race, leading for five laps over the hard-charging pack of Peris, Taylor, Robbie Baird, Steve Crevier, and Kevin Lacombe.

Taylor, who was only ever as far back as fourth, charged back to the lead on the tenth lap and was never really challenged for the lead again, pulling out to a 2.5-second margin of victory.

Crevier, on the Diablo Performance Suzuki GSX-R1000, beat Baird's Orion Honda to the line for second. Baird, who opted to ride his Orion CBR600RR because of the wet conditions, lost his helmet visor during the race and continued on to finish third without it.

Lacombe was in the second place battle on his Orion CBR600RR before crashing with three laps to go. He was able to remount and ride around to finish the race in 21st place.

Pole-sitter Clint McBain made a last minute decision to switch from his rain-tire equipped Coors Light/Blackfoot Suzuki, to a bike with DOT tires after the first of two warm-up laps before the start of the race. He was only able to ride to a tenth place finish.

Much to the delight of Pirelli tire representative Jeff Johnston, who was in pit lane chanting "More rain, more rain" during the race, three of the top four riders were riding on Pirelli rain tires.