I'm not very practiced at writing race reports, but I decided to give
it a try. This message will be my witness against any future claims
that I write reports only when (if!) I win races. :-)

Team Iguana was represented in the AFM's four-hour endurance race this
year by Scott Elledge, Mike Shenoy, Darren Slawecki, and myself,
riding Mike's FZR400 superbike. The four of us did the SCCA open track
day at Thunder Hill on Friday, the day before the enduurance
race. Exceept for Mike, this would be the first time on the bike for
each of us.

Even before our first practice session, the excuses were getting
creative: Scott would be slow because he hadn't raced all year, having
blown up his bike's motor at the first race event he tried to run in
the spring. Mike would be slow because he hadn't raced all year
either, he'd only ridden at this track for one prior practice day, and
he doesn't like left turns. (Every turn at Thunder Hill is either left
or technical.) Darren and I would be slow because we've only ever
raced 250cc four-strokes, so we don't know how to handle power. As
evidence for this excuse, I cited last year's endurance race which I
rode on Stan Malyshev's ZX-6, turning lap times three to four seconds
slower than I currently run on my EX250.

But there were also reasons why we shouldn't be *all* that slow.
Scott's got lots of experience, including plenty of time on fast bikes
like the Kill Mobile ('85 FZ750) and his once-tricked-out, now-in-
street-trim TZR250. Mike has an outstanding record of finishes from
the last season he ran at Willow Springs. Darren has an FZR400 street
bike, so he was familier with the platform if not the full power of
the superbike we would use, and rumor has it that he loves Thunder
Hill. And I ... couldn't really think of any redeeming reason why I
should be anything but lethargic, except that I know the track
reasonably well from going sort of medium-speedium around it on my
EX250.

During the Friday practice we rode around trying to get a feel for the
bike and the track. I took out my EX250 for a couple of short sessions
to get a few laps on it, but mostly we took turns on the endurance
bike, with Darren doing some sessions on his street FZR 400 and Mike
on his FZR 400 supersport sprint bike. During my first few laps on the
endurance bike, Mike and I were out riding around, Mike on his
supersport bike, when Darren came by us both on his street bike in an
attempt to teach us a better way around. We weren't such great
students right then; Darren just slowly pulled away.

We practiced off and on through the day with a number of goals in
mind, including checking the bike's fuel consumption, making sure we
could get by with total-loss ignition, and trying to learn to ride the
thing. By the end of the day I was starting to get somewhat
comfortable on the bike, and did some mid-1:27's and several 1:28's on
it. These were in the ball park I had set as a target for us to hit
during the endurance race, so I felt pretty good about them.

Friday after we were done practicing, we got a new set of tires
mounted for the race and called it a day.

Saturday morning, we got ourselves registered for the endurance race
and waited. I did a few slow laps to scrub in the new tires, and Mike
did a few laps just to get more comfortable. We spent most of the
morning taking care of logistics: making sure all the stuff we might
need during the race would be close at hand, making sure our faithful
scorekeepers knew what to do in spite of missing the scorers' meeting
due to a bad PA system, etc. We also did a considerable amount of
looking around at our competition and speculating, trying to size them
up. Soon it was time for the race. We would be getting help from Lois
(my SO) in the pits, and we got scoring services from Jack Walshe,
Kris Stark, John Rabasa, and Paul Somerville. We owe all of them great
thanks!

Our strategy was to ride for an hour straight each, minimizing the
number of pit stops. Scott suggested that he ride first, then Mike,
then Darren, then me. Darren overruled that sequence, saying he wanted
to ride last because he didn't want to crash and keep anyone else from
getting to ride... so I agreed to ride third and let Darren go
last.

The race began and Scott took off and started passing people, turning
consistent 29's and 30's with a few 28's thrown in. His hour went
smoothly and uneventfully. Right from the start it became clear that
we would have a tough time going faster than Jody Matsler [ed. note:
wrong name -- don't remember who this was, but it wasn't Jody] on an
FZR-something that he and Howard Shempp had entered in the 450
class. Someone claimed to have timed him on that bike at 1:17's, but I
don't think that's possible if the bike was even remotely legal for
the class. At the end of Scott's hour, I think we were in second place
in our class, with only three seconds between us and the fourth-place
450-class entry.

Mike had some concern about being able to go a full hour, but we told
him to give it a try and see how it went. He did just under 45 minutes
of 29's and 30's (I think) before signalling that he was coming in, so
I suited up in a hurry and got ready to go, telling Darren I would
take up as much of the 15 extra minutes as I could, and agreeing with
him and Lois on a new system of pit board signals now that I didn't
know how long I was going to be out.

As soon as Mike got in, we changed batteries and fueled up, and I took
off. In practice, I had firmly established that, while I might turn
the fastest laps on our team, I was also the best at stalling the
motor at inopportune times. I was also the worst at starting the damn
thing, being afraid that as I jumped on to bump start it, I'd just go
flying over the right side of the bike in a heap. Luckily in the race,
I had a push from my teammates to get the motor started, and I didn't
manage to stall it on the way out of the pits.

My first several race laps were pretty uncomfortable; the bike was
still unfamiliar enough that I couldn't just hop on and go. I did a
few 29's and 28's getting up to speed before the board started showing
27 for several laps in a row. I got a board indicating I'd been out
for 15 minutes around the time I just started to get relaxed and stop
fighting the bike. I passed a number of 450-class entries, and didn't
get passed by any, so I felt good about our prospects of finishing
high in the class.

Unfortunately, I never made it to the half-hour mark. Shortly after
seeing my 15-minute board, I was passed by Sean Crane, the overall
leader riding a GSXR-something (1100?) on the straight between turns 7
and 8. At the time, I was gaining on another FZR400 and a couple of
other bikes, and he out-braked one of them going into 8, and squirted
by the other two between 8 and 9. We went through 9 one behind the
other, and as the lead bike pulled onto the straight and grabbed a
handful to launch down the straight, his motor exploded. The three of
us behind him were still well leaned over coming out of turn 9, and
there wasn't anything we could do at that point except fall down. I
saw a thick cloud of blue smoke, and I realized immediately that his
motor had let go, and that this was going to be a problem. As soon as
the smoke cloud registered in my mind, I realized I was sliding into
the dirt on my butt in a sitting-up position. Crane ran off the track
(but kept it upright) because his rear wheel had locked when he threw
the connecting rod, and the other two bikes between him and me crashed
as well. One of the middle two got going again and continued the
race. There was no one directly behind me, so I had a couple of
instants to look down at our bike and see that the radiator was
spewing water from a hole in its side and I couldn't tell what else
might be wrong. I wasn't hurt at all, but I was covered with dirt and
oil, and I was hopping mad. It took me a moment to calm down and
realize that Sean and his team were surely every bit as frustrated as
my fellow Iguanas and I, and that they probably hadn't intentionally
set their motor up to explode. I started trying to figure out where I
should be and how I could help the workers. I'm not sure, but it
seemed like the workers were so surprised at so many bikes going down
at once that they just couldn't do anything for a few seconds. It
seemed like it took them a while to get flags out on turn 9, but in
the end no one else crashed, and they did an excellent job of getting
grease sweep onto the oil in between passing bikes, showing the riders
that they needed to change lines even before the sweep had marked the
spill. It was pretty scary standing there watching a couple of bikes
get sideways in the oil while headed right for me and the workers.

Eventually I realized I wasn't going to be able to pick the bike up
safely without someone to spot for me and warn me of incoming
projectiles, so I just made it my job to get across the track and back
to the pits. I had calmed down considerably, but I wasn't really in
the mood to spend an hour wrenching on the bike and then go out and
ride it around to last place when we'd been standing second before the
crash. Mike felt the same way I did, but Scott wanted to do all we
could to keep going. I realized Scott had the better attitude, and
decided I was game if everyone else was. With the help of workers,
Scott and Darren went across the track to retrieve the bike while I
got out of my leathers and helped Mike prepare to triage and hopefully
repair the damage. My gear wasn't damaged except for a hole over the
right shoulder armor and a coat of oil on everything that wasn't
behind the fairing.

We made an attempt at changing the radiator, but in the end we were
thwarted by the bike's having ingested a bunch of dirt. The carb setup
on the bike hadn't included air filters, so the carbs would have
needed to be disassembled and cleaned. Worse, we saw plenty of grit in
the intake ports when we pulled the carbs. That was when we knew we
were out. It was really disappointing that we didn't finish, because
we were doing so well up until then. We had been looking forward to
bringing home an Iguana endurance trophy for the second year in a row,
but it wasn't going to happen. I didn't even get half my riding time,
and Darren didn't get to ride in the race at all.

On the positive side, I learned a lot riding the 400 even though I
didn't get all that much time on it. It's a really different thing
having that kind of power, and other things about the bike are
different, too. The weight distribution is such that the bike is much
easier to stoppie than the Ninja 250 I'm used to, and several times I
felt the back wheel start to come up on the brakes going into turn
8. The bike also tends to encourage putting my weight on the bars more
than the 250 does, and I had to work against that. The 400 is also
somewhat less forgiving of being off the gas over bumps; it never got
out of control, but I definitely got warnings going into turn 2 a
couple of times.

I later teased the team, telling them the following story: After
Darren asked to switch our riding order, I wondered if he wanted me to
ride before him so he could usurp me in my position as fastest iguana
in the endurance race. So I strolled over to the #1 bike pitted nearby
and quickly rebuilt its bottom end while no one was looking. During
the rebuild, I replaced the number-four connecting rod with a special
rod containing explosive bolts as are used on spacecraft. I wired the
explosive bolts to a concealed radio receiver on this other team's
bike, and tucked the transmitter into my t-shirt. I figured that this
way, I could foil Darren's plan and no one would ever know...

Team Iguana owes a great debt of thanks to Mike Shenoy for letting us
use his bike and his riding talent in the endurance race. Maybe we can
try again sometime, and he can take home a trophy in trade instead of
soil samples. In addition, we owe big thanks to the scorers mentioned
above: John, Jack, Paul, and Kris -- THANKS!

		   --------------------------------

Sunday's sprints saw Darren and me trying to get our heads wrapped
back around 250cc four-strokes. Darren hadn't had any 250 practice on
Friday or Saturday, and I had had only a few laps on my EX250
Friday. Still, I felt pretty comfortable in the morning practice
session on Sunday, and I thought I could probably do OK in the race if
I could just avoid my normal abysmal start. I even tried to prepare
by doing some practice starts in the hot pit area, but it was to no
avail.

When the green flew for 250 production (the first race of the day), I
tried to get off the line, but ended up letting essentially the whole
pack get by. I don't know if I was truly last into turn 1, but there
couldn't have been more than one or two bikes behind me. I can never
manage to get aggressive about passing on the first lap of a race, so
at the end of the first lap there were still three or four clearly
slower riders ahead of me. I got by Paul Somerville going into turn 3
on the second lap, I think, and out-braked Darren into turn 8 on
either the second or third lap. I've suspected for a while that my
bike might be losing some power to others, and Darren gave me more
evidence in that direction by pulling alongside me on the straight
just after I passed him. Darren and I both felt my drive out of turn 9
was fine, so I suspect that maybe the blowby I've seen on my pistons
just below the rings might mean something... :-(

Anyway, Darren pulled alongside but couldn't get by going into turn 1,
and I didn't see him again after that. I was now running in 6th place,
my standard 250 production position of late. The surprise, though, was
that Darren had swapped places with first-year novice John Rabasa, who
was now ahead of me! John had never even been able to keep up with me
before, and now he was ahead and I was having trouble catching him!
Something must have clicked for him because his riding had taken quite
a leap forward. He and Steve Chan were dicing it out, with John in
front of Steve for part of the time. I convinced myself I was gaining
on them, but our lap times tell a different story: They were pulling
away pretty decisively, it turns out, so John would have beaten
me. Would have, because he crashed just before the left-to-right
transition in the Cyclone (turn 5), handing me my first 5th place
finish. Before his crash, though, John turned a 1:29.3, beating my
best by more than half a second and beating Darren's best, too, if I'm
not mistaken. I'm very impressed, and I look forward to going to
school on him like he's done on me in the past. He was unhurt, and the
bike was almost completely unscathed, getting only a bent footpeg
bracket and some asphalt jamming the clutch lever. John was easily
able to get back out on track later in the day, although at a much
slower pace... Tom Dorsey won 250 production going away, running high
1:27's against a previous best of mid- or high 1:28's. With that win,
Tom clinched the class championship for the year. Congratulations,
Tom!

My next race was 500 twins, and John was running that race too. All
the other 250 riders except Tom were done for the day, and John and I
sat around talking, thinking the PA announcer was still yammering
something about Formula Pacific when in fact he was announcing the
start of our race! We realized we'd missed the warm-up lap and got out
onto the track just as the green flag flew. I'd managed to find a way
to get an even worse start than I did in 250 production! We didn't
even make the grid, so we were chasing last place. I just put my head
down and started passing people. Having started the race in such a
flustered rush, I didn't have a very good attitude, and I probably
should have just skipped the race entirely. As it was, though, I did
my worst, slowest, most hairball, and most unsafe riding of the day. I
had never made a move I considered truly hairball before this race,
but now I have, two times in the same turn in the same race.

The first time was trying to get by someone on the brakes into turn
8. S/he was *way* ahead of me, but going quite a bit slower, and I
just lost track somehow of the fact that there was a turn coming up. I
held off braking nearly forever, and finally realized I needed to wake
up -- I wasn't going to get that position right then. I braked, and
managed not to hit anyone as I ran straight while they all turned. I
got the tire howling, kept it on the track, turned really late, and
started trying to make up the ground I'd lost.

Later in the same race, I had made up lots of ground on Jon Forman and
was nearly ready to pass him. But not quite. I should have waited and
passed him in turn 2 or somewhere, but I ended up forcing the pass in
the entrance to turn 8. I realized it was a mistake after I was
already committed, and I just hoped he wouldn't hit me or fall
down. He didn't, and we both made the turn safely thanks to his
calmness and my good luck. Turns out that in the confusion following
my brainless pass, he got bumped by another rider, but everything
turned out OK in the end. I kept him behind me for another lap, but on
the final lap he and another 500 motored by me on the straight to
finish ahead of me.

After the race I apologized to Jon and he was very nice about it while
rightly agreeing that my move had been stupid.

My final race of the day was 250 superbike, in which I managed to make
the starting grid on time, did better (but not good) lap times, and
didn't endanger anyone's safety. The most notable thing about this
race was that Tom did consistent 27's, with one *low* 27, more than a
second off his previous best! That's at least a tenth of a second
better than my fastest lap on the seventy-something horsepower FZR400
we rode in the endurance race.

I, on the other hand, didn't even get within a second of my previous
best on the 250 -- sort of frustrating since I know the conditions
were good for fast lap times. Oh well... Kind of frustrating, but
there's always next year. This year's only remaining AFM date is at
Buttonwillow, a track where I've never raced and where I don't have a
baseline lap time to gauge my progress.

Well, I guess this is long enough. Anyone who read this far deserves
an endurance trophy of their own!

	-- Robert Kennedy