Off-season summary and Race Report for Buttonwillow Raceway Park, 5, 6, and 7 March, 1999. Warning: This looks like it's gonna be long. Want the short version instead? Here it is: My good bike has some problems even though its handling is basically sound. I won the 250 production race by under a foot (probably way under a foot) over Brian Bartlow who led until the very end, except for about 15 feet of the race a couple of laps from the end. I had a great time, and I'm dumbfounded by the finish. The long version follows. This winter I laid down a little cash to get Factory/Wheelsmith Racing to jet the W bike on their dyno. I had a Factory jet kit in the bike and it seemed to be running fine, but I figured surely improvements were possible. It turned out that the jetting was very close to right, but that the bike was making pretty abysmal power: whereas my friend and competitor Chris McGrail's (#886) bike had made 29.8 bhp on Factory/Wheelsmith's dyno after they tuned his motor last season, mine made 26.9 after the carbs were jetted. And I had thought the W bike had a fast motor. By doing some thinking of my own, some remembering of old rumors, and some talking with Jason at Factory, I decided the most promising place to look for the missing power in the W's motor was probably cam timing. I laid down more cash to have the cams degreed on the dyno. Jason found a very meager improvement of 0.2 bhp, still leaving the W bike's 27.1 bhp motor well below the performance of its competitors in the 250 production class. I felt both good and bad about the news of my motor's poor power output. On one hand, it meant maybe my riding was better than I'd thought, since I've been running with people who have considerably more power than me. On the other hand, it meant that if I wanted to play on a level field, I was going to have to lay out some money for motor work. By the time all this became clear, it was too late to have any hope of getting the tuning work done before the season opener at Buttonwillow, and Jason also advised that with several seasons of racing on the W motor already, it wasn't likely to match the potential of a motor built with a fresher cylinder head. So despite its power deficit, I decided to leave the W motor as it was and run it at Buttonwillow without making any further investments in it. I also hope to continue my quest this season to eliminate the A bike's handling defects. I don't use the A bike often because the W bike handles well, but when I need the A bike, it would sure be nice if its handling didn't suck like it always has. Shortly after I got the W bike last season, I started trying to make the A bike handle like the W. Although some of the changes seemed to make a positive difference, the bikes still didn't feel the same and I had done my best to make them equal except for the valving in the forks. Both the W's and the A's forks were revalved by Lindemann, but at different times. And Jim Lindemann has told me that the valving they use for EX250 forks has changed over time, with a period in '95 or '96 when they set them up with too much rebound damping. The A bike's forks were done in '96, and even before learning this from Lindemann, I noticed near the end of last season that the damping in the A forks was considerably slower than the W's when I had the front ends of both bikes disassembled. I took the A bike's forks to Lindemann and asked if he could change the valving to match what was in the W bike. He didn't want to see inside the W bike's forks, claiming he knew what was needed. His shop re-revalved the A forks and got them done in time for me to have them on the A bike before Buttonwillow. I planned to try them out if I found time, but I was skeptical that I'd manage it. The schedule for the weekend at Buttonwillow had an all-day practice on Friday, a half-day practice Saturday morning (because the AFM's new rider school would be using the track in the afternoon), and 250 Production as the first race on Sunday, followed by 250 Superbike and 500 Twins later in the day. Friday Practice The pit setup was about the same as usual, with lots of familiar faces. One noticeable difference I'd been warned of, though: Darren Slawecki (#678), a fellow member of Team Iguana, was returning this year on an RS125, not on his VTR250, which I suppose he'll be putting back on the street or something now that he isn't going to race it any more. It won't be the same in 250 production without him, but at least he was kind enough to pit near us anyway, rather than deny us his company. Before lunch, I just rode around starting to try to feel a little warmed up from the off season. I got my first reality check when someone told me Chris McGrail had timed himself at a high 2:12 lap, which is over a full second faster than I had ever gone at Buttonwillow, and maybe half a second faster than Chris had gone there before. It was such a fast time for early in the first practice day that I thought it was a joke at first! But it wasn't a joke. It certainly indicated that Chris wasn't being sluggish about coming up to speed. After lunch, I started to work on my attitude. I tried to become less of a scenery-watcher, and more of an aggressive rider. The track management people split us into slow and fast sessions for the afternoon, but never made clear whether "slow" and "fast" referred to the bikes or to the riders, so it was basically chaos. All the 250 production riders seemed to feel we belonged in the slow group, so that's where I rode although it was tempting to switch due to the hairball moves and general incompetence I saw. John Rabasa (#789) had offered me a ride on his RS125, and after lunch I took him up on the offer during one of the fast sessions. He took the bike out to make sure it was running OK and at a reasonable temperature, and then he came in a stuck me on it. I rode around for only two laps before seeing the track surface before turns 3 strewn with plastic bits and Darren sitting out in the field looking conscious but quite unenthused about getting up. Ouch! They red-flagged the practice and that was the end of my first fling with a 125cc GP bike. We found out soon afterward that Darren had broken his collarbone, and on Saturday he told us that his throttle had stuck open and he braked too vigorously in response. What a nightmare! It made me think seriously about returning a stock two-cable twist grip to the W bike, in place of the aftermarket single-cable throttle grip it has. I took some time between sessions to swap in some shortened suspension linkage pieces that would raise my ride height in the rear. Although I wasn't dragging anything hard at Buttonwillow, tracks where I'm more confident have seen me dragging hard parts and wearing out toe sliders at an alarming rate, so I was hoping the bike could be raised without making it handle worse. As an added benefit, I had heard that raising the rear could be expected to make the bike handle better, not worse, so it seemed like an all-around win. When I rode the bike with the shortened linkage, I liked it as far as I could tell, although I knew I wasn't riding fast enough to say for sure. To go along with the change in rear ride height, I knew I ought to make a change in the front as well, and I remembered that Tom Dorsey had suggested something involving the figure 4mm as a starting point. Remembering that number, I set my fork tubes to protrude 4mm above the top triple clamp until he corrected me and said he had recommended raising the front end by 4mm, leaving 8mm of tube protruding. I fixed this, and I still liked the handling, and I still wasn't going fast. I was doing something in the low 2:15 range. I think Tom's best time at Buttonwillow on an EX250 was something like 2:09 or 2:10. My stopwatch's lap button has been getting less sensitive to my presses, and it's finally gotten bad enough that I didn't get any reliable lap times for the rest of Friday or Saturday's practice. I hooked up with Chris for a session on Friday afternoon, and learned that he was handling traffic better than I was. I was able to keep up, even to close the gap slightly on him when there was no traffic, but in traffic he pulled away. This was an attitude problem on my part: I was lollygagging and being tentative about passing people, while Chris just assumed he would make each pass, and confidently went for it. It seems to take me a while to get rid of the winter's cobwebs, and the fact that we were at Buttonwillow, the AFM track where I'm least confident, didn't make it easier. I think someone said they timed Chris and/or me in the 2:14's during that session. After the riding was done on Friday afternoon, I took a spare set of rims over to Terry at the Dunlop/Sport Tire Services truck and had him mount a new set of tires, figuring I might put them on the bike for the race on Sunday. There was some question about whether last year's 250 production class champion, Brian Bartlow, would ride in the 250 production race. He is campaigning a 600cc superbike this year, and had said he planned to spend his weekend focused on that bike. In Friday practice he had handling trouble with the 600, and it seemed it might take all his practice time for the weekend to get the problems straightened out. In any case, I didn't see him practice on his EX250 on Friday, and he said he was uncertain whether he would run the 250 production race Sunday. Last year when he concentrated on the 250 class, Brian was nearly unbeatable when his bike was working and he didn't crash. I was curious to see what difference a lack of practice might make in Brian's racing on the 250, but I was doubtful it would be enough of a difference for any of the rest of us to finish in front of him. At dinner Friday night, I talked with John Prelock (#357) about technique for the left-hand turn that leaves the bus stop and starts you toward the banked sweeper. John recommended not downshifting and not braking, but just rolling off a little. Even though I had followed Chris through there on Friday and not noticed anything unusual, John's description made it sound like he, Chris, and Nick were getting through that corner a lot faster than I was. John agreed to let me follow him through there in one of the Saturday morning sessions. Saturday Practice Nothing interesting happened in the first couple of sessions Saturday morning. At the start of the third session or so, I remembered that I was supposed to hook up with John for some lessons in the left-hander leaving the bus stop. The two of us left the pits together and I followed him around. When we came to that one turn on the first lap, we encountered traffic so I didn't get to see what John was doing. Shortly after that, Nick Tenbrink (#809) and Chris McGrail came past John and me, and I had a decision to make: Should I hang around with John and watch his line through the bus stop on the second lap, or should I go play with Nick and Chris while they were still in reach? I decided on the latter, since it had sounded in conversation the night before like Nick and Chris were doing the same thing as John in the turn I was curious about. I drove hard out of the last corner, passed John down the front straight, and took off after Chris and Nick. Chasing them down made me feel good about my ability to run with them; there was considerable traffic we had to deal with, but even without traffic it seemed like I wasn't losing ground to them. Nick was in front, and there was a bit of a gap back to Chris. Thanks to traffic, I was able to pass Chris and then Nick just before the session ended. That one session on Saturday probably had the most to do with restoring my racing attitude from the off season than any other during the weekend. I had finally begun to switch on. When I got ready to go out for Saturday's final practice session, I noticed my right muffler was hanging sort of low, and further inspection revealed that my muffler hanger had broken on that side. I missed the last practice session on Saturday hunting down parts to make a new muffler hanger. Big thanks to Don of Spanish Flats Racing who gave me some brass plumber's tape that did the job. After Saturday's practice I swapped rims for the ones that held the new tires I had bought on Friday. Again on Saturday, I didn't see Brian practice on his EX250. I heard someone say they had seen him practice on it, but I don't know. Lots of people in the class hung around Saturday afternoon doing dyno runs with their bikes. Paul Somerville won the award for most powerful motor (among the production 250's tested that day) as well as the award for putting his dyno runs to best use. He used three dyno runs at $20 apiece to confirm that his main jet size was correct. Having recently had the W bike on a dyno (with depressing news as a result), and having recently run out of money (again), I didn't want to spend the $20 to learn how numbers from the Dynojet dyno at the track compared to numbers from the Factory dyno that had been used to time my cams and jet my carbs. I offered to let the class take up a collection to put my bike on the dyno -- I would spring for the wear and tear on the motor if they would come up with the $20. There were no takers. :-) Sunday Practice Sunday morning, Brian told me he planned to run the 250 production race. When he said that, I figured the fastest of "the rest of us" would have to settle for second place. I went out for my practice session and noticed one thing right off the bat: At least one of the new tires I had mounted wasn't right. The bike felt fine straight upright, but as soon as I leaned it over significantly, it shook pretty violently. It didn't seem about to lose traction, but it still took away some confidence. As if the tires weren't enough of a problem, at the end of the session a noisy, power-robbing exhaust leak developed at the junction of my header pipes with the cylinder head. Once I pulled into the pits from that session, I became focused on getting my bike working again as quickly as possible. I discovered that the header's retaining flange for one port had broken off entirely, and the flange for the other port was on its way south, too. This was probably because of time spent riding on Saturday with a broken muffler hanger. The header just isn't designed to take the weight of an unsupported muffler bouncing up and down. So I had to swap the header from the A bike onto the W, which was accomplished with a good deal of help from Nick and Paul. Also with Nick and Paul's help, I got the wheels off the bike and took them one by one to Terry Newby of Sport Tire Services, the Dunlop distributor at the track. He spun the front tire and cheerfully replaced it after seeing that it was noticeably out of true. The rear was out of true and out of round, too, but Terry was out of replacement rear tires and he said the shaking problem was much more likely to stem from the front anyway. I wasn't happy about having no opportunity before my race to make sure the front had been the problem, but there was nothing else I could do. Our race was the first one of the day, so I couldn't even piggyback on another class's warm-up lap. Terry was excellent about it; I think he would have changed the rear tire, too, except that he simply didn't have any. Nick and Paul helped again when the time came to put the rims back on the bike. Both of them were great; without them I might not have made the race. Several other people offered help, too. Thanks to everyone for going out of your way to get me up and running again! Sunday Race Soon enough, it was time for the riders' meeting, warm-up lap, and the 250 production race. The day took a decent turn after the riders' meeting when the strains of Jimi's version (wasn't it? I listened to the wrong music as a child) of the Star Spangled Banner floated dreamily across the pits. At least if we're going to be forced into fits of nationalistic herd-following, we can do it to the sound of an icon of irreverence. The warm-up lap was eventful: In an attempt to get ahead to a clear track, Chris lost the front end in turn 2, which unfortunately precipitated a vintage rider's hitting his bike and getting transported. Hopefully she's OK. The transport engendered a wait on the grid, and the field got to see Steve Demopoulos (#955) spring into emergency pee-pee action right by the pit wall. A man's got to do what a man's got to do. I thought I could see Barbara madly leafing through the rule book trying to find the section about urination on the track surface or in a direct impact area, to see whether such an occurrence required a standing or waving yellow (definitely yellow) flag. Eventually the fallen rider was scraped up and Steve was down to racing weight. We had sat still long enough that we were issued another warm-up lap. With Chris missing due to bike damage from his warm-up lap crash, only three of us were left on the front row: Brian Bartlow, Frank Mazur, and me. When the flag flew I got a decent start, but not good enough to avoid being third into turn 1. At least no one from the rows behind managed to get ahead of me. Bartlow led, with Mazur right on his tail. I made up some distance in turn 2, and the three of us took the straight to turn 3 in a tight pack. By the time we were into turn 3, I had learned in no uncertain terms that my tire problem persisted. The bike was still shaking when leaned over just as it had done in practice. It seemed to get decent traction still, but the shaking definitely put a little damper on my riding confidence. Nothing interesting happened until the end of the first lap when Frank ran off into the dirt, tricked by the strange shape of the final turn onto the front straight. That's the same turn where I crashed out of the first race last year, earning myself a modified pinky finger, a trip to the ER, and a bottle of vicodin I still haven't managed to finish. As Frank was gathering himself up in the dirt to re-enter the track, I passed him and wondered whether he would muster a run back up to the front pack. Putting that concern aside, I carried on trying to stay with Brian, and looking for passing opportunities. I was faster than him in a few places, slower in a few, and inconsistent in several. He was better than I was at managing traffic, and every time we came upon a backmarker (which started to happen around the second lap!), he would open a little gap. I was always able to close the gap back up, but I wasn't able to pass Brian. I learned a few things from Brian by riding behind him. The main one was that my line at the entrance to the Arc isn't very good. He uses a line that's both faster and more defensive than mine, by cutting to the inside very early, drifting wide in the middle of the turn, and squaring off the end. I square off the end in the same way, and in fact my exit speed was consistently better than his. But I needed the advantage in exit speed to make up the distance I lost on the entrance. I think the right line for that corner combines ingredients of his and mine both; there's no reason why his excellent entrance technique couldn't work perfectly well with my exit. On the third lap or so, who should I see come alongside as I enter turn 1 but my good friend Nick! I realized then that I'd better stick close to Brian and even try to get by him. Nick didn't manage to get by then and I didn't see him again for the rest of the race, but now I knew he was there. I showed Brian a wheel at one point entering the Arc, but his superior speed there made quick work of my passing attempt. I don't have a lot of passing confidence at Buttonwillow, and I was further intimidated just by the knowledge of who I was up against. I never expected to stick with Brian Bartlow, and I think I may have psyched myself out of being able to pass him. In the last corner of the last lap of the race, I finally handled a quantum of traffic better than Brian. I was sure it was too little too late, but as we came on this very slow vintage bike, I guessed I should exit the corner inside the monument, while Brian exited to the outside. Just as I thought might happen, the monument wobbled all the way to the edge of the track, forcing Brian into the dirt for a few feet, and hurting his drive. By the time we got to the starter's tower, I had pulled nearly even with Brian, but it looked like he was still ahead as the race ended. Second place! Another trophy or plaque for my collection of Garish Plastic Things! I was thrilled that only one of the five or six people I had felt might beat me had actually done it, and him only by a couple of inches. It turned out I was wrong, though: When the results were posted, they listed me as the winner of the race, and when I questioned the scorers they were confident in their judgment. Neither Brian nor I knew with confidence who was ahead when we crossed the line because we had been looking at each other, not at the track surface, so we had to trust the scorers. After spending nearly an hour celebrating a second-place finish, I learned I had won! I feel mixed about the win because I got there by means other than showing superior riding skill. If Brian hadn't messed up the pass on that vintage bike, if Chris hadn't crashed, if Frank hadn't run off, if Brian had gotten any practice on his 250, if, if, if... All that stuff is part of racing; I dealt with some adversity, too (the paint-mixer rear tire, for one thing) and I do feel like the plaque is justly mine. But the lap times I turned were relatively slow compared to winning times from years past: my best lap was timed at a (low?) 2:12, and I think 2:09 or 2:10 has been a more typical 250 production victory pace in the past. So there is much more to do: It would sure be neat to follow up this win sometime with a win that I earn by turning consistently fast times. That might be too greedy, though. Others are riding really well, and if things had been even a little different, I wouldn't even have made the podium. It's an exciting way for me to begin the season; I hope I can continue to finish well -- wish me luck! I never did find time to try out the A bike and get a feel for the new valving in its forks. That will have to wait until Sears Point in April, I guess. Big thanks to Redwood City Honda, Spanish Flats Racing, Paul Somerville, and Nick Tenbrink for their help in getting my bike ready. Thanks to the whole 250 production class for a fun, safe race. Last but not least, best wishes to Darren for a speedy collarbone recovery! -- Robert