Jason Farrell Sprints to the Finish....

[russ1962]

At the end of the Supertsport ASRA race, with Jason running in 5th place, he ran out of gas.   The bike was running short of gas for the previous two laps (red fag and additional cool-down/warm up laps), and he was squeezing every drop out of it by coasting into turn one, through the chicane, and the dogleg.  Not a smart thing to do while still pushing sub-1:58's.

The bike went dry on the white flag, Jason still holding down 5th place, and he coasted to a crawl about 100+ yards from the finish line.  He hoped off the bike, just about at PIT ROAD ENTRANCE, and literally ran the bike the entire way to the finish line, with bikes still racing to the stripe. 

He crossed the line in 9th place, and ended up in 8th after someone mysteriously didn't pass the Dyno. 

After he crossed the finish line, Jason tossed the bike to the ground, and collapsed.  Everyone at S/F ran to his aid and helped him recover from heat exhaustion.  A little time in the air-conditioned ambulance and he was his usual self, re-telling the story to anyone and everyone who would listen.

In our Moto-ST effort, we dropped out with a bad head gasket, which was bad from the beginning.  On Friday we ran 3rd in class, while the bike was overheating badly.  Thinking it was low water...  we filled it up and felt relieved that we couldn't find any other cause.  On Saturday, after the first 5-6 laps, it got much worse, so we limped along all day, refilling it with new juice after about 8-10 laps.  We threw in the towel after 57 laps.  Disappointing.

Gotta say that Moto-ST is probably the most professional, potential, and exciting race organization I've seen in all my history in this sport.  I'll be putting a lot more energy into this next season.

[unter_kid]

Hey J- Maybe we should start doing some cardio and not all those push-ups

[weggieman]

That's heart! Good job Jason.

Sorry to hear about the head gasket problems. Long way to go for a short time on the track. That sucks.

[StumpysWife]

I was wondering what happened to you guys in Moto-ST.  I had on the live timing and scoring at the end after my girl hit the hay.

Well done, anyway.  And way to bring it home Jason!!!

Heather

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

  Damn it not enough fuel!!! I remember just before the race when we fueled up I put just a little less in the tank since we had plenty left after the Superbike race. I was trying to get everything I had to run with the front guys. Then the red flag occured and we just didn't think to add fuel. We took an extra 3 laps so that would have been perfect without the red flag. Talk about a new meaning to Sprint Racing!!
I wonder how Greenwood is doing after that crash. He tucked the front in front of me and his bike hit the air fence before him and lifted the fence up. He slid right underneath it and hit the haybales pretty good. That brought out the red flag.
I also lost my right side knee puck in the chicane right after Greenwood crashed. The red flag came out and I didn't have to put the knee down till after the restart so I never noticed it missing. So on the warm up lap I finally realized it and had to change up my riding style a bit. My right knee is telling me right now that I abused it when the puck flew off!!
I was hanging with the front pack for a few laps and let me tell you this my first REAL Daytona experience ( I don't count the Safety First Bike since it was so slow). Passing under the brakes into turn one and catching May & Barnes was pretty fun. I notice I have very good front braking control. Where I lacked was on a little acceleration. I think if I actually raced more than 4 times per year I would be able to finesse it. Plus the track wasn't allowing VP to be sold there and I didn't bring any with. The fuel was worth another 8 HP. I was running on pump fuel all weekend. Good ol' 93 octane Shell fuel. They had me on the straights a bit but if I was in the draft I could hang. My bike back at home had 120 HP on pump fuel so we had to detune the bike for the sportbike race! So we ran it rich up top and I probably sucked up more fuel than needed so that was another reason for running out of fuel so early. The rear shock was losing it's rebound damping as I was riding a crazy bucking bike all the way around the banking. I was actually going to pull out of the race cause it was getting dangerous. I figured out how to make it go away a little bit. Get your ass off the seat and put your weight on the footpegs and use your legs for suspension to dampen the rebounding effect.  A couple times I still thought I was going into the east wall on the front straight. Man that was hard on the legs.
I was praying on the banking every lap that the fuel light came on. I was hoping I would see the white flag but I had to make 4 laps with the light on before I saw the white flag. One the last lap I got up on the west banking and the bike sputtered in 6th gear going about 150mph. I pulled in the clutch, shut the bike off and coasted all the way down the back straight. I don't think I ever went through the chicane so fast before. I almost lost the front going in and barely made it out!! I was trying to keep the momentum rolling. I fired it back up and had about 3 or 4 more second of it running to gain a bit of speed again. I reached about 120mph. Then the coast down was fun. I was humping the bike trying to exert some energy into the momentum of the bike. I made it to about 18 mph about 100 -150 yard from the finish. I hopped off and started running my ass off!! I heard a few bikes go by and I honest didn't think I would make it to the flag. Finally after not giving up I made it and literally as soon as I got across the line I threw the bike down on the infield grass & I just hit the ground. That was my hardest effort to finish ever! I want to thank everyone at the scoring stand for helping me cool off right away.

It was unfortunate that I crashed in the superbike race while battling with Chris Ulrich for 4th but I remounted to finish 8th. I lost the front when the engine cover hit the ground in turn 6 just before heading up to the banking. (Damn engine cover!! , can't wait to ride the 2007 with the new engine placement!! :thumb:That was like my 6th or 7th left side engine cover ZX6R crash in my career!) That was one of my easiest crashes ever!! The bike slid for about 60ft and I picked it back up while the corner worker was pulling the grass off the bodywork.  That was a wild feeling, going 160mph or more just after crashing hoping the bike would stay together on the banking. I got back to the pits after the race and all that was wrong was a dzus fastener was broke.

I had one of the longest weeks of my life down there. I will write a book on it and post it later. I gotta write some of this stuff down!!
I wan't to thank my special sponsors for this weekend: Russ Intravartolo from Voice Eclipse for the Moto-St ride. Batteries Plus with their Xtreme Batteries sponsorship. I look forward to next season! All my guys who came down and made this week happen; Crew Chief: Mike Krause / Pit Crew: Sven Bugge , Mellisa Appel, Allen Feddersen, Brian Frank, Chris Elliot, Natallie / Conditioning Coach: Cristine /  Everyone else who helped along the way / Special thanks to Jimmy Sanders for letting us use his brand new Dodge Big Horn 1500 to pull our stuff down there. He gave it to me with only 3800 miles on it! I has 6800 on it now! (Don't worry I didn't highside the truck yet Jimmy!) / I'd also like to thank Larry for letting us use his scooter for and emergency fuel run during the Superbike race.

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

I believe we were cranking some 52's and 53's during the Superbike and Sportbike races.

I left Daytona Sunday Night at 8:30pm and it was 82 degrees. I got home at 7:30pm and it was 32 degrees!! Yikes.

So it took about 22 hours for the trip. We stopped for a 2 hour nap after I was seeing cross eyed through the mountains in Kentucky. 

Averaged exactly 8.0 miles to the gallon on the whole trip. Total mileage was 2987 for the whole trip.
Thats 373 gallons of traveling fuel multiplied by an average of 2.25 per gallon. That comes out to be $839.25 !! There goes the stripper money we were going to use in daytona! 
Thanks to the high gas prices some strippers are going home with less money in their breast!  That's a new way to complain about the gas prices.

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

One last thing before I go back to work today! I just reminded myself that I am now up to 57 roadrace crashes in 12 years!! Keep em coming!  Next year will be lucky number 13 years! Can't wait to see what that brings!

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

Ok, one more thing. MY 2005 ZX6R is for sale starting right......................... NOW!!!
It will be on the classifieds later today. I have to gather all the info on it. It will be at a very reasonable price.
Call me if you want (920) 216-0780.

[Jeff]

Congrats to you Jason for hanging in there and finishing the race.  Good write up.

[G 97]

Way to go   

git yur chit redi 4 BARBER.  That is all.

Oh yeah, Blondies this Thursday.

[J Farrell / Speed Tech Motorsp]

Game on Garth!!
Time for some good ol' laughs and bench racing
That's as long as I stay off the Kareokee floor. You guys will have to whip me if I take over the stage!
Barber sounds good as long as I still have the bike! .
All I'm thinking is oh no! Not another road trip!!!!
But damn is Barber going to be nice!!

I'll round up the boys for some Thursday Night Fun!!

[motobenco]

See, the Kawasaki(s) do have enough legs to finish the race. Nice job Jason, I would have just tossed the transponder across the start / finish line though.