VIR oddity's in the pits.

[Huey130]

Howdy,
I work for some racers in WERA and AMA and had some odd stuff happen at VIR this last weekend and wanted to see if anyone had any similar stories.

First and foremost I ain't pointing fingers at anyone. I've been in the WERA pits for over a dozen years, helping people and getting helped. I've been to almost every track in the East at one time or another and a lot in the US... This is NOT about the org's nor the facility... Just a fact finiding mission to see if I can find some similarities of "you know that did happen to me also" stories and possibly get to the bottom of this mystery.

My GF's bike was messed with Thursday night. She ran practice all day Thursday with no issues. Thursday afternoon she took her belly pan off, cleaned her bike from stem to stern and r-safetywired a few things. She reinstalled her bodywork, lowered her canopy down over her bike and went into the camper for the night.

Next morning she went out for practice and was really proud of herself for how well she was spinning the rear coming out of turns. "Wait a minute" she thought. "I don't know how to spin the rear out of turns yet!" She went in and found oil on her rear tire, boot, and exhaust... All coming from a missing bolt on her clutch cover. But wait! Sure no ones perfect but we've never had that clutch cover off and I swear to Foggy I've checked those bolts on at least two occasions. Plus it gets weirder!

Turns out upon closer inspection ALL but one of the 8mm headed bolts had been backed out enough to see under the shoulder (maybe 3 turns at least)!!!  She has a Yosh cover / protector on her case cover. It takes the place of three of the 8mm headed bolts. All three of those bolts were still tight. So in total NINE bolts had been loosened!

Since I've made the announcement on WERA (with a reward, more on that in a moment) I've recieved emails about loose covers, fork caps loosened, brake pad pins removed and amazingly a trailer hitch ball loosened! The guy with the trailer hitch had it YEARS on the same truck towed to every race with no issue and then it simply falls off?!?!?

So, anyone have anything unexplained that they thought was unrelated but now you may be thinking "heyyyy that sounds just like what happened..."?  And if anyone can give me information that leads me directly to the person responsible that person gets parts for their bikes at cost for life from my shop: Marietta Motorsports!

THere's bad / crazy people everywhere so please don't go pointing fingers at organizations or facilities... lets all point them at who tried to kill my girlfriend when we find them!

Thanks for listening.

[spyderchick]

Hi Huey, welcome to our little neck of the interwebs. I read your story earlier in the week and was not terribly surprised, unfortunately. I have a friend have a similar thing happen. He regularly attends trackdays, former racer, also a talented wrench for a few teams. He was doing a trackday and his bike was literally trying to kill him. When he checked the settings on the bike, everything was wonky. Nothing was balanced out, stuff was at one end of the setting or the other, not as it had been set up and logged. So someone apparently went and turned a few clicks here on the shock and set the forks to lift off or something. Fortunately my friend realized early on that things were awry and got the settings close to where they should have been so he was able to salvage the day.  A less talented rider would have certainly been unable to ride, and perhaps seriously injured.

I hope they catch whoever screwed with your GFs bike, but scum like this skulk about in the night exactly because they know they probably won't get caught. My theory is it's someone with sour grapes. I've heard various stories like this over the years. It's usually someone who has a good program going, a good season with a championship in their sights, someone with a little higher profile getting a bit of attention.

Thing is, if these douchebags would just concentrate on their own program, riding skills and people skills, they could make a splash as well. Like I said, I hope you find out who the perp is and let the rest of the racing community stand judgement. They certainly won't last too long, no matter what organization they come from.

[Woofentino Pugrossi]

Hope ya find out Craig. Sadly this kind of thing goes on in all racing.  Like what Alexa said, mostly its the asshats who couldnt beat anyone on the track and have a bad ego problem with it.

Bit OT, miss seeing ya around Cycleforums.

[tug296]

I think the woman that owns VIR has, "aledgedly" a bitter chew after the AMA squable, probably thousands of complaints aimed at her and the facility from motorcycle road race fans from all over the country, whether warranted or not.
I don't think she and her "people" would have an "aledged" grudge against the motorcycle racing communtity, I certainly wouldn't say that she or her people would get a message out to a couple of local "knowedgeable cretons", that maybe if favors were maybe done in the dark, to maybe some competitors, and maybe nothing was said to connect anyone affiliated with anybody near and dear to the facility etc.
Anyone that would do anything to put a rider at risk like this, hopefully will be caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law, and then slapped around some before going to the jail house, aledgedly.

[truckstop]

IIRC there have been issues with theft and whatnot at VIR since before the AMA kerfluffle.

Nevermind. I did not recall correctly. The issue was at Road Atlanta.

[Rick Johnson 29]

I was at VIR a few weeks ago at the Wera National. It mad me pretty angry that someone would touch another persons bike and put their life on the line. This is just unacceptable in any form of racing. I'm really glad your wife made it back in uninjured. I not trying to say something like this happens with one org. more then the other but a friend of mine had his clickers on his suspension changed at a Wera event at R. Atl. last June. Since this incident my friend always locks his bike back in his trailer before going to sleep. I hope you find out who did this so you can find out why the hell the turd would do such a thing. Good luck in your search.

[jigs]

Sad commentary...paranoia becomes rampant,can't walk around at night and look at cool race bikes if they're all tucked away...I've heard of clickers changed,tools and stuff missing,sometimes we can mis-place stuff,and after hearing of tampering and or theft,we're sure it's stolen,then you find it somewhere you thought you'd never put it back,to think that someone would do something to render a bike un-safe is unspeakable....even theft makes you nuts....we trust everyone at the track...it's the one place that trust is still high..and when something happens like that,and let's face it,it is the exception,it does suck.

Here's what happened to us,and this illustrates how improtant trust is at the track.We actually were on the other end one time getting accused of stealing....our mechanic,granted it was dark and late night,on the way out of the track,and honestly,a little drunk (no excuse) saw two old ass Dunlop spec GPA's alying on the ground at the edge of the pits...he did not see the "for sale" sign,that the next day was found under a truck,so it wasn't visible or on top of the tires,so he thought they were being disguarded,and though he could use them for a track day because they weren't completley shot,but well worn...he's at best an "I" rider,good mechanic though,but doesn't need 'the good stuff".Our team,all white plate and well performing yellow plate riders,all with good pace,use N-tecs and that's it,and have piles of good N-tec take offs,alot with 1 to 2 days on them.At any rate,he picked them up,threw them in the back of our pick up,which was parked right next to the guy the we later found out was trying to sell them.Now if he really tried steling the tires,wouldn't have gotten rid of the for sale sign AND hide the tires?? Well anyway,it was still a mistake,you shouldn't touch anything that's not yours until you find out the scoop,that's common principal,but the reason I'm passing this along is the feeling of theft,and being on the othere end where you're labled is down right stomach turning.

So we come to the track the next day,and about 10 am the guy came around and asked if we saw them,the mechanic was not there at that moment,and we said,no,we have pleny of tires,he said,well you guys are the only guys on Dunlops around here.....next thing you know (by the way,this is over 60 bucks is what he wanted for them)he finds them in the pick up bed right in the open,and needless to say has a fit.Don't blame him if he thinks someone actually stole them,the sold tag that was taped on fell off in the heat,it was night,and I've known this kid for 5 years,and like anyone on our team,wouldn't steal anything.Especially at the track!!  Anyway,the man came back to the pits again to tell us about his findings,asked the mechanic and the mechanic said,yeah,I took em',I didn't think you wanted the any more...well the shit hit the fan.I've ridden, as we all have with this orginization for years,been a vendor for them,great relationship,and thank God for that,but at the same time,we were tarnished,I felt it...It's rotten feeling,they kicked him out,ruined the weekend for sure,and I felt really bad for weeks after that.Over a little thing,your whole team can get brought right down,and send shock waves through the pits...I did not want to be part of that but found myself in the middle...please everyone,if you borrow something...get it back,if you need something from even someone you know,don't take it if they're not around,if you forget to bring it back till' tomorrow,on the heels of shit like this,they will feel violated.And for Gods sake,use the age old pricipal that say's,  IF IT AINT' YOURS,DON'T TOUCH IT!! Things are crazy out there,and the very place I come to get away from scum-bags,politics,theifs,low-minded people all around,something happens like a theft or tampering it's much bigger than the outside world and I think we can all agree on that.