Safety First Racing Update!

[Thingy]

Hey all-

Last night was a long flight.  We did not get to the hotel until almost 5 AM.  (not worth commenting on that story)  Needless to say, 6:30 came early!

There was only one Superbike practice scheduled this morning before qualifying this afternoon.  Knuppy and Hanson definitely had a steep learning curve!  Luckily, they got a Formula Extreme practice as well before SB Qualifying.  

They boys LOVE the track and there is no way that you can appreciate the elevation changes when looking at it on TV.  Good news: :D Knuppy qualified in the last position (44th).  Bad news: :( Hanson was 45th and did not qualify, even though he was within the 112%  The drama was pretty tense...

Hanson dropped 6/10ths on his last lap (following Haskovec) with about two minutes to go to take 44th position 1:34.889.  (He was in 46th)  Knuppy came in with 4 min. left in 47th and said he was done.  Super Dave and I made him go back out.  As Hanson is parking it on hot pit lane all excited, Knuppy drops 8/10ths on his last lap with less than a minute of qualifying left to bump Hanson with a 1:34.848!

Both boys qualified for Formula Extreme.  Something Like 26th and 30th.  More Later...

[Super Dave]

Yup, I beat them to death.  Knuppy's last lap dash was pretty good.  With about three minutes to go in the session, only one round of qualifying, period, Kevin was 44th, last spot on the grid.  Knuppy came out of eleven wheeling hard through three gears.  He got the time he needed.

They were pretty much shot for FX qualifying, but they were within a half second of their Superbike times, so I was happy.

[SliderPhoto]

Very cool! Where's the pics?  :P

[EX#996]

Thanks for the updates guys!  Keep them comming.

We wish you guys the best out there and GOOD LUCK!

Dawn   :)

[KBOlsen]

WOOHOO!!  Keep it up, guys... we're so proud!!

[mdr14]

Carol (mom) and myself are heading out to Laguna seca soon with our digital camera,
We will snap some pics and see if we can figure out how to post them.

[SliderPhoto]

Carol (mom) and myself are heading out to Laguna seca soon with our digital camera,
We will snap some pics and see if we can figure out how to post them.

You can always e-mail them to me and I'll put them up.

[diesel748]

best of luck Kevin. I'm sure all of us MW guys & gals will be pull'n for you this weekend!

[Super Dave]

Ah, the fun...

So, first, in Superbike practice yesterday, Jason comes in.  We decide that the trans is bad.  We make the decision to swap motors...take a stock motor of this back up bike and put it in his chassis.  So, there we are tearing everything apart.  I'm going down to help Kevin with his practice session for Formula Extreme.  Well, he stops coming around.

I find out that he's down.  So, I head back to our pit.  I get there, and the rear of the bike looks low.  I think to myself, he broke the rear subframe when he crashed.  I look a bit closer...the whole rear frame section below the swingarm pivot has broken in half.  I surmise that the frame broke on him going into turn four and then he fell.

So, now we have to take his motor out of his chassis, and throw it in the frame being vacated...then gamble on the chassis set up.

Jason does the Superbike race while this is all going on.  Finished, that's what I wanted.  Lots of crashes...keep out of trouble.  Jason does his fastest lap time too.  Oh, and for some reason, his 1000 is making like NO HP...Still don't have that figured out.

FX...Got more HP out of Jason's bike by wiring out the secondary butterfly on the FI unit.  Kevin's bike rolls off ready to go with minutes to spare.  Start...pile up in turn eleven on the first lap, and Jason gets taken out...broken collar bone...bike was fine.  Kevin does alright considering that he was beaten, bike wasn't right, etc...

Fun and games...!

[EX#996]

Thanks for the update, Dave.....

I was really hoping for a much better weekend for you all.   :-[

Dawn   :(

[Super Dave]

It was still good.

You travel a long way to a track that the guys don't know.  I have to prep them to figure out how the track flows, get them up to speed, figure out the gearing and suspension, and then get them to ride like they do at a track that they recognize.  

It's a huge learning curve.  And if you ain't having fun, even when it isn't, you shouldn't be doing it.  They've been very good about keeping their chins up...

We went to Cannery Row Saturday night.  Was fun...

[K3 Chris Onwiler]

It was still good.

 And if you ain't having fun, even when it isn't, you shouldn't be doing it.  

Story of my year...