The trip down to Thunderhill was actually less tiresome then normal. I have often driven 13hrs straight (solo) to Willows, CA - this was once aided by a few bottles of 5hr Energy in the past, but we cannot ever do that again since it caused me to hallucinate! For this trip, I decided to split it up into two 6-7 hour stents which saved my body and my sanity.
After spending the evening catching up with the rest of the WMRRA crew at a local Mexican restaurant in town, we all scurried off to bed. The next morning, the weather initially looked a bit worrisome. We were concerned that we would end up with "in between" conditions, which was too dry for rain tires but too wet for DOT race tires or slicks. I decided to tech both of my bikes. The GSXR was set up for full-on rain conditions with rain tires and the appropriate suspension settings. The R6 would be run if the track was mostly dry. Everyone kept asking about the GSXR since a lot of folks down in California do NOT ride or race in the rain. I told all of them that I brought the bike to ward off the evil rain gods. Thus, I was doing all of them a favor! This strategy actually worked out in the end because the track remained dry for the entire day.
Before I went out, I played musical visors since the sky kept changing from cloudy to partially sunny and back again. Unfortunately, my eyes don't seem to adjust well to varying light conditions. For the first session, I scrambled to put the clear visor back on. Usually, I jimmy rig some duct tape to my helmet to keep the visor cracked open. With damp and cool conditions, moisture builds up on the inside when it's closed. I ran out of time to get this set up before I took off, so I spent the first session cracking the visor open down the front and back stretch, to only have it fog up again in the corners. Thus, we could not see! I pulled back into the pits after two laps of this nonsense.
For the second session out, I was able to circulate for the full 20 minutes. The track surface was still a bit "green" and cold, so finding decent grip and stability on the brakes was challenging. The tires were moving around quite a bit, so I chose to take it easy and just get used to where the track goes again. I've been to Thunderhill a handful of times in the past four years or so, and I'd love to run here more often. When I came back into the pits, I happened to notice that the left side of the tire was already showing a significant amount of cold tearing. After discussing the issue with Dave Moss of Catalyst Reaction Suspension, I added two pounds of air to the rear tire and took off for one more session. Though this didn't clean up the tire much initially, the grip seemed to improve somewhat. At lunch time, I pulled the rear wheel and sent it over to the trackside Dunlop vendors to have them flip the tire around in attempts to salvage what I could of life left in it. As usual, the Pirelli DOT race front tire was rock solid, with no noticeable grip issues. I had started out the day with 30 laps already run on these tires from Fontana.
During the lunch break, it was time to begin testing some new fuel. Though RTech ProV1 has been suggested as the best fuel for the R6, I opted to try VP's MR9 since it also works well with these bikes, and it is cheaper. The Bazzaz Fuel Mapping system allows for you to make trackside changes to your current fuel map. In a way, it saves time and money spent on the dyno. The downside is that YOU have to spend the time tweaking the fuel map, and you have to know what you are doing - which I didn't this time last year at Thunderhill. There is the potential to either make the bike run horrible and/or blow up the motor! Throughout last season though, I've learned a few things about this system from Dave Alexander or Fluid Suspension Science and John Friesen, who is one of my teammates. Since MR9 is an oxygenated fuel, I decided to adjust the baseline map by adding 3% more fuel across the board. You can do this by applying the change from the "Fuel Trim" option. My reasoning for adding fuel was that it is safer to start out with the bike running a bit too rich, than too lean.
On the first session out after lunch, the bike felt okay. However, I really couldn't get on the throttle that hard because the rear tire felt like it would simply spin up in response. You could almost hear it do so on the gas out of the high speed corners and over the elevation changes.
I was fortunate enough to be entertained by one the local "hot shoes" circulating around the track on a Suzuki GSXR1000 while giving two-up rides. For the first few laps, I had a good time playing with another rider on a Yamaha R1. Eventually, we were passed down the back stretch by the rolling two-up circus, to only watch him pull a massive stoppie into the last hard braking corner - and land it sideways! I couldn't stop laughing after he then wheelied halfway down the front stretch. Instead of continuing the cat and mouse game with the the follow on the R1, I decided to stay with the guy running two-up just for amuzement!
Once back in the pits, I reviewed the suggested changes from the Bazzaz system. Actually, it wanted me to now lean out the bike by about 3% in the upper RPM range. After making some changes, I took off again to see what would happen. It was still a bit difficult to really get on the gas hard due to the rear tire not cooperating. I attempted to adjust for this by leaning the bike over less and hanging off of it more coming out of the corners and on the gas. One of my bad habits is to run a tight and unintentionally defensive line when I'm not terribly comfortable with a track. This caused the bike to be on the side of its tires for a longer period of time in the corners, which didn't help my situation. Near the end of the session, the bike started to noticeably drift wide coming into the corners, and not hold its line - I almost didn't make a few of them! The rear tire was done. I decided to not take any more chances and call it a day.
After talking to Dave Moss and Barry Russell, I learned that the Pirelli SC1s are not recommended for this track - the surface just chews them up too quickly because the compound is too soft. What would have worked are the SC3s - mental note for the future. Dave Moss also informed me of some exciting news about the new Pirelli DOT race tires for 2010. We will be getting the tires developed from the World Superbike series. These have been tested and proven to last much longer.
As far as the fuel mapping for the VP MR9 is concerned, I will have to continue the process at the next testing session at Pacific Raceways in March. There were a few flat spots noted on acceleration during the final session of the day, but we should be able to improve the map before the first race weekend.
I'd like to thank Dave Moss and Barry Russell for their advice on the Pirelli tires - we at least got five sessions out of them.
Furthermore, I'd like to thank Tim, Chris, and the rest of the WMRRA folks for the help in the pits and the good company throughout the weekend! Finally, I'd like to thank Dito Milan of GotBlueMilk.com photography. He took some fantastic pics for everyone during the day!
We are all looking forward to the 2-Fast Trackday in March. The Pacific Northwest race season is almost upon us! See ya at the track!