Bad Cat Racing

Mr. Bill has a cool video on his website of him chasing Wade Boyd and Christine w/Subculutre Racing around Barber Motorsports for a couple laps.  What a beautiful track.  Frank and Dennis w/Excalibur are in there towards the end as they motor on by on the LCR.

Lots of cool stuff this week.

First off, I’d like to welcome Eastwood Co. to our Sponsorship lineup. Eastwood makes all kinds of great Automotive products and tools. Boy Wonder blows a small fortune on their products, so sponsorship will help a great deal.

They were nice enough to send us a box of powdercoating supplies, swivel hooks, C wire hangers, and misc powders that we will use writing up the restoration process of the trailer we use to haul the CSR and associated gear. Mike is well under way with this already. Thanks Eastwood!!!

This keeps Mike in the garage and busy, aka… out of the house making a mess. Thanks Eastwood!

Next our best friend Fred at Yoyodyne Titanium sent us two great products.

First a adjustable cam quick turn racing throttle assembly. And second a Engear Digital Gear Indicator with Shift light. These two products rule. I have had a big problem holding WFO in right hand turns, and blipping the throttle for downshifts with the stock CBR1000RR throttle assembly due to the amount of ’turn’ the stock throttle requires to go from 0 ~ 100% Sometimes I have to re-grip to get 100% throttle and be able to control the 8 inch wide Yokohama front slick on the CSR at the same time. This throttle assembly will really help. The gear indicator with shift light is going to be great as well. It’l help me get my gearing down around the track faster, and it has a built in shift light. Mike is fiberglassing up a custom streamlined pod for it to mount in that will be right in my line of sight up on the nosecone.

Thanks Fred! You Rock!

Last but of course not least Teri over at Scorpion USA sent us the coolest thing ever.

First for my helmet she sent me a smoked EXO-700 visor and a lepoard print KwikWick helmet liner. Mike opted for a desert camo KwikWick helmet liner and a mirrored EXO-700 visor for more of the Daft Punk look. Dig it. No more helmet confusion in the pits before going out on the track.

I love these helmets! Thanks Teri!!!

~Sarah

Oh, and PS… they gave out the 2007 medals last weekend =D =D =D

Sarah and I loaded up the Outback for the last time for the first race of the season. The ScoobyDoo which has served us well the last 1.5 seasons would be retired this year to be replaced by a much more powerful 2008 Rav4/v6 Sport capable of pulling a big enclosed trailer without breaking as sweat. 145 horsepower vs 279 horsepower. Not that the ScoobyDoo wouldn’t try, I’d just feel horrible making a vehicle that has served me so faithfully and flawlessly the last decade work so hard in the latter years of it’s life.

Down in Bakersfield we ran into a tiny fan. A local Supermoto king in his own field who was heading North with his Dad to find worthy competition, having stomped every kid in his region down South.

Arriving in Rosamond we found things cold as hell. Practice was done in the low 50’s with snow very visible at low altitudes on the surrounding mountains. Winds were gusty during practice, blasting up to 40/50 at times, and Friday night there were 90mph gusts. When people were not practicing or tuning, they were huddled in RV’s around heaters. It was cold.

Saturday practice went off without a hitch. Sarah and I were able to blow most the rust out, her remembering her lines and markers. Me remembering my timing and transition points, and getting used to the new bodywork and handholds. The new brakes/pads and new Yokohama tires cut in perfectly, and by the end of the day we were able to actually get up to about 75% race pace and work on some consistency.

Sunday was another freezing morning. Dark clouds off to the South threatened rain, but the track remained dry. We got the rig uncovered and rolled through tech with no issues.

We clicked off two fast morning practice sessions to scrub in the tires and work out last minute bugs, then it was the hurry up and wait game as they prepared to call race 11, our race.

I actually started to get butterflies. A first for me, I’d never got nervous before a race. But Sarah has drastically improved since the last time we were out on the Big Track, and our morning practice sessions we ran at around 85/90% and she was fast. Sliding into corners, drifting wide on the power, lighting up the rear over the top of the Omega. To the point that I knew I was going to be working to keep up with her, to keep the CSR planted. I was actually nervous.

They finally called our race, and it was suit up and shut up. We lined up on the grid, and the announcer immediately started talking smack about me being on the back and Sarah driving. “You’re a better man than I.” I believe was the comment.

We rolled out for the warmup lap, and then gridded up.

I was over the back tire, we were slightly behind mid pack, left of center with Roy to our right, Sean behind us, and Bill in front of us. The 1 board went sideways, and the green flag was dropped.

Sarah pegged the throttle and dumped the clutch, we got a beautiful launch and with me over the back wheel it wasn’t going anywhere but forward. We were all packed up nose to tail WFO right into turn one three wide. We got the inside line with Roy and Sean slipping by on the outside, and way outside them Leon and Steve passed everybody like they were standing still. It should be mentioned that Leon counts his laps around Willow Springs on a sidecar in the tens-of-thousndands.

Out of turn one it was Roy, Sean, and Sarah…

Sean had a novice passenger, and Sarah picked him off quickly on the outside of turn 2 driving up the hill towards three, she didn’t even bother to wait for the Yokohamas to come up to temperature and just put the bottle to it quickly chasing down Roy Janes up into the Omega.

But no matter how hard she tried, or how close she got, or how hard Sarah tried to force the issue down on the inside or around the outside. Roy pulled 40 years of sidecar roadracing experience out of his bag of tricks and made his Formula II very wide, sometimes missing us by inches with surgical precision. Sarah would lose focus and roll off, giving Roy the line. Two laps from the finish I was grabbing Sarah by the back and pushing forward on her leathers telling her to GO GO GO GO !!!! PASS PASS PASS. I knew we were faster than Roy, we had better handling, we had the motor all over him, all we had to do was squeeze by and he’d never be able to catch us. It’d be Streets of Willow all over again with Sarah’s stealth pass for the win over Roy.

The white flag came out, and Sarah was all over the back of Roy, the leaders had come by us, but we didn’t care. All that ment was that we might be able to sqeeze by Roy on their coat-tails, but Roy blocked Sarah before she could swoop in on the opening. We drove down through 7, Roy only 30 feet in front of us, me tucked in behind the intake as tight as I could, driving now for turn 8, two more corners to go. I slid up right, as low as possible, I could tell that Sarah was going out left, she was going do go in deep and late to 9 and try to slingshot out on the exit and pass Roy to the checkered flag on pure horsepower.

Roy pulled in tight to 9, as did Sarah, I went out right just far enough to keep traction on the rear and bias the front for turn in, and as soon as we passed the apex and Sarah was back on the power I slid back down into the platform and curled up into a fetal position as tight as I could for aerodynamic advantage. My legs and ass were hanging off the back of the platform and I was only hanging on with one hand. Sarah was winding the engine out into for her previously unknown territory. The CBR1000RR came to life and really started to sing. From my curled position on the platform I could just see the asphalt going by and I could tell we were going fast… really fast, faster than we’d ever gone before. The engine had to be getting close to the rev limiter, and then it was over. I saw the flagger and Roy’s rig vanishing behind us.

I popped up and braced as Sarah got hard on the brakes for turn one, got hard out left for her turn in, and that was it. The race was over.

We missed 9th place by about 14 inches. A pure drag-race to the finish line. Sarah said she looked down at the speedo (corrected w/healer) as she crossed the line and it said “One Fifty Something” A new personal best in top speed for her.

Next time, Roy. Next time.

~Mike

LCR has released a new website, which is really cool as the old one was just horrible for a company that makes such high-end Formula I and Formula II sidecars.

http://www.hahn-archiv.de/index2.php

Lots of neat pictures on the site, especally under the skin of the new hush-hush Formula II LCR.

Lots of history, photos, and other neat stuff up on the site as well now.

Our Right Coast brothers over at the SRA-East have updated their website as well.  It looks really professional.

http://www.sidecarracers.com/

What’s really cool on their site is the breakdown of the different machine types.

http://www.sidecarracers.com/machines.html

Neat Stuff!

~Sarah

So there’s a couple things floating around the Sidecar Rumor Mill…

First, there’s some shake up that French Superside driver, Sebastien Delannoy will be coming over with his LCR for 2008 to do some racing with us for two or three weekends.  He’s a very accomplished Superside racer, with several French Sidecar Championships under his belt. Click here for his stats and details.

This is unconfirmed as of yet, but the whisper comes via EMC Shocks, one of Sebastian’s main sponsors.  Hopefully it pans out, as it will be really exciting to run against a full blown French Sidecar Champion on our home turf.

Second, Tim Lobley and Darren Tritton in the UK with Popsworth Racing are looking to come Stateside as well during the second half of the Superside America season.  They would be bringing over a trellis frame F1 sidecar that Tim designed himself running on LCR hubs powered by a Suzuki GSXR-1000 engine.  Here’s their website with team details and results.  This pair are no stranger to the podium. http://www.popsworthracing.co.uk/

So far it’s shaping up to be one hell of a season.  There are a couple other neat things I’ve heard about, but I’ve been told to keep them under wraps.  As soon as I’m able to blurb them out, I’ll post something up.  Lots of exciting things are in the works behind the scenes in the SRA!

~Sarah

Mike drove down to Buttonwillow to meet Mr. Bill and pick up the CSR. He’s like a camel in that he can just get in the car and just drive endlessly non-stop for long distances without getting bored or restless. So for him the thought of a 500 mile day trip just made him shrug and say, “meh…”

I met him at Blanco Basura to discuss the design of the vinyl wrap we’d be using for this season, and this was what was waiting for me on the floor of the studio.

It’s simply goregous. Mr. Bill does amazing work. It looks like a totally new rig.

Scott and I went around the rig discussing the color scheme I had in my head and looking at the photos I had brought with me while Scott looked at the rig the way all master artists do when they’re waiting for the muse to strike them. Then suddenly we were both picking out details, tape was flying, and a battle plan started to form.

That last picture gives you a hint. But I won’t say any more. You’ll just have to check back in to see how the finished product turns out. It will be pretty spectacular.

~Sarah

There was a knock on the door this morning, and when I opened it I saw this.

Some quick and careful slicing revealed the following.

That would be three brand new Yokohama slicks courtesy of Mr. Rick Murray over at Team RGM. So my baby will have fresh new shoes to run on that first race of the season, which is rapidly approaching.

Mike drives down South tomorrow to meet up with Mr. Bill to pick up the CSR. From there he’s driving straight back to Blanco Basura to drop it off in their shop so the vinyl design and skin process can begin. Once Blanco Basura have finished up we’ll bring the CSR back home, throw it up on the jackstands and begin the final prep for the first race of the season.

~Sarah

The powers that be within the Sidecar Racers Assoc. West have released the 2008 race schedule. So those who are wondering when and where they can come see us race, here’s what we’ve got so far. Bring your leathers, Helmet, boots, and gloves on a practice day before the race day… And we’ll throw you on the back of a F1 or FII sidecar (after some instruction) for a few hot laps around the track so you can experience sidecar racing for yourself.

That’s 12 race weekends and 16 races total for the season. We’re going to be very busy in 2008.

~Sarah

Mr. Bill updates…

“Hello Guys, What kind of weather are you having at your house?

I am doing my best to finish your body, the Epoxy work looks finished I have primed and skimmed what blemishes I can find.

Now if I could get a day without rain and 100 MPH winds I will shoot the last primer and be finished.

So cross your fingers and pray for one good day this week.

MR B.

PS. I replaced the brake line to the chair”

He sent a couple photos of the progress. The body looks amazing. It’s hard to imagine this was once our battered and cracked CSR carbon/kevlar shell. It’s going to look amazing once Blanco Basura gets the new skin wrapped on it. Everybody cross their fingers for us and send positive karma towards SoCal for some warm dry days so Mr. Bill can get some quality time on his laundry list of projects (not just our stuff) wrapped up.

And our spiffy new short brake line Mr. Bill installed on the chair wheel caliper!

In the meantime since we pushed back pick up of the CSR one week Mike had a totally clean garage and a three day weekend with nothing to do. That lasted about two hours into Friday evening when he decided to pull the cover off his Ducati which has been sitting unused for about six months and tear it totally apart for a tune up and rebuild. It started out as this on Friday.

And by Monday afternoon it looked like this and was roaring out in the garage full of new tune up parts and bits. He did all the fabrication/custom work himself in the space of three days.

Hopefully he can apply himself in this fashion when the CSR is back in the garage and needs to be prepped for Willow Springs.

~Sarah

Mr. Bill writes…

“The fender is going ok but I am not sure I will have enough time to finish everything by Saturday / Sunday.

I am pushing forward the epoxy is the issue. I am more familiar with the one hour set time and grind to finish with polyester as to the epoxy and it’s turning out to be 24 hrs minimum before grinding……..

In the time I have been waiting four your epoxy to set I have finished all the polyester repair and changes on Mark & Bobette’s sidecar damn near ready for paint………

I hope to shoot the first primer on your main body tomorrow morning and then filler sanding and the last primer Friday / Saturday morning if all goes well…….

Just keeping you up to date.
MR. B”

So while Mike and I had planned to go down to pick up the rig on Friday it looks like we’ll have to push that back to Sunday. Luckly we both have Monday off. The good news is that this will give Mr. Bill some breathing room and he won’t have to try and rush to finish the job before we head down to pick up the rig. Mike will just have to work twice as hard to get things prepped and ready before the first race.

While Mr. Bill was reparing our old sidecar platform wheel arch he found that it was entirely made of a combination of glass-mat, mar-glass, and body filler. Another suprising discovery was that under those layers of glass-mat areas of resin had never fully cured. So he was running into a gooey nougat center that was gumming up his grinder and sander trying to get to a layer that was stable enough to build up a repair from.

The decision was made to pull a new wheel arch from his shelf that was 1/4 the weight and four times structural integrity since it was made up of true woven composites. A couple minor modifications would be required to get the wheel arch to fit, but other than that it would be a fairly simple procedure to graft the new wheel arch to the CSR.

Mr. Bill sent a photo of the progress he’s made today. Click it for a large version.

Oh, and the Kevlar clutch kit came in for the engine. Many thanks go out to our great sponsor We All Ride here in Santa Cruz for the hook up on the EBC kevlar clutck pack.

~Sarah