“Moving forward, the repairs are going slower then I expected epoxy takes about 24 hrs to kick off. But the repairs look good and its going better then I thought structurally.As you can see, some freaky Canadian shit under the old paint.”
If I was in to tye-dye, I’d tell him to make it smooth and shoot the clear. The half-sucked jawbreaker theme was never more pronounced than it is now. A phonecall with Mr. Bill yesterday looks like we’re set to motor down this weekend with the trailer and bring the F1 back. He says the wheel arch is done except for the primer, the center cowl is mostly done, and the big massive battering ram of a body is the only remaining component with just the sanding and finishing to go. He’s installed a new front brake air scoop in the front, which is far better than the tiny one that was there before. The good news is that if I start winning races, I’ll -never- have to take on any success ballast due to the weight of this body.
Mr. Bill has started in on the bodywork on the CSR. It’s not looking good. He’s found out why the shell on the CSR is so heavy. Turns out it’s mostly bondo and mar glass. In the pictures he sent the CSR bodywork looks like a half-sucked jawbreaker. Mr. Bill writes…
“As you can see the body has been patched together there is so much mar glass & bondo you need to remove about ¼ ” to as much as a ½’ to get to the carbon to begin the repair.
It appears that the engine cover was mar glassed on; I can make it look good when I am finished with the repair at the chair but the odds are any place I repair over the mar glass will crack again down the road.
I will do the important repairs on the cab and the passenger area down to the carbon. The rest of the small cracks I will make it look good it should be fine.”
Mr. Bill is a hero for undertaking this amount of repair work on our rig, and we’re fully confident the end product will be strong and look great on the track. Thank you Mr. Bill!
And if you want Mr. Bill to handcraft you a turnkey trophy winning F1 or F2 sidecar he’s more than happy to. His artistic skills with a welder can’t be beat. His website: Becker Motor Works
New Canadian bling, eh. Thank you to Bicknell Racing Products for the hookup on the sweet new BRP-62D rotors for the CSR.
That takes care of the front rotor and side rotor. We still have to figure out what the oddball rear rotor is sourced from. It’s not a BRP or Wilwood unit. And so far I’ve been unable to find a match for it digging through stock motorcycle rotors on e-bay and other online parts archive sources. It’s a 235mm O.D. 7mm thick 120mm bolt spacing 8 lug mount rotor with a I.D. hole of 85mm. It’s pretty weird.
Click the image below for a large version.
We’ll check with EBC and Motion Pro to see if they’ve got anything close, and I’ll have to see if I can try the AHRMA list and see if any of the motorheads there remember any Kosman or other custom aftermarket rotors that might fit the bill. Jean-Guy does not remember what he sourced the rotors from, but I’ve got two and they’re identical and that makes me think they’re a pair of front brake rotors from something.
From a press release issued by Carter PR on behalf of J.P. King:
SPOKANE, WA (Jan. 22, 2008) — Spokane Raceway Park — a 588-acre complex with a 2.5-mile road track, drag strip and oval track — will sell at auction Thursday, April 10, with J.P. King Auction Company managing the sale.
It looks like the whole property including the track is going to be sold. There is some hope in that a group of racers (rich SCCA guys?) are one of the interested parties. They are not accepting race reservations for next year, WMRRA have canceled their races at Spokane for next year. But it is possible that the races might be re-instated if the track keeps being used as a track.
This is one of the venues that the SRA races at, and I’ll be sad to see it go. Check out this video of a typical SRA race at Spokane and you’ll fully understand why.
I’d like to personally welcome two new sponsors today to the BCR team.
First off is Scorpion Sports USA! Those cool matching Red/Black EXO-700 Burst helmets you saw Mike and I wearing at the end of 2007 came from Scorpion Sports. Many thanks go out to Teri Gorrell and the team at Scorpion for coming on board officially to support Bad Cat Racing in 2008. We’ll do you proud this seasoon.
Second I’d like to welcome SimBin Studios to the team. SimBin Studios produces some of the best motorsport racing simulations available today. The team at SimBin was nice enough to provide us with copies of Race 07 WTCC. There are several unique features about Race 07 that allow it to stand out from what some would probably call a driving game. For one, every single aspect of the vehicle, tires, drivetrain, suspension, gearbox, diff, ride height, camber, caster, toe in, fast bump, slow bump, sway bars, springs, splitter, wing, steering lock, brake bias, transmission lock, coast, gearing, tire pressures, tire temps from all three sections, true track feedback, an actual adjustable seat, they thought of everything you could experience at the track short of busting your knuckles slipping a wrench in the pits. Even bugs build up on your visor.
Mike has set up the Radical SR3 which is a (in real life) Hayabusa engine based budget racer. Since it has a six speed close ratio motorcycle transmission, and winds up like a bike, the engine feels like an F1 sidecar. Mike is able to set the chassis up on the Radical SR3 so that it mimics the sliding glide “steer it with the throttle and a little clutch” of a Fl long chassis.
Race 07 allows custom track packs to be added on. And here is where things pay off. We will be at Road America in Wisconsin in early June running the big Superside race AMA Superbike weekend. Neither Mike or I have actually set foot on Road America, so we literally need to spend hours on Race 07 “in the simulator” getting the track burned into our heads the best we can before we get to Wisconsin in June. We have four race weekends before Road America at Willow Springs on the Big Track, so we should have the CSR sorted out for going very very fast by the time we’re ready to pack up and head for Road America.
Mike took about 15 minutes to start cutting hot laps around Road America in the sim, beating the AI drivers for first place before a full lap was finished.
Me, I wasn’t so lucky. I’d bounce off some walls, turn in too soon, over correct and slide off into the grass. Start screaming at the other drivers, you name it. And by the time I did start to get the feel for it and started finding my shift points and brake markers, finally cutting consistent lap times and thinking to myself “Wow, maybe Road America won’t be that bad.” this happens.
We’re two months out from the start of the Superside/SRA season and then the madness begins again. The first race of the season is at Willow Springs Raceway March 14th ~ 16th on the Big Track. And the first four races of the Superside/SRA season will be at Willow Springs on the Big Track. A bit repetitive, but it will allow us to get the CSR dialed in perfectly and blow the winter rust off our skills.
The CSR is currently in the hands of Mr. Bill down at Becker Motor Works getting the carbon/kevlar body repaired for the 2008 season. Soon as it is finished Mike and I will shoot down to Apple Valley, CA and pick it up. We’ll drop it off at Blanco Basura where it will get it’s 2008 vinyl wrap and sponsorship decals, and then it’s into the garage for final prep before the first race of the season.
Mike is making some changes for 2008. He’s adding a Motion Pro 1/4 turn throttle for me and new throttle cables. And we’re replacing all the bearings in the swingarms and wheels. New brake rotors are being sourced, the engine is being gone through, and all of our spares/consumables are on order.
We’re working on getting our 2007 Sponsors back on board for the 2008 season, and picking up some new Sponsors to assist us even more. Racing at this level isn’t cheap and every little bit helps. We’re working on Scorpion right now, and we’re happy to announce that SimBin has come on board to help us out. SimBin produces many great racing simulation games, and was kind enough to provide me with product keys to Race 07 so that I could get some virtual track time in on the Radical SR3 on Road America before we run there with AMA Superbike in early June. http://www.race-game.org/race07/
SRA 2007 Series Final Points Standings. (Driver/Passenger)
SRA 2007 Southwest Challenge Final Points Standings. (Driver/Passenger)
Not all drivers were able to consistently carry the same passenger, and passengers that tended to hop around drivers may not have consistently finished in the top ten, hurting their points, which is why Mike was able to finish higher in the passenger points in case that seems confusing.
The 2007 season is over, work has been crazy, Mike and I have both just been trying to decompress from everything and relax.
I’ll just make a quick summary here, post some photos, and come back later and write up detailed reports when I have some free time.
1. Buttonwillow sucked, we finished DFL, I hate that track. It’s bumpy, no facilities, flat, no reference points, sandy, narrow, and there are tumbleweeds.
2. Streets of Willow at Willow Springs ruled! I love that track, it’s very technical and slightly bumpy, but loads of fun. It was an excellent two days of practice and racing to end the season on. We had a great time and finished 9th out of 11 to secure 8th overall in the 2007 SRA championship and 6th overall in the SRA-West Shootout. So I’ve had an excellent first season of Formula 1 sidecar racing. Here’s the points breakdown for this season. http://www.sra-west.us/html/point_leaders.html
Time for pictures.
Bumpywillow
Buttonwillow, the new helmets, me on the platform looking very uncomfortable. Mike in the cockpit checking out some suspension changes and making sure everything is ok. I hate passengering.
Mike on the platform, relaxed, bored.
Me head down, Mike transitioning left to right.
Race over, heading back into the pits, pissed off and fustrated.
We gave taxi rides on the East Loop during lunch for 20 bucks / two laps. All the money went to the James Cornell Fund. 22 brave souls took up the offer and hopped on the back of a F1/F2 sidecar for a trip around the track at speed. I don’t really do taxi rides, so Mike jumped in the cockpit and played cab driver for half a dozen willing volunteers.
Mike tells “bobspa” from the Ducati Monster List, “Hold on tight, don’t let go, don’t lean the wrong way.”
And off they go for two terror filled laps. Bob was hooked enough that he came out to Streets of Willow and took a real ride around Streets at full tilt on the back of the CSR to get what Mike calls the e-ticket experience.
Streets of Willow
Mike is a Peacock for any camera he happens to spot.
That’s it for now. More when I have time to write something up!
I didn’t feel the best for Friday practice after the 14 hour drive out from Santa Cruz. We broke it up into two parts by driving to Fernley, Nevada after work Wednesday night. We left the hotel Thursday morning and arrived in Tooele, Utah shortly after lunch. The combination of all that driving, the elevation, and my chemo inner-ear threw me for a loop and I spent most of my time flat on my back sick only getting out for first practice and last practice. Mike went out with Sean as a passenger to help Sean learn the track and get some time in himself. And for the big ‘media event’ with the local TV news crews and newspapers Mike took the CSR out and gave taxi rides around the track while I hid in Rick’s air conditioned trailer trying to hold down chicken soup.
Saturday went better. I wasn’t feeling much better but I was able to make it through both practice sessions and rest up for our race. I dropped the hammer when the green flag went and was mid pack when all 11 rigs went into turn 1. We stayed packed up for the first half of the track with lots of swapping going till we got past the esses on the back half of the track and we could stretch our legs on the faster section of the track. We were glued to the back of 291/Spicoli Racing (Leon and Steve) and I had an obvious advantage on them on power and left hand corners. I gunned it down the front straight knowing Leon was going to go wide into the sharp to off camber left hand 1a/1b. I pitched it in with next to no brakes, tires howling, and passed Leon tight on the inside and got right back on the power out of 1 using WFO on the CBR1000RR to pull away from Leon into the nearly straight right kink that made up turn 2.
I could only hold off Leon for a full lap before I started to fade and he passed me back. There were two laps left in the race at that point and I just didn’t have the strength left in me to run up to the ragged edge and walk away from Leon so the best I could do was stay on his tail and hope he made a mistake that gave me a chance to sneak by. But experience and treachery won out over youth and exuberance, and Leon crossed the checkered flag with me right on his tail. We finished 11th overall out of 11. Hans finished a race, in 8th place even, having swapped the Rotax/Harley combo he was running in his CSR F1 for a solid air/oil-cooled GSXR-1100 powerplant.
Sunday was much better with a new entry, Larry Campbell from Arizona on a Jean-Guy CSR F2 short chassis. We had a good start again, and it was much the same with us trying our best to chase down Leon who I think was a bit irked by my pass the day before, because he was riding like someone slipped spinach into his breakfast and starting to pull away from me. We got around Larry and his new passenger, this is their first weekend with the CSR F2 so I’d imagine they’re still getting it sorted. Two laps from the finish we saw Hanz sitting on the outside of turn 3 missing his passenger, having ejected Rory on a bad exit from turn 1b. Rory was fine and Hans was able to pick him up and still get in to place 11th behind us. We finished 10th overall out of 12 behind Leon once again. Next race Leon, next race.
The Britten carefully picking it’s way around the track, only to be snaked by Doug Polen on the 888 Superbike into turn 1. Also included is a flyby of Don Emde on a replica Triumph Trident that he won the Daytona 200 on.
