Tribulation

TRIBULATION

RACE WATCH

A question of power

DON CANET

ONE YEAR AGO, MICKEY FAY RODE THE TEAM CYCLE World Honda CR500 project bike to a creditable 15th-place finish in the Peoria TT. While Fay wound up near the back of the 18-rider field in the main event, we were elated-relieved even-just to have qualified. You see, this was our CR's first racetrack outing, and Fay, a last minute replacement for the injured Ricky Graham, had never even laid eyes on the bike prior to race day. We left Illinois knowing that Lady Luck had helped us overcome some pretty tough odds that day. We also believed that further development, plus having Graham (a three-time series champion) back in the saddle, could give us a front-running combination when we returned in `97.

Peoria is the only TT left on the AMA Grand National schedule, and its infamous, 60-mph jump is the primary reason we chose this event to showcase our motocrosser turned-dirt-tracker. And Graham, a two-time winner at the Illinois track, was eager to take flight aboard our bike. "The easiest ride I ever had at Peoria was on a factory Honda fitted with motocross-type suspension," recalls

Graham of his 1985 win. "A flat-track bike is kind of scary over that jump-the jump throws you the wrong way," continues Graham, remember ing the pain of the compressed verte brae he sustained after a bad landing sent him over the bars of his Harley flat-tracker in `82. "I've really never been solid over that jump since, even though I've won twice."

But soft landings weren't the only aspect of our CR project that piqued Graham's interest. "I've always had an interest in running a big-bore two stroke against the four-strokes, be cause when I was coming up in racing, the two-strokes were always faster," he states.

Heading up our bike's development and trackside tuning was DeWayne Jones, a former factory motocrosser whose current specialty is suspension tuning (DeWayne Jones Performance Suspension, 909/626-2751). With De Wayne's brother Gary, a four-time na tional MX champ who now works at White Brothers, having helped build our CR, DeWayne kept it a family af fair by enlisting engine-development assistance from his son Jason. The younger Jones' background includes cylinder porting for the Noleen Racing motocross team during the early `90s, and as a result, our CR's cylinder and head looked as though they had been massaged by a jeweler's hand. More importantly, the effort netted a gain of 10 peak horsepower and broader, more tractable power delivery.

Our first test session was conducted at Northern California's Lodi Cycle Bowl, a 3/8-mile oval with a hard, bluegroove racing line. Having been roadraced a few times over the past year, our CR'S prior setup included 17-inchdiameter wheels shod with low-profile roadracing tires. Now, with 19-inch Goodyear dirt-track tires fitted, the bike sat too high for the task at hand. Graham's initial on-track impression wasn't favorable, so Jones quickly swapped the rear shock for another that set the bike an inch lower in the rear, increasing the steering head angle and lowering the center of gravity. Both the substitute shock and the orig inal were stock CR units equipped with Jones' valving and an internal top-out spacer that effectively makes the shock shorter when fully extended. With those changes, and similar mods to the stock fork, our CR now had 3 inches less travel in the rear and 3.5 inches less in front.

Lodi gave us an opportunity to compare our CR500 to a Wood Rotax 600 dirt-tracker brought out by Graham's friend Rod Lake. Gra ham turned several laps aboard each bike as we recorded times and clocked top speed on the straight with our radar gun. The data showed both bikes were very close.

The TT track at the Hollister Hills OHV Park was our next venue, and the rough, bumpy surface of the lightly prepped track put the CR's stability to the test. We fitted an Answer Pro Taper handlebar for this outing, but had not yet acquired the special hardware needed to mount our Scotts steering stabilizer with this bar. Although Gra ham liked the width and bend of the bar, he began questioning our compe tence after a few nasty tank-slappers. We reinstalled the original bar and the damper to finish out the day.

Our main achievement at Hollister was finding a setup that offered im proved stability. The front of the bike was raised by pushing the fork legs down into the triple-clamps, along with adding spring preload. A few turns out on the shock's spring-preload collar, along with dialing in a few clicks of rebound damping, kept the back crouched in the turns for an even less-aggressive steering head angle.

Graham was looking more comfort able on the bike and giving DeWayne Jones usable feedback that would help dial-in the chassis for whatever track conditions we faced at Peoria. Our next stop was supposed to be Peoria itself, for an AMA Hot Shoe Series TT. The race, scheduled in early June, would have provided us with an invaluable shakedown run prior to the AMA Grand National TT held there in August. Not only would we have gotten a true sense of where we stood against our competition-in actual racing conditions-but we had also rented the track for additional testing the day after the race. Unfortu nately, foul weather caused the race and our test to be canceled.

Prior to the National, we hooked up with Graham for one last test session, this time at Tulare Cycle Park. This wellgroomed, quarter-mile oval is a pure cushion track with an in field TT section that includes a sizable jump. Graham called it "dirt-track heaven," praising the consistency of the loamy surface for allowing a variety of lines through the corners. As with previous outings, we started off with the same suspension and chassis settings derived from our last test. The bike appeared a little un steady landing off Tulare's jump, the front doing a double bounce and ex hibiting a minor headshake. Again, Jones was able to adjust the suspen sion to correct the problem.

Although we had raced the Peoria TT last year, our CR's engine and chassis had changed enough since then that we effectively were starting from scratch. Practice at a National only runs for one hour, a good part of which you spend waiting in line for your turn. Once on the track, you get about five laps before being flagged off and returning to the end of the line. Point is, there's little time to make major changes to the bike. Had we done enough? Would our 492cc two-stroke hang with the 600cc Thumpers? Would we have enough of an advantage over the jump to make a noticeable difference? These questions and more were soon answered as Graham took to the track among the very first group of riders.

As was the case last year, the CR was the only two-stroke in the field. Its crackling exhaust note cut through the four-stroke thunder, and the fact that it was the only bike with a front fender made it easy to spot. Graham wasted little time, picking up the pace and hitting the jump harder with every lap. To our dismay, the CR was losing ground to some of the four-strokes on Peoria's lengthy main straight. A gearing change was quick ly made, adding one tooth to the rear sprocket before getting back in line. We hoped that the lower gearing would help the bike accelerate better off the last turn and down the straight. Unfortunately, as practice wound down, it became apparent that our bike simply was being outmotored. And with the track's clay surface de veloping a narrow blue groove, it

would be that much more difficult to pass in the corners. -

"I'm really disappointed," Graham said dejectedly. "This bike can't win this race."

Even with a competitive machine, making it into a Grand National main event is no small feat. The 73-rider field was first divided into 11 four-lap preliminary qualifier heats, the results of which reduced the field to a 48rider program. Graham finished a solid second in the brief sprint, not far behind series points leader Will Davis.

From here, we would have only two shots at qualifying for the 1 8-rider main. A top-three finish in the first 10lap heat earns a direct transfer, and Graham was running fourth, clinging to the tail of Rotax-mounted Johnny Mur phree, when the race was halted due to a fallen rider. With four laps remaining, the riders lined up single-file for the restart, which eventually saw Joe Kopp cross the finish line first. Graham ended up sixth after slipping wide off the groove entering the first turn.

We readied the bike for the semi final, our last shot at making it into the main. Here, only the top two finishers transfer, and once again Graham was knocking on the door. The crowd was on its feet as Graham tried his best to get by Dale Jenneman for the final transfer slot. The CR lost several bikelengths to Jenneman's Rotax down the straight, but Graham repeatedly ran it into Turn 1 harder than anyone. It was a sight to behold, the CR's back end hung way out scrubbing off speed as Graham laid the bike over so far you would swear the en gine cases were going to drag. Such bravado and style proved ef fective in closing the gap, only to lose precious ground on the exit as they made the mad dash for the jump. Here, too, Graham held it on a bit longer than his competitor, powering up the face of the jump and showing Jenneman a wheel as they landed-but never quite making the pass. On the last lap Graham showed hair, getting bigger air off the jump than we had witnessed all day. Our CR sailed pass the Rotax in mid-air, and

held the advantage through the righthand kink that follows. It was a glori ous moment that had the fans going wild! But a moment was all it was, as Jenneman got a wheel inside Graham entering the final turn and tactfully moved our hero off the groove and onto the slick cushion as they powered two-abreast through the turn.

All hope for making it into the main went up in wheelspin. Even if Graham had led off the last turn, it would have taken another kiss from Lady Luck for our outgunned CR to win the sprint to the finish line. But we apparently used up all our luck last year.

Things may have turned out differ ent had we been able to race at Peoria in June. Surely, we would have learned then what we now know, and you can bet your camshaft that the following weeks would have been de voted to extracting more power from our ring-ding.

With the Jones clan already formu lating answers to our question of power, there's more development to come. To heck with Lady Luck; next time, we'll make our own.