Clipboard
Clipboard
RACE WATCH
Daytona Supersport: slipstreaming to the win
Supersport racing is war, because sales of these bikes are crucial to corporate bottom lines. Three companies-Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha-brought all-new, racier-than-ever 600cc designs to the speedway. The top machines qualified at respectable Superbike lap times. The race was mainly between the Yamahas and Hondas, for Kawasaki was spread thin over three classes and Suzuki awaits a new design. So much rides on the win in this class that the race was actually faster than the Superstock event. It would be interesting to know how stock 600s can lap faster than stock 750s.
Honda decided, based upon the market’s sharpening taste for extreme sportbike performance, to end its policy of building an everyman’s 600. The hyper CBR600RR with its twin-injector showerhead fuel system (derived from Formula One, then adopted in Superbike) has the ability to rev to 15,000 rpm. At such engine speeds, time must be provided for fuel to evaporate or the mixture will effectively go lean from non-evaporation. The upstream location of the showerhead injectors accomplishes this. Even so, team mechanics remarked on the extreme volatility of> current race gas-if you get a drop on your hand, it’s gone in an instant. At 15,000 rpm, volatility is more important than octane number.
Yamaha exploited its new vacuumcasting process to save weight in chassis, swingarm, engine and wheels. Casting allows wall thickness of beams and other parts to be varied at will-something impossible with extrusions or sheet-metal pressings. This can allow directional flexure to be implemented in new ways.
Jamie Hacking said of the factory YZF-R6, “This bike is 10 times better than the old one. The old engine was real good in the middle but not so strong on the bottom or the top. The new one pulls really good down low-that’s why Honda’s having to regear-and it’s also really strong on top.”
Miguel Duhamel’s crew chief Al Ludington ascribed the Yamaha’s acceleration to its lighter weight. One of Honda’s Japanese engineers said of Duhamel’s practice gearing, “It’s too tall—this thing turns 15,000!” In any case, he re-geared, enough to touch the rev-limiter often in the race.
Front-end chatter has been a serious problem in 600cc racing, and often blamed on weak front ends. Hacking continued, “The best thing is the front end. The old bike chattered, but the new one hasn’t chattered anywhere we’ve tested.” Fellow Yamaha man Aaron Gobert praised the fuel-injection and agreed the R6’s front end was the biggest improvement.
Kawasaki’s Team Manager Mike Preston said chatter had been overcome in the new ZX-6RR (which has a stiffer inverted fork), but believed new tires were responsible. The same view could be heard at Yamaha, where thinner-walled fork tubes have pushed stiffness the opposite way, yet chatter is absent.
Another trend is handling refinement within the original geometry. Changes in parts stiffness have completely altered the steering feel of some of the new bikes-without rake or trail mods.
Qualifying brought heady action. Hacking blew through the old record with a 1:52.817, with Gobert second and Honda’s Kurtis Roberts third. Rookie Yamaha teamster Jason DiSalvo, very fast through practice, crashed hard but was uninjured. In the second, odd-numbered qualifying session, Duhamel and Ben Bostrom used deliberate mutual drafting to put Miguel on top with a 1:52.785.
In the race, no one got away-pack racing prevailed until the last lap. In the early laps, the front men were Hacking, Roberts, Damon Buckmaster, Jake Zemke and DiSalvo, with Duhamel in and out of touch. Fans may love this kind of musical-chairs action, but Roberts dismissed it, saying, “I couldn’t care less about the 600s. It’s only the last two laps that matter here, anyway.” In effect, position was unimportant until things got serious at the very end. The lead changed, but was irrelevant for the front group. Those bikes “pumped air,” creating a mutual draft in which several riders could wile away the laps, and from which they could not pull away. In the end, a potential victor would try for a position from which he could draft a single leader off the chicane to get the win.
As the last lap began, Roberts led from Hacking, Zemke, DiSalvo, Buckmaster and Duhamel-a red-and-blue mix. Hacking was first into the chicane-the fatal position-and final-stretch drafting action shuffled the finishing order to Roberts, Hacking, Duhamel, Zemke and DiSalvo. -Kevin Cameron
Daytona Short-Track: surprise is routine
The short-track at Daytona Beach’s Municipal Stadium is on a limestone base that’s never the same from one minute to the next, leading to the tradition that the opening round of the AMA’s Grand National series is a crapshoot, with the results a surprise.
This year, to mangle two clichés, when the going got rough, experience counted.
Blame the rain, a week of which had turned the track into what one disgruntled sponsor called “liquid cement.” It was deep and sticky. The only guys with a clue were the vets. Winners of the six qualifying heats were Chris Carr, defending GNC champion and a winner here two times already; Johnny Murphree, the only young lion in the lead pride; Terry Poovey, two-time Daytona winner and defending Clear Channel series champ; Rick Winsett, whose only GNC win came here last year; Jay Springsteen, three-time GNC number one; and Brett Landes, another rider whose only national win so far came here.
When the green flag dropped, Murphree got the vital holeshot, followed by Carr and Springsteen. Carr pushed Murphree until the younger man bobbled, and Carr led to the finish, followed by Murphree and Springer.
The actual race was a good one, with the crowd on its feet as Carr made his move, but the deeper meanings are more subtle.
One, there were 111 licensed AMA Experts entered in the event, which required 19 heats to trim the field to the second round of heats to choose the 16 national starters.
Two, there were full factory efforts, and guys in football jerseys. There were two-strokes and four-strokes, airand liquid-cooled, limited only to the rule of > one cylinder with less than 505cc of displacement.
Three, there were 10 makes: Honda, Harley-Davidson, Suzuki, Yamaha, CCM, VOR, KTM, ATK, Rotax and Buell.
Four, and most important, this year the AMA allows and Clear Channel encourages production machines. What this means is there’s a major choice, between a motocross or enduro bike converted to dirt-track specs, or a motocross/enduro engine in a dirt-track frame. The racers refer to the former as “MXers,” and to the latter as “framers,” as in racing frames.
The motive here is-take your pickmarketing or sport. The MXers allow new racers to field a mount more easily and dealers to sponsor teams on a budget. The MXers are a major reason for the 111 racers on 10 different makes. But while the MXers are available and viable at some times and places, they didn’t work on this track on this occasion. This wasn’t for lack of choice: Carr’s Ford-backed team has MXers in its stable, but tuner Kenny Tolbert said, “We didn’t bring ’em.”
Some teams did. The Suzuki factory team had both types. “They have the same wheelbase, the same rake and trail, the same engine.”
“Does the MXer work?”
“No.. .and we don’t know why.”
And some of the racers had to run what they brung, and they’d brung MXers. Landes’ Honda was the only MXer in the national and he finished fifth.
Why is this?
In politics, when someone wants to convince the listeners of his expertise, > he requires the reporters not to reveal who he is. Whispered secrets are always more powerful than shouted fact.
On that basis, a builder/racer who’s qualified to make the judgment reminds us that the frame-builders-C&J, Champion, Trackmaster, whoever-have been doing dirt-track for 20 years and know what works.
The factories, the mass-producers, know what works in motocross, which isn’t flat-track, so when a motocross bike is “DTX’ed,” as AMA rules term it, there are some compromises: swingarm length, pivot location, rake, trail, offset, height and position of the engine-all are critical, and small variations mean major changes in handling.
Nothing here is final or fixed, except perhaps the general rule that the less grip the track offers, the more these little differences matter.
It’s a learning curve, is all, and when winner Carr said he’d won before on a groove track so he’s especially pleased to win when there was no traction, he spoke for those ahead of the curve.
Now the other teams have the rest of the season to play catch-up.
-Allan Girdler
Dick O’Brien 1921-2003
Dick O’Brien, legendary head of the Harley-Davidson racing department from the late 1950s to 1984, has died after outliving several careers.
O’Brien worked with a long line of dirt and pavement stars including Carroll Resweber, Calvin Rayborn, Mark Breisford and Gary Scott. His creative work included keeping the KR flathead competitive with ohv engines through the 1960s and creating and developing its successor, the immortal XR750 dirttracker. The race department upstairs at the end of Juneau Avenue in Milwaukee was a classic center of experimental mechanical engineering.
“O’Bee,” as many called him, was a man of strong opinions, expressed in the saltiest of language. Speaking once of XR parts procurement problems, he said, “These goddamned shops around Milwaukee don’t want to make anything more accurate than what you can measure with a @#*&% ruler.” When after his retirement he was called back to comment on the design of the new VR1000 roadracer, he remarked, “I went up there on my best behavior and tried to tone down everything I said, but I guess that wasn’t enough-they never called me again! That son-of-a-bitch didn’t have any #@?%$ flywheel and the &@%$* intake ports were big enough for a cat to walk through.”
In the 1980s, he and Don Tilley developed the special air-cooled Battle of the Twins racer “Lucifer’s Hammer,” which for years had the highest recorded Daytona top speed of any Harley (including the VR) of 167 mph.
During WWII, O’Brien served at Pax River, Maryland, in a little outfit that re> built captured enemy aircraft and then flight-tested them to uncover their weaknesses-a job that called for improvisation and quick work. After his retirement from H-D, he prepared qualifying heads for a NASCAR team, then retired again, only to have to deal with a flood of Harley porting business that wouldn’t go away.
O’Brien distilled engine wisdom from a life of intelligent inquiry. His valued influence continues in the thinking and work of countless builders and tuners who remain active to this day. He was 81. He is survived by wife Pat, daughters Peggy Berose and Patty Frank, and by his brother Jesse. -Kevin Cameron
Battle of the Nines
Gary Nixon and Jay Springsteen are both multiple AMA national champs, but beyond that both have magic, displaying skill and courage to the point that no one who watched either at speed ever forgot it.
So, when higher-ups at the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA) noticed that Nixon and Springsteen were both scheduled to ride in the vintage races during Daytona Bike Week, they got the word out and on the day (it was supposed to be “days,” but we’ll get to that) the infield stands were crowded with hardcore fans-hardcore because it was raining.. .and scary.
Scary because the current version of the vintage rules allow the builders to take some liberties.
Springsteen was booked to ride a 1972 Harley-Davidson XRTT from Hourglass Racing, a Pro-level amateur team fielded by Keith Campbell, a Honda car dealer with a major affection for racing Harleys. Nixon was riding for M3 Racing, whose owner Mark McGrew builds really fast Hondas for sale.
Both mounts therefore have modern parts here and improved parts there. Springsteen joined the factory H-D team too late to ride the XRTT in the Daytona 200, but he did win the Twins title and was happy to say the 2003 version of the XRTT, the roadrace version of the still-ruling dirt-track bike, was faster and better in every way than it was when new in 1972.
Nixon, who rode for Triumph when Honda’s 750 won, said the same thing, while the M3 guys were just as happy to point out that 1) the CR750 as it comes from their shop is the fastest vintage bike ever run at Daytona, plus 2) if Nixon hadn’t believed it was the best, he wouldn’t be on it.
Strictly speaking, the rivalry is mostly fun. The two champs were one racing generation apart, so when Springsteen needed one of the single-digit national numbers reserved for former champions, he paid credit to Nixon by asking for 9. Nixon returned the compliment by not applying for a national license, so 9 was available. In vintage racing, this means one is 9 and the other is 9S. Even so, racers never really retire.
At the annual AHRMA banquet before the races, Nixon and Springsteen did a vaudeville routine, Springer telling the crowd that he planned to put the Harley in the “Honda lane,” to which Nixon quipped that it would be asking a lot for a Harley to run the full 28 racing miles, while the crowd took raucous sides.
And then, on the first of two scheduled days, it rained. Vintage 750s are serious, 100-horsepower machines, and the rival riders and owners agreed that it was better not to risk damage on a track that wasn’t raceable. On the second day, the skies were cloudy but it didn’t rain during the first six races of the day, so out came the bikes, in a drizzle.
Were the two Nines serious? Consider that when the flag dropped, the starter ruled that Nixon had, urn, anticipated
the event and the stewards docked him a lap, rather than delay with a restart.
Another XRTT took the lead, except that he pushed a bit too hard and lowsided at the chicane. After the first lap, Nixon and Springsteen led by a literal mile. Springer put his foot down and took the lead, a narrow one that widened as the Honda slowed (water in the carbs, Nixon later said diplomatically). He soldiered on, still ahead of the field except that at the finish the penalty for the early start put a Triumph-yup, Nixon’s old brand-in second.
“That was fun,” said Springsteen, whose winter hobby of ice racing had to have helped.
“That was fun,” said Nixon. “Good racing ’til the carbs got wet.”
“That was fun,” said all of us fans, as a chance to watch racing heroes beats staying dry any time. -Allan Girdler
