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| Article | Racing is Fun! I Love to Race! 5/1/2006
This is a statement every racer has repeated to themselves a few thousand times as a reminder of why they put in the long hours building, refining, and prepping the machine they are campaigning. Committing to a sanctioned race organization will require long costly road trips all over the U.S.A. and spending time away from family and gainful employment. Class racing in a points chase also requires equipment maintenance in many cases between rounds of competition. In today’s specific application world the lubricants and fuels will be specific to that machine in its class. We all know how special materials are priced, high dollar! Some race gas can cost $6-$20 a gallon, while nitro methane can cost $45-$55 a gallon. For a top fuel bike to make one pass it will use 3-5 gallons of fuel. So, when you count oil change, plug change, clutch change and other maintenance just to make one pass down the strip, a top fuel bike can cost about $600 per pass, if everything goes well. This sounds like a lot of fuel, but think of it this way; top fuel bikes that are naturally aspirated will make 800-1000 horse power out of two cylinders. To put this into perspective, an 88 CID H-D will make 60 HP at the rear wheel and 40 mpg. A top fuel bike with 1000 HP at rear wheel traveling at 200 mph driving ¼ mile using 5 gallons of fuel would be 200 HP per gallon. This makes for a very efficient bike. After all, that is the quest, searching for the most efficient engineering methods, products, practices, and disciplines.
Now the fun begins with all of your fore thought and preparation things happen or start to hit the fan. A good example is when I was at the season opener of the AMRA in Bowling Green, KY, on March 25, we were in the first round of qualifying and the bike stuck in 3rd gear halfway down the track. Needless to say, I did not win my first round of qualifying! Allow me to explain qualifying. There are three rounds of qualifying establishing everyone’s elapsed time number. Say a 12.2 second bike will be matched with a 12.3 or 12.1 second bike. Some classes will have only 8 openings for racers to compete and if 10 show up for qualifying, the fastest 8 will proceed to the final eliminations on Sunday. Back to my ‘oh crap, why won’t this thing shift?’ Upon getting back to the pit we found the shift arm on the transmission was over shifting causing the drum to wedge in the up-shift position. There is an adjustment to correct this but, I couldn’t complete the process in time for the next round of qualifying. All you old school riders will appreciate this. I found a bungee cord, which happened to be red, and hooked it to the foot shift lever pulling just enough pressure to ensure up-shift. Going to the line the track official saw my adaptation and giving me the ‘hairy eyeball’ as to say, “You better not drop oil on my track”, allowed me to run. This time I could complete all shifts and managed to pull off the fastest qualifying run. This earned me the right to a first round elimination by-run which I gracefully took. The next round, I had to work for. I met a man from Missouri, which I just barely beat. This brought me to the finals running against a man from Michigan and once again good fortune smiled on me. In the class I participate, Street Dresser, all the front runners are only about .25 of a second apart. This makes it anybody’s race. This particular race happened to be mine with an 11.83 second, 113 mph win! It sure is fun being in the hunt for points with this group of people!
There will be some good racing this year with AMRA. I have seen the field of bikes run and this year looks to be a fast class racing. Our next race is in Reynolds, GA at the Silver Dollar Raceway on April 29-30. Then on May 20-21 at Belle Rose, LA there will be a race at No Problem Raceway Park. AMRA is a good organization that promotes grass roots racing with a simple outline in its rule book keeping cost down for the racers, yet holding a closely matched field that is fun to watch. This is a good place to test your metal. There are no side roads for people to pull out in front of you. The police are there for your protection. This is much safer than street racing and you can see better, too. I hope to see you at one of the many AMRA races being held this year. Beech Bend Raceway in Bowling Green will host the summer Nationals, June 24-25. This race usually pulls about 20,000 people. If you haven’t been to a world class race this is a good one. Beech Bend laid down 1/8 mile of brushed concrete and resurfaced the rest of the track. I expect to see some records set this year on that track. Mr. Dallas Jones keeps that facility in top shape. Make plans to support our sport of motorcycling.
See you at the races!
Good Riding and God Bless
Steve Caldwell - steve@precisionvtwins.com
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