Well like the topic says I raced in Florida this past weekend & I figured that I would make this my 1st post here.
Enjoy the read fellows.
After 1042 miles, $250.00 in gas, $120.00 in food, $129.00 hotel for 2 nights (Ramada), & $80.00 in entry fees I am 1 tired mofo.
Got to the track Saturday morning & got all my stuff set up ready to race. I signed up for 2 classes Open, & an extra money class. Went out to the 1st practice session and got on the gas & the thing started popping furiously. My initial thought is that I was screwed right off the get go. I pull back into the pit to try to figure out my situation and I think that the airfilter boot has come off the throttle body. So I pull the seat off and BAM!!!!!!. On the way down to Florida there was rain in the forecast so I wrapped my airfilter and PCIII in a garbege bag to keep it from getting wet. So I found the problem. Now I'm stoked.
I go out for the 2nd practice session and hammer down on the gas going into turn 1 and my rear end quickly became my front end. I gather it back up and blast down the back stretch and enter turn 3 and my rearend becomes my front end once again. By this time I'm getting a little nervous so I enter turn 1 a little slower and the same thing happens, I spin out again.
I go back in and make a few phone calls and figure out that I have to much stagger on the right side of the quad compared to the left side. So I take the 2" spacer off the right side to take the 2"'s of stagger out. At this time I notice that my axle not is free spinning and the chain is not lined up.
I slid the axle back in place and tightened the nut back up & now I'm ready for the 1st heat race.
It's just my luck that I'm having the worst racing day of my life & I'm sitting on the pole by drawing a #6 out of a possible 100. I pull up to the 1st spot and tell the flagman I am battling a handling problem that I want to go to the rear to keep from collecting everybody in turn 1. So I start in the rear and get to turn 1 in last place ofcourse and now the quad is pushing like a snowplow. I hit turn 1 and go straight to the top of the racetrack. :'( I went to being to loose & spinning out to being to tight and pushing. I did finish the race in last place ofcourse but atleast I finished and didn't collect anybody.
I get back to the pits and I'm looking to try and figure out the problem. I make a phone call to a friend of mine and we find the problem. My front right tire is sitting out 2" from the right rear & causing me to push. I take my front tire off and put on a 18/6/10 & now the front is even with the rear. Now I'm ready!!!!
Heat race #2 is starting and I blast off the line in 2nd and the 1st thing the quad does in get sideways from spinning. I straighten it out and hit turn 1 not knowing if I was going to hit the wall with the front end or the rear end. The quad sticks like a champ & I start making up ground on the racers. I'm running a 15-36 gears and running out of speed in 4th about middle ways of a turn. If I click into 5th it will never get me out of the corners fast enough. So now I'm on the 9th places tail and he gets out of the groove and I take the spot away. Now I'm in 9th on the 8th places tail and he's pretty consistant. I can't wait no longer, I go for it on the outside entrance of turn 3 and lose all my grip and all the realestate that I had made up and I finish 9th.
I come back in to change sprockets & put on the 38 rear sprocket and the axle nut is loose again.
I tighten it up again and change my sprocket and by this time I am dead tired. All these changes that I made and all these laps I've run and I'm finally feeling pretty good about my chances of being competitive. Then I happen to notice my tires. They are melted all the way on all 4 corners, the right side especially. I make a few air pressure changes & now I'm ready.
I start last on the feature race and the quad is handling OK. I'm in 9th and then 8th and I'm on 7th but and he passes 6th and I can't follow him. My tires are heating up and falling off on traction like a mug & not to mention I am dead tired. So I settle for 7th place in the open main.
I didn't race the money race because my tires were gone and I didn't want my wife driving home without me due to the fact that I was stupid. I probably could have made it on the tires but I didn't want to chance it.
Some of the Florida guys were pushing 100hp r's with zilla motors and some bigtime punched out r motors that I wouldn't have anything for. I do believe that I could have finished in the top 5 had I started out with a better set up that what I arrived with.
I give it a shot and it won't be the last time I go down there & the next time I will have the right tires and gear ratio along with a little more motor.
Finishes this year so far: 1st,1st,2nd & now a 7th.
Florida has a lot of good racers and some fast machines and if you want to see some good flattrack racing Florida is the place to go.
