George McConnel's RC51 BLOG

Date:	September 26-27, 2009
Track:	Nashville SuperSpeedway
Bike:	2002 Honda RVT1000 (RC51)
Weather:	Rain Saturday, Sunny and coolish Sunday. Highs in the upper 70's.
Sponsor:	LearnToRide.Org
Conducted By:	WERA
Track Diagram	The Nashville SuperSpeedway is a combination track. NASCAR racers use the outer oval, basically just a large concrete track with a back straight, two ends and a tri-oval front "straight". The road course drops off the tri-oval into the infield, winds through turns 1-6, then exits briefly onto part of the back straight before dipping back into the infield for turns 7-10. Turn 10 is a long non-banked sweeper that exits back onto the front straight. There are transitional seams at each of the four places where the infield road course joins the NASCAR oval. At these points you have to be careful to choose a line that avoids too sudden a transition or you end up getting jarred really hard. Much like Daytona, races are started from pit lane because the start/finish line is on a steep bank.

Nashville. It's the last race of the Mid Central

My first solo payout! Party hardy!

WERA Sportsman Series. For the first time ever I'm actually chasing a championship. I'd already clinched the Mid Central Expert Heavyweight Twins Superstock championship, and had a healthy 10 point advantage going into the final round of the Superbike class championship.

Having clinched the SuperStock class I didn't even bother registering for that race. Instead I took a chance and signed up for a Solo 20 (Heavyweight) for the Saturday Afternoon races.

Thursday evening I rode out to the track with Logan to unload our bikes and try to figure out what was wrong with my front brakes.

Did someone say "Party?" My 50th birthday party was at the track.

Having ridden the Barber round a couple of weeks ago with a strange brake problem I had bled both front rotors using the miti-vac in hopes that the problem would go away. When it didn't I stopped at Pep Boys and found a couple of tubes of the Permatex Ultra Brake Caliper Lube that's supposed to be just the thing for reducing brake drag. Getting out there kind of late on Thursday evening I just unloaded and kicked back with the folks for awhile to chat. I figured I'd have plenty of time to fool with the brakes on Friday evening if I could take off work a little early.

Rob Turner had some rain tires with a few laps on them that he'd taken off and asked if I'd be interested in buying them for this weekend since Saturday was almost a sure bet for a rainy track day. The price was right and I bought them. He also gave me a 190 takeoff that only had a few laps on it, which he wasn't planning on using again.

I got to the track early in the evening on Friday just as the track day had completed. Stickboy was there and I asked him if he'd have time to change my tires for rain tires before closing up shop. He said if I could get them to him right away he would, but he was about ready to go find something to eat. I yanked the wheels off quickly, getting them to him in record time. He changed them out for me and I remounted, still trying to figure out what was going on with my front brakes. The lever was very spongy and the brakes were grinding badly. This was with brand new brake pads. Didn't make sense.

I pulled the left caliper out and took a look. It looked very strange inside. The inside caliper looked like the pad had literally

This is how you do it. Sweet!

melted into a heap and spread itself out. I asked Rob Turner to take a look. He noticed what I didn't almost immediately. The brake

This is how you do it too! Sweet!

pad in question was installed backwards! I pulled it out and filed it to get rid of the excess material that had built up on each end, but in the end it was useless. I bought a new set from Stickboy and installed them.

The front brake lever was still spongy though, and I'd used the speedbleeder enough. Upon recommendation from Stickboy I bled the brake calipers the old fashioned way. After awhile I was feeling a much more robust lever.

Stickboy also tried to get rid of the brake drag I was experiencing by tapping the forks a bit in each direction. Didn't help any, but it was nice that he gave it an effort.

Saturday morning I arrived at about 7:50, thinking first practice didn't start until 8:30. I don't know how I misread the schedule so badly, but it took everything I could do to be ready to get on the track for my first practice, which was the 2nd of the day. I ended up only getting three laps in during that session, only one of which registered on the lap chart. It was a 1:34 on rain tires in the rain.

It's worth noting that this was the first time I'd ever been on the racetrack on rain tires in the rain. The grip seemed pretty robust in a straight line during hard acceleration and braking, but I just wasn't able to spend enough time on them to get comfortable with the level of grip available at near full lean. I never pushed hard on them at all, but managed to get into the 1:24's or thereabouts during my 2nd session. On more than one occasion I felt them suddenly lose traction when crossing painted surfaces, so I figured out ways to adjust my lines to avoid crossing such sessions under heavy load.

Saturday afternoon I kicked back and took it easy until time for my Solo 20 to run. It was the 6th event of the afternoon even though

This is how you don't do it. Doh!

it was actually the 8th event on the schedule. There weren't many people there at all for the solos. I ended up on the grid with two other guys and all three of us were racing in completely different classes. Each of us (naturally) took first place in our respective race. I ended up finishing in the 2nd position on the track. Earned $30 for a 1st place (out of 1) finish though! Sweet!

Sherry had planned a big birthday party for me at the track for Saturday afternoon after the races were over. It was in celebration

... And the sparks fly from the Jardine pipe.

of my 50th birthday. It was a very special occasion and I enjoyed it very much. Many of my friends came to the party including a few I haven't seen in several years.

Sunday morning (as it always is) was much more relaxed. Practice didn't start until 8:30 and there was no need to go through tech. I had decided to switch back to my "dry" tires before the Solo 20 the day before (even though I ran the Solo on a wet track), so I didn't have to go through any more tire changes over the course of the weekend. The weather was completely opposite what it was the day before. There were few clouds and the air was brisk -- downright crispy fall type weather. I plugged in the tire warmers and hit the track with hot tires and immediately settled down into some consistent 13's with the occasional 12. However my bike was demonstrating a new symptom: When I'd accelerate hard it would occasionally cut out.

This engine cut-out continued through the rest of the day and nagged at me. I don't know what was / is causing it, but during my race later that day I can't help thinking that the engine problem may have been a factor in why I ended up on the ground. Yes, with only one lap left I fell off my bike in the slow turn 2 right hander. Neither me nor the bike were hurt in the incident (at least not badly). There's a little rash on the plastics and a bent rear brake pedal. The frame slider got buggered up pretty well also, but that's why it's there.

The aggravating part about all that is that I had 1st place in the Mid Central wrapped up. All I had to do was stay on the bike and finish the race. Brad Duncan couldn't have caught me in points unless I fell down. By falling down I gave him 1st in Mid Central and denied it to myself. Bummer.

Most important lesson learned during this race weekend: Be careful reassembling parts. If something doesn't sound right take it back apart and look at it!