Canuck races!

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Tue Aug 16, 2011 10:46 am

Haha, I left it on to put a fake license plate that said something sarcastic, but found out the rules don't allow that. Now I'm just too lazy to chop it.

ThomVis · Post by **ThomVis** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:49 am

He made a nice closeup @2:36.

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Wed Aug 17, 2011 11:37 am

Yup, now he knows to pass me on the inside of 5, never the outside. He was starting to run out of room.

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:26 pm

Last round of the season came and went. Friday practice was the hottest day of summer. I guess there are worse ways to spend ones birthday than wrestling an Ace around a tight track at 30degrees wearing a cow, but hey, why not. Hot asphalt made for greasy tires and some sphincter puckering moments, but no personal bests. As it happened Saturdays racing was kind of anti-climactic as I ended up circlulating mostly by myself either at the end of the pack or between a couple groups that never caught me and I couldn't catch. Oh well.

Sunday however, the weather was much cooler and the attendance for our new format endurance race was pretty skinny. 10 teams entered our EMRA 200. $200/team, first team to 200 laps wins, staggered starts calc'd based upon the fastest riders best time of the year. In theory the times calc'd would allow everyone to be on the 200th lap together, ignoring pit stops.

I got to start first, cuz my team was the slowest and it's my bike dammit! I had a 6 1/2 minute head start over the next slowest team, but they weren't able to repair the previous days crash damage until partway through the race. So the following team was another 7 minutes behind, meaning I got almost 15 minutes before I saw another person on the track, at which point it started to rain lightly. Did I mention we were almost all running slicks? After a few more laps with the track getting wetter, they drove off a corner and fell over in the grass, yay us. They were pitted beside us and were my teammates ride home to Saskatoon. After a couple more people decided to take some off track excursions a serious crash brought out the red flag and ambulance, after which everyone got a single file start.

Neither Dave (325lbs) nor Steve (175lbs) felt like crashing my bike, yeah I know how do you do setup for 3 guys that weigh so different? So they sent me back out after the red flag. Wet track, no more rain=tippy toe around the track. Nice thing was, everyone else had to do the same so we weren't losing that much ground. Track dry, my 1/2 hour up (I know, shoulda gone longer, but when you start to make mistakes hand it over) Steve took over and tried to get in as many faster riders ways as he could. Then the big guy Dave, and so on for the rest of the day. The highlights included still being the lead team well past the 100 lap mark, and pitting after, but leaving before our pit neighbours due to a relaxed atmosphere and a quick fill can. Man 10 liters in less than 10 seconds! woo hoo!

We had a hoot, caned the crap out of the ole girl for nearly 4 hours and only had one moment when the oil light popped on past the 1/2 way mark and cause poor Dave to nearly sh!t himself as he thought he was gonna blow 'er up. He rides a Duc and pays close attention to engine lights. So after an extra stop to top up oil that took a couple minutes, off we went again. We finished 5th with 194 laps, 6th was just behind us and had the same number, my teammates chauffeurs back home came in 7th. Worth every stiff achy muscle this morning, for sure. We'll have to try this again next year.

Flying start "Pole Position":

"Three Old Guys on an Old Bike" race team, Steve, Jon, and Dave

Pirelli Superbike Pros. The tire on the left did a whole season except a rain round, plus a number of track events. The tire on the right has a weekend and an endurance race. Looks like I'm set for next year!

Post by **FZRDude** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:53 pm

Dude, that sounds like my kind of racing. Would love to race to 200 laps instead of the checkered.

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Mon Sep 12, 2011 4:45 pm

It's a fun race, but a tight track like ours doesn't give much opportunity for a break. Organizing one isn't as hard as a sprint race weekend, just make sure your timing/scoring system is foolproof if you have a cash payout, we didn't to keep entry fees low.

Mike_SS · Post by **Mike_SS** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:00 am

Sounds like fun. Congrats on result as well

kiwi60 · Post by **kiwi60** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:03 am

Well done Jon and team - looks like a fun way to celebrate your birthday

spook · Post by **spook** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:26 am

kiwi60 wrote:Well done Jon and team - looks like a fun way to celebrate your birthday

Yes... happy birthday BJ. Looks like a lonely start on a wild sort of a day!

At first look at the photo of the three of you Big Jon... I thought No Shit! But I see your mate Dave is really the big one...lol

Well done on the race, sounds like you race with a good bunch of people

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:57 am

spook wrote:At first look at the photo of the three of you Big Jon... I thought No Shit! But I see your mate Dave is really the big one...lol

Yeah Steve's about 170-ish, I'm 250, and Dave's over 300lbs. Good thing we're so slow, we didn't worry about suspension setup as we didn't know any better. A lonely start was fine by me, a chance to keep my head down and focus, then I was loose for when it started to get wet.

spook · Post by **spook** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 6:26 pm

I just got on the scales and converted to pounds...

Time to get on the push-bike!

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:39 pm

Nah, That's why I race a 1000!

Post by **FZRDude** » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:54 pm

Hey Spook..... convert a buck-fiddy over to Kilos......... that'd be me. :ha

sickle44 · Post by **sickle44** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 1:28 am

Sounds like fun Jon,

Maybe next year I'll make it out???

What's this about a New Track though???

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 11:19 am

sickle44 wrote:Sounds like fun Jon,

Maybe next year I'll make it out???

What's this about a New Track though???

Construction and paving has actually started at Castrol, if it hadn't I'd write it off as another pipe dream.

http://emra.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=1201

spook · Post by **spook** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 5:46 pm

They should make it interesting and make a cross-over by going 6-11 and 7-12

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Wed Sep 14, 2011 8:18 pm

That would be seriously redneck! I love it!!

sickle44 · Post by **sickle44** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 11:40 am

That looks a helluvalot like Mosport out in the east which they say is an incredibly fast track as well, are they going to make a tighter section too or would that be in the next three years of so after the first three years? So three years then eh; I don't suppose I'll have too many excuses for not having a bike prepped by that time Jon? LOL chukle chuckle

Big Jon · Post by **Big Jon** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 4:50 pm

No tighter section. They may look at upgrading after a while to get Indy approval, but for now they figure they can do this for $3mill, and Indy approval would triple that cost. If you want the tight stuff, there's still Stratotech.

sickle44 · Post by **sickle44** » Fri Sep 16, 2011 10:57 pm

That'd be awesome to get indy out there though for sure.

Stratotech's just a bit too tight for most all machines though. It'd be great to run a 125cc two stoke class, or even four stroke 125's for shits'n'giggles. I still love the track, course, I can't speak with too much experience from my whole one day on it but...... 'sides, I thought they wre closin'r'down???

I'd still really like to get a smaller displacement bike to learn how to race first, then move up to the bigger machines on a track. The dudes in motoGP do it so I figure I should probably do something similar I guess eh?

EXUP Worldwide

Canuck races!

Round 6 in the books.