|
End of season race for David Podolsky |
|
|
|
|
Posted by Dave from ChickenHawk Racing
|
|
Tuesday, 06 November 2007 |
By David Podolsky
A racing season is quite an endurance test. Most of the effort is pushing to be ready in
between and before races, not just on the track. The race is the enjoyable part; the work is getting everything ready
before the flag.
This year we had no real option to chase points and garner a Championship the traditional way because we only received our Ducati
1098S after the start of the season. We had to go for being victorious at the
Winner-Take-All event at the end of the season; The AMA Grand Championship at
Mid-Ohio. We’d had some luck at this event in past, winning
Championships in the Light Weight classes, but the victory on the Big Twin had
eluded us, and we’d been So close on more than one occasion. This year I also had two bikes, the 1098S of course, and a
Tig-Craft Chassis single powered by a Yamaha 426 motor.
The Mini Mono, as we affectionately call her, is very fast
in the turns and stops great. Weighing
in at 215 lbs with about 55-58 HP, the thing  looks exactly like a 125GP
bike. I really enjoy racing it and I
get some extra track time during the weekend. The higher corner speeds also help me to go faster into the turns on
the big Ducati.
Checking out lap times from the previous year, I felt we had
a shot at seeing the checkered flag first. It seemed a 1:36 took the win last year and I figured we could beat that
mark.
Unfortunately, so could a few other riders and as we began
the timed practice sessions it was apparent we were gonna have a real race on
our hands. Not only were there several strong
mid-west riders on Ducati 999s, but also some other riders who all had
1:35s within reach. Right across from
me was a 14 year old kid, Tyler Odum from California, also on a 1098. Tyler was racing 3 different bikes and
flying on all of them. He also crashed two
of them and kept his father and pit crew busy.
I had long–time Chicken Hawk Racing Crew Chief, Erik
Madsen, with me which made getting the gearing, tire selection, and suspension
set-up a lot easier.
We hadn’t had to make a suspension change in two days as
everything was working fine. A month before
I had gotten knocked out cold racing; I was getting faster as I got more
comfortable opening the throttle a bit harder. Erik must have changed the gearing at least twice.
Things were moving in the right direction as I got going and
lap times started to fall. I was in the
first 4 or 5 after each timed practice. I saw 36’s in practice and knew we could run 35’s in the race. Tyler Odum was also doing 36’s in practice
and did one or two 35’s…………..hhmmm.
We put on new tires to scrub in before the race and went out
to practice some more. All of a sudden, when
entering turns, the front end had a chatter that was not there before. This is like a patter/patter/patter feeling
as the front tire skips across the pavement.
Checking things over we found we had NOT set the tire
pressure after having the tire mounted and it was 42lbs when the tire was hot
fresh off the track…..this is about 6 pounds too high for a hot tire. Assuming this simple over-sight was our
issue we dropped the pressure and got ready for the race.
 I had thought about how to play the race out and decided my basic
plan was to go really hard in the opening laps and see where things shook
out. I was good off the line and was 3rd
into turn one. I pushed hard and made a pass going
into the Key Hole and made another pass on the brakes after the long back
straight-away.
The lead was mine! That was the good news, the bad was the chatter was still with me. I tried to ignore it and figured it was
distracting but not really dangerous.
Plus Zero was Erik’s sign as I crossed the line after one
lap. Sure enough the teenager didn’t
wait long to make a pass and got by me on the second lap. “Relax”, I told myself, “ride behind him and
see where he is weak or strong". Problem was, he was pretty strong without any major
weaknesses and over the next two laps he was stretching his lead into 2
seconds or more. The more I pushed the
worse my chatter was and I was just trying to be smooth.
Next time around Plus Zero was the signal again! Scott Rosey was on a charge and made a pass
attempt but I closed the door. He tried
again and made it stick at the Chicane. I got him back on the brakes after the back straight. I knew that my Ducati had some motor on him, so he was
getting me in the tight stuff. “Must push harder – must keep corner speed UP!” I just ignored the chatter and started pushing not wanting to give him
another chance.
There are some real up/down undulating sections at Mid-Ohio
and one section is called “The Madness”.
As I threw the bike into the right at the bottom of the little hill the
front tire chattered and I actually heard it squeal as it slid and the front
started to tuck. “I’m crashing, I’m
crashing” I thought as my right side foot-peg and rear brake lever were
dragging on the ground.
I think between the foot-peg and my knee some weight came
off the bike and miraculously the front tire gained traction and I stood the bike
back up. Of course this allowed Scott
to drive right by. Startled and glad to
be on two wheels I thought “Third place is good”.
And that was how we finished. When the race was over I saw that young Tyler had gotten down to
the 1:33's and knew that was not within my reach on this weekend. He did well in several other races too.
When we got home and took the front end apart we discovered
that a bushing in our otherwise wonderful Ohlins suspension had broken in two
and was the culprit.
I guess that I should be glad that young Tyler was there to
win after all, because I was really racing for 2nd place.Had it not been for him I
would have felt that the broken bushing might have cost me the Championship.
We did have consolation in that we did win the Lightweight
Superbike classes we entered aboard the Mini Mono in dominating style and came
away with two AMA National
Championships.
We’ll keep the articles coming as we test some new parts and
get down to Florida for some off-season testing.
As so many fans say after the season is over “you just wait
till next year!”
David Podolsky is sponsored by: Chicken Hawk
Racing, Michelin, Ducati NA, Catalyst Composites, Seacoast Sport Cycle, Rev It
Leathers, Shoei, Sidi, Speedy Moto, FuelCel, Yoyodyne, Sportbike Track Time and
Madsen Engineering.
|
