Blackhawk Farms Race Review
May 28-29, 2005
Team Simone Racing just returned from Rockton, IL, the hometown of Blackhawk Farms Raceway, just south of the Wisconsin Border. This weekend is a Mid-West only event and not in our primary Great Plains region, so it is more for addition seat time, suspension setup and just to have some fun. The weekend would start great, and end rough with a failed TPS (Throttle Body Position Sensor) failing on Sunday, which would put the TSR R6 out of commission for our final 3 races on Sunday.
We arrived at Blackhawk very early Saturday morning. We pulled in, flipped on the heat, generator, and slid the slide out and hit the bed. Saturday morning included standard Registration and Technical Inspections, and our only 2 practice session we would get before our 1st race. It has been over one year since our last BHF visit, and now in addition, we are on a totally new bike.
Just for reference, our last visit in 2005 was on our 2004 R1, and our best lap times then was in the 1:21.xx second range. Saturday morning practice was very good, and we had immediate changes to make to both gearing, and suspension setup. After a few critical changes we felt we had a very good machine, and was ready for our 1st race. With practice times in the 1:17.xx range, we felt pretty good, and still had some work to do to get to our hopeful goal of 1:12.xx range by the end of the weekend.
As we progressed thru our races we would find ourselves finishing mid-pack in our races. We would secure an 18th place finish in Middleweight GP, 15th in Middleweight GTU, and our best finish of the day in Unlimited Super Sport in 9th position. Sunday would be a whole new day for us, with a full nights sleep (as opposed to less than 4) and the weather which was excellent (Sunny and high 60's) on Saturday was going to be even better for Sunday.
Sunday practice started out the same as Saturday with lap times in the 1:15.0x - 1:15.1x Range, lap after lap. This would be our operating range for Sunday with 3 Laps in the 1:14.7x - 1:14.9x Range in the Unlimited Super Bike Race on Sunday morning, in which we would finish 7th place.
Our next race was Middleweight Super Sport, and this would be our finial race of the weekend. On the starting grid the R6 shut its self off as we saw the #3 board turn into a #2. After 4 re-starts we were able to get the bike to run and launch, however we had serious issues (on-board video footage would also confirm this) and on lap 6 we lost all power to the bike and coasted off the track.
Once we had the bike in the pits and taken apart we found out that we had a failed TPS Sensor on the Throttle Body. This ended our weekend as we did not have a spare and could not find one to buy or use in the pits...
Since this TSR has purchased a 2nd new 2006 R6 which we are going to prepare as our Rain Bike/Backup Race bike in the event of additional failures to our primary duty bike which could prevent us from racing.
Team Simone Racing is heading to Heartland Park Topeka this Saturday for a Sportbike Track Time Track day in which we are going to be a Race Instructor for new Racers and Track Day Riders. We look forward to throwing our new R6 and soon to be fixed Race R6 into some corners this weekend at HPT.
