Heartland Park Race Review
June 16-18, 2006
Team Simone Racing has just returned from Heartland Park Topeka, in which attended the 3 day CCS/ASRA Event weekend. We arrived at the Track Wednesday night and had our pits setup by dark in preparation for Thursday practice. Weather conditions for the weekend were going to be hot, very hot, with possible rain on Saturday.
Practice on Thursday was pretty uneventful. This was our 2nd time on the HPT GP 2.5 Course Layout, and without knowing what the "fast" guys will be running this weekend, we took the day pretty easy. Out best times in Practice were in the 1:54 range, and we didn't have any idea if those times were good or bad.
Friday was the nicest day of the weekend for us with Temps in the low 90's, but we had 30+ MPH winds. We had one Race on Friday, GTU. By this time the "fast" guys had shown up and put down times in the 1:46-1:45 range, so now we had an idea of where we needed to be.
With new Michelin Tires mounted, the green flag flew for Expert GTU. Immediately our times went from 1:54 range to 1:49.1x range for the duration of the GTU Race. This was the first GT Race in which we were able to run consistent laps the entire race, without fatigue hitting us 3-4 laps from the finish like normal. Our continued endurance training had not only shaved 40lbs off, but also increased stamina and endurance for our racing. We would finish 5th and finally get our 1st Top 5 Expert finish in this race, something very exciting for us.
Races on Saturday were going to be good for us also. 1st race of the day was Unlimited SuperSport. We would run 1:49 laptimes in this race also, and finish 6th against the powerful 1000's. Things would start to go downhill for us after this race. Out next race Middleweight SuperSport we ran off course going into turn 1 when another rider crashed in front of us. We re-entered the track at a different spot, but waited until the field had re-passes us so we didn't increase our posistion in the field any. On the next lap we were meatballed for this, and had to serve a stop and go penalty, which would also kill our position. Still, even with running off track ,and a meatball flag we finished 15th out of a grid of 26 riders.
Our next race was Unlimited SuperBike, and we had an excellent launch in this race and we were battling for 4th place when our left rearset came lose from the bike and was hanging by the shifter. Pulling in to fix this issue gave us a last place finish of 10th in this race.
Our final race of the day was Middleweight SuperBike. This race would change the whole weekend for us. After an excellent launch we found ourselves in the top 10 quickly passing other bikes, moving up into 6th place. On the 3rd or 4th lap we lost all power in the engine and coasted off the track to be later retrieved by the crash truck. We lost compression in the #3 Cylinder, and currently the bike is on it's way to 4&6 in Chicago for assessment and repairs, hopefully to be back to us by Mid-America in two weeks.
Sunday was the final day of racing for us, and we were raced our "B" bike in our final race, Middleweight GP. Burning the midnight oil Saturday night to get the "B" bike ready we swapped Suspension, and bodywork. Running tires with 4 Practice Sessions and 7 Sprints we had major traction issues in our MWGP Race. Plus, running Stock Rubber Brake lines, and stock pads, made Trail Braking difficult after the 4th lap when we started to lose braking feel. Still, we ran fast times for the first few laps in the 1:52 range, then started slowing down.
Overall we had an excellent weekend, and the TSR Team really pulled together on Saturday to ensure we had a race bike ready to go on Sunday. TSR want's to give a special thanks to Super Dave for you help in getting our broken motor to 4&6 for repair, Smoken Joe for helping us get the motor out of the bike and ready to go.
See everyone at MAM in two weeks...
