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Our off season from the end of November 2009 to March 2010 was used to revamp our bike, Snappy. We spent a lot of time on the Dyno with the help of American Harley-Davidson of Ann Arbor and Brighton Harley-Davidson of Brighton, Michigan. They did a fantastic job on getting our power band to where it needed to be. We’re ready to go racing! |
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Team Half Fast starts the season with a BANG! And Mother Nature Wins 2 Years in a Row at AMRA Season Opener in Bowling Green, Kentucky! |
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March 2010. What a weekend! It was great to see old friends and new, but Mother Nature once again had other plans when it came to racing on Sunday! Saturday was beautiful—it was a warm 75 degrees or higher all afternoon and we just drank in the sun as we went through time trials and qualifying. Our first run in the morning was in the mildly chilly mid-50s, and we were breaking in a new tire so we had to take |
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it a bit carefully. Thankfully we did, because it got squirrelly off the line and Chip had to shift 2nd pretty quick in order to keep the bike in the lane. That run was a throwaway –only managing a 14.246 second pass!
For our second run during the Time Trials, we stepped it up a bit and Chip ran an 11.375—confirming that we had plenty of power for the 11.50 “SE” class. Now all we had to do is speed it up a bit for the 10.90 class and de-tune a bit for SE. For our first qualifying run of the day in the 11.50 class, we slowed it down too much and ran an 11.748—probably not good enough to make the field. We tried a couple of things and was able to run an 11.463 for our next pass—but that was in the 10.90 class. Just a little riding finesse on Chip’s part, and we’d be real close to the 11.50 for SE.
The next run was for “E” class, so Chip concentrated on getting the number closer to 11.50 in preparation for the SE run. He ran an 11.528—FANTASTIC! The next run was to be for SE, and he was ready. He did even better! He ran an 11.522, putting us solidly in the SE field. We were ready to go rounds!
The next pass down the quarter mile was for PE—the 10.90 class. So we planned to run it as fast as Half Fast could go. Unfortunately, the engine blew up before we got to the finish line. It was probably going to be an 11.20 pass or so. As it was, even though he was only coasting at the finish line, we clocked 119.22 mph—the fastest of the entire day—and 11.366 seconds.
Thankfully, no one was hurt. The pieces that granaded from the bike (most notably, both spark plugs) didn’t hit anyone and they were never found. No oil leaked to under the tires to cause Chip to lose control of the bike; no oil got on the brake; everything that could have happened when it blew didn’t. Chip was fine. He walked the bike back to the pits.
We knew we were done for the weekend. We did not know the full extent of the damage until after we got the bike back home. We put a slide show together of the damage as we tore the bike down. You can see the slide show here (just wait for it to load—when you see the arrowed play button, press it to view the slide show).
As it turns out, even though we were out for the weekend, not all was “lost”. Race day Sunday met us with cold rain that would prove the downfall of the event—we were rained out for the 2nd year in a row! We really looked forward to the June event—depending, of course, on how the bike would fare.
We look forward to seeing our friends again in June here at Bowling Green’s Beechbend Raceway Park. Look for more updates on our Main Gallery Page for more information.
See you at the track! |
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