Got my first win of the year last night. We had a strong headwind the whole night. The day featured a corvette spinning out at the finish line. A mustang into the wall right after the start and A bike in the air at the starting line. All will live to race another day. Merlin came up 1 round short of making it into the finals with me. I know he wants A rematch!
Ahhh what a night it was very eventful! Here's we go Merlin's WND 9.23.2020 report
Compared to the last time I set out for WND the weather was great no much if any smoke. I usually stop here if I need a break and check the trailer out.
Before WND there was this group filming McMalarens ripping around the track. They had a lot of fancy gear!
The police came by to see what was going on. They wouldn't let him run I guess because he got too much stuff hangin off his bike and not enough protective gear. Too bad I wanted to race a police bike haha! It would have been great if he used the lights and sirens.
Sean sold the Ninja and brought a Ducati he got for $1000, glad it held together. He was having problems with the fueling.
Bikes
This dude popped a wheelie so high and slammed his SV650 hard. They're trying to fix it in this picture. He managed to get it going again and did a couple more passes.
It was windy the WHOLE night except towards the end of the racing. It was a headwind and some time a crosswind. It was really unpredicatable but it was so strong at time. Check out the flag flying straight!
Saw this sweet Datsun 510 there, DATSLOCOS! I didn't get a look at the engine but someone said it was rockin a SR20DET
Light Bee topping off on electrons
OK let's get the reporting part. So I get there and eat my spring rolls because I'm super hungry and unload the Light Bee. The setup was the same as the supermoto race. Yes this bike was stomping on mini bike at the Shasta Kart track on the pavement and in the dirt during the weekend and 3 days later it's back out racing down the strip. How much more versatile does it get? It also took home 2 2nd place trophies for the 2 classes I raced with it. So yeah I installed the 48T sprocket on it and from the 42T so I knew I'm in for a wild ride tonight! There was still dirt on the chain and wheel from the dirt section! HAH. I had it set to max 16,000watts power, 430A motor current, and 40% field weakening.
So first practice run. Its superwindy and a headwind so not much chances of going faster. I run a 18.393 @ 60.82mph with a RT .145. Not bad 18s is what my Light Bee should be running. No drama pretty decent launch and it made it without any hiccups. I'couple weeks ago I was plagued with some cutting out issues but I finally iron'd it out btw the bike was solid the whole night, completed each pass without any hiccups!
1st pass:
RT-------0.145
60'------2.578
330'-----6.862
660'-----10.888
MPH-----57.79
1000'----14.796
ET-------18.393
MPH-----60.82
Second pass it looks like the wind has picked up even more. I was feeling a little weird during the launches like I was kind of asleep, not warmed up yet but hey I'm doing alright. Probably worse run of the night double the reaction time and slower by like 0.3seconds.
2ndpass:
RT-------0.261
60'------2.519
330'-----6.814
660'-----10.909
MPH-----56.77
1000'----14.946
ET-------18.629
MPH-----59.96
OK so something interesting happens for the 3rd pass. I got my BEST TIME ever! I dont' know what happened but at the 1/8 mile the bike started pulling hard. Could be because I fully charged the battery or the wind stopped blowing for a second. But it crosses the finish at 17.975! I finally did it I broke into the 17s with the Light Bee. I knew it was only a matter of time and that time is now! So I can say 17 second Light Bee, not bad for a 125lb electric dirt bike! It was definitely faster because it crossed at 67.52mph I was really surprised because there was the headwind, was not expecting that! So I'm super happy with that!
3rd pass:
RT-------0.054
60'------2.498
330'-----6.743
660'-----10.726
MPH-----59.02
1000'----14.518
So I'm super happy I got my fastest ever time with this bike however.... I'm all over the place and eliminations is starting. Tonight there weren't a lot of cars until later they just kept trickling in. We had so many track mishaps with mustangs crashing into walls, fishtailing corvettes, and looping SV650s.
So first race I raced against James (I think that was his name) with the ZX14. I don't know what I'm gonna dial it's super windy though so we probably won't run a 17 again. So I figure the FASTEST we ran before the 17.975 was a 18.3. So I'll give myself a little breathing room and dial a 18.2. So I dial in 18.20. HERE WE go!
HadesOmega
DIAL----18.20
RT-------0.173
60'------2.503
330'-----6.807
660'-----10.860
MPH-----57.72
1000'----14.729
So the ZX14 took off before the light turned green and red lit. So I immediately win. My dial was pretty though .091 off and a decent reaction time.
2ND ROUND!
The next round I raced CJ Mattos. I know CJ from the Supermoto races, we don't race against each other because he rides fast bikes haha but I've heard of him a lot. He raced against Joe the 1st round and lost but they messed up his dial so they resurrected him. So here we go round 2!
I stuck with 18.20 because I did pretty good with that. Little dangerous I'm getting close but I roll with it. I run a 18.265 which is .065 off not bad and my RT is great .075. CJ dials 11.35 and run 11.712 with a RT of .233. I win the race by 0.4452!
So it's an uneven number of racers so they give me the bye run, I think there were 5 of us left. so here we go and it's really unexpected check this out!
3RD Round
DIAL----18.20
RT-------0.035
60'------2.559
330'-----6.805
660'-----10.821
MPH-----58.23
1000'----14.670
ET-------18.209
MPH-----61.55
I won by default
So I probably run my best pass ever. Dialed in 18.20 again and ran 18.209 which is .009 off! RT was 0.035 really good! Wish I was racing against someone because that'd be hard to beat!!! I also got on this list 3rd best package!
OK SEMI FINAL! So down to 3 racers it's Me, Joe, and Matt with the Z900. I already had the bye run so I can't get it again. So we're trying to figure out who get's the bye run so Matt and Joe paper rock scissors for it. Joe wins so he get's the bye run and I race Matt with the Z900. So I dial in lucky 18.20 again because I did so good. However I suppose I got greedy with that last run and mother nature gave me a push.
I BROKE OUT! Hah I ran that 18.20 for so long and closer and closer to it. But it's really strange I ran faster because my state of charge was like 70% now, my bike should be getting slower as the night goes along not faster. It turns out what I think happened is the wind died down enough to give me a little push. I broke out by a full tenth of a second, giving Matt the win. So close to meeting Joe in the final. My reaction time was ok at 0.186 but nothing to brag about. Matt ran a .233 reaction time. He dialed in 12.35 and ran a 12.386 off by .036 seconds so he did pretty well. He said he messed up the launch too. Good job Matt, I think if I hadn't of broken out I could have gotten him but oh well that's racing.
So Joe and Matt face off in the final and JOE WINS! Joe dialed in 9.38 and ran a 9.516, giving him a difference of 0.135. His RT was 0.120.
Matt dials in 11.90 and runs a 12.086 giving him a difference of 0.186. He had a RT of 0.268 nearly double of Joe's RT. And with that Joe takes the win and the 1st place trophy, congrats Joe!
Merlin, I am sincerely grateful for your quality WND write-ups. My job change makes it nearly impossible for me to get out there these days. I used to almost never miss a night. That will soon change back again but in the meantime thank you for doing such a good job in describing what I missed and in such an entertaining way. You rock, my friend.:thumbup
Great showing last night, I think we had 17 or 18 bikes. The weather was not too bad and there was a small car count. If you got there early you had about 5 practice runs before eliminations. Started off slow for me, the first run was a wheelie right after the start and the next 2 runs I spun a little off the line. Eliminations started and I didn't have much confidence going in. I had been making runs in the 9.40 to 9.45 range and get through the first 2 round. The third round I get the bye ( single run)and pop off a 9.334. Now I make it into the finals and have do decide what to dial, stick with the 9.40's that I had been using or go on the last 9.334 run? I end up dialing the 9.33 and I am facing Shaun on the Ducati and he dial 12.60. The race starts and I get a terrible .127 reaction time to Shaun's near perfect .003. I again spin a little off the line but I'm going all out to try and catch him. The rest of the run feels great but I just can't get by him at the finish. Wait, my win light comes on and instantly I figure Shaun must have broken out. To my surprise it is a double break out! I go a 9.326 on my 9.33 dial and Shaun goes 12.592 on his 12.60 dial. I break out by 4 thousandths and I get the win because I broke out less. Shaun breaks out by 8 thousandths. My margin of victory is .0047! After a 1/4 mile that is all that separated us.
Only 4 Wednesday nights left, next Wednesday the 14th is the next race.
Wow congtats Joe. I'm in Oregon right now I'll try and come down battle it out with you guys when I get back. Rode about 1400 miles on dirt and paved roads so far.
Wow congtats Joe. I'm in Oregon right now I'll try and come down battle it out with you guys when I get back. Rode about 1400 miles on dirt and paved roads so far.