Well, in the end, the results will have to wait another month as this month was filled with rain....or was it?  The forecast going into the weekend was continuation of the heavy rains SoCal has been 'blessed' with for the previous week.  This year is proving unusually rainy with something like 15" of rain already received!  For reference, we have not only exceeded out annual rainfall in 1.5 months, but we have far exceeded the totals for Seattle, WA...not good!!

 

In any event, with the poor forecast came a surprisingly positive reaction from the rider as Vince was anxious to get out, see the boys,and find out how those cut slicks from last October's 250/50 were going to work out.  So, confident the chance for dry conditions was 0%, the team mounted up the cut slicks, left the spare set of wheels and slicks at home and headed up to Rosamond.

 

Not feeling overly anxious to get completely drenched, the team opted to head up on Saturday, forgoing Saturday practice in lieu of staying dry as possible.  Rolling into the track around 2pm, it was raining a light drizzle as we unloaded the van and setup the pit.  Since none of our other comrades was brave enough to tempt fate in the rainy conditions, we settled into a bit of revelry with the boys.

 

Sunday morning dawned, as expected, wet and drizzling.  Then, something very unexpected happened: it stopped raining.  Kharma!  Of course, since all we had was our old, shagged, cut slicks, it stopped raining and it didnt rain one more drop before the completion of our race.  This was going to make for some sketchy conditions since the tires were of completely non-confident stock.  Eek.

 

Vince decided to head out for the second of the morning's warmups to make sure the motor still spun and get a bit of a feel for the tires before lining up for the race.  A red flag brought everyone in after only a couple laps, but with a quick cleanup we were able to put in 5-6 laps and everything seemed OK.  The pace was really slow, Vince only managing high :40's with damp conditions still present, a motor that needed to be fully broken in, and a rider on very uncertain tires!

 

With class competitor Ulrich out on business, Vince gridded up 3rd; a pretty major improvement from the last round.  Unfortunately, it made for a slightly less thrilling race.  As the flag dropped, Vince got an absolutely cracking start and it was a drag race with pacesetter Watts to the first corner.  With the track completely dry at this point, and essentially the whole field on slicks - including Watts - it was the Willow specialist into T1 first from Vince.  With caution playing the better part of valour, Vince let the faster rider go without much fuss, so it came as a bit of a surprise when it wasnt until the beginning of L2 that young Brad Adams did his typical 'fly-by' on the front straight.  Adams' late model TZ, combined with his slight build, is the only explanation for the sheer speed that guys got on us.  We'll need to work on something double-secret if we expect to bed able to run with the young gun.  Although Adams is certainly no slouch as a pilot, his bike has got to be pumping out an addtional 10HP on the Möbius machine; that's a tough combo to combat!

 

With third place in question, Vince took a glance back coming out of T9 on L3 to see what was going on behind.  Bad move.  A slightly open visor - to combat fogging in the cool but humid conditions - meant that the visor flung wide open at 100+mph going down the front straight.  When Vince slammed the visor back down, he inadvertently lost the venting and the next lap was reported as a little hazy since the fog became a bit of a problem.  It was quite interesting, and more than a little nail-biting, to watch our man head into T8 at 140mph with one hand fussing with the visor to try and get some extra airflow!  We will also credit this snafu with Vince losing 3rd coming out of T9 on L5 as the 2004 model TZ of #164 powered by the Möbius effort.  Unphased, Vince settled in behind the other pilot for a lap and half before making a move going into T3.  Lining up on the outside, Vince outbraked the #164 bike and eased up the hill and past back into 3rd.  With two laps to go, Vince put his head down, crossed his toes, and laid down his two fastest laps of the race, albeit still only at 1:30.  In the end, it was to be 3rd place and the suspect tires proved to be no problem all race long. 

 

So, from 3rd to 3rd isn't quite as exciting as last month but it consolidates 3rd overall in the class championship.  We also have next month to look forward to evaluating our recent suspension adjustments and we might stick the bike back on the dyno to see how it stacks up and also test some new VP fuel.  Stay tuned....