I would much rather just skip this post, but you have to take the good with the bad and it wouldn’t be fair to only ever post happy stories. Enough foreshadowing.
My new motor blew during break-in on the dyno and we scrambled to get it fixed with two days to spare, which we did. Sort of. I took Thursday and Friday off to safety-wire and prep the bike and haul everything down to Buttonwillow for Friday practice. The day started off good with the bike running strong. I was down to 2:02s almost immediately and was working on suspension and geometry for the new Pirelli tires, but I began to notice that the bike didn’t want to idle and *seemed* to be losing power.
My first thought was maybe some bad fuel, so I siphoned the tank, put fresh fuel in and headed out for a few more sessions. The bike died coming off track on the last session and I had to push into the paddock. I thought maybe I ran out of fuel but that wasn’t the case. Also the entire left side of the bike was covered in oil, even to the point of soaking the rear wheel.
Zoran had an o-ring for a torn countershaft seal and after cleaning up the bike I was ready to head out again but the bike wouldn’t start. Would. Not. Start.
I messed with it for a few hours and finally begged Zoran to come over and take a look. He spent a few hours with me going through the carbs and electrical system until finally pulling the front valve cover off and discovering that there was no clearance on the intake valves, which meant collapsed valves or seats. DAMN!
After a fitful night’s sleep we packed up early Sunday morning and made the Drive of Shame home.
So that’s it. Zero points for round one and most likely any chance of a championship. We just may be done with this.