RACE RECAP – ASRA PITTRACE MAY 2025, ROUND 1 ASRA MIDWEST SERIES
PittRace is my favorite track I’ve ever ridden, and I’ve been looking forward to this weekend all winter. This is my fourth time here. I’ve gone from 2:11 -> 2:03 -> 2:01.7. This is back of the pack expert pace, but I’ve been able to find people to race with in the two rounds here last year. A bigass group of us rode out from WI/IL. I think 7 race bikes, 10 people. Realistically I’m heading into this wanting to hit 2:00’s. Optimistically, I am not actually going to leave happy unless I hit 1:59’s. 54-53’s were the times the winners were pulling last year–but as PatricksDad alluded to, things change a bit when someone like Chapin and the #888 of Alex show up.
Oh, I’m also planned to be riding a stint on the endurance bike in the 2 hour on the RS660.
Bike
This is only the second weekend on the engine rebuild. It ran flawlessly at CMP. I told myself if it makes it through Pitt unscathed, I’m calling it good. Engine ran fine. It’s good. *Caveat to that later–but it’s not an engine issue.
Plan
I’m not slow because I lack balls to brake late. In fact reviewing other people’s video and my race data, I think I’m compromising my speed by trying to brake too late and losing too much roll speed because I don’t know how to handle it. Additionally, I am absolutely not getting close enough to the curbs. If I just get closer to the curbs and don’t change a single thing from 2024, I’m in the 2:00’s. Practice I had a plan to run no lap timer, set the front Rebound and Compression to 1.75 turns out on the gsxr carts, leave the 600# rear spring alone with 12.5mm preload, and just go ride and try to get as close to the curbs as I can. Get comfortable with it.
Practice
It’s cold. We were in the 40s until the afternoon when it reached into the 50s. I’m on my 4 race weekend-old front and CMP rear. It doesn’t matter because I am not putting a lap timer on. I had the discipline to toss lap times and ego out and probably ran 2:10-15 the whole time just trying to run my shoulder over every curb. I know I can turn it on later when we get to racing. But if I’m not comfortable running over those things, I’m not going to go significantly faster.
The practice was a bit of a shitshow. Evolve held the racer practice but also mixed track day riders into the three sessions. 3 Sessions split all EX+AM Lightweight/ULW, all EX+AM Middlweight/Heavyweight, all AM Middlweight/Heavyweight. The issue is they sprinkled track day riders in all the groups–with the vast majority of them in the LW group. So you’ve got expert level racers practicing and giving absolutely no breaks to some lost track day riders scaring the shit out of them. A lot more incidents than there should have been. I realize Evolve’s gotta make money–so I don’t fault them for getting track day riders out there. But cut all of our sessions by 5 minutes and add a fourth TD-only group to the rotation. I heard every single person complaining about this.
RS660 Practice
I’m slated to be one of three of us riding Bruce’s RS660 during the endurance race. He gives me an opportunity to ride the 660 in the last practice session. I’ve never been on track on a bike more powerful than my ~70HP SV650. To say the 660 feels different is quite the understatement. Jesus christ it’s like a completely different type of machine altogether. The things that struck me were just how much more raw and purpose-built it felt. The major thing I did not get used to in the 20 minute session was the Throttle-by-Wire. Jesus christ it’s like powering a space machine in comparison. It’s so foreign. I almost launched the bike through my legs and myself off the seat accidently ripping it to full throttle on the T12 to T13 transition! It’s also so tall. It has all the electronic goodies (autoblip wasn’t working). It had a quickshifter that was a bit rough. It also had a slipper clutch that I’ve never used before. Going into T1 the first time out, I didn’t realize I was actually downshifting–I’m so used to the positive feedback on my SV that I wasn’t sure I was actually bringing the 660 lever up far enough–there’s no knock. I looked at the dash and I was in first gear rolling like 40mph. Glad I didn’t let the clutch out. I never opened full throttle, I never got a knee down–I was just trying to get used to the alien machine. It has so much more power. They said the stopwatch clocked me at 2:02’s for the last two laps at start finish.
Saturday – Qualifying
Another cold morning in the high 30s when we woke up. Sunny, but cold. First qualifying is maybe 50 degrees. I put a new front tire on. Third lap out I hit a 2:01.25. I was just hoping for a 2:03. I was good with this. Second qual I did not improve. It was shortened and I only took 2 laps at speed.
Endurance Race – 2HR
Chuck only got his first laps on this bike in the second qualifying for ~10 minutes. He’s a very accomplished current middleweight expert on his 636. It makes the most sense for him to start since I’m still not used to the controls and feel of an actual race bike. Second stint is usually the calmest, and I’ll be able to settle in after ~5 laps and I’m certain run consistent ~2:00s. However, we’ve talked and I’ve made it extremely clear–if my pace isn’t up to snuff and we have a shot–get us to the fuel window and bring me in. Put Bruce on the thing. Bruce is an even more accomplished racer and it’s his bike. The only reason he isn’t starting the race is because it’s his first time here.
We’re 45 minutes in, Chuck is comfortable and flying hitting some 56’s. It dawns on us that if he can get this thing passed the 65 min mark, we can one stop it. We’re running top 3 overall–not just lightweight. We’re 1-stopping this, so I get bounced from the rotation. We have a chance to win. So now I’m gasman. I think we brought it in at the exact right time. We had maybe 1 lap of fuel left if published capacity numbers are correct. Bruce puts in an awesome stint and finishes the caution free race. We take P2 in class, 20 seconds off race winner.
It sucks to have not gotten to race in this one, but Chuck just rode too damn well that he put us into a spot we had to try to 1-stop it.
Saturday – LWSS
I’m starting 5th. If you guys have ever seen one of my videos, you know I’m the worst starter on the grid. Pitt is weird because it’s downhill, so you kind of have to put a foot in front of you to keep the bike from rolling forward. Lights go out and I get an awesome jump. I get to the outside lane where I know I can push around T1 where people overslow things, and I actually made it into turn 3 in P3. Those spots start disappearing when we get to the straightaway, but that was sweet while it lasted! Bruce gets me on his 660 on the second or third lap along with another 660. I ended up bringing it to the line in P5 with a best 2:00.6. Not a bad start.
Sunday – GTL
GTL is usually my favorite race of the weekend. I want to do well in this one. Starting P10, and there are a lot of bikes on this grid. A bad start buries you. I get a pretty decent start and hold position going into turn 3. I’m outside which will quick turn me inside T4 if I hold it next to a very fast but very erratic rider on a 400. This guy is extremely talented, but we’ve all been seeing him running like a jackass all practice and I know he already sent a woman on another SV650 into the dirt the previous day. I know for a fact if I go inside of him, he’s going to turn into me. I’m prepared for it, but GTL is a long race, so I let him go by and follow him for a lap. First lap from standing start is a 2:01.X. I follow the erratic dude into turn 3 trying to outbrake someone he was not nearly close enough to outbrake. I watch him go right into the grass. I never want to see someone crash, but I can’t confirm nor deny if I was smiling under my helmet that I didn’t have to deal with that shit for the rest of the race. This and the next lap I ran nearly identical 1:58.4-5s. The first three laps were the best laps I’ve ever run on a motorcycle.
Pitt has 3 spots that require 3 downshifts from 6th to 3rd gear. I really, really struggle to hit these in time. And if I don’t hit them perfectly, I miss one and have to abort the full speed turn. I just couldn’t hit all three every time on every corner of the remaining laps. With how I was starting to slide on the rear, I just settled into 2:00-2:01s and finished out the race. Think it was P7 to finish. I started running out of gas on the cooldown lap.
Sunday – ASRA Thunderbike 10 lap
This is ASRA’s first weekend of instituting a sighting lap in addition to a warmup lap for their four “ASRA” branded national races. I was not a fan of this. However, I was probably the first big beneficiary of it. We had packed my bike with fuel since I thought i was running out of fuel at the end of GTL. Well… turns out, when I tried to deliver power to the bike at lean, I was chunking power and the tach was just dropping. The extra lap gave me more time to confirm that this probably wasn’t just something in the fuel system that was going to work itself out. I just couldn’t give gas in turns. It sucks, but I pulled off instead of taking the starting grid, and that was it for my races.
I pulled off thinking it was something that got sucked into my fuel system. But after showing the video to a mechanic friend, he’s pretty certain it’s electrical and that something is likely shorting or loose. It could be the kickstand switch, a coil connection, battery connection… something. This is not too unlike the issues I had at Daytona (that was way worse though) that led me to rebuild the engine. Well, it’s either fuel or spark. So I’ve got some work ahead of me to get this resolved before next round at Blackhawk in early June.
Watch the tachometer to see what I’m talking about. It’s jarring when you’re on the bike. If anyone has ideas, please let me know.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, the only video my gopro managed to not corrupt was the Thunderbike race I pulled off for. Which just really sucks. I’ll have to double check that the LWSS race didn’t work correctly, but I know the GTL didn’t, and that was the one I most wanted. So I don’t think I’ll be making a video recap of this one. Wish I could. That race was so awesome.
The 1:58’s never felt out of control at all. I still had a lot of safety margin in my riding there. The spot I was giving up a visible second to the really fast 400 kids was the water tower 180 degree turn at the end of the track. If I can clean that up, I can hit 57s next year, especially with a new tire.
So I crushed my goal, and yet I still feel wanting more. Because I see how fast those kids are on those N400s and CF450s. Oh well. When I’m not wanting to improve, that’ll probably be when the risk no longer outweighs the reward. And we’re nowhere near there now.
