The streak continues!
At OMRRA, the 250GP bike is eligible for the 250GP class and the 750 Super Bike class. The day ran late, and by the time we were loaded up to go home, the final results for the 750 class were no longer posted. I finished 10th in the morning heat race and probably finished near there in the 7-lap main event. This was my first race of the year at OMRRA. I prepared the bike with great care since I replaced the crankshaft with a rebuilt one for maintenance reasons. I put in brand new pistons and did the proper heat cycles on them. The bike should have been ready to run strong and reliable.
I warm up the bike and head out for morning practice. The track seemed fine, and the bike was pulling strong. On the second lap I was running into turn 1 wide open. When I chopped the throttle to start my braking, the bike made an awful sound as the motor was coming to a stop and quickly I might add. Crap, my bike was seizing...or something worse! I pulled in the clutch, raised my hand to signal other riders I was slowing, and coasted to the next turn. I was bummed; the bike was full of "new" parts. It turns out that Ferazza had the same failure a lap later in the same turn!
We eventually make it back to the pits. My races were third from last and last, so luckily I had time to work on the bike. I pulled the heads, and the top piston had seized. Terry Powell helped me run around and get the cylinder fixed by borrowing some acid to melt the aluminum the piston left and a quick hone to clean the cylinder walls. I put a used piston and ring with 186 miles on it back in the bike...the piston I had just taken out when I did the crank. When I was refilling the bike with water, it took on A LOT more than what I had taken out. This was probably the cause of the problem. When I had rebuilt the motor, I must not have gotten all the air out of the cooling system, even with three heat cycles. The other culprit could have been the upper reed cage leaking air. I fixed that too just in case!
It was an awesome day. 80+ degrees, sunny, and a light wind. I got a great start for the 4-lap heat race and led from start to finish. I was turning some good laps in the 1:13 and 1:14 range. I won the heat race and was on the pole position for the main event, which was the last race of the entire day. I had a good race in 750 Super Bike which I used mainly for track time. I had a 10-lap gap between that race and my 250GP race. I topped off the fuel and drank some water. Janet and Kyla were here today cheering me on. I was ready to go win a race!
I got an okay start, but had to "double clutch" to keep the revs up. I still got off the line first, but my momentum and speed off the line would be down. My hunch was right. Going into turn 1, Ferazza showed a tiny bit of wheel, but he didn’t push it and try to make it stick. It’s not worth it on the first corner on the first lap anyway! Well, I knew Joe would be on my tail, so I pushed hard. I had a couple of moments as my tires were sliding a little in turns 3 and turn 9, but I managed to keep the bike in line. By the third lap of this seven lap race, I was already into traffic from the Open Super Sport wave of racers who started ahead of 250GP. I passed someone going into turn 1, going around the outside in turn 3 and making it stick into turn 4, and out-braking them into turn 7 on "almost" every lap it seemed. I was doing pretty good getting around people, and I must say the people I was passing were doing a great job of holding their lines! I got the white flag and worked my tail off to one, not crash, and two, win the race. As you may have already guessed, I won! I got down to 1:13.13 times which was better than my previous best time of 1:15.35.
Had there not been any traffic, Ferazza and I probably would have been running a lot closer, but all things considered, it was a great race! It was great thanking all my sponsors at the end of the day and picking up my $90 check for the win!
My racing could not be possible without the help of my family, friends, and sponsors.
I would like to thank:
I-90 Motorsports,
Sandro at Galfer,
Kristen at Motul,
Jon at White Brothers,
Terry at TPowell Photography,
Northwest Link for hosting this web site, and
Janet, my wonderful wife!
For other race reports, please see http://korygill.net/korygillracing-retro/racereports.html.
I hope you enjoyed my race report. If you have questions, comments, or want any specifics on my race setup or anything else, just ask.
Kory Gill
#150 AMA/WMRRA/OMRRA in 1998
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