Pat's TEAM Arizona Track Day Report

4/25/04 Firebird West - Chandler, AZ

Art and I have about 50 hours messing with my 996 and we still can’t get it to run. With 2 weeks to Vegas, we decide to take my street bike (2003 Ducati 999) and turn it into my temporary race bike. I have a 749R on order from BCM Ducati that should be here at the end of May. I am really looking forward to racing the 749R. I can do more races in a weekend being able to race middleweight and also the middleweight classes are the most competitive. When I had the 748 I gave up 20 to 30 horsepower to the new 600s. The R should have a little more than the 600s with a much better suspension.

On Tuesday I order race bodywork from Hotbodies. They have it in stock and with the racer discount the tab comes to $590 shipped to my door with fasteners included. The bodywork arrives on Friday as promised. I’m having a hard time finding a fairing bracket for the 999. All the usual places are out of stock. On Thursday I call BCM Ducati, they have one in stock for $150 and they Fedex it to me. I ask Michele to stay home all day to be there when the Fedex man arrives. My wife is on a first name basis with the UPS and Fedex men. In fact we know where the UPS man lives, if we miss him, I just go over to his house to get my race parts. I really hate when the credit card bills come in, I end up spending a lot more than I intend to (Ducati parts are not cheap).

We have all the parts needed to turn my street bike into a race bike. Art and Brian come over and we go at taking all the street stuff off. It takes Friday evening and most of Saturday to get everything done. Michele made Brian and I margaritas and they went down a little too easy. Tom comes by and we load up the bikes. Brian is not doing the track day. He says he has family commitments, I just don’t know where his priorities are.

We prefer to do the TEAM Arizona track days over the AZ Trackday’s events. At TEAM it seems to be more professional and more racer oriented and the people are much nicer. At AZ Trackday it seems like there are a bunch of kids with GSXR1000’s riding over their heads. AZ Trackday also seems to have a lot more riders per group and loud music playing throughout the day.

We get to the track early and pit with Allen and Phil and later Patrick B. joins us. We’re in the first group out on the track and the 999 is spinning up real bad at every corner exit. I decide to take off the Michelin H2’s and go to M2, S2 combo. I normally go with slicks but the Michelin guy was out of all but the softs. Second session the bike is still sliding pretty good at corner exits. Art and Gary reset the sag at the rear and the bike starts to hook up pretty good. I still have a hard time setting the bike up right. As usual, if I lack confidence in the bike I ask a local fast guy to ride my bike to help in the setup. Matt Hartleib is an expert racer who races AMA Supersport. Matt was able to help me with my 996 and then I dropped 4 seconds a lap. There is something about a fast guy saying the bikes fine you just need to ride the damn thing harder. Matt rides the whole session and is clearly the fastest guy on the track. He says everything is good to go. Gary and I decide to switch bikes for a session. Gary has a Kawasaki 636 that puts out about 120 horsepower. I’ve never ridden a bike that revs to 16,000 rpms. That 636 was very easy to ride. a lot lighter than a Ducati and faster than my 996.

The day is over and no crash damage to repair. The only thing I need to do before we leave on Thursday is get the bodywork painted and apply the numbers.

Thanks to Art and Brian for helping to get the bike ready. Thanks to Tom, Gary and Allen for the help at the track.

Pat Bushell

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