My First HPRA Competition
June 23/24 2001, Waterford Hills Race Course
Waterford, Michigan
John Foltz
Friday night it rained several times and it had me worried that things would be wet come race time, but no problem, everything dried out nicely. Saturday dawned mostly cloudy, just enough to keep things comfortably cool, and very little breeze. Good racing weather! Turnout was heavier than I remember from last year, with maybe 50 contestants in the various classes. There were 5 TriCORR members in attendance. I registered in the 'Super Street' class, which allows any amount of fairing as long as you don't have to move any panels to enter. A recent addendum to the rule is that cloth bodies are exempt from the moving panel clause, which was meant to place lycra body socks in a sub-streamliner class. As I found out later, a few people took full advantage of the variance and raced full cloth bodies that were stiffened to give almost the same speed advantage as a hard shell.
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The first event of the day was the toughie - the hour time trial. I got to watch first as the youth, women, and stock classes raced first. The start was a mass start from a stop. Some of the lowracers were pretty impressive as they whizzed around the 1.4 mile track. I didn't watch the whole thing, instead I grabbed a sandwich and drank what I could force down. Finally we were up - Super Stock (front fairing only), Super Street, and Streamliners together. I was in the second row, with the streamliners in the rear due to their expected slower acceleration. All told, a large field of competitors. Sorry, I was a bit busy and didn't take any pictures during my TT.
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Women, and Stock classes |
time trial for faired classes |
At the flag, the lowracer in front of me faltered and I almost ran over him. A quick dodge and I was off! I was down the straightaway and around the first two turns before checking my mirror. There was *nobody* behind me. I just tried to maintain as I floated through the next few easy curves. Then THE HILL. It didn't look that bad, and I suspect a well-trained rider on a good TT bike would be able to top it at 20 mph, but I was pushing for all I was worth to maintain 14. I knew I wouldn't be able to do that many more times. The backside was better - 27 mph down onto the long back stretch and through two 90 degree turns before the chicane, then looping back to the front straightaway. I was still doing almost 25 mph as I buzzed the stands; in fact, for all but one of my laps I was able to do 24+ down the front straightaway.
By the second lap, the streamliners were up to speed, and started a regular procession passing me. Not counting the hill, their cruising speed seemed to be in the high 30s. As I was pass bait for most of the streamliners, so were the SuperStock riders mere targets for me as I lapped bike after bike. I double-lapped the lone wedgie rider in the race, who was riding a carbon fiber Trek with a rear disk, front rev-X, Zzipper, and body sock. Finally, on the third lap, I got passed by Theron Hill in an M5 lowracer with a full spar-stiffened cordura body. He was no more than 3 feet high and shaped like a torpedo. In other words, I want one! We ended up trading places several times during the race; he was much more aero for the flats, but I had the motor for the hill. Rich Sadler, in his homebuilt, also passed me. I learned later that his foam fell under the 'fabric' rule, so he was in my class rather than the streamliner class, as I had previously thought.
On the last lap, Theron made one final assault. I was already pushing for all I was worth, trying to lap Jun, who was running his Hurricane with a full lycra body sock. While Jun fought me off, I fought Theron off; but he finally got in front of me in the chicane. I came down the final straightaway doing 27+, but it wasn't enough as he put on one final burst of speed and pulled away. Jun managed to avoid being lapped by either of us.
Third place in my class. I was pleased with how I did, even if bummed over losing the place in the last few seconds. According to the HRM, I spend 43 seconds below 80%, 51 seconds in 'the zone' of 80-90%, and 1:02:01 above 90%. Part of the overall time was spent coasting off the track after crossing the finish line. My official average for the race was 23.27 mph. Talk about feeling like a whipped puppy!
In the afternoon we had a hillclimb/coastdown contest. Starting at the bottom, we were timed to the top. Then, as we crossed the line at the top, we stopped pedalling and began the coastdown. I hit the line at the top doing 20 mph, and my elapsed time was good for 2nd, behind the wedgie that I so mercilessly lapped in the time trial. By unclipping my rearward pedal and going into a 'luge' position, I managed to coast all the way down the back stretch and halfway between the two 90 degree corners at the far end. Only good for 7th place. That indicated I wasn't nearly as aero as my competition, but also says something about the motor.
At 8 pm, there was a 12-hour distance event. Three courageous riders took off. It was called off at midnight due to exhaustion from the day's racing, climbing that hill, and the close encounters with deer on the track. TriCORR member Jun 'won' the event with 71 miles.
At the top of the hill, Sharie gets sealed in for Sunday's
sprint event
On Sunday we had the 200 meter sprint. Starting at the top of the hill, go down the back stretch almost a half mile, and into a 200 meter trap. Time was obtained via optical sensors at each end of the trap, and average speed was calculated for the 200 meters. Coming off the hill, I did about 27, then cranked up to 36, losing some of that in the long shallow grade leading up to the traps. I was able to regain some of my lost speed in the trap, and managed a 35.07 mph average, which was good for 3rd place in my class. The stock class was truly impressive, with a few recorded runs almost equalling those of the streamliners.
TriCORR member Dave Johnson enters the speed trap for
the 200 M sprint
There was talk of a 'short course' road race, but it sounded like a replay of the time trial with the exception of excluding the hill. Nobody for me to draft, anyway, and missing the hill meant routing the course through the parking lot - not my choice for speed. I opted out and drove home in time to catch a club ride.
Conclusions: 1) I need a faster/lower bike! While the V-Rex is great for club rides, it's no racer -- too tall. No amount of fairing can compensate for the small frontal areas my competitors had, which was as little as half of mine. 2) I will be working on designing a fairing that fits within the fabric fairing clause. The cordura was good, but I can envision improvements... 3) These HPRA races are fun! I'll be back next year.
