Slower is Faster

It's strange the way things work out sometimes.

Saturday mornings 1st qualifying run was very similar to the last run at Shakespeare county raceway, it left the line fine but about 1 second into the run it spluttered, died momentarily and then picked up and flew. It disproved my theory about air in the nitrous line as I'd run the system in the pits to ensure there was nothing but neat nitrous in it. It also meant the mystery was going to continue.
The rest of that run was good until 4th gear and then a reoccurring problem returned and it wouldn't shift up into 5th (this same thing has only ever happened at Santa Pod). It took 3 or 4 presses of the shift button before it changed and by that time i was over the finish line anyway. The top speed was of course really down but the ET was a new Best for us, a time of 8.51 @ 153mph just one 100th of a second quicker the the previous best. Not bad considering there was no 5th gear.
I checked the air shifter over and corrected a small wiring problem, but really i couldn't find anything wrong. So we just refuelled and went out for the second qualifier. Predictably it was very similar, spluttering badly around 1 second out and running an 8.57 ET and a slow 150.55mph, due once again to a troublesome 5th gear.

There are a couple of things happening at around the 1 second in time. The nitrous controller is set to come in off the line at 50% and build over 1 second to 100%. The ignition also pulls 7 degrees of timing out at 0.75 seconds into the run. In an effort to see if either one of these was the problem i changed the build time to 2 seconds. Now if it splutters at the 2 second mark i know it's something to do with the nitrous system being either too rich or too lean.
Being the last qualifying run of the day i also knew the 2 second build time would make the bike a bit slower off the line.
What i didn't expect then was the hardest launch ever, wheel spinning slightly over the first 60ft and no coughing or spluttering at all. I still couldn't get 5th until it was too late but the time made up for it.... an 8.3309! 2 tenths quicker than my PB. the 60ft time was a revelation too, one of the goals for this year was to get the clutch right and run 1.2-something second 60ft times, and now its gone and run a 1.2590 60ft and i didn't even touch the clutch.
The only explanation i can think of is that the nitrous controller has had an issue with the short build times and instead of coming in over 1 second it's not come in at all until one second.... hence all the spluttering.
It's no wonder I've been finding it hard to tune the clutch, i simply didn't have the power.

That time put me in 4th place on the qualifying ladder and in the first round of eliminations on Sunday i was to race Dave peters. Strangely, at the same event last year i also qualified 4th and also faced Dave Peters, however last year i never made it down the track and Dave ran a great 7.3 so i didn't stand a chance anyway. This year was going to be different, Dave had been struggling with his clutch all weekend, and sadly he was destroying expensive clutch plates at a frightening rate.
The race was messy, i left first but Dave was ahead by 60ft and it looked like he was on to a flyer. Then he had problems and dropped back until i could no longer see him, i kept going but when it came to change up into 4th it wouldn't change, i stomped on the shifter to give it a hand ( and bent the lever in the process) but it wouldn't change. So i kept it screaming in 3rd until i crossed the line.
Looking back i think i set the shift kill in the wrong position on the startline as that would explain the shifting problem, it's also something that's happened before.
The good news then was I'd made it through a round of eliminations for the second time this year!

The next race had a fairly obvious outcome. I went against Ivan Birch who never seems to have problems getting down the track and runs consistent low 7's. My run was another good one for me, apart from wheelspin off the line it went 1.27 60ft and a no 5th gear 8.42 ET. Well done to Ivan though who went on to take the event win and almost certainly the Championship.

All this years goals have now been ticked off. They were:
To survive one round of eliminations
To run a low 8
To run 1.2 something 60ft

There's a bit to do now before the last race of the season in 2 weeks time. I want to make my shift kill setting switch easier to see so I'll add a brighter status light. I also need to investigate why 5th gear is a pain. I have a feeling that the kill time is too short so i need a manual for it to make adjustments.


Pictures are thanks to Sam, who has now updated her Photobucket page with some shots from the weekend. Thanks also to Stuart and James for crewing!