Polini Cup Round 3 wrap up

By fr33bird

After all our hard work, round 3 of the Polini Cup is done and over with.  Although a slightly disappointing weekend for yours truly, a good overall weekend for the team.

Practice went well for the team.  Jimmy was loving his sweet new set up.  My bike was out of control fast, in fact now too fast for my rear end.  The bike was making so much power the rear wheel and sub frame were twisting like crazy in the corners, and the bike was super hard to control.  Tony showed up just in time for the last practice after a long night at the machine shop.  He was sporting a new pipe and crazy air duct technology, as well as a new lowered stance on his bike.  Looked like all his hard work for the last week had really payed off, his bike was FLYING.  Right next to my bike on the straights, which is really impressive when you think that his bike/body combo is atleast 150 pounds heavier than mine.  Well done Tony.  Jimmy and I both took some good dingers in practice.  I got on the new disc brake a bit too hard into the hairpin first lap without my tires being warmed up and los the front end.  The bike flipped and landed on my head.  I was seeing spots for a good hour afterwards.  I got back up again to chase after jimmy and quintos in practice and fell trying to pass the both on the outside in the s’s.  Jimmy took a spill in the hairpin as well and had a nice swollen knee.

Qualifying went well for the team.  I took the second place spot behind quintos, jeff was 3rd, and Jimmy and Tony rounded out the top 5.  Quintos had a full second on the rest of our times, so we knew it was gonna take some work to win this weekend.

The first race was super out of control.  I took the holeshot, quintos got on the inside of me going into the sweeper, but I passed him on the outside and had the lead coming out, which is when my day turned for the worst.  Coming out of the corner I knew my bike was down on power when quintos jumped ahead.  I knew my bike could stay right with his on that section of the track, he passed on the outside and as I got the the gas i saw sparks shooting everywhere from my coil.  It looked like my coil had loosened up.  I figured I would keep going, and just be down on power, try and get some points, as I came out of the last turn, I grabbed the coil to hold it against the frame as I went down the straight, but then it got worse and the coil completely fell off, and my race was over.  I check it out, and it wasnt lose, but the mount for i had cracked and it fell off.  Total bummer.  In the mean time, jimmy had fallen on the hairpin in the first lap, I believe he was in third or fourth when he fell.  He got right back up, with only losing a couple of spots.  This opened the door for Nik Jung and Tony Simoni.  It was now John, Jeff, Tony, and Nik.  The next lap quintos went down in the last corner.  By then Jimmy was already back up to the 5 spot, but way behind the top three.  I sat on the sidelines and cheered up Nik and Tony (jeff doesnt need any cheering, hes too good).  Quintos got up and passed Jimmy on the straight and tried to pass Nik on the outside the next lap, but nik held his line and quintos was forced off the track.  Now it was Jeff, Tony, and Nik top three.  Nik lost it in the hairpin, and did the most amazing ballerina act I have ever seen, and hardly lost any time and held onto the three spot.  WHAT A RACE!!!!!  Lots of things got mixed up, and a lot of people would be out for blood the next heat.

The twist and go open moped/scooter class was up a bit later.  I fixed my coil issue and was ready, along with Jeff, two cuperteens, and two scoots.  During the warm up lap my exhaust got super loud.  Put my hand down there, and the pipe was loose.  Once again, my race was over.  Not my day at the races.  Jeff went on to take the easy win followed by a scooter and some cuperteens.

Round two of the moped was going to be interesting.  You start in the position you got in the previous race….which meant last place for me.  I was gonna have my work cut out for me.  This figured to be quite the battle between Jeff, Jimmy, and Quintos, with a possible suprise upset my Tony.  The green light went, and I made quick work of most the pack, made my way up to 7th my the sweeper, and passed two more by the hairpin.  Mean while, it was John, Jeff, and Jimmy top three.  Tony fourth, but a bit behind.  John and Jeff pulled away from Jimmy, I was behind Tony in 5th and saw my chances of dicing with them fading quickly.  Didnt seem like there was going to be as much insanity as last race.  Jeff made an incredible pass on John on the last turn with a few laps left.  John got him back on the straight, but Jeff got him back right away and started to pull away.  Meanwhile, Tony was on his game in 4th and I was doing everything in my power to finally get around him.  I did with a couple laps to go, and he didnt make it easy on me, it was kinda hairy, but had to be done.  I had my eyes on Jimmy next, but he was too far, and there was no time left.  Oh well.  15th to 4th.  I’ll take it.  Team Motomatic 3rd, 4th, and 5th.  Not too bad.

Round two of twist and go, saw me starting in last again, and Jeff running away.  I was almost killing myself trying to gain any time on him anywhere.  Jeff is just toooooo fast when he gets out on his own.  He ran way away from me.  I held off the scoot before he fell, and cuper zacko took advantage and took the third place.

That was all.  Lots of excitement, and Jeff is clearly the man to beat.  He did a little bit to his bike, and went to the track on friday and got in his practice and it paid off.  The guy is incredible out there.  He obviously had about the 5th fastest bike out there, and managed not to lose a race all weekend.  20% bike 80% rider. The Motomatic bikes performed great with no problems (besides my stupid little mechanical over lookings).  Tony really stepped up his power with some porting and pipe work, and his new stance really helped him ride better.  Jimmys dual variated Pug put him back up in the running and had the power of the other 4 contenders.

The races were out of control, but it was a much calmer vibe this time.  Slightly smaller turn out than past, but still tons of fun.  I personally enjoyed it.

Here’s some pics.  Taken by Sarah Roach.  Visit her flickr for more pics from this months and last months polini cup.

Everyone chasing Jeff.  Seemed to be the theme of the weekend.

Leathers are awesome.

P.s. the pics are huge files, and lose quality when downsized.  View the link for better quality.

Pistol Pete from scoot magazine was at the races, and taking some amazing pics.  Keep an eye on his flickr for them to go up.

Finally, as promised, heres some youtube videos from our day at the tuning grounds.  Nothing too exciting, but you can hear them purrrrrr, and watch them blast down some country roads.  You can see more at my youtube.