Team-TRS | Test 1 – Grattan, 2009
- From: TRS Media | Published: April 21st, 2009 - 10:12 pm
Going testing, making new friends and seeing some old ones for the first time in a long time. 
This weekend we blew the dust off the team bike, it’s an ‘08 Yamaha R6 that has so far spent a lot more time on the lift than on the track. It was awkward for me at first; it’s funny how fast you get rusty. Running teams and building race bikes was everything to me a few short years ago and now for the first time in a long time it’s really more like a hobby. I still have every intention of winning races, I just don’t have that feeling like my life rises and falls on the outcome anymore. For 2009 we’re (Team-TRS) keeping it simple, we’re retaining Kevin Callaway ‘the rider’ and just focusing on club stuff, likely won’t do any Pro races and that’s just fine with me. The whole ‘new attitude’ has already paid some dividends as this past weekend’s outing was one of the most enjoyable in recent memory. Not that it went smoothly or anything….
Friday we started the weekend off on the Dyno. We had just worked a deal with Washtenaw Community Collage that has allowed us to use their state-of-the-art dynamometer. It’s an amazing piece worth (so I’m told) about $300,000.00 and has variable air pressure and air temperature controls – all while swapping air some 12 times a second. I’ve been running dynos for well over a decade now and can honestly say I’ve never seen anything like it outside of the GM proving grounds. We’ll have more on the Washtenaw support and their motorcycle program as the year unfolds.
For our part I can tell you that we (I) didn’t start out the gate like I would have liked. We got the bike in the room and set up. A job that somehow seems like I’m using my two left thumbs when doing it in an unfamiliar environment for the first time. I pulled out my laptop to connect the YEC engine mapping software to the Yamaha ECU and realized that I couldn’t see the ECU. No worries, I had copied the entire disc to my hard drive in the event that there was just such an occasion. Well, to make a long story short the software wouldn’t look anywhere but at the CD drive for drivers and I couldn’t reinstall the whole thing because I didn’t bring the serial number. So, back to Brighton for the disc.
After returning we got the device working in short order and went about our business successfully. Well, successfully is a relevant term because I had tried some different cam timing numbers and while they did, in fact, produce the best looking BPH and Torque curves ever on a 600. The numbers were about 10 or 12 points south of what we would like to see for peak numbers. Couple this with the attempt to salvage an exhaust that had gone through the big wreck last year and I think we had about ten leaks. For those of you who I haven’t lost already, this means that even though we’re in this state-of-the-art room with this cutting edge tuning software, we have no idea of the validity of our numbers. End of the dyno day.
So Kevin and his Dad come and pick up the bike because, as I had noticed while on the dyno, that out of a check list of ten things that they needed to take care of when they took the bike back from me, seven of them hadn’t been done and two of three that were done were wrong. In the meantime, I had gone to meet some friends for dinner all the time wondering if we were actually going to make it to this test session the following day. About 1:00am I get the call that some of it’s done and some not but they wanted to bring it to the shop…no problem. 1:30am Kevin shows up and we pulled the bike out of the trailer and got right to it, 5:30am it was ready to go and off we went. I’m going to skip the part about when Kevin borrowed my car to go to Taco Bell and somehow blew the tire off the wheel and I had to run out to rescue him.
Realizing that if anything good is going to come out of this day Kevin would need some sleep, I volunteered to be the wheel man and that’s really about all I can tell you about the ride out because that’s all I remember. But we did get there (somehow) unloaded and that was really the first time I noticed that despite the last minute drama stuff the bike looked pretty good (thanks to KMC and D) and it was absolutely ready to go. The first hour or so was by far the hardest. There was nothing left to do and it seemed like the time had stopped.
So Kevin (fresh off his hour and a half cat nap) gets on the bike and rides all day. He rode well and we made some progress. This all goes back to the opening about keeping a more relaxed attitude this year. Kevin is just back on the bike after recovering from a one year hiatus caused by a shattered foot suffered in the second round last year. I really had no idea what would happen. (ie If he could ride the bike or if we would even be in the game.) We were – and that’s enough to make it a good result, for now.
The other saving grace to the whole “all nighter” thing was that I got to see several of my friends (race friends) the ones I usually don’t see all winter. Several of 
them have ridden for me in the past and of course I’m always wondering who will be next. It was good to see Jonas, he’s always a pleasure and happened to be the fastest on the day. It was a first outing for almost everyone, so I’m not going to post any times. Dave Grey was likely second fastest and on this day and managed to forgo his nickname. Of course he didn’t escape completely unscathed as he and another rider got together in a ‘racing incident,’ unfortunately for Dave it wasn’t a race and it also happened to be his sponsor’s number one son. Eddie and Joe Kraft were there. Eddie looked good as always, but like everyone else this day, I think the track record was safe. It was good to see them and others – Dan Prater, and Monte to name a few.
So we have a bike. It needs some work. We have a rider. He needs some work. But the day (not the night before) served to set a tone and if we can keep it up I’m sure Team-TRS will return to its winning ways and the experience should be enjoyable. With so much of my focus going towards the media side, it only makes sense to club race for the love of it all.
