SEPTEMBER 22, 2007 - LADY LUCK ABSENT AT MID-OHIO
If Lady Luck was present in any regard during Friday for Danny Kelsey's outstanding qualifying effort, then she must have taken the red-eye straight from Mid-Ohio that night as Kelsey experienced monumental bad luck from the on-set of Saturday's races, and barely regaining any fortune for Sunday.
On Saturday, Kelsey started the day with good practice session(s). Mostly just to "warm up", Kelsey was ready! At the drop of the Green Flag, Danny got one of his "patented" holeshots and the team was really excited. The excitement lasted exactly 30 more seconds as the call from the PA system noted Kelsey was "out". As he rolled back on pit lane, a blown clutch was the culprit. The team was ready for this and within 30 minutes, it had another clutch in his GSXR-750 in preparation of the 1000 Superbike Expert race.
Again, Kelsey dropped the hammer and lead the field into turn one. Again, within 30 seconds Danny was announced "out". Frustration in the pits grew. The team was VERY knowledgeable with the Suzuki's and the clutch. What was wrong? Team manager personally took over the repair of the clutch and with a few races to do some investigation, he discovered that the "junkyard 750" had its clutch hub insanely adjusted by the "former owner" who will be the only one to know why he set the screws for the clutch hub adjustment in manner that ensured the clutch would "burn up" with any race start (most likely the same "brains" that went into that thinking is the same reason the bike ended up in a SALVAGE YARD).
As the team finished putting the GSXR-750 back together, Kelsey gridded up for the 600 Superbike race. AGAIN, Lady Luck posted notice that she "HAD LEFT THE PREMISES" as the crash on the last qualifying session of Saturday had damaged the Power Commander and the bike would not pull above 10(k) rpm. Kelsey soldiered on to an 8th place finish running lap times nearly 3 seconds a lap SLOWER than qualifying. With the last race of Saturday now up, the team and Kelsey were physically and mentally exhausted. Kelsey soldiered on and finished a very respectable 2nd in the Formula 1000 Expert race.
The team collected itself Saturday night and disconnected the Power Commander on the GSXR-600 to remedy that motorcycle. This was detrimental to the performance of the GSXR-600, but the only short term solution to have a chance to competitively race that bike. The team also determined that the 750 clutch problem was solved with McBain's repair. The feeling was that Kelsey could win on the 750 on Sunday and with just a "little luck", Kelsey could force the 600 to front.
As
Sunday races started, any chance ended on the first lap of the 750 Superstock
race as Kelsey was flagged
for "jumping the start" and finished 7th in the race after the
"stop n go" penalty. In the 600 Superstock
race, Kelsey could not overcome the significant performance degradation
experienced when
the Power Commander was disconnected and finished 4th place.
For the final race of the weekend, Kelsey put his head down and finished 2nd in
the 1000cc Superstock Expert
race. The team and Danny were bitterly disappointed at the results, but were
equally proud of the qualifying
achieved. Leaving Mid-Ohio was very "bittersweet", but that is
"racing' as they say. The team returns
to Texas for CMRA sprint championship series.
Race Results:
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
