I just got back from LS, with everything still running. At first, I was having a bit of high rpm and high boost miss like I've had before. Turns out one of the guys out there is a turbo mechanic, his first question was "what is the timing set at?", and of course, I had no idea. We moved it back 4 degrees, and presto, no miss or ping. It is looking like the situation with the Engine I melted was most likely too much detonation. The new Engine is already burning some oil, as it has been doing a lot of pinging and missing, which now I believe to have been detonation.

I never realized how good we have had it on our "off season" and weekday rides. And wow, that is a different place after school is out.......lots of families, and lots of real scary riders. Little kids going every direction. With the big Northstar buggies and the little 80 cc quads in the same county scared me. the place needed a traffic cop. It seemed like someone was at the gate all the time collecting money. Sat morning, there was a steady line of from 5 to 10 or so waiting to pay and get in. And hot as hell, left there at around 2 PM yesterday, it was 96 degrees.

I hooked up with some guys on bikes and quads that wanted to see how the Drak could do, so I rode with them for a couple of hours. They were really into jumping, somehow they actually talked me into trying it a couple of times on the Drak. First one went really well, then the guy with the camera, says he missed it, and would I do it again, only farther. Second one didn't go so well, I let off the gas and nosed it in on the right corner, I get back to the top of the hill, and they are all screaming for me to do it again, realizing that I already had taken strike two, I figured that strike three would really hurt and probably break something. One of them on a YZ450 kept jumping farther and farther, probably got to around a hundred feet before he crashed. Nosed it in, wheel started wobbling left and right, and bang, he was spinning an flipping. I thought sure he was either killed or seriously hurt, but he was finally able to get up and walk......after a bit of tweaking the bike, he got up and started jumping again. The real scary part of their way of jumping, is that they chose the steepest dune they could find for the fun. Makes you feel like you are going to go over backwards as you launch.

BTW, I had a very minor ear operation/proceedure a couple of weeks ago, no vertigo this time. Doc says that I have the some problem that a lot of kids have with their inner ears not draining thru the eustation tube. If it contines to be a problem, they may put permanent tubes in my ears.

Awsome!

How did the new Drak fair out there? Or the 550 Pilot? Special Ed make the trip?

You know this was coming, "Any Pictures?"

The 550 Pilot blew up a couple days before I got there, so there was no"runoff". Eddy tells me the 550 was the fastest thing out there, from what he told me, I would think he would have beaten me. I told him that you would still smoke him with your Drak. Dan from Kansas had three Pilots out there, everthing from stock to pretty exotic, but he wasn't into racing.

I was real tempted to put the clutch with the lighter weights to see if it would be faster, but I came to my senses and didn't do that. Once I get the Sprint Engine in, I may try to see if I can make it faster, but for now, it's nice to come back still running.

While I was out there, I did blow one belt, and had to replace the rear tires because I cut the sidewall on one too much to repair, and there was nothing anywhere around to match the remaining tire.

Alas, I forgot my camera, so I have no photos. I am hoping the guy who filmed the jumping will send me the clip of the nose dive.