Phantom13
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posted October 29, 2008 06:19 PM
ACE PERFORMANCE goes to Texas Mile
Ace Performance Goes to the Texas Mile!
Tuesday- We decided to go to the Texas Mile, despite being on the waiting list with no guarantee that we'll be able to run once we get there... or even at all. Fortunately, we ended up being 1,2,3 on the list so we took the chance and began making preparations.
Wednesday - Sal and I work all day getting the stroker Busa buttoned up and trying to figure out why my ZX-12R won't start. Turns out the Power Commander ignition module went on strike and wouldn't fire up the coils. We decided to yank it and she started right up. It's now 2:30am and I rush home from the shop to grab my bags and whatnot then rush back to meet with Sal who continued to work through the night. It's now 5:30am and he finally gets to put down the wrenches and we load up the trailer... neither of us get a minute of sleep.
Thursday - It's 8:00am now and we hit the road for what was to be a 22 hour drive, no time for a quick pull to check if all is "OK" so we cross our fingers and decide to iron out any problems when we get there, little did we know the problems were going to show up well in advance. About 6 hours into the trip, we encounter heavy rains in north florida that did not let up until Baton Rouge! Driving nearly 7 hours in the dark in a heavy downpour on ZERO sleep was not only stressfull.. but slowed us down significantly, forcing us to push through till 1:00am before finding a hotel in order to make up lost time.
Friday - We get to the track and hope some spots opened up, but only 1 was available so Sal was able to squeeze in. Dale and I flipped a coin for 2nd spot... I won. We ended up working on the bikes in the pits that night till 10:30pm in the pitch dark after going through tech. Still keeping our fingers crossed that all will go well on raceday without being able to test/tune in advance.
Saturday - I recieve a call about 15 minutes after getting to the track with news that another spot opened up. It was now down to 1 more spot to get the entire team on the grid, Dale waited patiently and sure enough he recieved his call a few hours later. Now is when the real problems began! So Sal goes up to the line on the N/A 1507 Busa and attempts to shake the rust off the bike since he hasn't made a full pass on it since forever, he busts out a 213+mph pass to start. Not bad, but still not quite right. He makes another pass and the shifter wouldn't allow him to get into 6th gear, he comes through the traps at 204mph in 5th. Now I get to the line, covered in so much rust a tetnus shot was required... I make a pass and automatically know something is seriously wrong, 195mph. Sal makes another pass at 213.5mph after fixing the shifter problem, but is still 0.2mph shy of the Nitrous record set by Greg Williams on his 300+rwhp Nitrous ZX-1450 earlier that day. I make another pass, still 195mph. Dale makes a pass, 186mph. So I give my bike to Sal for a run just to make sure I'm not going crazy.... and still, he runs 195mph. All is not well in Ace Performanceville and we knew we had to turn things around for Sunday.
Sunday - After a quick team meeting we attack all our gremilins hard and aggressively, removing some and putting band-aids on the ones we simply couldn't fix. Sal was able to dial in the 1507 quickly and fired off a 214mph pass, made a couple changes and backed it up with a record breaking 216.8mph N/A pass which ended up being enough to win the N/A AND Nitrous classes in the Texas Shootout. Next up was Dale's 1287 ZX12R, Sal made a pass and logged the run. 200.xxmph on the rev limiter right at the traps! Dale regeared the bike taller and Sal made a couple tweeks to the map. Next up was my sputtering heap that couldn't seem to get out of it's own way... Sal makes a pass and we check the logs, we get no info whatsoever from the datalogger... so now we're running blind. So we decide to made an educated "guess" on what the bike wanted based on "feel" through the RPM's, only problem was that the Power Commander would NOT accept any fuel changes via the laptop!! So we crossed our fingers and tried to go OLD SCHOOL using the face buttons on the power commander to adjust fuel, and although it's a band-aid fix... it's all we had. So we take out as much fuel as possible via the bars because we knew the bike was running super pig rich. Sal jumped on Dale's bike and popped off a 203.8mph pass, then jumped on mine and ran a 203.2mph pass shortly after. We go to check the logs on Dale's bike, knowing there's more to be had.... and that's when the card reader on Sal's laptop decided to quit. We try to use Dale's laptop but it was acting up as well and wouldn't work either!! We were plagued with faulty electronics all weekend.
So being that we couldn't take away more fuel using the face bars on the pc3usb and Dale's bike now blind, Dale and I decided to spend the rest of Sunday afternoon enjoying our bikes while Sal took a reverse role as pit crew member instead of superjockey. I popped off a 201.1mph pass and Dale fired off a 189+mph run to finish the day. Both 12's were down 2-4mph of their potential that day due to the prevailing gremilins, but there was still enough there to have one hell of a good time!
So in the end, it turned out to be a bitter-sweet weekend but well worth it! It was such a pleasure to finally meet all the Texas guys and see some familiar faces from Maxton and even a few Bonneville people!
We'd like to especially thank Mike Reich of AWD Motorsports for sponsoring the trip and providing the Busa, without which none of this would have been possible.
The Texas Mile staff for organizing a safe and FUN weekend for everyone.
TrickTom and all the sponsors for putting on the Texas Mile Shootout event
and all the great people who came to the event and shared this amazing experience with us!
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"The only place Success comes
before Work is inside the Dictionary."
   
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Phantom13
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posted October 29, 2008 07:01 PM
 Edited By: Phantom13 on 30 Oct 2008 03:34
Dale on the Fastest N/A Kawasaki @ Texas
Phantom congradulating Dale and the King Kaw of Texas
Karl, Mike, Doug, Dale
The coolest bike in Texas, MTT Y2K jet bike
Sal and Ultimate Fighter 4 Winner (and ZX-12R pilot) Travis Lutter
Phantom and Travis Lutter
TFA on the Grid
Some Scenery on the way back to Florida
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"The only place Success comes
before Work is inside the Dictionary."
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TRNorBRN6001
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posted October 29, 2008 07:04 PM
Glad to have you all down the pleasure was ours!
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TFA 200MPH CLUB MEMBER!
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entropy
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posted October 30, 2008 02:03 AM
Edited By: entropy on 30 Oct 2008 10:06
let me be the first to congratulate the ACE Performance Team on their results; 203.8 and 203.1 on a pair of ZX12 1287's is FLAT OUT FUKKEN FLYING!
Sal's 216 on the 1507 Busa was great.
Kudos to Sal, Mike, Dale who made the 22hr trip with no assurance whatever that they could even run.
Texas Mile organizers capped the entries at 160 and would not budge. (with maybe one exception... )
The weather was the best I have seen since the 1st race in Oct 2003 (10 bikes, 30 cars).
Cool & virtually no wind except a lil side wind on Sun.
It was interesting to see the lil rpm rise on my logs when the bike heeled over near the traps on my last pass.
Fla guys, come back in March!
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entropy
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posted October 30, 2008 03:29 AM
ACE guys: some of the Maxton folk have expressed concern that the Texas Mile shutdown is too short.
Now that you have experienced it, did you guys feel stressed after the traps?
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Phantom13
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posted October 30, 2008 05:20 AM
The Texas Mile shutdown is more than adequate. I never once felt rushed or hurried on the brakes at 200+mph. Very smooth and straight with an extra wide turnaround for insurance. I was extremely comfortable with the shutdown length.
BTW, Karl you thought it was "cool" air? Geez, I 'd hate to see what you consider "hot", haha. Holy crap I was dying of heat all weekend!! lol. Sure it was cool in the morning for a couple hours but after that it was hot!
Maybe I'm just spoiled by Maxton weather? To all of us south florida guys, it felt just like home... especially with the ultra smooth track surface, reminded us of our beloved 9/10th mile track, minus the alligators watching us in the pits.
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"The only place Success comes
before Work is inside the Dictionary."
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THE ICE MAN
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posted October 30, 2008 06:12 AM
Thanks Karl.
Shut down was no problem on the Busa at 216.8 mph as a matter of fact I dont like to get on the brakes hard and over heat my rotors so I was very easy on my brakes braking and letting back off them then back on. nice and easy.
The guy that hands out the time slips said you keep scaring the hell out of me as I watch
you go thru the finish line and aproaching the end it looks like you were not going to stop
I laughed and said just dont want to abuse my full floaters.
Very nice setup you guys have at Texas including the pit setup where everyone can see whats going on for the whole mile.
Sal.
____________
ACE PERFORMANCE.COM
40 Records@ Maxton, Fastest NA
1507cc Busa 223.330 MPH also
Fastest ZX12 N.A.212.846 MPH in
the mile Fastest 1000 750 @ Maxton
& Fastest 600 N.A. in the world.
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ZRXDean
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posted October 30, 2008 08:25 AM
Great job Ace Performance, congrats.
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KZScott
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high on speed
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posted October 30, 2008 08:53 AM
great job guys! I HATE electrical/computer problems
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01 ZX-12R 8.84 @ 156.3 no bars, DOT tires. Pump Gas, NA.... turbo 8.47 @ 164.
00 ZX-12R 8.62 @ 165.2 no bars, slicks, Pump Gas, 55 shot.... turbo 8.32 @173
00 ZX-12R Fastest NA Kawasaki in the world 1: 222.046 1.5: 226.390 Loring AFB
00 ZX-12R street turbo 1: 227.9 1.5: 234.1 Loring AFB
00 ZX-12R LSR turbo 1: 263.1 1.5: 266.5 Loring AFB Worlds fastest ZX-12R
CMG Racing RCC Turbos
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shiphteey
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posted October 30, 2008 09:32 AM
GOOD JOB FELLAS! Welcome to my sleep-dep world...it kicks your ass but I'm glad you guys made strong runs at the end. Look at Phantom cheezin in the pics...haha.
Too bad about Greg though eh? Built nos motor getting spanked by a n/a Busa....Sal musta been tickled!
Does Sal get the official fastest n/a builder title for TX now?
A.
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Gemini Motorcycles
Topping out everything from Ninja 250s to nitrous ZX-14s.
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Phantom13
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posted October 30, 2008 10:14 AM
Ali, I don't know how you do it. Sleep-Dep makes the stress factor go up x10.... needless to say it took it's toll on us both mentally and physically.
I was cheezin like a mofo on sunday, we FINALLY got our bikes running halfway decent and I was able to have some fun instead of pulling my hair out trying to fix my heap.
Besides, I knew I was only hours away from being able to break my diet and eat my heart out!!! Sal and I hit up the following on the way home:
Whataburger
McDonalds
Wendys
Hardies
I gained 3 pounds on the way home!
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"The only place Success comes
before Work is inside the Dictionary."
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VincentHill
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posted October 30, 2008 11:10 AM
quote:
Ali, I don't know how you do it. Sleep-Dep makes the stress factor go up x10.... needless to say it took it's toll on us both mentally and physically.
I was cheezin like a mofo on sunday, we FINALLY got our bikes running halfway decent and I was able to have some fun instead of pulling my hair out trying to fix my heap.
Besides, I knew I was only hours away from being able to break my diet and eat my heart out!!! Sal and I hit up the following on the way home:
Whataburger
McDonalds
Wendys
Hardies
I gained 3 pounds on the way home!
Welcome to the HUMAN SIDE OF LIFE!!
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Made History @ Daytona and still one fast old man!!
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entropy
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posted October 30, 2008 12:11 PM
quote:
Sal and I hit up the following on the way home:
Whataburger
McDonalds
Wendys
Hardies
Mike,
you can take me to school on how to go fast, but for double-damn sure I gotta teach you to eat.
How in the hell did you leave Popeye's off the list?????
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Phantom13
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posted October 30, 2008 12:23 PM
I must confess.... I had Popeyes on the way up. lol
I felt guilty as hell about it afterwards.... but it was worth it !!!
____________
"The only place Success comes
before Work is inside the Dictionary."
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shiphteey
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posted October 30, 2008 03:31 PM
Yeah, its been my achilles heel for a long time, actually ever since the long drive to Bonneville in 06 and the suicide hotline I've never really slept right. Pulled my log from Maxton last weekend....and seeing what I saw on top of other things really nailed the point home that I really NEED to work on set-up. I'm very light, the 12 is relatively light and on the juice it isn't exactly slow, however there is some more potential to be tapped into that I'm simply not realizing by constantly short changing myself not having my ducks lined up. That is what I will be working on for a stronger and more consistent performance in 09. You guys did well, hopefully I'll make my way down to FL in a couple months...and if it means grabbing a hotel on the way and SLEEPING I just MAY!
A.
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Gemini Motorcycles
Topping out everything from Ninja 250s to nitrous ZX-14s.
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harryzx-12
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posted November 05, 2008 04:41 PM
Ace perf pics:
My 02 busa
Sorry i took so long to post these pics.
____________
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways- Body thoroughly used up, totally worn out...Screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride !!!"
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harryzx-12
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posted November 05, 2008 04:42 PM
It was good seeing you guys again!
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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways- Body thoroughly used up, totally worn out...Screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride !!!"
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Phantom13
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posted November 05, 2008 05:26 PM
It's was good seeing you too! Thanks for posting up the pics, hope to see you next year at Maxton.
____________
"The only place Success comes
before Work is inside the Dictionary."
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THE ICE MAN
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posted November 06, 2008 06:52 AM
Harry thank you for the pictures
I will shoot you a PM
Sal.
____________
ACE PERFORMANCE.COM
40 Records@ Maxton, Fastest NA
1507cc Busa 223.330 MPH also
Fastest ZX12 N.A.212.846 MPH in
the mile Fastest 1000 750 @ Maxton
& Fastest 600 N.A. in the world.
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Shane661
Needs a life
Posts: 11494
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posted October 23, 2009 04:28 AM
Edited By: Shane661 on 23 Oct 2009 12:31
Karl, the above post is some sort of spam. There have been a ton of these posts on the board lately...first post, vague comments, and a linked signature.
I mean, there have been like 5 of these in the last week, throughout the board. Usually gravedigging some old thread.
Another example:
http://www.bikeland.org/board/viewthread.php?FID=1&TID=3825&set_time=
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entropy
Moderator
Posts: 8671
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posted October 23, 2009 05:43 AM
shane, what are tou talking about? I don't se a spam post (now...) 
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