Mark Miller’s Macau GP ‘09 Blog

By Mark Miller

NEWEST UPDATES AT TOP

November 25

Hi family and friends,

Man, I think I need to hire a publicist, the last thing you want to do when you get off the bike following a race is fiddle with a borrowed PC laptop at the racetrack!  I gotta get me own MacBook Pro..

So!  Sorry for the delay, a lot of you have been screaming at me, just got back home to Los Angeles last night and been knackered all day, finally got a moment to sit down and fill you in on how the final race went at Macau.  I know this is a bit long, too, and again sorry, maybe read it at work so at least you’re getting paid to hear my rambling ons?

After a handful of long sessions of practice and qualifying the clutch started slipping.  William changed it out for the 20 minute Saturday morning warm-up before the race, but I remember thinking and mentioning it after I got off the track that the clutch still seemed to be slipping ever-so-slightly but only in one section of the track where we accelerate steeply downhill from the slowest of hairpins imaginable, bang upshifts hard over loads of high-frequency ripples atop an off-camber kink of pavement on this public road course, all the while threading two very close Armco walls on each side.  It was hard to tell whether it was the clutch slipping at the highest of RPMs or if it was the rear wheel spinning over the wee tiny moguls on the tarmac.  These real roads circuits sometimes feel more like motocross tracks than roadrace tracks.

Since it was a new clutch the team instructed me to do the 20 minute warm-up first, bed the clutch in a bit, then do a practice start at the end of the practice (which most riders do, as well, often side by side at the end of the final lap before exiting the track).  The clutch lever was later found, after the warm-up practice, to be all the way tight tight against the cable which could have caused it to be slipping during practice.  I wish I had felt that tension and adjusted it, I just don’t use the clutch lever very much anymore after leaving the pits.

The start of the race this year consisted of two (2) sighting laps and two (2) warm-up laps instead of the traditional one (1) each.  What happened was the horizontal and vertical rows of round RED street lights above the Start/Finish line were not toggled off properly by the organizers for the first attempted start of the race, as per the rule book, so after a botched and erratic launch from all the competitors the organizers decided to red flag the race near the end of the first racing lap, and start them over again.  We were funneled back into our pit garages and told we’d start the whole process over again which would include a new sighting lap, new tyre warmers on the grid, umbrella girls, photographers, waiting, then eventually sent out once again for another full warm-up lap and restart.

The two times I left the pits for the sighting laps or left my grid position for the initial warm-up lap, I’d do a light launch on the clutch to feel how it was grabbing, where the position of the lever would be on the bars when it engages, etc.  Maybe I shouldn’t have.

As we started our second sighting lap out of the pits I rolled onto the gas full down the straight and the tach needle went straight to the limiter but the bike wasn’t accelerating.  I had fooked the clutch, our race was over.

I tried to baby it the rest of the lap to see if it wouldn’t calm down or cool off but it was worthless, the clutch was fried.  So so disappointed and a little perplexed I pulled up to our starting position and told the crew about the clutch.  We just kinda stared at each other.

“So, if it keeps slipping, and I try to keep it down to a minimum, will it eventually blow up your engine?”

“No.”

“If the thing keeps slipping, and um…., will the plates eventually, I don’t know, overheat and catch on fire?”

“They shouldn’t.”

“The clutch won’t, like, grenade and lock up the rear wheel sending me into a cobblestone wall at a buck ten, will it?”

“I doubt it.”

“Are they aluminum or steel clutch plates?”

(Richard and Dave be quiet….)

“Steel.”

“Shit.”

<PAUSE>

<PAUSE>

<PAUSE>

Ah, man, then I notice the starting grid international live camera man / feed person has been kneeled down in front of us filming for the last 30 seconds while I’ve been staring at my gas tank in deep disgusted thought and the crew is looking like they could strangle someone.  Then see us on the huge MegaTron television thing out of the corner of my eye.  Bad timing for PR smiles.  So, I say to myself in a dorky accent, ‘Wave to millions of people from a 100 countries, yes yes, we’re all having a good time out here at the races…. Come to Macau next year…. I make funny face now because-ah riders such wild and crazy guys, yuk yuk..!’  How did i do?  Fook, I can’t believe this clutch thing is happening to us..

“Okay.  What do you think we should do?”

“Could it be dangerous for the other guys if my bike stops driving down the straights unexpectedly?”

“You’ll have to make that call once you’re out there, don’t take any chances.”

“Well, we’ve come all this way and worked so hard, what if I do the warm-up lap flat-out and see how it feels under racing conditions, then make a decision at the end of the lap, before I line up on the starting line.  I’ll come off track at the pit lane entrance if I think it’s impossible to make work.  Cool?”

“Agreed.”

I launch the bike gingerly at the start of the warm-up lap and roll the power on in sixth gear.  It was slipping, no doubt about it.  But, as long as it doesn’t grenade, it may be more annoying then dangerous.  At the end of the warm-up lap, I decide to try.

Lining up to the white line with (lucky) 13 painted next to it, my starting position, I made another decision that if we were going to go forward with this thing I should no longer baby it, not second guess the clutch, the slip, and give this incredibly dangerous first lap at Macau anything less than a 100% aggressive effort.  The last thing I want to do is ride safe and make stupid mistakes.  Its not only me that can get hurt out there but someone else around me, all of them friends of mine, who could get damaged if one of us hooligans starts braking too early, failing to get on the gas early, or was to block the inside racing lines the whole race trying to keep others behind his ailing machine.  Fat chance, we made the decision to go all or nothing and we decided all, so that’s the end of it.

I didn’t think for one-second the clutch would make it three laps.  Guess what, it did.

After a full tilt launch, the (clutch slipping) first straight-away, (a working clutch) first horrifyingly fifth gear kink with 38 of the lads jockeying in and out of each others draft kicking up dust and rocks off line, threading through Armco for fooks sake, we all got through the first hard braking corner at Lisboa from about 180mph+ to 25mph.  Sorted.

I came from 13th around the outside a bunch of guys in Turn 1 to, I think, 8th place, very briefly, before being again gobbled up by one or two positions leaving me in 10th place by the end of the first lap.  On the second lap everyone seemed to settle into a 7600 horsepower snakelike Conga dance, slithering through technical bits of unimpressed walls, head to tail, like a bunch of drunks on the dance floor near the end of a cheesy wedding reception.

Only, we’re cooler.  And, drink more.

Up San Francisco bend, clutch slipping slightly, I’m surprised, genuinely, that the clutch seems to be getting BETTER.

After all of this drama before and at the start of the race I’m finally getting my head back into the right place.  The Celtic bike is working perfect.  It’s so damn fast and is handling flawless.  The clutch slowly stops slipping through all of the corners except that same section where it seemed to slip all weekend.  ‘We’re going to make it to the end of this race,’ I think to myself.  ‘Unfookingbelieveable.’

Three laps from the end and after a seesaw battle in lap times with my boy Jeremy Toye and this 4′7″ Portuguese rider who is quite fast, I bend the bike into the second to last corner which is full full lean angle, bumpy, with massive trail-braking.. all the way at the apex and after the braking was done, I am just twisting the throttle when the back wheel locks up and I almost high side.  Not good, there, as the run-off in this particular part of the track is a short beige concrete wall that I believe had a car or a bike actually go OVER and into the sea long long ago.  An ocean nearly surrounds the Macau racetrack.

‘WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT!!??’

I kept going and reckoned the rear tire must be shot so I’ll need to be extra careful bending the thing in hard on the brakes for the remainder of the race.  It sucked, too, because I seemed to have the better of the two guys right in front of me and 7th place had come back to all of us, ending up just one second from our battle for 8th at the chequered flag.  I was right on Toye’s ass when I nearly crashed…. the first time.

Two laps to go, for fooks sake..

I tried to feather the clutch lever trailing into all the same types of high lean angle corners as the first problematic one, but the bike was having none of it.  Four more times, the bike was all the way over on its side and after all the engine braking was done, mid corner, the rear wheel would lock up.  It felt as if the slipper clutch, the same old crotchety friend that was giving us fits all day, had decided if he couldn’t stop our forward progress by slipping himself forward, he might as well stop us by not slipping backwards.  Go figure.

A slipper clutch, mom and dad, allows the rider to drop multiple downshifts controllably into a corner without the rear wheel totally locking up as the bike is leaned over.  Back in the old days the riders would modulate the slip of the last downshift manually with their own left fingers, some riders still preferring this method to this day.  But, a well working slipper clutch is def the way to go for outright lap times, I believe.  They are adjustable, too, for the amount of slip each rider favors.  Our bike’s slipper at Macau this year was set up perfect, FYI.

So, I tried slipping my last downshifts manually at the lever but it seemed that well after I had ‘asked’ the clutch to be completely engaged, with the lever all the way out, AFTER this moment the clutch, with the bike at full lean, would slip mid-corner then reengage slowing the rear wheel down drastically.  I couldn’t work around the system like I wanted to.  Having the engine idle lower than normal for my liking didn’t help much either.  But, the lower RPMs mid-corner helps slow the bikes down around the many bumpy decreasing radius and ultra-tight hairpins.

I tried and I tried to make something work in the last three laps but no matter what I did I kept being violently shot out of the seat when I least expected it.  I came so close to crashing I think if I was forced to do even one more lap I would have pulled off the track.  The final lap I was braking into the corners straight up and down all the way into the corner, park it nearly to a stop, turn the bike, then shoot out of the corner straight as an arrow.  I even tried one last time to gently feather it into one of the final corners when BAM!, another seriously close call with mere yards to go for the finish line.  My throat was in my stomach and I was scared.

I lost two positions on the final lap of the race and came home 12th.  Oh well.

I couldn’t help feeling somewhat happy and lucky that we actually made it to the end of the race.  How the clutch came back after a lap or two of slipping was new to me, they usually start to overheat then just keep slipping and overheating more and more until they don’t work at all.  We tried to make the show anyway and it worked.

During the race, I was able to better my best ever lap time around Macau by a second.  The Dunlops worked great, the new Joe Rocket Leathers and helmet fit great, and my Sidi Boots were as comfortable as ever.  Thank you guys for making quality products.

All week most in the racing circus seemed pretty good with their level of drink intake and rest.  Saturday night following the race, however, got stupid.  Everyone in the paddock – all the racers, the mechanics, the team owners – I think seemed to just feel what we all just got away with…. racing 200hp+ Superbikes on a city’s public roads…. and, it was legal.  Bah, ha ha ha ha, who is allowing this to happen?  Everyone got smashed Saturday and Sunday night.  So fun.  Couldn’t walk back to the hotel, not that I remember..  Thanks Stephen, The Mischief-Maker, for all your on-track and on-the-town nightlife activities, mate. 

Two crashes on the track this year and no serious injuries.  Thank you Universe.

Also, thank you Henry for bringing me over again, had a good time with you buddy, as always.  Thank you Veronique for riding so well.  But, most of all, thanks Barry Gilsenan and William Myers for bringing your terrific Celtic Racing Suzuki halfway across the world for us to race.  DMG spec, or not, the thing is sick sick sick. So fast.  Cheers fellas, and kick some ass in 2010.

It was also cool seeing you David Sadowski in the pits this year.. good luck with your gig in China, dude.

I’ll try and send a couple hi-res pics tomorrow for those of you who need them.  Attached are a couple pics I’ve been given thus far, if you’re interested.  Thanks for all your emails, I’ll try and answer all of them individually soon.

Big hug, Mark

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November 20

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay of the second update but the internet situation here is very difficult.

So! Thanks for all your emails and those of you who asked for some pics I have some good ones and will send a select few when i get home, cool? I’ll quickly say that the Joe Rocket leathers and Celtic bike match perfect and are made up of unique colours for a racebike; white, forest green, day-glow yellow, balck, and KTM orange. Huh? But, it works!

Right. First qualifying was okay, was as high as 6th early on then 8th, then ended up 11th just behind and ahead of several full-blown BSB and World Superbikes. I mentioned before that we’ve entered a USA 2009 AMA/DMG-spec “”Superbike”", which at the end of the day is nothing more than a Superstock bike with a ported head and big brake calipers. My bike here has stock OEM wheels, stock forks, stock brake rotors, swingarm, etc. All the fast men over here have full blown Superbikes
with big forks, traction control, wheelie control, 16.5″ magnesium wheels with the best slicks, heavily modified frames and swingarms, aluminum tanks, carbon kevlar body work, proper bog brakes with rotors and pads, and, tyes out the ass including qualifiers. I mention all of this only to make fooking excuses as to why we’re getting our arses kicked out here. We’ve brought a knife to a gun fight and frankly, it sucks. I am, however, truly enjoying riding the Celtic bike. It’s working great and I can see why it ran at the front of nearly all the AMA Superbike races in 2009. It’s awesome. Just not a fully kitted machine. PS, the front K-Tech gas charged internals inside the
stock forks are so good its unbelievable. The front 17″ medium-hard Dunlop slick is also beyond words in performance. If you entered this motorcycle in a 500cc World GP race only a handful of years ago, it would clean up.

Having said that, we’re battling with some top guys around our laptime. We’ve run 17″ race slicks yesterday and 17″ treaded race tyres today, bought by my team owner from the AIM (now Suzuki) Team who also brought James Hillier on a Superstock bike from England. We ran, I think, 19 laps in qualifying today on the DOTs and just tried to hold our own as everyone put qualifiers on. We’re 13 for the race.

I’m actually quite pissed as I write this.

It SEEMS like many of the lads directly in front of us by several positions as doing similar times as us when they are on their race tyres. I’ve got one set of 17″ slicks to use in the race, I’ll try my best to get the thing off the line and put in a solid first lap, see how it goes from there. We are warming up in the morning then racing in the afternoon tomorrow, Saturday. I think a top ten would be satisfying and I’ll pretend to be happy with that if we pull that off tomorrow. A 7th or better would probably feel like winning. At the end of the day we need to go home safe.

That’s all I got! Having a pretty low key fun time (night life speaking). If we survive the race we’ll be partying hard Saturday night for the first time this week!

Take care, speak soon, big hug,

Mark

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November 19

Hello family and friends,

Quick note to let you know I’ve arrived in China and all is well. We’ve been flying pretty low most nights and staying off the heavy drink. Been sleeping better by the night considering the 16 hour difference in time from LA.

The Celtic AMA bike is all cleaned and stickered up. The team is short on tires here so we’re going to have to practice and qualify on less than optimum rubber at times. The lads on the team are cool shit.

The new custom Joe Rocket Celtic leathers are sick sick. The helmet has just been all stickered up in MGM Grand Hotel and Casino Macau livery…. never been sponsored by a friggin casino before!

That’s all I got, hope you’re all well. We are through all the scrutineering now, bike and gear, so we’re locked and loaded for tomorrow’s, Thursday’s, first 0730 A(fooking)M in the morning practice session, then first qualifying later the same day.

I’ve been entered in the bike guys vrs. the car dorks annual competition for the Press, representing the American team. They told us we’d be racing electric karts or some shite, should be fun. Macau, the city, has exploded since my first time here in 1998. Its clean, huge hotels, palm trees lining the street and of course this race, which is 56 years old.

Speak soon, big hug,

Mark