First race with new Raptor

[ccdhowell]

Today I raced my two week old Raptor 700R for the first time in a cross country race in the ATVCCS outside Graham, Texas. It was a bad weekend for a race weekend. I almost never have to work on saturdays, but this weekend I did, so much for my practice day. So I got home about 5:30pm Saturday, left about 6pm headed for Graham 6 hours away. I got settled into a hotel shortly after midnight. Back up at 5 to get ready and go to the race course. Signed in, I had to sound check my new quad, and rode the track for about 2 miles to see what it was gonna be like. Too bad I didn't go far enough on my reconisance, it looked like it was gonna be easy fun, zig-zagging through a mesquite bush forest on dry sandy dusty trails. I didn't go far enough to see the miles of rocky trails, the farther you went, the bigger the rocks got, up to about basketball size scattered everywhere. It was fun taking my new Raptor out, but having only 4 hours or so on the engine I didn't want to push too hard and I decided to short-shift for this race. The stock shocks are pretty good, but I didn't have a chance to adjust them and they were too hard for the rough parts of the track. The track had some cool parts, down into several ravines for a short slotcar type run and then back out, there were quite a few straight in, through, and up and out the other side of a ravine or dry wash. The Raptor did very well on this type of terrain. I ran most of the tighter stuff in second and feathered the clutch on slower courners and let the torque from the 700cc fuel injected engine handle pulling out of it...strong, I was quite impressed. Several things caught me off gaurd on my first lap cause I hadn't practiced on the track. I did kill the quad on a particularly steep ravine on the first lap. I dropped in in second and just couldn't get out the other side in second, it was steep and rutted with a 8 to 10 inch shelf at the top right. The shelf caught me out the first time around and caused me to hesitate on the throttle a second and that's all it took to kill it. I rolled back to the bottom holding up 4 quads, refired, dropped in first gear and esily pulled the steep bank. I was constantly worried about cutting a tire on the rocks; I'm still running the stock tires, 2 ply Dunlops, they've got to go before the next race. I didn't cut a tire or pop a bead, but I saw 6 or 7 that did. Also saw 5 to 6 wrecks because of the dusty conditions. Most were young guys that pushed too far into a dusty corner and ran up the back of another quad. I guess I'm just too dang old; I just can't push into a corner where I can't see I have to let off and check it out before I commit all the way to a line. Oh well, live to race another day. I finished 8th in todays race.

I'll post up pics when I get them.

Chris

[ccdhowell]

If you've ever been to a cross country race then you know this type of racing isn't well conceived for spectators. My wife did manage to get some pictures of me on the starting line and in the scorring shoot. There was professional photographers out on the course taking pics, but that will take several days or so before I can see those. This is what I have right now. I am on the white Raptor with the multi-colored helmet, number 443; you know, I'm the good looking one.

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/288132/2306401DSC06237.JPG

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/288132/2306404DSC06240.JPG

http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/288132/2306405DSC06241.JPG

Notice the dust in the air now, kicked up when the first couple classes started the race.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/288132/2306408DSC06245.JPG

Starts are hard to get. The wife was zoomed too much here; this is a 270 degree right hander 40 yards or so after the start.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/288132/2306411DSC06248.JPG

In the scoring shoot, lap 1.
http://216.77.188.54/coDataImages/p/Groups/345/345135/folders/288132/2306413DSC06251.JPG

[The Goat]

not bad man, not bad at all.

I think you'll come to like that big 700 a lot. tons of torque to play with. hell, if all the other bikes break down, you could prolly tow them ALL to the finish.

how long of a break in are you going to do?

[ccdhowell]

how long of a break in are you going to do?

I guess I'm pretty much done with break in. I could feel the engine reving better as the race went along. I now have maybe 7 hours on the engine. Today I'm gonna run by the dealer and get an oil filter and some yamalube and change the oil for the first time. I'm a die-hard Mobil One synthetic user in everything, but since the engine is so new I'm gonna run the yamalube nonsynthetic stuff for right now just in case the engine needs to breakin any more. Once you put synthetic in, wear, hence breakin, practically stops.

Hey man, you're not far, come on up and race sometime. You have a quick quad? The series pres won't let me race my Tecate, I fought that fight last year, couldn't convince him.

Chris

[BigGreenMachine]

Good stuff Chris. Those Raptors have sack and look unreal! No skidplates yet? Noticed the KTM in one of your pics, nice machines.

[The Goat]

I honestly don't own a quad right now. I do have another project brewing in the back of my mind. But it will have to wait until I get a job, pay some bills, and all of my other projects are done.

pity you can't race your tecate...you'd have some crying guys out there.