From a press release issued by Dr. Rob Tuluie:

Just a quick update from our first Formula USA National at Road America on Aug 4th:

For those of you unfamiliar with Road America, it is one of the best racing circuits in the U.S. and was a recent contender to bring the World Championship Grand Prix back to America. It’s north of Milwaukee, WI, is 4 miles long and features long straights, fast sweepers and several technical turns with elevation changes.

We had been to the track once before in April, but were unable to practice or race most of the time due to horrible weather, with high temperatures in the 40s and continual rains throughout the weekend. Not so this time, the weather was almost perfect and we got in all of our practice sessions. Early on, we noticed a substantial lack of power, which was most likely due to a change of transfer port roof angle I should had avoided in hindsight. We were able to gain some of this back before the race by advancing the ignition timing and praying that the Nutec GP2 fuel would hold the detonation in check (which it did), but were still down about 12 hp (according to the very convenient Formula USA dynojet dyno we used at the track) from what this strong Hot Seat Performance motor produced earlier in the year on the Manley Cycle dyno. While in April we had excellent top speed and the bike would power wheelie all the way to the start finish line, this time around it was noticeably slower on the uphill front straight and required lower overall gearing. In addition, our otherwise excellent AP Brakes proved a bit too aggressive for the entry into Canada corner, which required a very subtle brake manipulation while leaned over and braking hard from top gear into this 2nd gear turn. We retained the AP radial master cylinder but switched to stainless rotors (instead of the cast ones we typically use) and sintered EBC pads rather than the Performance Friction carbon pads which served us so well when we set the lap record at Blackhawk recently. Sounds easy, but it took us several practice session to arrive at the desired combination. So, with the limited practice time available for this huge race event, it was not until the Sunday morning warm-up practice that we finally had the right package together for Steve to put into action. Tom Mason of MRT mounted a fresh set of Michelin slicks and we were ready for the race.

Steve started the Unlimited GP race (also called the “shootout”) in 8th position and promptly knocked 4 seconds of his previous best practice time on the second lap! He was running in the front pack of riders that included Formula USA Unlimited GP champion Mike Himmelsbach, Eric Wood and Vincent Haskovec among others. However, on lap 3 or 4 Steve lost the draft and was unable to stay with the pack, eventually finishing the race in 7th place behind Mike Himmelsbach. On the other hand, Steve finished ahead of about 20 other racers, including many top club racers on GSXR 1000s and 750s, R1s, etc. All considering, a decent finish considering that this was essentially our first time racing at this track. We did learn that it is not enough to have the package all together come race day, but instead need to be closer when we get to the track so Steve can take advantage of a good setup and get used to it during practice. This way he can push the bike early on and allow us to make those subtle but important adjustments to our Ohlins suspension and bike geometry that gain a few tenth of a second here or there. One thing that amazes me is how huge of an overall improvement in laptimes we can produce by getting these details and subtle nuances right. Having a fast bike/rider combination is not just about power, weight or trick bolt-on components, but just as importantly about balance, feel, feedback and working with the rider to make the bike feel the way it works best for him. Using our Pi data acquisition with MTS software and some sound physical reasoning helps a lot in this respect, but experience is just as important. Considering that this was the first time we ran against the national level competition at Formula USA at this demanding track, Steve and I are pretty sure that the next time we can finish on the box! And, by the way, we had jet another full racing weekend of no mechanical/electrical failures or issues.