Las Vegas, Wrap-up: David Hope and Vroom Racing wrapped up their season this weekend at the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Even though there is one remaining race on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Pro Stock Motorcycle schedule, the team has opted to pass on the Automobile Club of Southern California Finals and turn around and head for home.
“We’ve always planned to finish out the year and run Pomona,” explained team owner, John Hammock. “But I need shoulder surgery and have been waiting months for the surgeons to be available and wouldn’t you know it, they scheduled it for the week of the race. I considered rescheduling but I really need to have it done. And who knows how long I’d have to wait for the doctors again. We also thought about finding someone else to run the bike, but then decided against that. So, we finally made the decision to finish our season in Vegas and give me the time to get back to normal.”
Hope and the team would have liked to end their first season together with a better outcome, but the beautiful Buell just didn’t cooperate. Hope’s best pass of the weekend came in the first qualifying session, a 7.157 at 184.88 mph. On his second attempt, the bike made a hard move to the left on the launch and he had to abort the run to avoid crossing the centerline. At the end of the day’s qualifying, Hope was in the No. 15 position. If it would have been Saturday, this would have put Hope in the show. But Friday qualifying is based on the top 12 and everyone else’s runs are thrown out and they have to start over on Saturday.
On his first pass on Saturday, Hope ran 7.197 at 182.43 mph, which put him in the No. 17 spot. So on the last attempt the team was looking to step-up and get in the show. But to their dismay, when they got up to the line, the Buell wouldn’t start and to their dismay their last chance to improve was gone. Hope stayed 17th, just on the outside looking in. So, not only did their season end early, but their last race ended early also.
“We were done in by a little part,” said Hammock. “The camshaft sensor failed. Everything was fine when we warmed up in the pit, so we didn’t suspect a thing. But when we got up to the line, it wouldn’t start. We had a problem with this sensor earlier this year and we thought we had it fixed, but apparently there is a problem with these sensors. Hopefully, over the off season we can come up with a solution to this problem.”
“I came into this race with higher expectations for us,” said Hope, “however racing is racing and you have to take the good with the bad. We only made two out of the four qualifying runs and at this level of completion, that’s not good enough. On our final qualifier the cam sensor failed that’s why the bike didn’t fire at the line. That was something out of our control. Parts fail occasionally and you don’t know when they might fail so there is nothing you can do about it.
“I look at this year as a growing experience. I will take the good and the bad and learn from it. I know I can walk away with my head held high because I have grown as an individual and as a rider. I feel good because I know that I did my best.
“We are aiming to run the full season next year, so we’ll take what we learned this year and put it into operation. We’ll set our expectations and develop a road map to use to reach our goals. When you put this season in the grand scheme of things this was a short scope in the realm of a goal for me. We want to have a real presence out here and become a champion caliber team and that doesn’t happen in a partial year.”
Just because Hope and the Vroom Buell won’t compete at any more races this year, it doesn’t mean everything will be locked up in the shop for the winter.
“John and I had a good discussion,” said Hope. “We talked about this year and what we need to do in the off season, both to develop my riding finesse and improve the performance of the bike. We plan to do some testing so I can be better prepared as a rider and next year we can hit the track running.”
“We plan to get the bike on the dyno real quick here,” said Hammock. “Then we’d like to get some testing in before the cold weather takes over. Then we’d like to go over things and freshen up everything and be ready to do more testing as soon as the weather breaks. So, just because we finished early, doesn’t mean we’re finished.”
“We’ve always planned to finish out the year and run Pomona,” explained team owner, John Hammock. “But I need shoulder surgery and have been waiting months for the surgeons to be available and wouldn’t you know it, they scheduled it for the week of the race. I considered rescheduling but I really need to have it done. And who knows how long I’d have to wait for the doctors again. We also thought about finding someone else to run the bike, but then decided against that. So, we finally made the decision to finish our season in Vegas and give me the time to get back to normal.”
Hope and the team would have liked to end their first season together with a better outcome, but the beautiful Buell just didn’t cooperate. Hope’s best pass of the weekend came in the first qualifying session, a 7.157 at 184.88 mph. On his second attempt, the bike made a hard move to the left on the launch and he had to abort the run to avoid crossing the centerline. At the end of the day’s qualifying, Hope was in the No. 15 position. If it would have been Saturday, this would have put Hope in the show. But Friday qualifying is based on the top 12 and everyone else’s runs are thrown out and they have to start over on Saturday.
On his first pass on Saturday, Hope ran 7.197 at 182.43 mph, which put him in the No. 17 spot. So on the last attempt the team was looking to step-up and get in the show. But to their dismay, when they got up to the line, the Buell wouldn’t start and to their dismay their last chance to improve was gone. Hope stayed 17th, just on the outside looking in. So, not only did their season end early, but their last race ended early also.
“We were done in by a little part,” said Hammock. “The camshaft sensor failed. Everything was fine when we warmed up in the pit, so we didn’t suspect a thing. But when we got up to the line, it wouldn’t start. We had a problem with this sensor earlier this year and we thought we had it fixed, but apparently there is a problem with these sensors. Hopefully, over the off season we can come up with a solution to this problem.”
“I came into this race with higher expectations for us,” said Hope, “however racing is racing and you have to take the good with the bad. We only made two out of the four qualifying runs and at this level of completion, that’s not good enough. On our final qualifier the cam sensor failed that’s why the bike didn’t fire at the line. That was something out of our control. Parts fail occasionally and you don’t know when they might fail so there is nothing you can do about it.
“I look at this year as a growing experience. I will take the good and the bad and learn from it. I know I can walk away with my head held high because I have grown as an individual and as a rider. I feel good because I know that I did my best.
“We are aiming to run the full season next year, so we’ll take what we learned this year and put it into operation. We’ll set our expectations and develop a road map to use to reach our goals. When you put this season in the grand scheme of things this was a short scope in the realm of a goal for me. We want to have a real presence out here and become a champion caliber team and that doesn’t happen in a partial year.”
Just because Hope and the Vroom Buell won’t compete at any more races this year, it doesn’t mean everything will be locked up in the shop for the winter.
“John and I had a good discussion,” said Hope. “We talked about this year and what we need to do in the off season, both to develop my riding finesse and improve the performance of the bike. We plan to do some testing so I can be better prepared as a rider and next year we can hit the track running.”
“We plan to get the bike on the dyno real quick here,” said Hammock. “Then we’d like to get some testing in before the cold weather takes over. Then we’d like to go over things and freshen up everything and be ready to do more testing as soon as the weather breaks. So, just because we finished early, doesn’t mean we’re finished.”
