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Romine
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 Reason Versus Logic | Hooters IHRA Carquest Empire Nationals
Mike Romine’s Saturday Final Qualifying July 13, 2002 |
It’s no secret that the Romine team is frustrated. ‘The Wizard’ Rex Harris’ job is to get the team ‘computer friendly’ and utilizing the data captured. Teaming with a successful program based on experience, engine and component knowledge, the transformation can be frustrating at times.
Harris was excited after final qualifying, though the rest of the team was ready to throw away the fuel system and electronics that launch the team in the five-second future less than a few years off.
“We’ve had a fuel system problem been plaguing us whole year. This final qualifying round corrected it, I think. We haven’t solved it, but the fact that it went up there and spun the tire wasn’t a reflection of a tune-up out of control. It was just a little too much. That comes from correction. It overpowered the track. We’ve been tuning around our problem. With the correction we went out there with more power than we expected. Although we didn’t do very well, we have a positive outlook on the situation. Our problem is potentially solved. Only time will tell if it fixed it or just worked this time. Tomorrow we’ll go up there having it tuned for a good number, anticipating that this problem will not be there. We shouldn’t have the tire spin problem tomorrow because we’ll be prepared for performance out of the bike.” Harris was optimistic.
Romine was the opposite. As a seasoned rider, the run was a waste to him. “It felt to me like it just spun the tire and kicked sideways. It immediately made a left hand turn. I don’t know what to think about the tire spinning. We need to calm the thing down. This track just isn’t going to take what Rex is trying to do with it. The bike will run if we’ll get it going. The problem is, for tomorrow, we’ll have to take a bunch out of it to calm it down and hopefully, with that tune-down, we don’t get outrun. We’ve gotta do something.” Romine was a man desperate for a solution between his own reason and the inarguable logic of stepping into the future of his class.
Saturday night, Romine needed to think. “I’m not confident at this point. I figured we’d come over here after having three or four weeks off, with freshened parts, and we’d run good. We ran well here last year. Sometimes things just don’t go your way. But I’ve gotta have a good outlook. Tomorrow’s a whole new day.”
A negative point of view is new to Romine. “I think we do better confident. It seems like we’ve been searching these last few years in IHRA. I would rather have run four six- sixties in a row and have a known combination than run a 6.70, and then try to pull a 6.30 or 6.40 from nowhere. Getting caught up in the numbers is something we don’t need to do.” Still, Romine had hope in his mind, but not his spirit. “There’s no question that when this team and this bike hits the combination that this motorcycle wants, we’ll make a major step. It won’t be a tenth here or tenth there. It will be a major step when it clicks together. We’ve run 6.40’s with terrible 1/8th miles. Unlike other teams, our bike really runs on the top end. It’s our early numbers that are a problem.”
So how does Romine psyche himself up? “There’s no question that if we put the bike back the way we finished last year we would probably be doing well. But at the end of the year, we’d have widened the gap between us and the other teams. So we’re trying to go the next step and it’s hard. I think we’ve done well at times but we haven’t been consistent, and we’re used to consistency. Plus, all of this technology takes a different riding style that I have to get used to. It’s a whole different deal. There are switches and gadgets that I have to do that I’m not used to doing either. When we lost in Canada, that was my fault. We were running well enough to win that race. The bike was, the track was excellent. I missed the whole deal. So today puts me puzzling. Tomorrow, I’ll have on my race face and be ready to go.
Mike Romine’s Chromatic Nuclear Tomato is sponsored by Andrews Products, Ross Pistons, Saddlemen, Autolite, Silkolene and Romine Racing.
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