Race Day: Jettribe Lake Perris Open Round 3 with Tanaka Racing

We joined Tanaka Racing again this past weekend to log and support the team at the Jettribe Lake Perris Open in the Amateur and Novice classes (since they were running a mostly stock jet-ski). As expected, the California weather pulled through with warm weather throughout the day despite initial overcast and clouds as we arrived at Perris, CA.

Arriving at Lake Perris at 7:30 for initial lake entry inspections

Upon arrival, we stop in a line at the entrance for vehicles towing or entering the water. To prevent the introduction of invasive species, all watercraft are inspected for water in and around the watercraft's hull, and in any compartments. We had no problem getting in, but as you can see from the line forming at 7:30 in the morning, they take it very seriously!

Once past inspection, it was time to set up our pit area and get ready for the driver's briefing and practice sessions. Despite occupying such a small beach area of the man-made lake, organizers did a great job getting racers in and out of the water in time for their heat. At this point, race organizers also do a visual inspection of skis for safety and to make sure skis meet class requirements.

Here we are at the Tanaka Racing pit area, and the Stock class Kawasaki Ultra 260X that Aki Tanaka raced for the day

As the sun began to show its face and the clouds cleared, the beach area became packed with large trailers, motorhomes, large tents, stages, and spectator vehicles. It proved to be quite a challenge to maneuver the large 1000lb Stock-Runabout class Tanaka Racing Kawasaki Ultra 260X to and from the small beach landing with all of the spectators and rival team carts, trucks and pit crew all fighting for the same space between races.

A look at the chaos in the landing area/start line for the day's race layout

After the drivers' meeting, each class of watercraft was allowed to run a brief practice session on the course. We brought our DigSpice GPS-Datalogger to check the Tanaka Racing 260X's cornering speeds in relation to other stock-class rivals. Stock-class Sea-Doo's proved to have an edge on the smaller course layout despite the wide/tight 2-way section of the course.

Data from previous test sessions shows that the heavy 260X suffers on exit-speed,

We can see from the data that as much as 10mph is lost mid-turn during sharp slalom sections in the heavy Kawasaki, even more on hard hair-pins. Watching the G/Radius grid, we see that the ski corners well, pulling as much as 1.2G+ in 45-50M radius turns, but has drop quite a bit of speed. This loss of speed directly translated to the course layout of this day's race, as the course layout proved to be much tighter and smaller than what most racers have anticipated... This layout heavily favored lighter watercraft such as those from Sea-Doo and the lighter/nimble Sport and Stand-up classes.

The course layout for round 3 proved to be a technical challenge for heavier watercraft, barely scratching 50mph

The course starts with the starting gate right from the beach landing, and into the first left-hander. Racers are immediately thrown into the last split/2-way section of the course, splitting the field, only to converge again at nearly full speed as they approach the aggressive slalom section. This slalom is a series of sharp hair-pins which sets riders facing eachother as they make their way through the buoys. As you can imagine, it gets very choppy as the waves from each passing ski hits the next. After the slalom is a high-speed dash to the faster section of the course, which brings rider back to the split-section and to the start/finish line.

Since the Tanaka Racing 260X is set up for off-shore, the non-adjustable sponsons on the side of the watercraft provided too much "grip" for this tight course, not allowing the rear to swing out and carry momentum through the turn. Unfortunately being that the sponsons were non-adjustable, we had to make-do with the settings we had, and will consider changes for the next race.

The view for most of the day, rushing to get Tanaka Racing's 260X in and out as quick as possible

With back-to-back races and 2 heats, the course was always busy and the beach always lined with pit-crew and spectators. A slight start mishap led to a DNS during Tanaka's second heat. After pulling the ski aside and with some beach-side help, a loose starter wire turned out to be the culprit, and we managed to make the final race of the stock-runabout class. Despite the results, this race provided valuable experience for us and the team, and we hope to tag along for the next race at Lake Elsinore in a better prepared ski!

We will continue to monitor the ski and rider's progress with the DigSpice GPS-Datalogger at the next test session, and hope to finish strong at the next race! Stay tuned for more!

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