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Brighton Superbike Goes 2 For 2
in 3-Hour Endurance

Darren, Joe and myself met up Friday afternoon and started our trip to the Ohio area in preparation for our second crack at Fasttrax's 3-hour endurance race. We didn't have Jim as our third rider, and we didn't have Pirelli as our tire supplier of choice. To make a long story short, the tires I ordered never arrived. Pirelli isn't at Fasttrax events, so this made running Pirellis in Saturday's race a rather daunting task.

Friday night was spent in the hotel drinking good Canadian beer supplied by Darren, and searching the web for differences in Pirelli and Michelin tire dimensions. Barring a miracle, we would have to run a completely new brand of tire, on a bike that we just recently found a good setup for on Pirelli rubber.

Saturday morning's practice started off well. Darren and I were out there clicking off low 11's with my best time being a 1:10.6 on the old Pirelli's I had on from a previous track day. Darren took my bike out for a few laps and approved the improved handling of the bike since he had last been on it. This would soon change however.

The selection of tires available from the Michelin tent was slim at best. We took what was available (not the newer PRC-model front, which is supposedly the front tire of choice), consulted with Michelin, Jim and James as to what geometry/suspension changes we'd have to make and went at it. After a few laps scrubbing in tires and noting how the bike felt (not good), we eventually went back to the original setup we had with the Pirellis. We were out of setup time and this was better than the bike had felt after our initial changes. This was how things were going to be for the race. A slow turning bike and a set of hard-carcassed tires that weren't setup to run on our bike. Woohoo!

The green flag dropped and I nearly threw it all away on the first lap. I passed a few bikes between turns 1 and 3, and passed a couple more going into the left-handed turn 4. However the left side of the tire wasn't hot enough yet, and as I tipped it in, the front tire slid and nearly washed out. Afterwards, I found out it pushed enough that the CamCool Racing team had a pucker moment of their own watching our bike slide, as they were on the outside of me and would have surely been taken out or forced to run off the track if I had gone down. What a squid I would have felt like. The thing was, I wasn't even going fast on the first lap, but this was just the first sign that switching tire brands isn't just something you can do without properly setting up your bike. And also that the Michelins just don't heat up as quickly as the Pirellis do. I proceeded to ride through turn 4 like a school girl for the rest of my stint.

The Localriders team had greatly improved since we last raced against them, and were in the overall lead with times in the mid-1:10 second range. We were in 2nd place and I could only put together a best time of 1:11.1; a far cry from my earlier practice times, and even further from my best race times. Dan (Cole) and his team were running up front as well, in third place behind us before he crashed in the kink, subsequently ending their day. There were some other relatively quick teams in attendance as well. The unsafe and unpredictable Bob Breeden was out in the race, running decent times before his team was later DQ'd for apparently switching bikes during the race. At least he didn't crash out, like many in the paddock had come to expect at least once a weekend when he raced regularly with WERA.

I continued on and put in a tentative 45 minutes before having to pit. Joe and Jeff (Caco) were helping run the pits and helped put together a quick pit stop, putting Darren out on the bike. Darren ran about three laps before the race was red flagged. Teams came in, put their bikes on the stands and couldn't touch their bikes during the race stoppage. As it turned out, another rider had crashed in the kink and required transport via helicopter, which is never a good sign. We later found out that the rider was in stable condition, suffering a broken collarbone and a concussion – much better than we had thought at the time.

The race was delayed about an hour. We benefited from the red flag, as the Localriders team had almost put a lap on us, as we had pitted once and they hadn't pitted yet. The 50 second lead they had built was now erased by the red flag (as scoring goes back to the previous lap before the red flag occurred).

The restart of the race had the coy veteran Darren Womack clicking in consistent lap times and losing little ground to Localriders' first rider, who was still out on the track. Approximately 5-10 minutes into the restart, Localriders pitted to switch riders and get fuel. Darren raced by, moving us into 1st place overall. Localriders went back out and within 10-15 minutes, Darren and the fiery red, Brighton Superbike Yamaha R6 had caught their second rider giving us a 1-lap advantage.

Localriders were smart, as they pitted early just to put Rob (their fast rider) back on the bike to try and get back some time on us. As I sat in the pits looking at the time left in the race, I knew we would have to pit again for fuel and I'd be doing the last 25-30 minutes of the race. I also knew that Rob was running faster times than I was, but I wasn't sure how it would all play out. Darren signaled the low fuel light had come on and pitted four laps later. Joe and Jeff again made quick work in the pits and I was back out to try and preserve our lead.

Ten minutes into my stint, Localriders went by me on the outside of turn 4, again showing a spot where I need to improve; regardless of what brand tire is on the bike. After they went by, I kept close for a few laps, but I simply couldn't keep pace with what we had. I settled into a comfortable rhythm and we took the checkered flag without any issues.

Up until this point, we thought we had finished second. We had been watching scoring on our laptop in the pits. When the red flag happened, Localriders had 40 laps shown and we had 39. We were still technically on the same lap, but Localriders had crossed the start/finish line before the red flag, which made it appear they had a 1-lap lead on us. When the race restarted, the scoring hadn't gone back to the previous lap, so we had thought we were a lap down on the restart of the race. In hindsight, I'm a bit disappointed I didn't catch this myself as we had talked about it during the red flag, but we were more concerned about our tires and suspension issues at the time. When Darren had passed their second rider in his stint, we thought that was merely for position, rather than actually giving us a 1-lap lead.

As it turned out, we won 1st in class and 1st overall. However, it was a rather hollow victory as Localriders rode extremely well; better than we did in that race. The red flag ultimately helped us, but it also hurt the overall consistency that Darren and I could have had running a full 3-hour race. In the end, it balanced out and we managed to collect our second win of the season.

A big thanks goes out to my dad, Joe who did an outstanding job as crew chief during the race. Also to Jeff for his help in the pits and during the race and to Darren who managed to keep the weekend highly entertaining without a dull moment. And lastly, thanks to Fasttrax who put on a very well organized race, adding to a continually improving series. I'm sure Bob Stanley would be proud.

One last thing – if anyone is interested in a set of Michelin takeoffs, I have a set for sale. :)

Thanks for reading,

Eddie

Monday, August 14th, 2006 | POSTED AT: 12:00 PM
FILED UNDER: Race Reports

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You're currently reading "Brighton Superbike Goes 2 For 2
in 3-Hour Endurance," an entry on Witchkraft Racing.
Published: 08.14.06 / 12pm
Category: Race Reports