Bmwivan > Bmwivan's Blog Posts > Daytona MOTO-ST Race Report

March 08, 2007 15:42

My endurance racing team, Team Motorrad, just returned from a great week at Daytona. We had some ups and downs, but everything worked out in the end.

On Tues. Feb. 27th Brad Phillips, Jim Blakeney, Gary Walker and I left the race shop and headed down to Roebling Road in Savannah, GA., to participate in AHRMA practice scheduled for Wednesday. The sky was clear and it was promising to be a nice day as we unloaded the R1200S and the vintage BMW’s from the trailer on Wednesday morning. We were able to get in a full day of practice, and made some minor necessary adjustments to the machines in preparation for Daytona. We loaded everything back up for the Thursday drive down to Daytona. Frank Shockley met up with us later in the evening at Ivey and Elaine’s house, friends who where gracious enough to give us a place to stay for the night.

A rainy but warm Thursday morning greeted us as we left Savannah and headed to Daytona. By the time we arrived the rain was done and the sun was coming out. We suffered through registration, found our garage, and set everything up for the week.

Dawn arrives early on race days. We drove to the track in the dark on Friday morning, talked about strategy and prepared ourselves for the day. Our first order of race business at Daytona was on the schedule for Friday, the CCS Team Challenge Race. Frank and I entered the R1200S for a little more practice in preparation for Sunday’s MOTO-ST event. The start of the race went well, with Frank riding strong and towards the front. I took over the bike after about 45 minutes, and we continued to forge ahead. Toward the end of my session, the bike began to show signs of impending doom, popping out of fifth gear as I would climb out of the chicane and onto the banking. On a street bike this might be a nuisance, but when you are shifting at redline on a racebike, you can only get away with a problem like this for so long before catastrophe occurs. A loss of power and trail of smoke signaled the end a few laps later.

As I radioed our crew chief Gary with the news, it occurred to me that we were done. Without a backup bike our weekend was finished. In an effort to eek out a little more from our bike over the winter we had inadvertently sabotaged ourselves. The lesson here: don’t mess with it if it ain’t broke. The crash truck took me back to the paddock and a solemn reception from the crew.

Looking for a little sympathy, I headed over to the garage San Jose BMW was using just down from ours. I fully expected my tale of woe to fall on deaf ears, as they were busy preparing their own machines and participating in some practice races. Instead they were very receptive to my story. So much so that they offered to let us use their backup bike, and not just any backup bike, but the bike that actually won the Inaugural MOTO-ST event the previous Fall. I couldn’t believe it. Of course there were details to be worked out, but after a long night of anticipation we were handed their spare bike midday Saturday. After having no hope of racing on Sunday, our weekend was starting to look up, and thanks to one of our competitors no less!

The winning San Jose bike had been on the show circuit all winter, and was still in roughly the same condition it had been in at the conclusion of the 8-Hour race the previous October. As soon as we received the bike we went to work. The valves were adjusted, all the fluids changed, bodywork, shocks, rearsets and final drive swapped out for ours, new spark plugs and a new alternator belt. We also installed our radio system and on-board camera. By the time the garages closed on Saturday night, the bike was as ready to race as it could be.

On Sunday morning we were given one short 15 minute practice session before the race. We sent Frank out to suss up the situation. The question on everyone’s mind: would the borrowed bike work? The crew waited with anticipation as Frank circulated the track. When he came in he was all smiles. The bike worked well and was ready to race.

We took our grid position at 1:30pm, and at 2:00pm Frank and the rest of the field peeled off into turn one. 50 minutes later Frank came in to pit, the crew gassed the bike up, and I climbed on for my first of two sessions. She was working well, and I handed the bike over to Frank after another 50 minutes with no issues. The crew changed a tire at this stop, and it went great. Total time including coming down pit road and going back out, under 50 seconds! When Frank handed the bike off to me for the last session, the only thing I could think was, “don’t crash!” I didn’t, and crossed the line as the checkered flag flew.

We were placed in 7th overall. To finish the race at all was a tremendous achievement considering our obstacles. To be a top-ten finisher on a borrowed bike was more than we could hope for.

It turns out San Jose BMW had a mechanical problem near the end of the race, and I was sorry to hear it. They led most of the race prior to their problem, and they were looking good to make it two wins in a row. Without them we would have packed up and headed home, and I really have to thank them and all of the Team Motorrad crew for making the opening round of the 2007 season one to remember.

Ivan

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