2
So for the USCRA Endurance race this year I formed my own team with a borrowed EX500 from Steve Heider (thanks dude). I invited Adam Butler (Rada), Chuck Boucher (The Snowman), and Lou Peck (Loudog) to ride with me. Unfortunately I had to teach an MSF class that weekend and hadn't realized it, so my seat went to Ken Condon. I had little hope of running until my class was canceled because of lack of attendance so I was now able to race. I didn't want to ask for my seat back on the other team so I was kind of actively looking for a ride. Then last weekend BJ Worsham approached me and asked me if I would like to run with them. HELL YES! The team consisted of BJ, Smokin Joe, Charlie Tarna, and myself. I had not rode an EX500 in 2 years so I was psyched!
So I got to the track at 2am on Saturday morning as I get out of work at 11:30pm, and was told I would not be allowed into the track because they didn't have waivers or armbands. (There was a woman sitting at the desk there but she couldn't do anything about it.) So I had to sleep in my 2 door hatch loaded with gear and caught about 2 hours of interrupted sleep. I got into the track at 7am and the bike was in non running shape. The battery had been toast so it wouldn't start so they had swapped it already. When they all got up it was go time. We (when I say we I say mostly Charlie, Joe, and BJ) swapped tires (new dunlop front and a used rear from 2007 - thanks for the swap street and comp!), changed front brake rotors as the one on there was cracked (seriously how does that happen?!), added some 40wt fork oil to the forks to make them a little stiffer, put new galfer pads in the front, bled the brakes, put on a new front brake lever and used the adjustable position that was between positions in order to get the lever out as far as it could go, safety wired the adjuster to keep it in place between positions, mounted up our aluminum belly pan, and got it over to tech. We missed all of our practices because of this, so we tested it in the infield and made adjustments based on that. Josh (kurlon) also helped with the bike. Thanks dude!
So we got our program set up on pit lane with our gas cans, fire extinguisher, canopies, race scanner and speakers, fan, chairs, and of course tools and hydration. We had gotten a tip from Johny B. that the grids would be based on a first come first serve basis, so we were first to line up on pre-grid and got the 1D position. We had decided that each of us would run 22 minute sessions so we would each get 2 sessions in the 3 hour race. However, when the race was just starting we got a text from Brendan Guy (our awesome scorer), that the race would end at 5pm, and therefore would be shorter than 3 hours. The race started at 2:26pm so it was a little over 2.5 hours long. Charlie apparently told BJ to stay out for 30 minutes, so he came in while running in first place after most teams had already pitted in once at about the 20 minute marker. We got Joe out there next and he turned consistent fast laps on the bike for 40 minutes! Joe and BJ were both running 1:24 average. Then Charlie was up. He hadn't been on track in 2 years so he knew he would be rusty. Based on what he saw on the lap timer of 1:34ish times he decided to pit in after 7 laps to take one for the team since he wanted to keep it competitive. Hard call, but an unselfish move that definitely was not necessary. We fueled up for the first and only time after Charlie got off the bike. Next I was up and I brought my times down from the 1:27 range to a new pb on an EX500 of a 1:23.5. I finished my half hour and then BJ went back out to bring it home! It looked like the 763 who was in first was going to have to pit in again for fuel so we really had a shot at winning this. There was about 13 minutes or so left when BJ rolls into pit and points down at the shifter! The bolt that pinches the linkage onto the splines had been cross threaded, so when we checked the torque of the bolt earlier we had thought it was tight and it had fallen off the splines! Luckily the bolt was still in it and we were able to get the bolt out and tightened back up again to get BJ back out. In total that stop cost us 4:06 and brought us out of contention for first place and solidly placed us in 2nd behind Roland's bike that was piloted across the finish in the capable hands of Paul Duval. We were disappointed in the finish, but it really was a great time. We did extremely well considering the circumstances of the bike build and didn't have any other problems. Our bike made it 100 laps without a hiccup otherwise.
Thank you USCRA for having us and it was again an awesome time with good friends, and some new ones. We are already looking forward to next year and what that will bring. We increased the attendance from 7 team entries last year to 19 team entries this year so next year should be even more!
Again congrats to the 763 and the 868 of Bill Morey who managed to grab 3rd.
BJ and Charlie first ones on grid.
The Grid.
And our time keeping device so we knew when we had to pit in. We couldn't go digital on an EX500 so had to find an analog watch
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by darkduc7
