Privateer Tools take second in SBCE at Texas World 8 hour endurance
by
, 03-28-2013 at 07:32 PM (11605 Views)
I now understand the meaning of the word “endurance”. I am amazed at the ability of the Yamaha YZF-R6 to take that kind of abuse.
When we put this team together our experienced endurance riders pointed to the eight hour race on the schedule and talked about tire changes, rider order, fatigue, and bike maintenance. Talking about an eight hour race and competing in an eight hour race are two very different things.
In preparation, we worked with Shandra Crawford to design a logo and banner. No matter what the eight hours would bring, we were going out in style.
Brad Kelly set up the team with a great start and quick pace. We had a flawless pit as the bike was handed off to Olay Bayramoglu. Olay went out and laid down fast and consistent laps. The first two hours went by relatively quickly for those of us not riding.
Mike Humphries was our next rider on deck. Unfortunately for me, he is also our normal fuel tower operator. I found out first hand exactly how hard it is to get the dump can in place when the pressure is on. When Mike completed his turn and handed the bike off to Sean Gurevich I was still fumbling around with the dump can…..this looks so easy, why does it take me 10 seconds to make the pieces go together?
As Sean’s ride came to an end, I suited up to wait for my turn. At the halfway point of the race I was excited about position and lap times. We were running with the top five in our class and top ten overall. I was happy with the performance of the new Fast Frank quick change system we purchased as I watched my team change the rear tire. The “dollar per second” gains instantly became apparent as I watched the axle zip in before mounting the bike.
I handed the bike off to Brad for his second stint and staggered exhausted back to the wall. I watched Brad pulling away and wondered out loud how anyone had enough energy to do two shifts. Olay just laughed as he suited up awaiting his turn to take us home.
Olay’s second turn on the bike is where the race got interesting. LSTD was out with blown fork seals, Locomotion dropped with bike issues, and we watched DTO remove their lower as we climbed by them. As we stood cheering with rest of the teams standing on the wall, Olay brought us home safely for a fantastic finish: second in class and fourth overall.
I am truly blessed to be able to race in this awesome club with such fantastic (and “in shape”) teammates and wonderful competition. I hope to see the grids full again at NOLA.
Privateer Tools would like to thank their sponsors: M4 Exhaust, USB Consulting