Hi there. Yes I know, I know, I have not been writing. Initially it was just getting ready for the season, then a little low spot in my life, then when I was ready to wite on my blog the password stopped working!?
It has taken a bit to collect my thoughts and debrief about Daytona. This past weekend started our 2007 season for Team BMWXPLOR.com at Daytona Intl. Speedway. With not as much laughter towards the BMW motorcycles we race, there was total silence when my teammate and I went 1 - 2 in qualifying for the National ASRA Pro Thunderbike race. Brian ripped off a 1:49.6 and I went 1;49.9 to fill the front to positions on the grid! From there the rain came for the actual Thunderbike Natl. race. With the whole shot I was able to clear from the field into turn one by about 5 bike lengths, but to fast, and in the downpour almost plowed the front right off of turn 1. Saved it and fell back to 5th, then as my visor fogged up, there was pretty much no visibility and went off a 2nd time pushing to get back inot the top 3.
This was a hhumbing experience I must say. For the first time in a long time we were not up front on our new R1200S and it showed. I cruised around to a lowly 11th place finish and knew it would be a better day on Sunday. Sunday morning practice was still half wet and half dry. Went pretty good and then come race time, dry. This was the CCS Thunderbike race, a seperate one from the Natl. that Brian and I entered for seat time to get ready for the MotoST race. This would be my first time testing a ride height adjustment to an alreaady ailing rear shock that was completely out of compression adjustment. So, due to the rain there was no time to see if we were going in the right direction, just go race it!
The R1200S was running a little wide mid corner, and enough to just hae to wait to pull th trigger which in return caused me to stay leaned over to long. You really wna t minimize lean angle, and get it on the meat of the tire ASAP. So, another holeshot and with the lead in 4 of the 5 lap sprint, as the paced went faster, the 3mm adjustment was the wrong direction, the bike just went wider, off the gas, mid corner. Lost alot of time and lapped traffic, yes lapped traffic on the 4th lap had Brian squeeze by and take the win. As long as it is another BMW I am totally fine with it! lol So another 1-2 for us!
MotoST 3 hou endurance. We proved October was not a fluke. Brian started the race and when he handed over the bike to me, on his 2nd stop, we had a 23 second lead. At the end of my 2 stints, 44 laps later, we had a 40 second lead. As Brian went back out, with 14 laps to go, the motor stopped. All i can say is we proved that we are the team to beat, on a what, BMW?! There is raw credibility to our performance driven machines and direction we are all going in! Thank you BMW riders and supporters!
Cheers,
N8!
It has taken a bit to collect my thoughts and debrief about Daytona. This past weekend started our 2007 season for Team BMWXPLOR.com at Daytona Intl. Speedway. With not as much laughter towards the BMW motorcycles we race, there was total silence when my teammate and I went 1 - 2 in qualifying for the National ASRA Pro Thunderbike race. Brian ripped off a 1:49.6 and I went 1;49.9 to fill the front to positions on the grid! From there the rain came for the actual Thunderbike Natl. race. With the whole shot I was able to clear from the field into turn one by about 5 bike lengths, but to fast, and in the downpour almost plowed the front right off of turn 1. Saved it and fell back to 5th, then as my visor fogged up, there was pretty much no visibility and went off a 2nd time pushing to get back inot the top 3.
This was a hhumbing experience I must say. For the first time in a long time we were not up front on our new R1200S and it showed. I cruised around to a lowly 11th place finish and knew it would be a better day on Sunday. Sunday morning practice was still half wet and half dry. Went pretty good and then come race time, dry. This was the CCS Thunderbike race, a seperate one from the Natl. that Brian and I entered for seat time to get ready for the MotoST race. This would be my first time testing a ride height adjustment to an alreaady ailing rear shock that was completely out of compression adjustment. So, due to the rain there was no time to see if we were going in the right direction, just go race it!
The R1200S was running a little wide mid corner, and enough to just hae to wait to pull th trigger which in return caused me to stay leaned over to long. You really wna t minimize lean angle, and get it on the meat of the tire ASAP. So, another holeshot and with the lead in 4 of the 5 lap sprint, as the paced went faster, the 3mm adjustment was the wrong direction, the bike just went wider, off the gas, mid corner. Lost alot of time and lapped traffic, yes lapped traffic on the 4th lap had Brian squeeze by and take the win. As long as it is another BMW I am totally fine with it! lol So another 1-2 for us!
MotoST 3 hou endurance. We proved October was not a fluke. Brian started the race and when he handed over the bike to me, on his 2nd stop, we had a 23 second lead. At the end of my 2 stints, 44 laps later, we had a 40 second lead. As Brian went back out, with 14 laps to go, the motor stopped. All i can say is we proved that we are the team to beat, on a what, BMW?! There is raw credibility to our performance driven machines and direction we are all going in! Thank you BMW riders and supporters!
Cheers,
N8!
posted by nate_kern at 6:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home