... at Barber Motorsports Park.
Barber Motorsports Park has always offered a mix of challenges, but there is one very strong point for our BMW racebikes. With the tight corners that do not agree with our wheelbase, there is one turn that is the strongest for us on the whole circuit. Turn 4 is a very fast, uphill right-hand turn that levels off as you crest the turn flat-out in 4th gear. Due to our superior telelever and paralever suspension coupled with the longer wheelbase, we can hold the throttle wide open here while the rest of the field (in any class) has to close the throttle for stability. This allows us to shoot out of T4 with close to a 5mph advantage over 600s, 750s, and 1000s! This weekend was comprised of 6 races; one of them being the National ASRA Pro Thunderbike class that we currently lead.
This race is special every year because of the amount of BMW riders and dealer/club support. We entered our Boxers in five sprint classes: Supertwins (The fastest litre Twins on the market), 600 Superbike, 600Supersport, 750 Superbike, and CCS Thunderbike.
The weekend started off with a win in 600 Superbike against some talented riders on ultra-lightweight, high-revving 600s. That set the tone and from then on the level of energy amongst the BMW fans was sky high! The next race was 750 Superbike. On the warm up lap I realized instantly that I pulled a bone-head move. In all the excitement, I forgot to put on new knee pucks as I took the old ones off. I had a decent start and was running second coming up to T5 and I felt it was time to take the lead through our massive Brembo Brakes on the BMW HP2 Sport! I got in a little too hot on the brakes going for the lead and realized it was not going to stick. For the left-hand turn, the bars were fully lock up against the frame, countered all the way right. I was still hard on the brakes, trying to re-engage the drive-train through the clutch after two down shifts into 2nd. I stood the machine up and went straight off into the grass. We were able to stay in it hard enough to scrub off a lot of speed before the grass, so the save was not too spectacular. Once I got the bike stopped and turned around in the grass, I fell back to 15th position in the quick five lap sprint. From there, I put my head down but realized I had no knee pucks, which made it very difficult to carry the corner speed neccessary while trying to keep my knee from dragging and ruining the race suit. Regardless, my head was down and we charged our way back to 4th with only a few bike lengths behind 3rd place at the line! It is still so much fun and we are proving our BMW can do it!
The 600 Supersport was a battle for as long as we could keep the gap small on the straights at Barber. We settled for a commanding 3rd place finish, not on the strong HP2 Sport but our R1200S Thunderbike! Then came the CCS (regional) Thunderbike race. This was a pre-game warm-up for the National Thunderbike race the following day. I heard a noise coming from the left cylinder on the warm-up lap that I realized was louder since practice that morning. With the drop of the flag, I never looked back. Knowing there was a battle brewing behind me, our team was able to cross the line on the R1200S Thunderbike 15 seconds ahead of the competition. There was still a gnarly noise coming from the bike, but no loss of power, luckily. With Jim Doyle's help (a proud customer of Engle Motors in Kansas City, MS), 2nd Lt. Alex Deseta of Charleston, SC (US Army), and Ralf Wilkowski of San Diego, CA., we were able to find the problem and make the neccessary changes for the next day’s ASRA National Thunderbike race. After pulling the left valve cover off of the R1200S, we noticed one of the four massive studs holding the rocker arms sheared off. The big nut on the end of the stud was flying around and the rocker arm was smashing the valve cover the whole time I was racing. With no noticeable power loss, we still won the race. Amazing reliability! With that found, my pride and joy in my National Championship-leading "A" bike was down and we need to get to work on switiching the suspension over to the "B" bike. The electric shifter is such a bonus on the "A" R1200S, so back to getting it done manually! The new day started and the "B" bike went .4 seconds faster than the "A" bike and we were ready! BAM, we were off and as I ran it into T1, I never looked back. Team BMWXPLOR.com checked out with a five second win in the ASRA Pro Thunderbike class, further extending our points lead with two rounds to go!
Thank you tremendously to Jim Doyle, Ralf, Alex, the BMW MC Club of AL., BMW MC Club of GA., BMWBMW.org (love you guys), BMWSR.org, Atlanta BMW MC's, Engle Motors, Mortons BMW, and BMWXPLOR.com! We are on our way to a National #1 plate that all BMW motocycle owners can wear and share! N8! Kern
Barber Motorsports Park has always offered a mix of challenges, but there is one very strong point for our BMW racebikes. With the tight corners that do not agree with our wheelbase, there is one turn that is the strongest for us on the whole circuit. Turn 4 is a very fast, uphill right-hand turn that levels off as you crest the turn flat-out in 4th gear. Due to our superior telelever and paralever suspension coupled with the longer wheelbase, we can hold the throttle wide open here while the rest of the field (in any class) has to close the throttle for stability. This allows us to shoot out of T4 with close to a 5mph advantage over 600s, 750s, and 1000s! This weekend was comprised of 6 races; one of them being the National ASRA Pro Thunderbike class that we currently lead.
This race is special every year because of the amount of BMW riders and dealer/club support. We entered our Boxers in five sprint classes: Supertwins (The fastest litre Twins on the market), 600 Superbike, 600Supersport, 750 Superbike, and CCS Thunderbike.
The weekend started off with a win in 600 Superbike against some talented riders on ultra-lightweight, high-revving 600s. That set the tone and from then on the level of energy amongst the BMW fans was sky high! The next race was 750 Superbike. On the warm up lap I realized instantly that I pulled a bone-head move. In all the excitement, I forgot to put on new knee pucks as I took the old ones off. I had a decent start and was running second coming up to T5 and I felt it was time to take the lead through our massive Brembo Brakes on the BMW HP2 Sport! I got in a little too hot on the brakes going for the lead and realized it was not going to stick. For the left-hand turn, the bars were fully lock up against the frame, countered all the way right. I was still hard on the brakes, trying to re-engage the drive-train through the clutch after two down shifts into 2nd. I stood the machine up and went straight off into the grass. We were able to stay in it hard enough to scrub off a lot of speed before the grass, so the save was not too spectacular. Once I got the bike stopped and turned around in the grass, I fell back to 15th position in the quick five lap sprint. From there, I put my head down but realized I had no knee pucks, which made it very difficult to carry the corner speed neccessary while trying to keep my knee from dragging and ruining the race suit. Regardless, my head was down and we charged our way back to 4th with only a few bike lengths behind 3rd place at the line! It is still so much fun and we are proving our BMW can do it!
The 600 Supersport was a battle for as long as we could keep the gap small on the straights at Barber. We settled for a commanding 3rd place finish, not on the strong HP2 Sport but our R1200S Thunderbike! Then came the CCS (regional) Thunderbike race. This was a pre-game warm-up for the National Thunderbike race the following day. I heard a noise coming from the left cylinder on the warm-up lap that I realized was louder since practice that morning. With the drop of the flag, I never looked back. Knowing there was a battle brewing behind me, our team was able to cross the line on the R1200S Thunderbike 15 seconds ahead of the competition. There was still a gnarly noise coming from the bike, but no loss of power, luckily. With Jim Doyle's help (a proud customer of Engle Motors in Kansas City, MS), 2nd Lt. Alex Deseta of Charleston, SC (US Army), and Ralf Wilkowski of San Diego, CA., we were able to find the problem and make the neccessary changes for the next day’s ASRA National Thunderbike race. After pulling the left valve cover off of the R1200S, we noticed one of the four massive studs holding the rocker arms sheared off. The big nut on the end of the stud was flying around and the rocker arm was smashing the valve cover the whole time I was racing. With no noticeable power loss, we still won the race. Amazing reliability! With that found, my pride and joy in my National Championship-leading "A" bike was down and we need to get to work on switiching the suspension over to the "B" bike. The electric shifter is such a bonus on the "A" R1200S, so back to getting it done manually! The new day started and the "B" bike went .4 seconds faster than the "A" bike and we were ready! BAM, we were off and as I ran it into T1, I never looked back. Team BMWXPLOR.com checked out with a five second win in the ASRA Pro Thunderbike class, further extending our points lead with two rounds to go!
Thank you tremendously to Jim Doyle, Ralf, Alex, the BMW MC Club of AL., BMW MC Club of GA., BMWBMW.org (love you guys), BMWSR.org, Atlanta BMW MC's, Engle Motors, Mortons BMW, and BMWXPLOR.com! We are on our way to a National #1 plate that all BMW motocycle owners can wear and share! N8! Kern
posted by nate_kern at 7:31 PM
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