RACE REPORTS
10/30/06- Moto ST endurance race Daytona Int. Speedway
Hey everyone,
I first want to direct you all to the latest addition to EPR and that is the launch of the new web site. When you get free time please go to www.empty-pockets-racing.com and check it out. Please remember it is a work on progress so still needs some work.
Well a crazy thing happened on October 9th while in California for work. One on my counter parts in the SE had the great idea that we should put a team together and go endurance racing. Innocent enough sounding, right? His venue and race of choice, the brand new Moto-ST endurance series that was holding there inaugural 8 hour race at Daytona International Speedway. As I reluctantly said “sure I will ride if it happens” I thought hmmm wouldn’t that be a dream come true. I have always wanted to race at Daytona and if that could happen with the backing of Ducati, WOW….
Anyhow about 15 minutes later I was being dragged to the bosses office to be present for the “big” question, “pretty please can we do this” , the answer YES! I could not believe my ears, we were going to Daytona!! The excitement quickly turned into despair as I realized how little time we had and I was going to be in California the next 4 days, oh also I have not even talked to my wife yet.
That week was a long one, filling out all the entry forms, team rosters, making flight/hotel reservations and the “list”. I have never done an endurance race so I was trying to figure out what all we would need. Hmmm, tire warmers, quick fill gas can, pit board, tools etc. The one big thing that we would not have to worry about at least until getting to Daytona was our trusty steed a PS1000LE (Paul Smart replica bike). Our ride was being trucked down from Canada with 2 other identical bikes, one for Team Ducati Toronto and one as a spare. Ever since the first time I rode this bike at Miller Motorsports park I loved it, light, nimble and plenty of power so I was very excited to take this opportunity and ride it for 8 hours.
To make a long 10 days short I left on Tuesday night to make the long 16 hour trek down south to arrive on Thursday. The bike was set up for the Canadian Thunder bike series so we had to do major changes for it to meet the Moto-ST specs, like installing a stock air box, battery, electrical system and lights to name a few. On top of all that we needed to go over the entire bike to make sure it was safe, put on new brakes, chain, change the oil, safety wire quite a few bolts, add number plates and numbers, meet weight requirements, put a new exhaust on and figure out how to run an endurance team. Feeewww, a lot of work to do in less than one day as our first practice was Friday evening. Our savor would consist of Ingrid, James, Charles, Brandon, Ryan and Ed a 6 crew team for our pit crew. Down in Daytona Ducati uses a training school called Wyotec and we were lucky enough to have 6 volunteers come and spend the weekend with us working on the bike. Along with them we had several other big helpers, my wife and Adam’s wife Spring along with Jim Mckenna (the one who dreamed up this whole idea) and our Business development manager Kristi Blanchard both Ducati employees who were troopers and making this thing happen.
On Friday morning we took the bike through tech and weigh in, the bike could not weigh anything less than 390 pounds. We also had to pass a fuel capacity test which is no more than 4 gal at a time; we were at 3.5 so no issues there. Also needed done was dyno testing. We took several runs which ranged from 85 hp to 88 hp, which was perfect as the max allowed horse power was 90 hp. Once that was all complete we were ready to go and just needed to wait until 5pm for our 2 hour practice session to begin.
As we started setting up on pit row for our practice session on Friday my nerves started to go crazy to say the least with never riding on the Daytona banking before. When I watched some practice the day before and saw the bike rip around the banking it looked as if they were completely on their side. All you saw was there heads and back, very scary stuff.
Once the pit was set Adam Faussett took the first stint of practice. As he came past start finish for the first time the realization that I was next up to ride hit like a ton of bricks. As we eagerly awaiting him to come back around for his second lap, we looked down at the lap time and it read 2 min 30 seconds, then 2 min 55 seconds which was very strange as our normal lap times we were guessing at 2 min 19 seconds or so. We quickly radioed to the person holding the pit board in turn 3 and they did not see him. Fearing the worst we all started to panic a bit asking the officials if they heard of an incident etc. Finally he came roaring into the pits and cut the engine, hopped off the bike which was spewing gasoline. We jumped the wall and started checking it out. Apparently at the end of the first banking the gas hose came off and the bike cut out. He was able to get it back on enough to make it to the pits but it cut loose again while rolling in. The culprit was a small rubber seal on the quick release gas tank connectors. Once a new one was installed there were no further issues. We all hoped that was our only issue for the weekend.
Now it was my turn to hit the banking. Without thinking much I jumped on, hit the starter and tore off with my heart pounding….. I entered the pit on lane which paralleled turn 1 and 2 entering the track at turn 3 (NASCAR’s international horseshoe). I pitched the bike over for the first time wondering when I would be asked to get on the banking for the first time. I careened through the rest of the infield a nice smooth right hander then a quick left and saw the banking. There were 4 yellow water drums jutting out from the left which only allowed a space barely enough for one bike to pass through then hit the transition on the banking. I started in the middle and kept the throttle pined to ensure I would not “fall down “ the banking. The transition was not as bad as I was told and I could stay on the banking with no problem so was feeling pretty good through the first section. I took my time getting through the chicane and kicked back up on the second backing section. As I came past start finish I though, wow that was great and not too bad. I completed 4 more laps before having to pit and allow our 3rd rider Jason Routhier a turn. We lost quit a bit of time fixing the gas issue so we only got a few laps for practice each. As I climbed over the wall after trading off with Jason I felt very unstable and nauseous. I had to sit for 10 minutes and get some water to regain focus. The nausea I was feeling was from the banking which was a kinda of vertigo, I guess is the best was to explain it. After another 20-30 minutes it wore off and I was back to normal.
We arrived back at the track early Sat morning to do some final preparing before the race. There as a quick 15 minute practice which I took since I had the least track experience at Daytona. The
Moto STalso had an autograph session set up where all the riders had to be present to sign event posters and autographs. It was very weird signing posters as I am the one who is usually on the other side of the table trying to get the autographs. Very cool experience though. Once that 1 hour session was over we were off to our garage to start setting up our pit for the long 8 hour race.
At exactly 1:00 pm the clock started and each team’s first riders followed the pass car around the banking and cross start/finish for the first time, the race had officially began. It was a hot day, sunny and in the upper 80’s so keeping hydrated would be a must. We planned on doing 15 laps each which would last approx 45 minutes. Adam did 17 laps then signaled he was pitting. I grabbed my helmet, strapped it up and pulled my gloves on in anticipation of his arrival. The #42 Team Daffy Duc racing bike came tearing down pit lane (there was no speed limit mind you) and came to a full stop I jumped the wall and grabbed the bike. I asked if everything was ok he said “perfect”. I held the bike while our team gave it a splash of gas and took off. The first 9 laps were a blur for me as it took me that many laps to settle down and get comfortable. Once I hit lap 10 I was good, the track flowed, I knew my braking points and where the pit board was at. I completed 16 laps and came flying into make the switch to our third rider Jason. I came in slower than Adam as I wanted to make sure I did not over shoot our pit as we would loose more time doing that than taking my time and getting it right.
I stopped right on mark, the pit crew came flying over the wall grabbed the bike so I could get off and Jason jumped on. I told him things were great and to have fun! Jason took up with a roar and my first session was over. Again I felt nauseous and dizzy. It took me 20 minutes or so until I started feeling better and cooled down. Boy that banking takes a little while to get use to. We made one more swap with only fuel and as Adam came in it was time for our first tire change. We corralled up the pit crew made sure everyone had their assignments, as according to the rules there were only 8 total people allowed over the wall at one time. Two riders, one person holding the fire extinguisher and five others working on the bike. Adam came in on cue the bike went up on the rear stand and the crew went to work. It only took 1-2 minutes for them to pull off the worn hard compound Pirelli and slap on some new skins. I climbed on and took off! Great pit stop, everything went like clockwork. We made a total of 2 rear tire changes and 1 front so we used a total of 2 front and 3 rear tires for the entire 8 hour race……… The rest of the race went perfect; we were consistently in 2nd or 3rd in class the whole time and 19th or 20th over all. There was a total of 39 teams entered so we were really happy so far.
As the clock counted down the anticipation started to grow, we were still in 2nd place and Jason was out for the last session. Three, two, one the clock showed zero and that was it, the inaugural Moto ST 8 hour endurance race was in the books and Team Daffy Duc had taken 2nd place in class and 16th overall!!!!! That was more than we imagined and could not believe it. Jason came in hands off the handlebars clapping in the air, we all jumped over the wall to great him. Everyone was cheering and hugging as the officials told us we had to make our way to the “
WINNERS CIRCLE”. We went through the post race festivities, getting pictures taken, and spraying champagne when a familiar face came running up with a very concerned look on his face. Doug Polen said “hey you guys better make your way to the dyno, quick”. We all ran over as they were running our bike on the dyno. The first 4 runs were all under 90 hp but close so they said they needed to continue running the bike until it peaked. After 8 more runs!, yes 8 more the bike peaked at 90.54 hp and the officials disqualified us for being .54 hp over limit!! The person running the dyno could not give us any info besides the run info so we feverishly started wondering the paddock to find a ranking official. We found an official that was able to give us his rendition of the rules and why they did several runs on our bike, mind you all other teams had 4 runs that is it, even if they were close to the hp limit. He advised us we could submit an appeal to the ruling if we wanted. So at 11:30pm Adam completed the appeal and got it submitted to the race organization. Since then we have also filed a formal protest with Grand America (who is the governing body of
Moto ST) and are awaiting there response which is due sometime this week. Regardless of their ruling we all left extremely fulfilled to accomplish what we did with no preparation, a bike none of us had any seat time on and a crew that had never taken part in an endurance race before. It was a SUCCESS in my book!
You can also view the full story on Ducati’s web site, go to http://www.ducati.com/od/ducatinorthamerica/events/detail.jhtml;jsessionid=SFOKMBQZF2UTMCRNCB3CFFQKFUIHSIV2?eventId=8922
I have to give special thanks out to Ducati for the support to participate in such a great event and to my wife Lisa for all her help and dedication. She was a real trooper driving to Florida for a “vacation/motorcycle race” which ended up being just a race and no vacation at all……..
2008 Race Season:
Thanks to my sponsors:
Ducati, Ducati Performance Products, Pirelli Tires, Chicken Hawk Racing, VP Racing fuel, Vortex Racing, Lockhart Phillips, Tape works, CTR Suspensions, Pit Bull, Held Gloves and Oxtar Boots
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