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Hi Everyone,
Well, it only took a week for me to be able to get to this race report! I have been so busy with work and travelling for work that I never even found myself on the internet until yesterday!
Last Saturday, we ran an 8-hour endurance race on the RS85 chassis at the Grange. The Grange is a smaller go-kart circuit up in the Apple Valley area and it is just the coolest
little track. Well maintained, friendly folks and a decent little road circuit. As you can imagine, eight hours is a long time to ride so we put together a team. It was my friend Sean who has a lot of experience riding NSR50's, Javelin and finally myself rounded out the three riders. We figured that 20 minutes on the bike each every hour would be pretty managable. Some teams had 4, 5 and even 6 riders making their days pretty easy. We had done some testing up at the track prior to the race and Sean had the best laptimes at 1:07. Javelin was biting at 1:09's and I was .....well, not very fast...lol. I simply had big problems with my legs on the bike and had difficulty getting correct posture and feeling comfortable.
Raceday came around and we were all together having our final discussions on race strategy. Given that it was going to be a long day, I suggested that we all take it easy for awhile and let the field settle out. Also to give us a chance to get used to the bike and to make sure the bike even makes it through 8 hours of almost continuous operation. Everyone I spoke to said I was nuts entering that little 85cc motor into this race. They didn't expect it to make it past 4 hours......boy were they wrong! Sean was voted to be first out to get the start and to help us gain position to hand it over to Javelin. I went last as I was also the team mechanic and wanted to get the bike out for awhile first to see if anything needed fixing prior to my stint. We ended up being 8th on the grid which was pretty decent. We were also racing against YSR and NSR50's, and even Motards as big as 450cc!! I wasn't really happy with their choice to include such big bikes as I thought it would make things a little dangerous for the smaller bikes but it turned out alright even though some of the passes these guys were making were less than safe.
The green flag dropped and Sean was off!! He started picking off bikes immediately and was up to 3rd place as he came around for the second lap.The only bikes ahead of him were the Motards and he was after them. This was exciting but also made me very nervous as it was so early in the race. We were all thrilled as Sean came around again and was closing in on the first of the two leading Motards. Thats when disaster struck!! None of us knows for sure what happened but going into T1 at the end of the front straight, Sean lost the bike. We figure it was a combination of heavy braking and cold tires. The front suspension may have bottomed out and because of the tires not being completely up to temp yet, Sean got ejected from the drivers seat and bike slammed into the pavement, skidded through the dirt and ended up into the hay blocks on the outside of the corner!! Javelin and I were devastated.........
We ran in our leathers down to the corner to see Sean trying to pick the bike up but he couldn't and went down on his knees. As it turns out, he injured himself pretty good. A fractured collarbone, a fractured scapula and he did something to the ligaments in his shoulder. He was down for the count .....
I picked the bike up and rolled it back to the pits. Fairing was cracked up on the right side, brake lever / reservoir were spun around on the clipon and the reservoir had serious rash on the cap. Footpeg on that side was bent and loose but remarkably, the bike was not in too bad a shape? That was what I thought until I grabbed the front brake and fluid started leaking from the rash on the master cylinder. "We're Done", I said as I knew we did not have a spare master. Javelin was pretty upset that he didn't even get to fire a shot on the bike. I was torn between being sympathetic for Seans condition, anger for being out of the race after 3 laps, and my other brain that never stops thinking. So, I dropped that emotional side of my brain and went to work trying to figure out how we could get around this. We searched in vain for spare parts at the track and then I had a stroke of genious (at least in my mind!). I pulled the brake reservoir cover off and flipped it 180 degrees and screwed it back on. Voila!!, the master was holding pressure again as I gave it just enough meat to seal. We all jumped in to get the bodywork secured and to tighten down and straighten the footpeg. It all worked!! The moment of truth was of course firing the bike. The little Kwakka KX85 fired right up as if ready to redeem what had happened early. Javelin was feverishly getting his leathers on and we were wiping the bike down and checking for any other potential problems. After 30 minutes in the pits, Javelin was off and running.
Now we had a pretty serious issue..................only 2 riders for 7.5 hours. One being an old guy (Me) and the other being a kid. We had to trade off every 20 minutes and it was the most gruelling thing I have ever done to myself. It was bright and sunny and 110 degrees plus. We could barely stay hydrated as we guzzled bottle after bottle of water. Believe it or not, we both got our laptimes into a consistent 1:10 - 1:11 timeframe and we were working it. By the middle of the afternoon, after some attrition and a lot of very hard riding, we found ourselves back up to 9th place overall out of 25 teams starting. Bear in mind that most were on smaller 50cc bikes but some of those guys were laying down the same times as us! Very good riders with lots of experience.
By 5PM, I was getting into trouble. My legs were starting to cramp very badly and I was breathing through my mouth which is something I never do when I ride......... I was getting worried. By 6PM, I had had enough. I was getting dizzy on the track and making mistakes. My laptimes were going up and I was not able to concentrate anymore. I pulled into the pits unannounced and said that was it. And it really was! There was no amount of "iron will" that was going to allow me to go back out. My body had shut down and it was finished.
Javelin was equally tired but still couldn't see it stopping. His eyes were bloodshot from wind and he could barely keep them open. His laptimes had gone up as well and I made the decision to stop the race for us. Six hours straight was something to be proud of. At 6:30PM, Javelin got up from his chair and said he was going to finish the race. As much as I was done myself, I knew I had to let him try as he had worked so hard all day, I knew that he wanted that checkered flag. At 6:45, Javelin rolled back out on the track and went for it. Not only was he back out but his lap times were dropping again. He got hat little bike down into the 1:11 1:12 range again and was picking off bikes like crazy. He ran 45 minutes straight and after some serious passing, came screaming down the front straight to take the checkered flag. He rolled the little Kwakka into the pits all dirty but still ready
to run again..............that little bike amazed us all!
I can't begin to describe how proud I was of my son. The endurance and persistance he showed that day was absolutely amazing. Sean had made it back from the hospital by 6 and was there to see the finish.
Our official finish was first in class as we were the only 85cc to enter. Not sure where we finished overall but we did about 320 laps that day between us and we were wiped out completely. It was an awesome event that I would never even consider doing again unless we had a minimum of 4 riders.
A special thanx to Greg our surrogate team mechanic. Greg was unbelieveable in helping us all day from handling the pit board, to fueling the bike, handing out water and giving us both as much moral support as he possibly could. What a great guy to have with us............................thanx heaps Greg!
Thanx Everyone for your continued support and have a great Memorial Day weekend!!
We'll be racing again June 8th at California Speedway with SCminiGP followed by 2 more days of training
Bernie & Javelin
Team Razorboy 814
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