| Author | Message | ||
     Jens |
Schleiz 2009 Free practice / Time Sessions Pro B.E.A.R.S Plans to be at the Schleizer Dreieck Racetrack early were scrapped after a 2 day delay caused by a courier losing our new swing arm. Once the new swing arm was found and delivered, the team worked around the clock and we were able to leave for the track late in the evening May 9th. Our crew quickly set up the paddock site, had a few beers and retired to their sleeping bags by 1:00 am. Everyone awoke Friday a bit anxious to roll out the new bike; the rain soon made us even more nervous about our bike's new set up. Seeing the new extended swing arm on our Buell XB, we began to doubt our theories about what would be the best frame suspension set up... The idea behind the new swing arm was extra traction which would allow a highly experience rider, like Achim, to open the throttle much earlier when exiting corners. Using state-of-the-art technology we checked and rechecked our frame geometry, until we were sure it was the right way to go faster... but in the paddock, many fellow race teams were laughing and feeling sorry for Achim... fearing a long "drag bike" swing arm was wrong for road racing. Even Achim was a bit skeptical when we sent him out on the track to practice. Achim took the first few laps slowly, expecting poor reactions from the new swing arm, but after a few minutes he was able to adjust his riding position and significantly lower his lap times, even as rain fell. At the end of his practice laps, Achim entered the pits with a grin so huge, his lips were hung up on his ears - immediately signaling us the new swing arm set up worked great! In fact the new swing arm set up worked so well that during the afternoon's rain soaked practice laps, Achim set lap times faster than the entire field, including the stronger Pro Thunder Bikes. We were also able to get in a few laps between the rain storms, and soon found the new swing arm worked equally well on a dry track, although it did require a different line than one used with the XB's original shorter swing arm. The sun was shining brightly for Saturday's racing - which was not what we were hoping for, because the Triumph Speed Triple are very fast on a dry track - very tough competitors. Still, with the new swing arm, Achim's speed was fast enough, but the crew erred during the 2nd time practice by sending him out with used brake pads that were too used up - so much that it cost Achim the pole position... a tough lesson for the crew to learn. Race # 1 Pro B.E.A.R.S With the experimental swing arm now a proven success, we turned our attention to the bike's weight-to-power ratio. The rulebook for the 2009 Pro B.E.A.R.S, as part of the German championship, fixes weight/power limits to guarantee maximum competition between many different manufacturers. Because we are working for the championship, rather than a single victory, we decided to fuel the bike completely, in case we had a podium finish, and were dyno'd / weighed... with a full fuel tank we were sure to be within the rulebook's limits. The Pro B.E.A.R.S race this weekend ran concurrently with the 20 HP stronger Pro Thunder class. Christoph Hellmich on the Triumph found himself close behind the Pro Thunder KTM of his buddy, where he stayed for more than half of the race. In his buddy's slipstream, he was able to set personal lap times 2 seconds faster than ever before. Achim got a bad start, running 7th place into the first corner. Without the help of a Pro Thunder bike' slipstream , Achim was still able to gain 2nd place and stay well ahead of a trailing Triumph running 3rd. He ran consistently fast laps, bring it home for a 2nd place finish...While we hoped for a 1st first place win to give us a good start toward the championship, we realize that 2nd place is really great for the first outing of a new team and a new bike. So we were happy! Our spirits were soon dampened, however, when the DMSB officials decided in the parc fermé that the both Triumph and our Buell were to be dyno'd and weighed. We were worried we would have too much power/weight and lose our 2nd place finish... The Triumph riders were much more nervous than we, because they were both stronger and a lot lighter than our Buell. After going on the dyno and scales, all bikes were found to be within the rulebook limits, so the race result remain as they were. And since being officially dyno's and weighed, we learned we can significantly reduce our Buell's weight, giving Achim a much better edge for winning the next races! Race # 2 Pro B.E.A.R.S After reviewing our race strategy, we decided to run fuel consumption tests in the morning; to find out the minimum liters we would need for the afternoon race. Sunday morning was dry, with only a slight chance of rain. We sent Achim out onto the track with the dry setup, and the calculated amount of fuel for the race distance. Achim was feeling comfortable with the new chassis, until the bike started to cut-out when he brake hard with maximum lean angle into a turn. Becoming worse with each turn, Achim had to pit and report the apparent fuel problem. We quickly determined the bike's fuel level was not too low, so that led to a suspected fuel pump problem. The fuel pump system on our XB has always been a bit tricky, but except for the Hockenheim Racetrack, at the end of the “Parabolika” turn, we had it working well. Now, it was failing again. We drained the bike and removed the pump. With several hours before the race start, we had enough time to make modifications and refit the pump. The downside was, our race weekend was held along with the Sidecar World Championship, so there was no chance to test the fuel pump modifications on the track. But, being racers, we felt it better to fuel light, for best performance against the stronger Triumphs - trusting that our untested fuel pump repairs would last the entire race. Hours later the bike is on tire warmers in the pre-start, fueled and after some earlier rain, now set up for a dry track - which proved to be a bad choice, as rain would soon follow. Achim got a great start, hanging onto the back wheel of Tony Heiler on the Pro Thunder Moto Morini (who won both races this weekend!) being the Pro B.E.A.R.S leader through the first turn. Our Team was cheering "This is our race!", as Achim pulls away from the rest of the field, including the Triumphs. His lap times were faster than ever ... but soon, they began to rise, 1...then 2 seconds, and Achim is signaling a problem with the fuel pump. The first of the Triumphs gains on our poorly running Buell, and passes... there is nothing he could do, as the fuel problem worsens. We failed, our modification had made the problem much worse than before. As Christoph Hellmich (Triumph), Dirk Mothes (Ducati) and Stefan Solterbeck (Triumph) passed him, taking away his lead, Achim bravely soldiered on, using his experience to wring every ounce of remaining high performance form our Buell to bring the bike home for a 4th place finish. It was Triumphs' weekend - no discussion about that! These bastards beat the snot out of us on the track, so they deserve our congratulations! In summary, the Pegasus Race Team placed 3rd in class for the championship, and learned valuable lessons and gained experience to be used during the next races. Plus we learned that even when doing our best, sometimes when we reach too far, we go home with nothing....but that's racing! When all is considered it was a good weekend, We're looking forward to the next race, and the exciting season before us! www.pegasusraceteam.com  | ||
| Sd26 |
Wow! You did really go long with the swingarm. How did that affect spring rate? | ||
| Smoke |
great job and better luck next time!! tim | ||
| Paint_shaker |
Congrats on the podium!!! Hope you get the fuel thing figured out. | ||
| Xb12mel |
Congrats! |
