| Author | Message | ||
     Rrrrrrrick |
Racing an American Sportbike The RnR Repsol Racing team of Rick Beggs, Rachel Sasse, and Krishna Pribadi entered their Under the Black Hat Buell XB9R in Daytona for the SunTrust MOTO-ST race. This would be their first ride on the creation of Erik Buell. A strategic decision was made to enter the XB9R in the middleweight class of Grand Sport Twins (GST) instead of the lightweight class of the Sport Twins (ST) since Buell pays contingency for the GST class and not the ST class. Without ever dyno testing the bike, RnR Repsol Racing already knew they were way underpowered, and also a dire 40 lbs. overweight. As the bigger XB12R is the weapon of choice in the GST class, entering the XB9R was like bringing a knife to a gunfight. The underdog team, instead, hoped to depend on riding abilities to make the grade. What RnR Repsol Racing did not realize was just how fierce the Moto-ST competition was. Nobody was holding back and although the team members or RnR Repsol Racing had no racing time on the bike, everyone else appeared to be in the groove from the start. Through out the race, it seemed pretty evident that the Buell was severely underpowered even by the ST horsepower limits. Not only that, but the bike’s clutch felt like it was stuck in mud and the bike shifted like a John Deere tractor. With Rick handing the bike off to Rachel after their first fuel change, she had a difficult time, frustrated and upset at her performance with all her mishifts. Once her session was up, she pulled it into pit, pulling the clutch in and downshifting into first. As she came to a halt in the hot pit box, the bike shut off, which was wrong. She yelled through her helmet to Rick as the pitcrew gassed up the bike for Krishna. Sure enough, as Krishna jumped on the bike to start it, the engine turned over, but didn’t start. It seemed to be a fueling issue. It was as if time stopped as the team waited in anticipation. “COME ON!” Rachel screamed. It was like The Little Engine That Could. The engine lulled and popped until Crawford held the throttle wide open with the starter button on and slowly but surely, the bike began to start. Still holding the starting button, with the engine rolling faster and faster, it suddenly seem to come to life! Krishna blipped the throttle and he was off. The bike seemed to be off calibration at closed throttle, causing stalling when off the gas with the clutch in, (typically, a pit stop but sometimes on the track, too!), then almost impossible to restart. The bike soldiered on though, making it 243 miles before the fueling issue stopped the bike in lap 78. After the final results, the team ended up finishing 5th in class. The good news is that all weekend, the only part that broke or came loose was an aftermarket bodywork bracket. All in all, the bike handled well, and was mechanically able to take all the punishment Daytona could dish out. The support RnR Repsol Racing received from the Buell factory guys, especially from Buell Engineer Matt Rasmussen and Bryan Bemisderfer, Ritchie Morris Racing, and The James Gang crew, was incredible. Roadracers in general are a very helpful and forthcoming group, but the Buell bunch was awesome, offering advice and parts when needed, and most importantly their knowledge from experience, a priceless commodity. The XB9R will only go 129 mph (GPS) with the stock gearing on the belt drive and a 180 tire. That put bike into the rev limiter in Nascar turn four, a ½ mile before the finish line. Changing to a 190 tire only gave us a few more mph before hitting the rev limiter, but the factory guys worked their magic on the ignition, raising the rev limit at least 300 rpm, giving us a top end of 141—still at the limiter by start/finish with a good drive, but within safety limits. Derek at Speedcom bent over backwards helping us to make sure our on-track communication units were in full working order. Thanks to our MOTO-ST sponsors including Repsol, Dedicated Micros, Woodcraft, Empire GP, Under the Black Hat, and Buell. The RnR Repsol Racing Buell will be racing next at VIR next April 27th for the VIR 500K. We hope to see our fans there to root us on! | ||
| Rubberdown |
Way Cool!!! You'll be in the hunt next outing! | ||
| Skully |
Go Buell! Go RnR Repsol Racing! | ||
| Glitch |
Looks like it's going to be a great year to be on a Buell! | ||
| Spdkls |
they probably learned more from that race than they could have ever imagined. great luck in the future. go show those metrics what its all about. | ||
| Spiderman |
Looks like it's going to be a great year to be on a Buell! Blashpemer! It is always a great year to be on a Buell!  | ||
| Diablobrian |
+1 | ||
| Blublak |
Hey Rick.. Welcome to the BadWeb! Hopefully, come April's round at VIR I'll have some decent pics of the bike for Consumption.. Not sure if I should come by and take shots now, but then again, maybe I should show up this weekend with camera in hand and shoot some stuff at the shop? I know there's still work to be done on it.. But it's a start and that's what was really needed.. | ||
| Rrrrrrrick |
we have a way to go, but we got a Dyno yesterday, and that should help a lot |
