Hey guys! I actually typed up a post while at the track, but somehow my laptop ate it and I lost everything I had written. Sorry about that.
A great weekend and two really strong wins for the team! I'm really proud of the effort that everyone put in to include Steve Atlas, who really knows how to hussle a bike around pretty quickly.
The shortened the race distance to 8 laps because they were concerned that the TTX75 bikes wouldn't make the full distance. We accepted the change to allow a better showing for the race. We ran 12 laps back to back in the first practice on Friday with consistent lap times, so race length was never a worry for us. I have no doubt that Steve would've stayed well under 2:00 for a longer race as well.
The motor issues faced at the end of last year and early this year are now seemingly a thing of the past. Due to the proprietary nature of the changes, I can't tell you what the fixes were, but I will tell you that they are working beautifully and it was a collaborative effort involving both Parker and Brammo’s engineering team.
The only problem this weekend was that Dunlop sent us "new" slicks to bring to the track that were so old they had cracks in the sidewall and wouldn't hold air. They did not have this size tire at the track, so we tried running a wider, heavier superbike slick on the rear for Race 1. This also forced us to run different gearing for some clearance issues. The added weight of the larger rear tire plus the gearing change really spoiled Steve’s drive out of the corners, resulting in slower lap times. We still ran Race 1 consistently faster than last year’s winners, just barely unable to match the fastest lap of their race. For Race 2, I had one set of the preferred smaller tire that still held air, and I had the Dunlop techs check it out. They gave me the thumbs up, so I made the call to go back to the rear tire and gearing combo that we had originally set up and tested on. This made a huge difference, with Steve able to easily and consistently push into the 1:55 and 1:56s for Race 2 and set a new track record. The 85% power was a pre-cautionary measure to keep the control loop in the motor controller in very stable range. Since technically the 2 race results are aggregated to determine the true winner, we didn’t want to take any chances. Did we leave some performance potential in the bag? … I guess we’ll have to wait and see until we have some stronger competition. Laguna Seca is looking to be a real showdown as I’m sure Lightning and Mission will be anxious for redemption, especially with all the big talk leading up to the race.
Thanks for everyone that supported us, believed in us, and followed or attended the event. Your support goes much further than you know to get us through the challenges!
