Replacement rider shines at West Coast Moto-Jam

The San Diego BMW Locust Powered by Lee’s Cycle team has been very busy since the First AMA round at Daytona nine weeks ago.  Jeremy Toye had a solid premier and rode away from Daytona with an 8th and a 13th place finish, however he did so without his teammate.  Yes... That would be me "Crashy,-crash-a-lot".  Fortunately I won't be able to destroy anymore bikes this year.....  I'm out for the season.  :>(

We knew there was work to be done before the rest of the season started back up, so we brought in fellow Californian and all around fast guy, Steve Rapp to help with the testing.  Steve liked the bike so much that he has decided to stay on with the team to race it in Infineon and Miller Motorsports Park Utah.  OK, I admit I'm having a little fun with calling Steve "my replacement".  He is one of the top riders on the grid and WAAAYYY faster than I would be!  Not only is he fast, he's a nice guy and a perfect addition to the team. 

We also picked up a third rider, Chris Trounson, who will help share expenses.  Chris is an Aussie racer whose father crews for the Championship points leading Procon Maxima team in Australia.  They have a lot of experience with the S1000RR at home and should be a great addition to the team.  

Steve Rapp     Photo by: Will Guyan, BMWRA.org/OTL

Our only practice session for the weekend started out great with Steve posting the fastest times of the three and 5th fastest overall with a 1:38.5.  Jeremy was working on the new electronics package we are developing for the bike and Chris was getting his first look at the very technical 2.3 mile Infineon Raceway, yet both riders lap times were moving in the right direction.

While there is little time for practice in the AMA, there were two 50 min. Qualifying Sessions for the weekend, and the laps times began to plummet when the factory teams installed softer rubber and pressed their riders for faster times.  Steve bettered his previous time with a 1:37.9 and was one of three BMW riders to sneak under the 1:38 mark.  Jeremy and Chris both easily qualified for the race with a 1:39.4 and a 1:41.2 respectively.

Now that the pressure was off for qualifying, the team was able to focus on getting the best grid positions possible for the race.  Qualifying Session #2 was all about getting a flying lap in to do just that.  Unfortunately, everyone else was doing the same thing.

Qualifying always seems like a game of cat and mouse.  Teams start the sessions out with the harder option race tires and switch to softer compound tires in an effort to gain an advantage on the starting grid.  Who are we to argue?  Rapp set the 4th fastest time of the session, a lightening fast 1:37.0, but Ben Bostrom had a slightly faster time in the first session.  That relegated Steve to the fifth position on the grid.  First spot on the second row.  Needeless to say we were ecstatic.

Jeremy Toye Photo by: Will Guyan, BMWRA.org/OTL

In Saturday’s race Rapp got off the line in fifth behind Tommy Hayden, Josh Hayes, Blake Young and Ben Bostrom.  At first it was obvious Ben was holding Steve up a bit and we expected to see a pass on the Suzuki rider at any point. Martin Cardenas had other ideas and he passed Steve, then passed Ben and Blake to eventually take third.  Loosing touch for a few laps with Ben, Steve lost a little ground as he was passed by Larry Pegram and Chris Peris.  Ben picked up the pace a bit held off a hard charging Chris Peris until loosing a chain.  Chris had quickly passed Larry and pulled a gap.  As Larry lost touch with Chris, Steve began to real him back in.  With a daring last corner pass, Steve squeezed through to take away 6th place.  Not bad for his first race on the bike; Chris Trounson also in his first race on the BMW brought the bike home in 12th.   Unfortunately, pesky mechanical gremlins reared their ugly heads and Jeremy was unable to complete the race

Race two was never a sure thing to start.  The weather on Sunday was threatening all morning and radar was showing a thunderstorm was bearing down on us near starting time. It never really materialised, but rained a bit and caused a minor delay.  When the clouds cleared enough to dry out the track, it made tire selection difficult.  Toye chose a harder rear tire while Trounson chose a softer front tire.  Neither turned out to be the best choice.  Rapp had stuck with the hard front, soft rear combination that proved to be the best choice.  On the first lap with Rapp running fifth, Chris Ulrich had a massive crash in turn three.  Less than a half lap later, his teammate Martin Cardenas crashed and caused a red flag to come out.

 

Chris Trounson
Photo by: Will Guyan, BMWRA.org/OTL  

On the restart Rapp didn’t get a great jump.  He ended up behind Bostrom again, but this time passed him quickly and made it stick.  Ahead were four riders.  Hayden and Hayes, who were hounded by Young and closely followed by Pegram.  Towards the back of the pack, another Turn 3 mishap claimed the new Team Iron Horse BMW rider Tony Kasper, and Jeremy Burgess when the Kawasaki ridden by Young Gun rising star JD Beach slid out after clipping the back of Trounson.  Trounson didn't fall, and all other riders were up and OK and the race was not red-flagged again.

Steve had a couple of seconds to make up if he was going to catch Pegram, and he put his head down and did just that.  Taking a few tenths a lap out, Steve closed the gap several laps before the end.  He waited for an opportunity and squeezed up the inside of the carousel only to have Larry and his BMW beat him to turn 7.  Steve definitely had the bike working better on the brakes and late braked him into the corner.  Larry, attempting to keep him at bay, out-braked himself and ran a little wide.  He lost a second or so and that was all Steve needed.  Finishing forth behind an epic battle for the lead as Tommy held Josh off for his first win of the season and Blake rounded out the podium

San Diego BMW Motorcycles is looking forward to the next round at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah May 30th.  We would like to thank BMW for building an awesome bike, our partners; Locust and Lee’s Cycles, and our sponsors; Cataylist Racing Composites, and Yoshuramura.