The San Diego BMW Locust Powered by Lee’s Cycle team arrived fresh and energetic after the successful showing in Northern California. Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT is a world class facility and the world has shown up; the World Superbike series that is. For this round of the AMA Pro Racing we are the support classes, as the World Supersport and Superstock classes do not compete in the U.S.
Utah in late May is hit or miss with regard to the weather, and it steadily deteriorated from the time we arrived until race day. Unlike the normal “race on Sunday” schedule, race day in Memorial Day Monday, May 30. Saturday’s Practice was cool and dry, and the weekend started well With Steve posting the 4th fastest time of the session. Saturday afternoons qualifying did not go as well. While all three San Diego BMW riders were improving their times throughout the session, we ended up qualifying in the back half of the field; Rapp 12th , Toye 14th , and Trounson 15th. This would prove to be a real handicap in the race, as the weather was about to get worse.
Sunday’s Qualifying was all wet. It rained from Saturday night to Monday morning, and got cold too. The snow was falling on the mountains and came to within a few hundred feet of elevation from the track. Full rain tires work very well at this track, but it was cold too. Under 40 degrees when our second practice started. We sent all three out with new BMW rain jackets to keep them dry and warm. Fortunately, our riders ride well in the rain, and all moved up in the standings compared to the rest of the field. Still, the Wet times were not fast enough to change any grid positions, so we had to start in the positions from the first qualifying session.
As a support class for the World Superbike Races, the AMA had to make some concessions. Among those were pit locations. And, being a small team without a lot of points in the class, we are relageted to the far end of the pit anyway. When you add those together, we ended up pitting almost a half-mile from the starting grid positions. This also proved to be a bit of an issue when the race started. Fortunately, for the first time in three days, the Sun was out and the weather felt a little warm. Perfect conditions for a race, except for the water running across the track in a couple spots and the Mud was bad for the riders who ran off the pavement.
The start of a race is always a bit hectic, but it was made even more so by the fact that Rapp had just won the XR1200 race. He had to rush back from the winner's circle and change leathers in the pits as the AMA officials were counting down the two minutes until the field had to be on track. Each rider is allowed to have two mechanics rush out onto the track and put the tire warmers on while the TV crews get their last minute interviews under the umbrellas. They usually take 5-6 minutes to do this, and the tires can cool down significantly in that time. At Miller, the typical out lap for the riders is about 2 and a half minutes. As you can guess, by the time we gathered the warmers and generators and jogged from the pit to the starting line, our riders had made the entire starting lap and the tires were cooling. Never the less, we got the warmers on and the minutes passed by quickly. It was time to race and the start from the third and forth row left the guys a lot of work to do.
The bikes were off in a crescendo of wailing exhausts. Steve Rapp #15 was eighth into turn one, just ahead of Bostrum, but behind Hayes, Young, Cardenas, T. Hayden, R. Hayden, Peris and Beach. Chris Trounson #62, had started next Jeremy Toye #57, and neither of them got a good jump. Chris beat Jeremy into the first turn and showed no respect as he held onto the position right behind Chris Clark #2 and the Factory Yamaha. Jeremy got around Chris and led him on the second lap.
Unfortunately, that wouldn’t last long. Chris had a moment when his brakes went spongy on the second lap and lost a bit of time while adjusting them. He then regained a position on the third lap only to have the issue pop up again on lap four. This time it was at just the wrong time. Going into turn one at 180mph, Chris had the lever come all the way to the grip and couldn’t slow enough to make the turn. The data shows he left the tarmac at 90mph and scrubbed another 30mph off before getting tossed over the high side and hitting his head hard in the gravel. He was out for a while… and spent the next 12 hours asking us what day it was, When’s the next race? Was I having a go at it? When will the Doc Clear me to ride? Since we race again this coming weekend, he will miss that round. He unfortunately couldn’t remember that he had asked that question before, so he got to experience the disappointment of not getting to race over and over Monday night. As of Wednesday, he is regaining his memory and recovering well after a couple days rest.
Meanwhile, the race up front was a real battle and Steve was moving in the right direction. Unfortunately it was because, Cardenas, Peris, and Beach all crashed out. In fact, Steve was a little lonely in 5th, chasing R. Hayden until the end, but unable to gain enough time to make a move. This was a great finish considering his starting position, and rounds out the 6th and 4th from his previous races. Jeremy also had a lonely race and rounded out the top ten and now has finished 8th, 13th, 12th,
San Diego BMW Motorcycles is looking forward to this weekend in Wisconsin. We would like to thank BMW Motorrad, our partners; Locust and Lee’s Cycles, and our sponsors; Cataylist Racing Composites, and Yoshuramura. Photos by: Megan Kinderis
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