You would think that with 4 bikes and one rider we could avoid missing out on precious track time, but both of our weekend qualifying sessions were hampered by a non-functional quick-shifter. The BMW S1000RR comes standard with this technology, which allows for completely full-throttle, clutchless, up-shifting. This saves time on every straight and we think it is good for about a half second a lap at this track. Ours for some reason has stopped working. The problem first appeared in the first qualifying session, so we swapped the unit out on the pit wall. It turned out the unit was working fine, something else was wrong. We ran through the quick list of possible issues but could not get it working at the pit. Steve rode hard without the shifter in the first session and got a good time on the board. Steve's time was good enough for 10th on the grid, however, we hoped for a front row start this weekend.
The mechanics went to work and put the bike on the dyno to test the unit after adjusting everything responsible for the switch and re-loading all the software. It worked great on the Dyno. Whew, good to go! Second qualifying, first lap, same problem! Looked like something was wrong with in the harness so we put Steve on Jeremy’s bike and he was able to climb up one spot on the grid, but he still had to start from the third row.
With all the issues we had in Qualifying with the shifter, the decision was made to ride Jeremy’s bike in the race. Steve felt more comfortable with the suspension on his bike, so we swapped everything over. Forks, Shock, and clutch were swapped. Footpeg location, and seat position was adjusted.
While doing this we decided to throw a new set of rear brake pads in as Steve was using them a bit to help settle the bike into turn one and two. Working on bikes at the track is a lot different than at the shop. We are more rushed at the track and the working conditions are tougher. While the decision to swap the pads was a smart one, failing to remove the excess brake fluid from the reservoir hose was not. When Steve went out for the sighting lap the bike worked fine, but during the warm up lap the rear brake began to drag and caused Steve to miss the start of Race One and he had to pit after lap one. We quickly fixed the issue, but he had lost more than a minute. He continued to circulate in the race, and stayed on the lead lap, just in case the race was interrupted for some other reason. It was not and Steve finished a dismal 17th place. The fact that mistakes happen to everyone at some point didn’t make it any better. One simple mistake had taken away any opportunity for Steve to have a good result in the first race.
Fortunately, this was a double header weekend, and we got a chance to redeem ourselves on Sunday. Steve got an OK start, but had the outside line going into Turn one. He picked up a few places and was running 7th when he came around for lap one. Chris Peris drafted by Steve on his Iron Horse sponsored BMW at the end of the straight. Chris’s bike was the fastest bike of the weekend in a straight line. After finishing lap two in eighth place, Steve picked up a double draft and passed both Chris Peris and Ben Bostrum to move into 6th place. After that, he was all alone on the track, but consistently running near his fastest laps of the weekend. To bad we didn’t get him more track time earlier in the weekend. Finishing in the 6th spot was a good result and this puts Steve into the top ten in the season points race even after missing Daytona, but we aren’t here to finish 6th.
Next up for the San Diego BMW / Locust / Lee’s Cycle team is Barber Alabama. Wish us luck!
We would like to thank BMW Motorrad, our partners; Locust and Lee’s Cycles, and our sponsors; Cataylist Racing Composites, and Yoshuramura for their support.
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