Another Lap Record Falls to Toye and the S1000RR, while Orr ups his game!
1: Photo provided by RPMGear.com
Friday
We showed up on Friday to set up in typical blustery Willow conditions and give this S1000RR its first shakedown at the tight and twisty Streets of Willow Springs during the Motoyard trackday. It really is a good thing that we did too because the setup that we had on the bike was from the Pahrump test the week prior and didn’t translate very well. Thanks to the information from the 2D data logging system and Jeremy’s rider feedback we were able to deduce where the problems were and adjust accordingly.
We started off with some simple damping adjustments to get the suspension working with the bumpy sections of the technical Streets course and once the bike was rideable, gearing was selected and we could focus on geometry for turn in, direction change, and rider feel. By the end of the day we were well on our way to a good base, but still had a few issues with the bike being harsh over bumps on acceleration and a bit abrupt on the front end. These were all things that we had a game plan on fixing that evening, but would never get around to. It turned out that we would instead have to pick up and move our entire operation to another location in the pits because the places you can park for a trackday and a race weekend are entirely different. This is fine when one is pitting out of the back of their pick up, but when it involves two motor homes, bikes, canopies, carpets, tables, vehicles, and miscellaneous things like tool boxes and chairs you can see how an evening’s worth of work gets pushed back!
Saturday
A few of our team members bit the bullet the next morning, getting up with the sun to finish the “To Do” list. This included swapping the Ohlins forks for the AK Gas forks, making a spring rate change in the shock, and changing the gearing. Practice that day was spent fine tuning the gearing and feel of the motorcycle to match the increase in speed that Jeremy was able to carry as the bike became more comfortable. Gary Orr was also able to improve throughout the day on his bike with the new Attack triple clamps, SDBMW link, and Attack rearsets.
That afternoon both riders were entered in the 20 lap Solo GTO race, but for entirely different reasons. Jeremy went out to put his setup to the test in a race simulation for the 12 lap main event the next day, whereas Gary was there to win! Launching off the line Jeremy was not only able to open up a massive gap, but he was able to smash his own lap record on the second lap, after that he was already into the lappers! Gary got a decent start, but had some work to do as he was caught behind some other fairly quick riders.
Once the 12 laps were up Jeremy pulled off so the team could collect the data and make improvements to tomorrow’s setup, leaving Gary in 1st position! Towards the end of the race Matt Quigely did start to close the gap, but in the end was no match for the S1000RR and Gary took his first win since returning to expert racing!
2: Photo provided by RPMGear.com
Sunday
Fine tuning in the morning warm up saw some more forward progress and eagerness to get racing for both riders. The first race of the day for both riders was the Open Superbike event. Jeremy again launched off of the line and won the race handily after getting the hole shot, with Gary rounding out the last step on the podium. Gary won Formula 40 in style by not only lapping the entire field, but also setting his personal best time of a 1:16.4 allowing him to sit and watch Jeremy in the F1 race with a grin on his face.
F1 started off slowly due to a wearing clutch, and Toye went into the first turn in 4th position. However, the number 57 made quick work of Karl Lowery coming out of the bowl turn on the first lap and set his sights on the two leaders Jimmy Wood and Shawn Higbee. Once he had reeled them in he displayed patience and confidence following for a few laps to see their weak points. Jeremy made the pass for the lead exiting the bowl turn with the great drive of the S1000RR. After that he put his head down and stepped the pace up to a new lap record at a 1:13.5. From there he only had to look back one time to see how big of a wheelie he could loft across the finish!
Jeremy Toye Interview:
Q: Alright you just got back from the Streets weekend and it seems like every time you roll out this bike for a weekend the results all turn out pretty darn good or you’re at least able to go very, very fast. Is the bike always ready to go right when you roll out? Tell me about the weekend in general.
A: No, this bike is definitely not track ready the second we go out because of being so brand-new and everything being so brand-new; bike, suspension components wise. There is a big learning curve and so far it's changing quite a bit from track to track and I think it will keep changing, but I think the base platform is so good on the thing that that's the reason the outcome is leaning towards the same result. You know a good result at the end of the weekend so I think that’s the deal.
Q: You guys say that you’re learning new stuff on the motorcycle. What have you dealved into thus far? Is it a lot of engine work, or is it something that has to do with a suspension mainly. Tell me a little bit about that.
A: Very minor engine work, the things very capable out of the box. We’ve made some minor rider comfort level mods such as the clutch. It’s more of a rider preference thing, but power wise is it's not really in need of that much other than possibly a little bit of tuning, a little bit of smoothing out, but the output is plenty. Chassis wise though, and that is for sure rider preference thing, is getting chassis to relate to the rider's input for comfort and for stability. Right there we’re fighting a little bit of both each weekend because it's so new it’s seems like we can make it a comfortable or stable and you don’t get both. So, that's where were spend most of time and finding more things out every weekend, and I think every weekend come across with a more even dramatic setup between the three weekends or three racetracks so far and that’s what is kind of interesting. I'm wondering if it can keep evolving and having to have a wide set up, or we’re just slowly creeping towards the… not the ultimate setup, but the base set up for this particular bike.
Q: Now with your history of riding you’ve spent a lot of time on Japanese manufactures motorcycles. Do you think the fact that this is a German superbike has anything to do with it being much different or needing that development compared to Japanese manufacturers you’re usually on.
A: Yeah, I think yes! This bike tends to do everything quite different. I think theres 10 routes to leave your house make it to the post office and if you’re Japanese or German they’re going to take different routes and they did the same thing with this motorcycle. In the end the things got two wheels, its got some forks, and a shock and there’s only so many combinations you can do to that, but it is definitely not the same as the Japanese stuff. Some of it better, some maybe not as friendly, but it’s a give-and-take and the weekend result is either a finish or a lap time and this S1000RR is producing both of those.
Q: Well it’s very apparent you guys are managing to work through the weekend quite well how do you feel the bike was prepped come Sunday?
A: Sunday was good! I mean when we started off the thing, as it had in the previous two weekends, started kind of slow kind of out of the ballpark as far as a good fast safe race setup would be, but by Sunday the thing was comfortable to go fast and we're getting more information. When I say more information I mean the thing is I translating more information to me in order to go fast. I don’t think you ever find the ultimate setup because it’s always give-and-take, but by the F1 race we had a comfortable chassis and able to go that pace at a very comfortable level where we weren’t to stepping over the limits.
Q: The F1 race was significant; you had to work for a little bit. Off the start I think you were 4th into turn one, tell us a little bit about that race.
A: Yeah, we’re not racing Willow as much as I have in the past so our starting place was second row on the outside, and on top of that I didn't quite get the best start so made it a little more difficult for myself. I was starting behind a couple of the series frontrunners, Jimmy Wood, and Sean Higbee on a pretty well-developed Buell if there is such a thing. But, anyways those are guys you probably don't want to let get away too quickly. The start wasn’t that great had to work our way through a couple guys, and I hadn’t really rode with anybody during the week so the pace and lines took a little bit to get used, but once I got by everybody the feeling of the of the bike we had prior came back and it was game on!
Q: Now during that race, in the first few laps you exercised quite a bit of professionalism and patience. Even though you weren’t in front you just watch them for a little bit and then once you did make the pass for the lead you just got shot out of a cannon. You set a new lap record at 1:13.5, almost the eighth tenths of a second faster than your previous lap record. Did you think you were going to be going that fast on this bike when you showed up that weekend?
A: No. I figured that we…you know my target was pretty much was to get into the 13’s and I knew that was possible. They changed the track a little bit, the track is probably a tick faster than it was and definitely safer in one area that that they did work on. It’s still a lot of work to get around that place and the bike we showed up with definitely had it in the crosshairs, but we went about a half second faster than I expected to.
Q: We’re definitely looking forward to more good results. As a project for Roadracing World you see parts come in the door almost every week. What are your plans for the development motorcycle now?
A: Just doing more homework, more homework, more homework. Go out and do more laps and figure more stuff out because obviously like I said the platform is a great base, but getting it comfortable with me and what I'm looking for is going to create even better finishes. Actually next month we are hoping to go up against so of the big boys next month and give em’ a run for the money maybe bully somebody around!
Q: I think we’re all looking forward to Laguna round. I’m sure with this effort is a lot of people that you want to say thank you to, or people are helping out with the project why don’t you go ahead and do that.
A: That list is getting big and we really appreciate all of those individuals. I want to thank Seth with Locust Storage who started this whole concept, Jody and Ricky from from Lee’s Cycles for putting the thing together and keeping me safe out there. I have to say thanks to Gary and Jason from San Diego BMW they’re taking care of all the race procedures and the organization which is huge, Dunlop tires for keeping us glued to the ground. Roadracing World is giving us a lot of help with a big push on this project bike. Brock’s Performance is supporting us with a little information some nice superlight BST carbon wheels. I’d also like to thank my personal sponsors; SIDI, Maxima Oils, Shoei helmets.
Gary Orr Interview:
Q: Alright back from The Streets of Willow Springs and a very, very successful weekend, arguably the most success you’ve had in your a new racing career. Tell us a little bit about how you felt on Saturday.
A: We showed up for Saturday practice and it was a little on the sketchy side. It had been a couple months since we've been at this track with this bike and it felt that little upset. It wasn’t changing directions quite as quickly as I wanted to and it seemed like we were lacking in rear grip. We made some changes during the day to improve that, but when I looked at the lap times I realized why it was lacking in rear end grip. We were lapping 6 seconds a lap faster than the last time here. With some suspension changes and new tires the bike came in even better later in the day.
Q: Saturday afternoon you were entered in the Solo GTO race, which I believe was your first expert class win as well. Tell us a little about that 20 lap event.
A: That was a lot of fun actually. I didn’t get the best of starts so I think I was in 3rd in turn one. Got around second place and caught up to Matt Quigley. Matt is a pretty quick rider so I didn’t want too wait too long to make a pass, so I just took the first opportunity I had and snuck by him and was able to open a gap. The bike felt good with better traction off the corners and I improved some lines that I was using allowing me to get through the bowl turn better. I concentrated on my riding technique, trying to pick the bike up over some of the bumps and carry as much speed as possible over the back of portion of the track.
Q: Excellent, definitely congratulations are in order for your first victory there! You weren’t stopping there, on Sunday you came back for yet another win in Formula 40 and two more rostrum finishes in Open Superbike and Mod Prod. Now did you make any modifications on Sunday or was the bike ready go?
A: We did raise the front one notch in the morning and I think that I came back and said that it didn’t make it worse, so we’re going to run it. We also put a slightly softer tire up front and back. As I recall in Superbike I got off to my typical mediocre start and Jeremy had checked out. Matt and Scott were running right with each other early in the race and I chased them down. We came across a lapped rider going into the fast bumpy section on track between eight and nine. Scott and I got by on the right, but Matt made the wrong choice and went left. When I got around Matt I was able to run down Tillery and got up pretty close on him but just couldn't make a pass on him. Formula 40 was a lot more entertaining because I got a decent start that and put my head down and get a couple of second gap in the first lap on everybody. I was able to run away with that. Other than passing a few lapped riders, I had the track to myself which was fun.
Q: Yeah, Gary is sure looked like a lot of fun turning a best lap of a 16.4 I believe, and obviously your other team rider Jeremy Toye set a new lap record at 13.5. This bike seems be evolving quite a bit with you getting up to speed superfast on it. He's gone fast on it everywhere you go. Is there more to be had in the evolution of this bike and what are your plans for the next event you guys are doing?
A: I definitely think there's more to be had from the bike. Right now we’ve done zero tuning to the motor. This bike is completely stock, we just bolted the pipe on. I think there are a couple suspension improvements as well that can still be made and I know that we can get another eight to nine horsepower out of it relatively easy. I'm looking forward to the big track obviously. Willow Springs is notorious for high-speed and the bike definitely has the speed so that should be fun. I’m also looking forward to Infineon next month because that is the second round of the CA State Championship. It’s a track I’ve never been to and I hear it’s a real physical track and those are the kind of tracks I like.
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