Motorcycle News
07-01-2008, 06:09 AM
WERA Six-Hour Endurance Race: Time Behind Bars
http://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_07_z+WERA_endurance_race+2007_kawasaki_ZX-6R.jpgIt's no coincidence that many of the country's top roadracers came up through the ranks of WERA (Western Eastern Roadracing Association) club racing; the organization regularly graduates riders directly to the front of AMA grids, leading many aspiring novices to hopefully follow a similar path by chasing WERA championships. It's the association's endurance series that has given many top riders the countless hours of riding experience necessary to hone their craft, and ironically it's the hours of seat time that attracts riders from the other end of the spectrum-those not looking to make names for themselves but rather simply wanting the most bang for their entry-fee bucks. This mix makes for an eclectic grid at any of the organization's endurance events; where else, for example, can a local novice try his hand against a former world champion, as sometimes happens?
Endurance races always seem to be an adventure (especially when a one-off team is put together to contest just a single round rather than a series), so when Jeff Herzog, Kawasaki's senior media relations coordinator, called with an offer to race the Miller Motorsports Park six-hour, it didn't take any convincing to sign me up. Herzog's plan was to race an '07 ZX-6R in the Mediumweight Superbike class, and he had put together an all-star cast to do it: The bike was being prepared at Carry Andrew's Hypercycle shop, and the other riders on the team would be Jimmy Filice and Scott Russell. I was already packing my bags after hearing "Miller Motorsports Park" and "ZX-6R," but who could resist a chance to ride on a team with that roster?
Longtime readers of SR will be familiar with the lineup: Carry Andrew builds seriously fast bikes that appear regularly in these pages, and has crewchiefed many top riders to numerous wins and championships. Jimmy Filice is a three-time AMA 250 GP champion, and Scott Russell is a former AMA and World Superbike champion-see the sidebars for what the two riders have been up to recently. The tie-in here is that Herzog and Russell raced for Andrew's team in the late '80s, and Filice currently rides a Kawasaki Ninja 650R in the Moto-ST series with the Pair-A-Nines team (see "In the Company of Legends," July '07). And me? Well, I'm just the excuse Herzog and friends needed to get together and have fun at Miller for a weekend.
Friday Practice
We descend on the small town of Tooele, Utah, and head to the track for the first-and only-day of practice, as the race runs on Saturday. While Andrew and Herzog put the finishing touches on a pair of freshly painted ZX-6Rs, I get acquainted with my teammates. Filice and Russell are friendly and outgoing, quick to offer support, and appear genuinely happy to be at the racetrack; they put me quickly at ease in their company. There is a steady stream of fans and well-wishers dropping by the garage to chat or ask for an autograph (er... from those two, not me), and the atmosphere is casual and relaxed.
By late morning, one of the bikes is ready, and we trip over ourselves in the rush to offer each other the chance to go first. "No no, after you." We're all just being gentlemanly, but the heat isn't helping either; at 90-plus degrees F, the garage is quite cooler than out in the sun. Russell especially seems not too bothered about riding until practically the end of the day, but both he and Filice are up to speed with little practice and looking like they are having fun.
The two Kawasakis are an interesting mix of kit parts and bits from Andrew's go-fast stash. Both are plenty quick, running easily with other 600s I come across on-track. Eventually we agree that one bike is faster but the other handles better. The bike with the better motor has a wide 16.5-inch rear wheel, the big tire contributing to the handling difficulties but showing much better wear than the more-stock bike with 17-inch hoops. The slower bike is easier to ride, but the tire-wear situation and quick-change setup on the faster bike lead us to pick it for the race.
Setup proves to be a simple matter. Ironically again, none of us is too bothered, each deferring to another to choose a direction. Russell, the heaviest, prefers a softer setup; Filice, the lightest, likes a firmer setup that ends up close enough to Russell's soft preference. My weight falls almost exactly in the middle of the real racers' and the Kawasaki works fine for me as well. We're all happy and just having fun-it seems that worrying about the bike is almost too much like work.
Race Day
Saturday sees a big change in pit atmosphere, however. My teammates are markedly more serious than the previous day, suiting up well before practice begins and ready to go. Russell stretches while Filice sits calmly listening to music, and when the green flag flies, they are on the two bikes and gone. No more deference to the journalist, this is serious business. Suspension is adjusted. Lines are discussed. Lap times fall.
With little time between final practice and the start of the race, Russell-picked to ride first-ends up missing the start by half a lap as gearing and tires are furiously changed in the garage. No matter, he has the bit between his teeth on cold tires and is soon deep in the pack. One tank of fuel-roughly 50 minutes and 25 laps-later, he is up to 14th and makes the first pit stop to hand the bike off to me.
I quickly settle into consistent lap times a few seconds off Russell's pace and concentrate on riding safe and steady for my time on the bike, thinking it's far more important for me to keep us on two wheels than try to be a hero. The unchanged Dunlops are still surprisingly grippy at the start of my stint, but edge grip and trail-braking traction gradually fade over the course of the session, and I try different lines and body position to cope. That's the great thing about endurance racing: While sprints leave you little time to concentrate on riding as you dice with other racers in close quarters, a long session and the relatively relaxed pace in a race that lasts for hours leaves plenty of opportunities for experimentation. I'm not in the greatest shape, though, and tire quickly as the session wears on. I get a second wind at about the 35-minute mark and keep consistent times for another few laps, but signal the crew that I'm ready to pit at about 45 minutes.
Even though my pace is well off the leader's (and Russell's), I manage to gain us one position, to 13th. Filice, next up and showing his recent endurance experience, logs a 29-lap iron-man stint on shagged tires and moves us up to eighth overall and third in class before pitting. With close to three hours complete at the end of Filice's run, Carry and the crew finally swap out the rear tire, with Russell back on in just under a minute. If Russell and I ride less than an hour in our next sessions, we'll need a splash of fuel near the end. But luckily for us, a red flag stops the party midway through Russell's stint. Even though WERA rules don't allow working on the bikes or refueling during a red-flag stop, the clock keeps running and the 20-minute break gives us enough leeway on fuel that we can easily finish with a round number of sessions.
We move up another overall position as it was one of the front-running bikes crashing out to cause the red flag, and when Russell pits on lap 106, I set off for my second stint with more than a lap in hand on eighth overall and a fresh front tire. I come out of the pits right behind another rider, and unbelievably make the most rookie of mistakes by settling into his pace and following him around. Even though my mind keeps telling me to pass and get going, I just sit there for at least a dozen laps, running inconsistently two, three and even four seconds off my earlier, already-slow pace. The wind had come up since my first stint, adding to the heat, and even though I feel physically OK and have the benefit of a fresh front tire, my confidence crumbles with every lap. Any little slide makes me jump and I'm paranoid of throwing our lead away with a crash.
Eventually I get by the other rider, and my times start dropping steadily. But the damage is done and the crew signals the end of my session a handful of laps later. I pit after just 20 laps, relieved to find we didn't lose our position and are actually in sixth overall as one of the leading big-bike teams has dropped out.
Filice puts in a second marathon session of a full hour and 29 laps to finish out the race, holding steady to put us sixth overall and third in class at the checkered flag. Everyone is happy and cheering as he rides by on the last lap, but I can't help feeling I let the team down in our last session. It's amazing how fatigue plays with your mind, but essentially, I choked, made a newbie error and rode far too conservatively. A couple of seconds each lap adds up over the course of an hour, and maybe if I had ridden better, we'd have finished even higher. Then again, we were a couple of laps behind the second-place Mediumweight Superbike team at the end, and it's doubtful I'd have been able to make an impact on that kind of a gap.
These are the thoughts that make endurance racing addictive; strategy, pit stops and teamwork all play a big part, and the fastest riders don't always win. In the end everybody on our team had a great time and we finished on the podium. We're all hooked now, and plans are already afoot for more Sport Rider and Kawasaki endurance entries.
Scott Russell
Catching Up With Mr. Daytona
After being seriously hurt in a horrendous start-line crash at Daytona in 2001, Scott Russell chose to retire rather than continue racing with permanent injuries. But the life of Riley has not been easy for the five-time Daytona 200 winner, as he still has the itch to ride and race. "I'm just trying to settle into life without racing," says Russell. "I've been dirt biking, four-wheeling, the jeep, wakeboarding-just stuff like that. And you can't do that all the time, so it's been kind of a tough transition from racing. I probably shouldn't have when I did. But at the time, when you're that hurt, looking at your career thinking 'could I duplicate what I'd already done at that point?' And the answer was probably yes, with the right team, but after jumping seat to seat to seat, it just seemed to get worse and worse and worse. I had to make a decision to just call it."
That retirement call came with an insurance stipulation that the former AMA and World Superbike champion couldn't race professionally again, meaning a second potential career in Supermoto had to be aborted as well. "That's really what I wanted to do after roadracing. I had KTM there with a full factory ride for me, and then the AMA stepped in and took over the series and turned it professional. By them going pro I had to step out and turned down a factory KTM ride."
Russell says he's completely healed from his crash but for some nerve damage that has cost him "about 20 or 30 percent of the feeling" in one foot. "Racing was good to me and I saved a lot of money, so right now I'm OK. The future looks good."
Jimmy Filice
From 250 Grand Prix To Moto-ST
While personal issues kept him away from the racetrack for a period of time, Jimmy Filice returned to action in late 2006 with the Moto-ST Endurance series and has also been busy helping his son Justin with his own career. "My life's been racing for the last 34 years," says the former U.S.G.P. winner, "and it's basically where my family's at, so I'm trying to get more involved with it, help my son with his career and explore this endurance series."
Riding a Kawasaki Ninja 650R, Filice and teammate Springsteen, on Gary Nixon's Pair-A-Nines team, were leading the ST class of the Moto-ST series with one round remaining as we went to press. "I seem to have a good time. My experience, my approach, my lap times and being consistent is very good for endurance racing. I know I'm beyond my AMA years of being a top sprint racer-it's just impossible to compete with these young kids that have the drive, the youth-so I'm over that, but this endurance series, this WERA race this weekend, it's been very enjoyable."
With another year of riding for the Pair-A-Nines team looking likely and his son's career coming along nicely, chances are we'll see more of Filice in various paddocks and on tracks around the country. "Working with Kawasaki has been really enjoyable," he enthuses. "Jeff has been really good to me and I'm looking forward to some more future things going on."
Photo Gallery: WERA Six-Hour Endurance Race: Time Behind Bars - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_wera_endurance_race)
http://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_07_s+WERA_endurance_race+2007_kawasaki_ZX-6R.jpghttp://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_04_s+WERA_endurance_race+scott_russell.jp ghttp://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_03_s+WERA_endurance_race+jimmy_filice.jpg http://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_02_s+WERA_endurance_race+andrew_trevitt.j pghttp://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_09_s+WERA_endurance_race+russell_and_fili ce.jpg
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http://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_07_z+WERA_endurance_race+2007_kawasaki_ZX-6R.jpgIt's no coincidence that many of the country's top roadracers came up through the ranks of WERA (Western Eastern Roadracing Association) club racing; the organization regularly graduates riders directly to the front of AMA grids, leading many aspiring novices to hopefully follow a similar path by chasing WERA championships. It's the association's endurance series that has given many top riders the countless hours of riding experience necessary to hone their craft, and ironically it's the hours of seat time that attracts riders from the other end of the spectrum-those not looking to make names for themselves but rather simply wanting the most bang for their entry-fee bucks. This mix makes for an eclectic grid at any of the organization's endurance events; where else, for example, can a local novice try his hand against a former world champion, as sometimes happens?
Endurance races always seem to be an adventure (especially when a one-off team is put together to contest just a single round rather than a series), so when Jeff Herzog, Kawasaki's senior media relations coordinator, called with an offer to race the Miller Motorsports Park six-hour, it didn't take any convincing to sign me up. Herzog's plan was to race an '07 ZX-6R in the Mediumweight Superbike class, and he had put together an all-star cast to do it: The bike was being prepared at Carry Andrew's Hypercycle shop, and the other riders on the team would be Jimmy Filice and Scott Russell. I was already packing my bags after hearing "Miller Motorsports Park" and "ZX-6R," but who could resist a chance to ride on a team with that roster?
Longtime readers of SR will be familiar with the lineup: Carry Andrew builds seriously fast bikes that appear regularly in these pages, and has crewchiefed many top riders to numerous wins and championships. Jimmy Filice is a three-time AMA 250 GP champion, and Scott Russell is a former AMA and World Superbike champion-see the sidebars for what the two riders have been up to recently. The tie-in here is that Herzog and Russell raced for Andrew's team in the late '80s, and Filice currently rides a Kawasaki Ninja 650R in the Moto-ST series with the Pair-A-Nines team (see "In the Company of Legends," July '07). And me? Well, I'm just the excuse Herzog and friends needed to get together and have fun at Miller for a weekend.
Friday Practice
We descend on the small town of Tooele, Utah, and head to the track for the first-and only-day of practice, as the race runs on Saturday. While Andrew and Herzog put the finishing touches on a pair of freshly painted ZX-6Rs, I get acquainted with my teammates. Filice and Russell are friendly and outgoing, quick to offer support, and appear genuinely happy to be at the racetrack; they put me quickly at ease in their company. There is a steady stream of fans and well-wishers dropping by the garage to chat or ask for an autograph (er... from those two, not me), and the atmosphere is casual and relaxed.
By late morning, one of the bikes is ready, and we trip over ourselves in the rush to offer each other the chance to go first. "No no, after you." We're all just being gentlemanly, but the heat isn't helping either; at 90-plus degrees F, the garage is quite cooler than out in the sun. Russell especially seems not too bothered about riding until practically the end of the day, but both he and Filice are up to speed with little practice and looking like they are having fun.
The two Kawasakis are an interesting mix of kit parts and bits from Andrew's go-fast stash. Both are plenty quick, running easily with other 600s I come across on-track. Eventually we agree that one bike is faster but the other handles better. The bike with the better motor has a wide 16.5-inch rear wheel, the big tire contributing to the handling difficulties but showing much better wear than the more-stock bike with 17-inch hoops. The slower bike is easier to ride, but the tire-wear situation and quick-change setup on the faster bike lead us to pick it for the race.
Setup proves to be a simple matter. Ironically again, none of us is too bothered, each deferring to another to choose a direction. Russell, the heaviest, prefers a softer setup; Filice, the lightest, likes a firmer setup that ends up close enough to Russell's soft preference. My weight falls almost exactly in the middle of the real racers' and the Kawasaki works fine for me as well. We're all happy and just having fun-it seems that worrying about the bike is almost too much like work.
Race Day
Saturday sees a big change in pit atmosphere, however. My teammates are markedly more serious than the previous day, suiting up well before practice begins and ready to go. Russell stretches while Filice sits calmly listening to music, and when the green flag flies, they are on the two bikes and gone. No more deference to the journalist, this is serious business. Suspension is adjusted. Lines are discussed. Lap times fall.
With little time between final practice and the start of the race, Russell-picked to ride first-ends up missing the start by half a lap as gearing and tires are furiously changed in the garage. No matter, he has the bit between his teeth on cold tires and is soon deep in the pack. One tank of fuel-roughly 50 minutes and 25 laps-later, he is up to 14th and makes the first pit stop to hand the bike off to me.
I quickly settle into consistent lap times a few seconds off Russell's pace and concentrate on riding safe and steady for my time on the bike, thinking it's far more important for me to keep us on two wheels than try to be a hero. The unchanged Dunlops are still surprisingly grippy at the start of my stint, but edge grip and trail-braking traction gradually fade over the course of the session, and I try different lines and body position to cope. That's the great thing about endurance racing: While sprints leave you little time to concentrate on riding as you dice with other racers in close quarters, a long session and the relatively relaxed pace in a race that lasts for hours leaves plenty of opportunities for experimentation. I'm not in the greatest shape, though, and tire quickly as the session wears on. I get a second wind at about the 35-minute mark and keep consistent times for another few laps, but signal the crew that I'm ready to pit at about 45 minutes.
Even though my pace is well off the leader's (and Russell's), I manage to gain us one position, to 13th. Filice, next up and showing his recent endurance experience, logs a 29-lap iron-man stint on shagged tires and moves us up to eighth overall and third in class before pitting. With close to three hours complete at the end of Filice's run, Carry and the crew finally swap out the rear tire, with Russell back on in just under a minute. If Russell and I ride less than an hour in our next sessions, we'll need a splash of fuel near the end. But luckily for us, a red flag stops the party midway through Russell's stint. Even though WERA rules don't allow working on the bikes or refueling during a red-flag stop, the clock keeps running and the 20-minute break gives us enough leeway on fuel that we can easily finish with a round number of sessions.
We move up another overall position as it was one of the front-running bikes crashing out to cause the red flag, and when Russell pits on lap 106, I set off for my second stint with more than a lap in hand on eighth overall and a fresh front tire. I come out of the pits right behind another rider, and unbelievably make the most rookie of mistakes by settling into his pace and following him around. Even though my mind keeps telling me to pass and get going, I just sit there for at least a dozen laps, running inconsistently two, three and even four seconds off my earlier, already-slow pace. The wind had come up since my first stint, adding to the heat, and even though I feel physically OK and have the benefit of a fresh front tire, my confidence crumbles with every lap. Any little slide makes me jump and I'm paranoid of throwing our lead away with a crash.
Eventually I get by the other rider, and my times start dropping steadily. But the damage is done and the crew signals the end of my session a handful of laps later. I pit after just 20 laps, relieved to find we didn't lose our position and are actually in sixth overall as one of the leading big-bike teams has dropped out.
Filice puts in a second marathon session of a full hour and 29 laps to finish out the race, holding steady to put us sixth overall and third in class at the checkered flag. Everyone is happy and cheering as he rides by on the last lap, but I can't help feeling I let the team down in our last session. It's amazing how fatigue plays with your mind, but essentially, I choked, made a newbie error and rode far too conservatively. A couple of seconds each lap adds up over the course of an hour, and maybe if I had ridden better, we'd have finished even higher. Then again, we were a couple of laps behind the second-place Mediumweight Superbike team at the end, and it's doubtful I'd have been able to make an impact on that kind of a gap.
These are the thoughts that make endurance racing addictive; strategy, pit stops and teamwork all play a big part, and the fastest riders don't always win. In the end everybody on our team had a great time and we finished on the podium. We're all hooked now, and plans are already afoot for more Sport Rider and Kawasaki endurance entries.
Scott Russell
Catching Up With Mr. Daytona
After being seriously hurt in a horrendous start-line crash at Daytona in 2001, Scott Russell chose to retire rather than continue racing with permanent injuries. But the life of Riley has not been easy for the five-time Daytona 200 winner, as he still has the itch to ride and race. "I'm just trying to settle into life without racing," says Russell. "I've been dirt biking, four-wheeling, the jeep, wakeboarding-just stuff like that. And you can't do that all the time, so it's been kind of a tough transition from racing. I probably shouldn't have when I did. But at the time, when you're that hurt, looking at your career thinking 'could I duplicate what I'd already done at that point?' And the answer was probably yes, with the right team, but after jumping seat to seat to seat, it just seemed to get worse and worse and worse. I had to make a decision to just call it."
That retirement call came with an insurance stipulation that the former AMA and World Superbike champion couldn't race professionally again, meaning a second potential career in Supermoto had to be aborted as well. "That's really what I wanted to do after roadracing. I had KTM there with a full factory ride for me, and then the AMA stepped in and took over the series and turned it professional. By them going pro I had to step out and turned down a factory KTM ride."
Russell says he's completely healed from his crash but for some nerve damage that has cost him "about 20 or 30 percent of the feeling" in one foot. "Racing was good to me and I saved a lot of money, so right now I'm OK. The future looks good."
Jimmy Filice
From 250 Grand Prix To Moto-ST
While personal issues kept him away from the racetrack for a period of time, Jimmy Filice returned to action in late 2006 with the Moto-ST Endurance series and has also been busy helping his son Justin with his own career. "My life's been racing for the last 34 years," says the former U.S.G.P. winner, "and it's basically where my family's at, so I'm trying to get more involved with it, help my son with his career and explore this endurance series."
Riding a Kawasaki Ninja 650R, Filice and teammate Springsteen, on Gary Nixon's Pair-A-Nines team, were leading the ST class of the Moto-ST series with one round remaining as we went to press. "I seem to have a good time. My experience, my approach, my lap times and being consistent is very good for endurance racing. I know I'm beyond my AMA years of being a top sprint racer-it's just impossible to compete with these young kids that have the drive, the youth-so I'm over that, but this endurance series, this WERA race this weekend, it's been very enjoyable."
With another year of riding for the Pair-A-Nines team looking likely and his son's career coming along nicely, chances are we'll see more of Filice in various paddocks and on tracks around the country. "Working with Kawasaki has been really enjoyable," he enthuses. "Jeff has been really good to me and I'm looking forward to some more future things going on."
Photo Gallery: WERA Six-Hour Endurance Race: Time Behind Bars - Sport Rider Magazine (http://www.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_wera_endurance_race)
http://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_07_s+WERA_endurance_race+2007_kawasaki_ZX-6R.jpghttp://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_04_s+WERA_endurance_race+scott_russell.jp ghttp://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_03_s+WERA_endurance_race+jimmy_filice.jpg http://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_02_s+WERA_endurance_race+andrew_trevitt.j pghttp://images.sportrider.com/features/146_0801_09_s+WERA_endurance_race+russell_and_fili ce.jpg
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