Why Rising, so kind of you to ask! (As if I was not going to fill you guys in) I was pretty slow this year. This was my second weekend on the R6, and in Friday practice I thought "oh man, this is going to be way easier than on the Ducati." But then I started to get frustrated as the lap times were not reflecting the pace I *thought* I was carrying. The bike handles pretty well, and it FELT fast, but maybe that is because of the screaming nature of the engine- the GPS showed my top speed to be 161 on my best lap, a full 10 MPH slower than the 848. Most of my laps were in the 155 MPH range top speed wise. My bike is quite tired, it did the 200 in 2015, then 2 seasons of sprints. All I have done to it was change the oil and wash it, and have Thermosman change out the midget springs in the front. Also I am learning that the R6 needs to move around a little when it's working, kind of like a dirt bike. The Duc is very stable so I am not used to that. Therefore I was riding kind of stiff. I never did achieve the corner entry speed I was happy with. Exits were working pretty good, but I couldn't stay in anyone's draft. By the end of Q3 on Friday I was pretty demolished mentally, from not meeting my lap time expectations. I had a new (but also very good and experienced) crew chief this year, and he helped me out a lot. After the Sat AM warm up, we decided to do the race on one set of tires, unless the rear looked bad at one of the fuel stops in which case we would change it. There are basically three groups of guys in the 200- you have your Lilliputian Aliens running 1:50-1:54's. Then you have your mid pack guys running :55's through 59's, which is the group I usually try to hang with. Then you have the rest. The second "tier" of riders, they are usually running the family and friends type crews so pit stops can go any way- and a rear tire change is at least 30 seconds for most of them. So if I just did my 2:03's, stopped only for fuel, they would never catch me, in theory. In the race it worked out pretty well, I am always surprised by the level of carnage that Daytona brings. It seems everyone is blowing up or crashing. (Not necessarily in that order.) I had hoped the heat of battle would help me to hang on with the mid pack guys and maybe drop down to my old times, but I didn't make it happen. Our strategy did pay off, however, as I went up quite a bit in the second half of the race- I only did 2 10 second stops. I didn't even have time for a drink! The rear was spinning a lot towards the end, on the left side, but the right was still surprisingly good. So as far as the outcome, I should be pleased, but in actuality I am upset that I failed to achieve the pace I wanted. I saw the Triumph out there and I actually thought "OK, let me at least pass Stick so that I can have BBS bragging rights!" I spent only $300 (on a quick fuel setup) getting the bike ready, 3 sets of tires, $1000 for crew support, and $500 in entry fees (which included my credentials and RV spot, as well as 3 sprints on Sunday) and I got a check for 35th place for $1,400. So all in all, that's not a bad weekend. These guys in the top 15 are incredible to watch, they have no fear, they carry incredible speed and use every millimeter of racetrack and then some. They are smooth as glass and wide open everywhere. I came to an interesting conclusion this weekend- we concentrate so hard on achieving a half second here or there, we focus on it for days and don't sleep, we obsess over our technique and things that we will try in order to drop our times. Those fractions of seconds are EVERYTHING to us, yet they are completely meaningless. The fans, they don't know the difference. We are all heroes to them. Only the true die hards know the difference in the lap times. Nobody gives a damn, (we can't even get the races televised!) and yet we continue to grind ourselves into the pavement to try and achieve our goals. What we are doing, we are doing for us and us alone. It doesn't matter one bit to anyone but us. And that makes the pursuit of these goals even more noble, in my opinion. And yet it's still the best, most fulfilling thing I've ever spent a dollar on.
I would say so, pulling your fellow competitor out from under a burning bike with a gas tank full of fuel is no small feat.
Nice work Gino. As far as what you said regarding the fans, you are exactly right. I'd be willing to bet 90% of the people that catch races on TV or online can't tell the difference between a 600 or 1000. On TV, you can see if one bike is faster than another, but 160mph looks exactly the same as 200mph. I've had crews of guys at work watching Moto2 in the big theater room then we start watching MotoGP and they are like "this sucks, I liked the other one a lot better. This is boring". Fans dont care about $15k forks or $4k Magnesium wheels, they can't see any of that shit going around the track. What matters is large packs of bikes fighting for position.
And Jody Barry was AMA Horizon Award winner last year, and MA 600 Supersport racer this year. http://www.motoamerica.com/jody-barry-wins-2016-ama-road-racing-horizon-award
WOW! Yeah we were in the kink so couldn't see what was going on. That guy should get a medal or something. Bravo sir.
They suggest the BMC may be legal but still note it's up to the competitor mounting it to verify it matches OEM for the bike. There isn't a rule stating you can update or backdate airfilters/airboxes so... yeah you have to verify based on year.
The actual rule book that the bikes were to be built by did not mention BMC or any other filter manufacturer. Here is the actual rule from the book. D. Original equipment air box must remain as produced. Air filters must be used but may be Aftermarket units. Aftermarket air filters are restricted to units available via normal commercial channels and designed for that specific model machine. Aftermarket air filter units that replace part of the O.E.M. air box are required to maintain the original size and number of air inlet openings as the stock unit. So, if the filter used was bigger then the stock opening, it was bigger then the stock opening. End of story. I have had to go through parts checking manufacturing tolerances before to stay legal. It is what you do sometimes.
As I said - the issue I can see a team having is the wording about model. If a prior year was a larger opening but for the same model machine....
The commentators interviewed him on the live stream during the red flag and referenced his heroics several times throughout the race. What they didn't do was ask him if he and his bike were going to be okay for the restart. I thought that was kind of a major thing to overlook. Obviously he did make the restart, but at the point they were talking to him, there was still a lot of cleanup to be done.
Anybody who knows Jody, knows what kind of a person he is. His actions at Daytona are in line with the way he is, HE IS A GREAT PERSON. He is always there to help someone, never takes credit for his accomplishments.
So according to that rule above, the OEM filter from an 08 could be used on a 2016, as it only limits aftermarket. Fun stuff.
Wow! First I've seen of this. So, what happened exactly..... did Jody go down as well and helped, or just stopped to help! Either way..... major RESPECT for that guy! Did see his mangled foot/toes on FB. Yes, coulda been so much worse!
The way I read it, it has to be the stock size for the bike you are running. But that is just how I read it. It does look a bit unclear though.
