Road Race Relay Endurance Class

Or even sandbagging pro riders

 

I've ran the last two and had a pretty good time. If it wasnt for the relay class I would just be hanging out until the sprint races on sunday.

 

I have plans for this, but waiting for my lead rider to finish college.

 

how does the saturday morning practice work for the relay riders? can a team of three individuals be out on track at the same time with their own bikes or is it only one at a time with the registered transponder attached to the bike?

 

The 2 stint limit in the class seems interesting to me. Seems like deviations from an ideal rider plan could become an issue for the team pretty quick. I presume that a single stint could include a refuel and same rider going back out?

Not complaining, just a different set of risks to deal with compared to a normal endurance class.

 

What do you mean by this? With our 3 rider team mostly riding fuel sucking leader bikes, I'm envisioning Rider A starting the race, going for 20 minutes, pitting in to refuel, going back out for another 20 minutes, then coming in to have Rider B go out on his own bike and do the same, repeat for Rider C, then back to Rider A for the second stint and repeat the same order.

Another question I had is during the rider/bike switch. Are the relay teams allowed to have all 3 bikes on hot pit lane with warmers on? I read something that no cables being stretched over pit wall, just warmers on bike to keep temperature but not actively warming. So does that mean when it's time to change bikes Rider A goes to pit in and exits pit lane to put his warmers on, and during that process the transponder gets transferred to Rider B?

 

I understand not wanting it to be a practice session, but no refueling makes that stint rule tricky (especially for teams of less than 4). That said, you've had a few races with it and I haven't done it once, so I presume it worked out fine for other teams.

My understanding per the special rules is that you shouldn't have the next bike in the hot pit, but behind it on warmers. Then you can bring it into the hot pit with less than 3 laps until the swap, leaving the warmers (unplugged) on the tires. No active warmers on the bike in hot pit.

Here's the exact rule:

https://www.n2td.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/n2_wera_endurance_relay_2021.pdf

 

Thanks, mustve glanced over those lines. According to those rules I don't know how we would be able to finish the race without riders making more than 2 stints if refueling isn't allowed in hot pit.

 

If the grids not full with regular endurance teams then this is a great idea. Never heard or thought of it. Good job whoever brought it up

 

You're going to need to ride for longer than 20 mins. It's an endurance race.

 

Yup, I get what you mean. My concern is that with my three man team is that there isn't much slack for a rider being tired or a bike having a minor issue that needs a quick adjustment (which essentially ends that stint I presume). If something doesn't go to plan, it'll probably result in a DQ.

I guess the answer is that we should add a 4th and that adds a good bit more flexibility.

I haven't done traditional endurance because getting the logistics of splitting costs and bike damage responsibility has been more than my group of guys wants to deal with. I'd love to do that too though.

I'm looking forward to dipping my toes in with this class at Pitt though. Gonna be fun! Thanks for the clarification.

 

I assumed the MA Stock1000 race being 12 laps is getting close to the limitation of a stock tank for a liter bike at that track, maybe 15 laps or 25ish minutes? That not the case? I know at road atlanta my bike seems like it easily drains half a tank if not more in 10 laps.

 

Does the transponder swap require both bikes in the pit?
Say rider A has a stint ending moto or mechanical, does the team have to wait for that bike to be returned to the pits or can a team member retrieve the transponder from the scene of the incident to return it to the pits for rider B?