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First Endurance Race at VIR

Discussion in 'WERA National Endurance Series' started by 90kacoupe, Jul 5, 2018.

  1. 90kacoupe

    90kacoupe Novice seeking Help

    I have some questions since this will be my first endurance race. I'm currently prepping my SV for VIR.

    I have team of 3 right now and have a 4th interested if we decide to go with 4. Do most people run 3 people or 4 people? Only one of the team member has endurance racing experience. Also this bring up the question of the game plan for stints. With 3 racers, I was thinking do 3X 45min then 3X 35min. With 4 riders, I'm not sure how to break that up since I doubt the SV will go an hour (I may be wrong here, I'm just not sure).

    Tires, I'm assuming the race will pretty much consume a set of tires. I'm assuming that we need to start the race with a fresh set (as in, do not practice on them on friday). Is this correct?
     
  2. ineedanap

    ineedanap Well-Known Member

    SV will go over an hour. At least ours did with a stock tank.

    With 4 riders, all it will take is one red flag and someone might not even get to ride.

    7 pit stops is insane. If you are coming in before you are out of fuel to change riders, you are wasting time.

    We only have 2 riders, like real men. :)
     
    sbk1198 and gpstar748 like this.
  3. 90kacoupe

    90kacoupe Novice seeking Help

    Well if we can go over an hour then I'll change up that strategy a little bit. I definitely want at least 3 rider for our first time. I have no problem putting in back to back sprint races, or riding 2.5hrs of track time at hot track days, but I'm not sure what 1 hour straight of on track racing will be like.
     
  4. 2blueYam

    2blueYam Track Day Addict

    As far as tires, too many variables. What tire? What pace? How good is your suspension set up? Is one of the riders significantly lighter or heavier and potentially going to impact how well the suspension functions while they are riding? The safe bet would be to start with fresh tires until you see how they wear.

    As others have said, extra stops will likely be detrimental to your overall finishing spot. If you are concerned about rider endurance, back your pace down a notch to make it the full hour.
     
  5. 90kacoupe

    90kacoupe Novice seeking Help

    We will go back to the drawing board on pit strategy. I was assuming we would not be able to make it an hour. We do have one rider that is much lighter the other two of us. The bike is sprung a little soft for me, which will probably put it as a good compromise between the 3 of us. I have been running Bridgestone slicks on it. 165R 120F (I need to double check compound, I just use what stickboy recommends. lol) I'm planning on using a fresh set for the race as of now. I was just asking, because that means I need to buy 2 sets for that weekend since, the rubber on the bike is toast right now.
     
  6. tdelegram

    tdelegram Well-Known Member

    Team Meat? More like team ice cream, kind of soft and melty.

    See you In a few weeks Dave.
     
    rcarson15 likes this.
  7. noles19

    noles19 Well-Known Member

    The bike will go atleast an hour on gas, and one set of tires will do the race no problem.
    My team did one hour stints everytime we;ve done the endurance races, the biggest thing will be preparing.
    Make sure you have some sort of pit board, and have signals for saying the rider on track needs to pit etc, most people tap the helmet when they are coming in.
    Make sure you get set up on pit road as soon as possible the morning of, and you double check the bike, the morning of. we had a caliper hang up and burned a set of pads in 5 laps at pitt race last year and cost us 15 laps.
    Also hydration is huge, make sure everyone is drinking and ready, pedialyte works great and can be mixed with gatorade.
     
  8. ineedanap

    ineedanap Well-Known Member

    Judging by your performance at PIRC, we could trade our SV for an ice cream truck and still beat you guys...
     
    Wheel Bearing and tdelegram like this.
  9. 90kacoupe

    90kacoupe Novice seeking Help

    I am working on prepping the bike now. I'm trying to go through everything. I am planning on cleaning and re-greasing all the slide points of the calipers so hopefully we won't have that issue. I have been thinking about what to do for the pit board, but I have not setup anything yet. I do plan on getting some type of hydration mix from my local nutrition shop. I know its not the most competitive strategy but for our first race we are going to try 3x 50min stints then 3x30min stints. I look forward to seeing you all at the track.
     
  10. Wheel Bearing

    Wheel Bearing Professional low sider

    With only 1 rider on the team having endurance experience, your first round is going to be such a goat fuck that it's not going to really matter. I don't say that in a negative way at all...to date, easily my first endurance round, every single one of us was lost in the sauce and had an absolute blast and was probably the most fun one I've done.

    Just remember that more than likely, your plan will change about 100 times leading up to the race, and then some shit will happen and the situation will change...and all your planning goes out the window, so stay flexible and have fun.

    I'd suggest 4 riders, 4 stints, everyone does about an hour or so (just under, to account time taken for pit stops). 4 riders just makes it cheaper for everyone one and if you've never ridden at race pace for more than a solo or track day session, you're going to be in for a real surprise around the 30 minute mark.
     
    sbk1198 likes this.
  11. gpstar748

    gpstar748 Well-Known Member

    2 riders like men. ;)

    4 hours is nothing....just two stints each!
     
    ineedanap, Bruce and r6boater like this.
  12. Mongo

    Mongo Administrator

    2? Big tank, one stint each.... :D
     
    paul and BEi Racing like this.

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