24 Hour at Talladega???

What would those of you who run the Endurance Series think of an early October 24 Hour at Talladega? The weather should be good, the 90's are gone, but there is no place on the track to even get a minute of rest... Please remeber that I haven't even asked the track, I'd rather get your opinions first.

 

I'd much rather have a 24-hour close to home than in California. But given the amount of press and people that attend, is Talladega big enough to hold everyone?

Sean, how about a 24-hour race at the new Nashville facility in 2002?

 

I would be willing to guess getting a team or two from Texas wouldn't be a problem. If I can afford it , I'd do it.

 

They need to get the roadcourse done and we'll have to look at in person before I could even hazard a guess on Nashville.

Talladega is big enough now that they have annexed the corn field next door After all we fit everyone in at that Sportsman race last year - holy doggy doo were there a lot of riders!

 

1. what about the 4hr already on the books??? move it to another track??? cmp, roebling??

2. are you crazy??? zero bathroom/shower facilities, no rest for the riders and merging t1 from pit road at night??? just because nobody asked me to play

actually sounds ok, except for the rest part...there no minutes rest because it only takes a minute to get around the track...team arclight only needs 58sec. (leaving time to get caught up in lappers) i'd be willing but then again i just wanna race....

 

What about a 24 hours at Roebling.. Get everyone into the track and not let them leave for 24 hours or until a red flag.

 

Serious time and neighbor problems as well as no spectators allowed.



[This message has been edited by WERA (edited 12-18-2000).]

 

Sounds fun!! I'm sore already!!

 

Will 125s be eligible, sort of how you created a class for that Halfabusa at Willow?

JU

 

I don't see why not - I'd run a LW Class again. Heck, you've got more experience riding the fastest Endurance bike in any given race than anyone I know - what do you think about it? Given the riders I'd guess you'd have ride it the only problem I can see is the bigger bikes being in your way in the corners...well and that it'd be hard to mount lights on a 125.

 

The biggest problem would be building the quick-change motor mounts for a Honda RS125. It could be big fun riding a 125 in an endurance race there for a while, though.

On bigger bikes, that race would be a handful. I could maybe see an 8-hour or 12-hour, but a 24-hour on that track would be a real handful and I think you'd start seeing some real problems (like, way worse than normal for a 24-hour) with rider fatigue and fatigue-induced stupidness around the halfway point of a 24-hour.

On the other hand, probably the best guys to ask about it would be Kurt Hall or Michael Martin. They rode my GSX-R1100 at Talladega and have won 24-hour races, so they should be able to comment on it.

JU

 

Now we are talking, LW class sounds good to me. I would even try to put a 400 motor that would stay going for that long. Sean was right about enough room, that was a big turn out, never seen it like that before. And I am sure I could convince enough of my crazy buddies to ride also.

 

Parenthetically, I've wondered why WERA doesn't have a LW class as a normal part of the endurance series. In the CMRA series the LW entries are always respectable, usually 20-30% of the grid. I think we had 17-18 LW entries for at least one race last year. That's a lot of entry fees to be throwing away.

 

The last time we ran one you could still buy an FZR400 off the showroom floor and only 1 team ran the entire season... While there may be a lot running CMRA there still doesn't seem to be enough of a call for them at the Nationals - however I will tlak to the boss and see if she is willing to make the gamble and run a LW class this year (although I think we may have to put an out for us to keep really, really slow teams from running...).

No promises at all but I'll talk to her about it.

 

Sean,

I didn't really have any personal interest in running it, this year at least. I was just wondering from a business point of view, since in my (limited) experience it seemed like something that could make the difference between a loss and a profit on a marginal weekend. The SV seems to have re-invigorated the LW classes, but even with that it might take a year or 2 for a National LW class to really take hold. Once WERA demonstrated that it was committed to the class, I think it would really take off. Easy for me to say though, it ain't my ass on the line.

 

Sounds really fun to me. I'd love to give it a try. I'd really like to see the Ltw support also being a Ltw rider. 6,8, 12 or 24! Why not? Count me in.

Hey Tracee I'll ride with ya. Grave yard shift.

Chris
Expert #476

 

Man the only way I would ever do that is if I could run a Goldwing,you are right that you don;t get a break..

 

Chris, are you serious???? We're talking Talladega here! Imagine climbing all over your bike for hours upon hours, the fatigue...awe screw it! Count me in...

 

Please do. Really enjoyed running the regional 2-hr events last year on a LW. And since I'll be at the Nationals this year anyhow (F2), would like to run the Endurance series....Now if I can only find some people willing to commit to a season.......

Charlie Mc #90

 

Charlie, I was about ready to call you about doing some endurance racing if WERA introduced a LW class (the regional stuff was great Sean) until I saw the schedule. Portland, OR, what da hell is that ! I get tried driving to Roebling now a days... Let talk if WERA does it.

Vito #3 rider for RFR