Some Road Atlanta facts

Legacy logic isn't always the best logic. What teams have competed this year in the endurance and did not have a generator for tire warmers? I do not recall seeing a single team not have at least one generator on hot pit in the years I've done this (since it got rebooted in 2016).

 

Thanks for the good explanation of all of the events. Also, I'm glad you held to the rules as they are written. That said, what's the purpose of the requirement to take the green flag restart, as opposed to allowing the teams to work on their bikes the moment the green flag drops?

 

This is Simon Egan. I would like to clear some things up that have not been communicated correctly as I have been demoralized all over social media. First and foremost, I am sincerely sorry to Wera and all of my fellow competitors about how the race ended and that is not something I could have ever seen coming or predicted.

Below is what ACTUALLY happened from my perspective:

- I did run out of fuel and noticed first symptoms around turn 1 with bike hesitating and managed to conserve enough fuel before it completely ran out and shut off exiting turn 7

- I then pulled off into grass and put my hands up trying to signal corner workers and other riders I was dead in the water

- I then decided to run my bike in the grass back to the pits so we can continue racing

- It didn’t take long after running the bike and the 30+ minutes of racing for my body to completely give up and force me to stop running, lay bike down and just collapse

- To be very clear, I absolutely did not lay down on the track. I laid down next to my bike as I was completely gassed out and struggled to breathe

- For those of you who know the track, I was pinned next to wall with a 10’ tall fence on one side and the other side was bikes going by me at 180mph

- Last thing on my mind was red coming out, race would end, and we finish on a podium. In fact, I already saw the same bikes go by me multiple times and I knew we were out of it

- Crash truck and ambulance arrive as I am still laying down hyperventilating and proceed to check over me

- They get my helmet off and just keep me relaxed. Crash truck driver starts to load my bike and is struggling getting it up by himself so I did attempt to help which was useless as my legs gave out, I dropped down on back of trailer gate and couldn’t assist

- Ambulance team tells me to just relax, then get in back of ambulance so I can sit in AC and drink water. (They were absolute angels!)

- After learning race was ended, the worst part for me was knowing our buddy who worked so hard to get his bike ready and race his first weekend was not able to go out as he was next in rotation.

- A 3rd place finish in the relay class was not important at all nor worth everything people seem to think was planned out.. All of that was impossible to know!

- Those who actually know me, know I do not take this that seriously and I am devastated at how all these events led to this situation

- I am sorry to my team for running out of fuel, the fact I tried to get the bike back to our pits and just physically collapsed after all that was unfortunate for all involved and I am the one taking the beating for the race ending.

I have nothing but love for the sport of racing and have been doing this since I was 14 years old and I am now in my late 30’s. Never would I try to intentionally sabotage a race for a gain that means nothing to anyone except the few of us in the sport. I am truly sorry for how all the events led up to a short race and know Wera is under a lot of scrutiny that people don’t realize is damned if they do, damned if they don’t. I will continue to support the sport anyway I can and I pray no one has to ever endure what I am dealing with.

 

Might want to think about this. I know a couple people that want show up at the GNF just to smack one little prick in the mouth .

 

As messed up as the situation is, those people need to get over themselves.

 

This sounds quite sincere.
I doubt it's making it any easier for the man who has the toughest job at the track, but he is fair so, hope for the best.

 

Simon,
I have some questions. How in the world did you ever think you would be able to push your motorcycle over T9, down the hill and cross a hot track (between 10a and 10b) and then up that hill and down to the pits? Seems like massively poor decision making to me. If you wanted to have the team continue the race, why not abandon the bike up against the wall, remove the transponder since you were doing relay and walk/run it to the pits? I agree with fastfreddie that you sound sincere on your post and you have enough experience to know better I would think. Also, why were you on the outside line by the edge of the track still rolling after T7? If you knew you were running out of fuel after T1, why not take the safe short cut outside of T5? Or between T6 and T7 stay waaaaay on the inside and park it in a zero impact zone after T7 on the inside? Too many things in your post don't add up and based on your decision making my personal opinion is stick to sprint races and don't do endurance. You may think I'm an asshole for posting this but safety comes first and you put yourself and others in harms way. It could have turned out very ugly.

 

Never go full retard.

 

Joe,
I understand all of your questions. Trust me, I have replayed this through my head over and over. At the time with adrenaline I thought I could push the bike back. My body quickly realized this was not possible and that's when I dropped from exhaustion. You don't think I have been thinking why didn't I try and pull off earlier, why didn't I take transponder off and just walk back, etc... These are all things I have to live with.. The bike would spit and sputter then refire, I was just hoping to get back man. Exiting turn 7 is where it finally shutoff for good and thats when I jumped off and started to run bike. Everything happens fast out there, you know that.

Believe me, this did turn out very ugly but I am grateful it didnt cost any harm to other riders. I am very upset with myself for even running out of fuel in the first place. I should have payed more attention to my gauge. Another half a lap and I wouldn't be the most hated rider in history..

Short of it, I can't change what happened now. I have to live with this. I am truly sorry to all involved and I am working with Wera on whatever actions they feel are necessary.

 

Simon,
Well, this too shall pass so don't beat yourself up too much. Internet memory is short these days and it will be a good lesson for others to learn from as well so not everything is bad that will come out of all of this. Humans often learn their most from mistakes. It's also a topic WERA might want to discuss at riders meetings. Not this specific example but what to do if........ type of things happen.

 

Totally what I was thinking. There is no way you could possibly think you would get back to hot pit from where the bike stopped. Just wasn’t going to happen in any scenario. However, Joe brought up a great point about bringing the little red box back on foot…

 

So Mr. CBX doesn’t receive penalties for fueling without a rear stand and no fire extinguisher?

 

Riddle me this.

Tire warmers are now allowed.

Tire warmers are ran off of…???

so generators aren’t allowed because not all teams have generators. But how many teams don’t have tire warmers?

 

Cole Forbes racing WERA these days?