My latest adventure began innocently enough with a phone call from Jason Pridmore: "Hey, Andrew, I'm looking for a bike to ride in the Toyota 200. Do you know of anything?" I didn't, but naively suggested that we could build something from one of his Star School bikes to at least get on the grid for the annual Willow Springs 200-mile race. That would have been fine if we were planning for next year's event, but the race-with $50,000 going to the winner-was just a couple of weeks away. What was I thinking?
We both began making phone calls, and parts started to materialize pretty quickly. Eric Nugent, who put together the Formula Xtreme project bike for us a couple of years ago, offered to actually build the bike, and Jeremy Daniel-one of Jason's former crew chiefs-was willing to help as well. We soon had a good chunk of the necessary parts accounted for too, but then Jason dropped the bombshell: He's still great friends with the folks at Gemini and Jordan Motorsports, and Pete Mauhar and his crew had the team's '06 GSX-R1000 superbike dusted off and on its way to California, complete with a spare engine. From there, the support kept rolling in: Richard Stanboli lent us everything needed for quick pit stops-in fact, the exact setup that won the '07 Daytona 200. Ammar Bazzaz gave us an area in his shop for things to come together. And Dunlop had already sent tires.
Suddenly we had gone from a handful of friends building a bike to a "team" that had a serious shot at winning. It sounds easy now, but a lot of the organizing fell on my shoulders-and it was way more responsibility than I had envisioned when I first offered to help. It didn't help that all the important people were committed to being at Laguna Seca for the final AMA round on the same weekend as the Toyota 200, leaving me (as last man standing) to run our little show at the track. The more serious things got, the more stress I started to feel about making sure it all worked out smoothly.
Compared with heading to a track day or even a local club event, a high-profile race with pit stops like the Toyota 200 needs exponentially more preparation and forethought. Even aside from getting a bike prepped, there are thousands of details to attend to beforehand: tires, fuel, a full pit crew for the stops, tools, several sets of tire warmers and electricity to run them, transportation, gearing, spares. . . . The lists kept piling up both in my head and in my notebook. I didn't fully realize what I had gotten myself into until Richard offered to "show the crew chief how to do quick pit stops," and I had to sheepishly ask him what time I should be at his shop for my lesson.
The bike, delayed in transport, arrived the night before practice, and Ammar, Eric and I worked into the wee hours to finish the details. Ammar even loaded us down with springs, shock links, a laptop for the bike's MoTeC ECU and mounds of information-more stuff to keep track of. We eventually made it to the track and got Jason out for the Thursday afternoon practice sessions; even after almost a year off, he was quick right away, and the bike seemed more than up to the job. Our expectations-and my stress level-jumped another notch.
Friday was reserved for qualifying, and Jason took just a handful of laps to post the quickest time early on. We sat out the rest of the session to conserve tires and the bike, watching while local hero Jeremy Toye-on qualifying tires and what looked suspiciously like a Yoshimura factory superbike-went a bit quicker for pole, leaving Jason second. Things were looking good, but we hadn't even begun to think about pit stops for the 80-lap race. Doomsday scenarios filled my mind whenever I thought of pit stops.
Corey Neuer, pilot of our FX project bike, had recruited the necessary people for a full pit crew, and on Saturday (while the WSMC ran its regular races and there was no on-track action for us), we addressed the pit-stop situation. The bike didn't have much in the way of quick-change bits, aside from captured axle nuts, and it took us most of the day just to figure out the best way to change the wheels-what stands and tools to use, the safety clips, trimming the brake pads, who does what . . . numerous details that each took a long time to address but could save precious seconds at a stop. In addition, we had loads of trouble with the bike's titanium axles galling in the wheel bearings and spacers. The topper was that I got elected for the hardest (and most likely to get screwed up) pit job: changing the front wheel. By midday Saturday, we were at least getting the process down, but my frustration and anxiety had peaked with the effort. Eric and the rest of the crew worked hard all day (and well into the night), though, and we eventually could bang out practice stops at an average of 30 seconds for fuel and two tires. My stress level eased off, especially when we found out that Toye was having trouble with his stops and we had a few seconds in hand.
So, Jason-a former winner of the Toyota 200-had qualified second on the grid and seemed to have the edge on race tires. And our little ragtag team of Star School instructors and friends would hopefully give him a few seconds' grace on each pit stop as well. It was working out great except for my stomach, which was churning so much by the time the green flag fell that I could hardly stand straight. It was all for naught, however, as just before the first scheduled pit stop, some of the engine's internals made their escape along with the bike's oil, leaving Jason-leading at the time-off the track in super-fast Turn Nine and then coasting into the pits. Toye, right behind Jason when the motor blew, went on to win.
To say we were all disappointed is an understatement after the hard work everyone had put into the effort. It was an interesting experience for me; just like riding, pushing your personal limits in any endeavor is the quickest way to learn something, and I learned plenty about racing-and people-over the course of the weekend. Most importantly: Next time Jason calls, I'll wait two heartbeats instead of one before offering help for whatever harebrained scheme he's got cooked up.