10:45.am It's 15 minutes before the start of the AMA MotoGT race at Road America and there's chaos and long faces in the James Gang/Hoban Brothers pit. All week long the weather prediction for today, Saturday, called for rain and the high a "balmy" 54 degrees. To make matters worse, droplets had just started to fall from the sky. Now it was a crapshoot as to which tires to run. At the last second, my Buell XB12R Firebolt was fitted with rains-a tire I had absolutely zero experience with-then I jumped on and connected my radio. "Good luck," said Matt King, my crew chief. "I'll need it," I thought to myself.
And so began my first professional race with the AMA. But before we go further, let's unravel the pieces that lead up to this point. Like most crazy story ideas we get at the magazine, this one started with a simple phone call. This time from Paul James, Director of Product Communications for Buell. "Troy, how would you like to team up with Aaron Frank from Motorcyclist and ride my old XB12R racebike from last year in the MotoGT2 class for the upcoming two-hour AMA round at Road America?" Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to return his call and accept his offer.
Things Never Go As Planned
Originally Frank, from our sister publication Motorcyclist, was slated to be my teammate. He's spun plenty of laps around the place and together we made for a strong team to fly the company banner. Unfortunately, family obligations the day of the race meant that he had to back out. In our search for a replacement, Kevin Duke, Editor-in-Chief of www.Motorcycle.com kindly stepped up to the plate (not a very tough sell, to be honest).
No race morning is complete...
No race morning is complete without a run for coffee and tires.
With our rider lineup settled the next major hurdle was going through the rigmarole of AMA credentialing. I'll spare the rant, but the fact that a blood sample wasn't required is a minor miracle. Eventually all the required paperwork made its way to AMA headquarters in Florida, but as our flight for Wisconsin left Los Angeles, neither Duke nor I knew if licenses would be waiting for us when we got there.
The Build-Up
No rider is successful without the help of a solid crew behind him, and come Thursday practice we finally met the ones who got suckered into helping a team of motorcycle journalists disguised as AMA racers-a daunting task to say the least. Led by Mike Kirkpatrick, he and his team clearly weren't fazed by the task at hand (or at least they didn't show it) and displayed the preparedness and professionalism you'd expect from full factory teams. It was also at this time that we were introduced to our steed for the weekend, affectionately known as "Chief."
At first glance it seems the only difference between the standard XB12R Firebolt and this one was the lack of lights, mirrors and turn indicators. And that's largely true; with a horsepower restriction of 95 horsepower, our engine was largely stock, save for a Buell race kit exhaust and ECM (Engine Control Module). A race kit XBRR swingarm, like the one used on the ill-fated Formula Xtreme racer, extends the wheelbase slightly but allows for the chain-drive conversion. A Penske rear shock and modified fork internals keep the spec Dunlop GP-A tires on the road, and an Öhlins steering damper calms headshake. To catch spilling fluids, a mandatory bellypan was also fitted.
Prior to our arrival in Wisconsin, James had asked us which shifting method we'd prefer: standard or reverse. The bike was already set to a reverse shift pattern-which I preferred-and Duke proclaimed he was comfortable with that setup as well. So it was left alone. A decision we'd soon regret...