2008 Bridgestone/WERA National Endurance Series
Miller Motorsports Park - June 7, 2008

David Sapsis invited Liko Miles, Stan Riner and myself to join him for the WERA 6-Hour at Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, UT. Peter Treuherz expertly served as our Crew Chief. Rather than bore you with my version of events here's David Sapsis':

Sapsis Racing/Monkey Flippers ally with Pineapple Mafia, invade Utah to ride girl bike for six hours, kick ass.

Long Ver.

The plan had always been to go to Miller. Situations left the usual Monkey Flippers (Licht, Gillies, Rust) opting out, leaving just me and Ricky. Then we started pitting (and racing) with Rick Williams #123 and becoming fast friends, and he was to join in some good WERA 6-hour fun. He is a great rider and a hilarious guy, and we were going to have a blast. That was until the May Sears round where he got caught out in oil in T-10 at Sears and rung up. He'll be fine, but no Miller for him.

Sometime after that, a bird whispers in my ear in a funny slavic toungue "Liko is looking for a ride" and I send an email. An impromptu team is formed. He asked if Stan can ride too. I say "Oh hell yeah".

The drive across Nevada was noteful for the obvious recent water signs and the lenticular clouds. When we dropped into the Salt Lake at Wendover, it was obvious it had seriously dumped. There was standing water everywhere. We got in to Tooele and went to bed. In the morning we made our way to the track and met up with Stan in the reg line. This was my first WERA experience and it’s a bit different, but we got all signed up fine. After getting registered we made our way in and pitted next to the Pineapple rig and Utah Chapter member Peter Treuherz, another Hawaiian ex-pat who now races WERA west rounds, and is also a former AFM'er. WERA tech is weird in that there are only a few bikes in front of you and about three guys doing it. I go through with a cursory look and instructions to rtv the muffler bracket bolts. It's cold and windy, with a new dusting of snow on the mountains. The facility is massive.

Neither Ricky or I had been to Miller, so practice -- at the time anyway
-- seemed imperative. The problem was we were two riders trying to share one session of practice on a five-session rotation on a long (and new) track. I think we each got around 8 laps in on Friday. I seemed lost the whole time but Rick was picking it up quicker, with times of 2:28 and 2:21, respectively. We went in to SLC for dinner and the waitress, reluctantly when pressed, said "yes" it was indeed going to rain tomorrow. Faaaaaaahhhhhhk.

We woke to a steady drizzle. I get to the track at 7 and ask the thugs if we should get a garage. They quickly inform me they have been looking at the sat-loop, Liko points to the Northwestern sky, where approximately 2% of the heavens are obviously clear and blue, and say its going to dry up. Amazingly, as if he had control of that shit, if it dont stop raining 15 minutes later and the track is basically dry by around 9.

We get 45 minutes of practice which we decide to split up with me and Rick doing a few laps each, then Stan and Liko. We get our pit together and can only marvel at the amazing facitites. We consider a shifter switch as both the Hawaiians use GP shift, but it proves too time consuming so they toughed it out with the standard config.

Both got in sessions to get a feel and all seemed well. We went to put on a new rear tire, and we notice the rear brake line had rubbed against the tire and failed due to a missing retainer. Pineapple spares to the rescue from the auxiliary swingarm, a clip-on adjustment, bleed brakes (yeah yeah yeah) and we are good to go. Thanks Peter!

We decide to run each of us about 55 minutes to start, with adjustments made based on what we see being the fuel consumption. Ricky is out first. He gets a crap start, but then just starts hauling- A. We are watching live timing, and are completely stoked as he drops his laptimes through the teens, ending up laying down an awesome 2:11, and building a lap lead. He holds the class fast lap for about an hour.

I take the bike for the second leg, and well, I basically suck. I am stuck in the low 2:20's but then again I am getting some nice looks at fast guys as they slice by me. Batey goes through me in the middle of the L-R-L chicane they call Attitudes as if I were warm butter. I last out the leg, put in a couple 19's, and pull in perplexed and not really tired. I gave up our lead and we are a lap down.

Unlike my riding, our pit stops run flawless. Peter is making decisions, manning the pitboard, and giving us instructions. Liko is contemplating setup changes, and talking things out about how the front end feels in turn 1. Stan is grinning. We are gassing up, making modest fork changes, and swapping bodies in about 20 seconds. A good measure of this efficiency is owed to Zobairi, who lent us his dumpcan. We had to modify the cap a little to make it open wider to accommodate the valve, and Woah!, that thing works. Pull firmly, but not violently when removing for the best shut -off, least spill. Endurance racing really is about teamwork, and in that sense it is very different than sprint racing. After one of our stops, one of the WERA officials comes over to me and says "perrrrrrfect".

Think Stan is ready?

Liko goes out, and just starts laying them down, putting in a string of laps under 2:10 with a best in the 07s. This is smokin' fast on an SV. Hawaiian volcano plume-smoke fast. He runs us up a 2+ lap lead. Stan goes out and hammers out another 20 laps with a best of 2:11 and builds the lead to 3+. We are having fun in the pit but are dead serious. We want to win.

"My work here is done"

Rick puts in a solid leg and we are at 4+. The bike is holding up well, the tires predictable, but when Rick comes in he says to check the radiator 'cuase the temp gauge is reading negative and he got hit in the face by some spray. We check -- no water in the bellypan, no smell......everything seems fine. Only after a couple minutes do we conclude the spray was the light misting rain that was happening almost imperceptibly in some sections of the track.

At this point Peter tells us its Liko for 30, Stan for 30 with no gas, then Sapsis take it home after a splash of fuel. Liko, non-fazed, goes out and does his stint railing off lap after lap all at blistering pace. Lead is 5 laps. We swap out to Stan with no gas, in and out in less than 8 seconds.

Things are going almost too well. He comes in after taking the lead to 6, ear-to-ear grin. I, on the other hand, am a tad squeemish. Liko looks me in the eye: "You know what to do: Focus. Hit your marks, look through the corners. Be steady".

I think I have about 32 minutes on the clock. I am determined to race, not lally, and I try to start to push through the track. I think I put in some decent sections, but cant string a lap together. I see nothing by 21's and 22's on the timer and am nonplussed. In retrospect I know I rode like a poosey, not that there is anything wrong with that, other than its more fun to go faster. I seem like I am hitting the marks and really trying to get some good rhythm, but it just doesn’t come together. Its a very fast track, and my timidness just gets the best of me. All that said, I got back in the teens at least, and brought her home.

We finshed up 5 laps, with Liko's 2:07.5 the best lap in class by a wide margin. The fastest other team time was a '13, so three of our team were all running up front. Don't let my slow times fool you: I had the time of my life. The Mafia are the best. Ricky got his mojo back. After believing my only wood would ironically be from my first race ever in Clubman, now I have a small plastic cup to remember this time. First Place. And I am coming back... defintely back here to Miller. It is a lovely track and I am determined to get a decent laptime.

AFM/Mafia, representin.

I'd like to thank Michelin and Vesrah. WERA for a good show. Don Kim Nakashima, leader of the mafia, for the sage advice. Joe for the dumpcan. AFM for racing and friends. Rick W., we missed you mate, but next time, you and me dicing for an 11. Zoran for eternal help with bike and the two word (plus various expletives) suggestion on how to go faster. Arlene for supporting my racing -- I feel like a little kid. My teammates: fast, humble, and did I say fast? Peter, crew chief -- you rock. Lastly, I'd like to thank Bill for inspiration.
--dave, 270

Mylaps.com has all the timing data for the race but to summarize:

Pictures: http://studio819.smugmug.com/WERA