Higbee Racing Finishes Top 15 in American Superbike on Bartel’s HD/ Buell 1125R

8/1-2 Topeka, KS – AMA ROAD RACING

 

photo by Dan Lo @ http://www.cornerspeedphoto.com

It has been years since the AMA has raced at the Topeka raceway in Kansas, and now I remember why we left. True it’s not all bad, the track layout is unique and offers some challenges. The most technical area of the track was going down the front straight heading toward the crest of turn one’s blind apex. The most enjoyable area for many riders including myself was the large radius left hand carousel corner. The third gear corner allowed plenty of time to find the limits of the rear tire and carry a nice dirt track slide. But some of the corners were untypically tight and too slow in my opinion. And the worst part of the Topeka track was the holes, sharp edge bumps and lack of run off in a few areas. Even though I had decent finishes this weekend I wouldn’t miss Topeka if we didn’t return next season!

The Topeka weekend started off a bit rough, with a poor basic qualifying position of 28th in Daytona Sportbike. Thanks to the support of the SoCal Buell riders, we were able to mount up new tires in preparation for the Saturday final qualifying but rainy weather resulted in a scrubbed session and the grid was set based on basic qualifying. To make the situation worse we slipped up and missed the pre grid cut off time while swapping tires from the Superbike race which resulted in being moved to the back of the 48 rider DSB field.

Photo By Dan Lo @ http://www.cornerspeedphoto.com

I was feeling very apprehensive about having to start in the rear of the large field. I needed to pass 28 riders to finish in the money! I told the AMA official’s this was a dangerous situation to place a faster rider at the end of the field but they stood by the rules! Before the race, one rider on the grid in front of me recognized the dangers and asked me which way he should move to get out of the way. At the start of the DSB race I weaved through the slower riders like a banshee and managed to pass 16 bikes in two laps but then a red flag came out. Relieved to make it though the carnage I was confident to make top 20 from the new start position, that was until being told the race would restart from the original grid position. Once again, I wasn’t looking forward to the danger of navigating through the field. As we attempted the rolling start again, tension was high throughout the field, and 3 riders piled up right in front of me even before reaching the green flag! After several near miss collisions, and a frantic pace I slipped up and tucked the front end in one of the slow corners. No major damage to myself or bike but the DSB race one was finished. In DSB race two, I had a good run up through the field from the 28th starting position to finish 16th. The Superbike races went really well with a 14th and 13th, for race one and race two respectively. Contrary to some rumors on the internet, I’m still using the DSB 1125R bike in the Superbike class.

This weekend I really focused on finding unique setups for the slicks and dot tires. Earlier this year I felt the differences where not that great and just rode around the variation in handling performance and drive ratio. But with the extremely high level of competition in AMA these days I’ve been forced to optimize the bike setup for each class.

photo by Dan Lo @ http://www.cornerspeedphoto.com

Each setup had its own tire pressure, gear ratio, and rear ride height settings. I really found the Superbike setup enjoyable and was able to maximize cornering speed and the bike still steered through the corners well. Even with the hard compound slicks I was confident in the front grip and even though rear traction was less than normal it provided consistent over-steer.  The bike felt solid when throwing it down on its side at corner entry and could be stood up easily and pointed toward the corner exit. The DOT tires didn’t offer the same feeling and required much more steering effort.

The bike ran good all weekend, and things went very smoothly even though we only had a crew of two. Mitsu and Scott found their groove and worked very efficiently together. We had the hot pits looking pretty good with the Bartel’s and Buell banners proudly displayed. Thanks to Mike the bike was freshly painted and nice and clean.

It was nice to talk with some of the Buell enthusiast that came by the pits. After the races we had to pack up quick and get Mitsu to the airport. The race wasn’t over yet, Scott and I still had a 10 hour drive back to Milwaukee. My flight to CA was scheduled for 6am, which meant straight through driving with less than 1 hour to spare. Three energy drinks and talking with Marianne on the phone helped me to stay awake. We arrived in WI just in time to catch my flight, pillow please! Thank you to all my sponsors and fans who continue to support Higbee Racing. Bartel’s HD/Buell, Buell Motorcycle, Shoei, Pilot Leathers, EK Chain, Vortex, Pit Bull, Traxxion Dynamics, Taylor Made Racing and the SoCal Buell Riders.

 

http://www.HIGBEE-RACING.COM