What a great weekend! Our endurance team (Misfit Racing) struggled through mechanical issues, an off track excursion and a couple offs, but we were still going strong when the endurance race came to an end. I'm really proud of how we gelled as a team to get the bike repaired(mechanical) and back on track....then repaired and back on track again after a crash.
Start
Red flag crash
Restart
Misfits first ever pit stop....rear stand slipped off a spool and the dry break stopped flowing, but we still got through it in 50 stopped seconds....not too shabby guys!
After the rider change, the mechanical issue really started to show its ugly face. The swing arm was impacting the shift linkage. With me being roughly 60lbs heavier than Mike (our first rider)....more swing arm travel=more impacting the shift linkage=more missed shifts.
No more video, but the story continues:
Just after the video ends, the clutch stopped disengaging entirely. If that wasn't enough, the brake lever went back to the bar in T7, so I ran off track. Tried to get the bike moving, but with no clutch, no brake, and riders rounding the track at pace; decided to lean it up against the tire wall. Walking away from the bike had to be one of the most frustrating things I've ever done. Amazingly, in the time it took to get behind the barrier and pull my helmet off, Marty and the crash trailer appeared. Marty was kind enough to give me a drink and the ATV driver did an AMAZING job getting us safely back to pit lane.
After getting back to pit, we fixed the brakes and thought we had the clutch issue sorted through adjustment. The next rider went out and came back in a lap; the clutch issue was recurring. We pulled the spare engine out of the trailer and brought it down to change the clutch out. Pulled the covers out to find the clutch cover had broken. There is an internal embossment that holds the clutch actuator rod.....well that broke; causing the clutch lever to do nothing.
Swapped covers, buttoned it up and sent Dan back on track. He turned a couple laps, just to loose a peg and go down early in old T8. Think everyone on the team had a big sigh of relief when he popped up from behind the bike.
Crash trailer appeared in the blink of an eye and had the bike back in pit lane. As we pushed the bike back into pit, the WERA official observing said "when you guys are ready, get one of us retech the bike." I replied "I'm doubting we go back out after this one". I was spent and was giving up.
After we got back to the pit, no one stopped; we immediately started diagnosing what it was going to take to get back on track. The energy was infectious, because I forgot what I had just told the official seconds before. With a new clip on, duct tape, zip ties, and a few parts robbed from a street triple; Brandon was off and rolling to finish the race. After his ~45 minute run to the checker, we realized the bike was VERY hot.(hence the fans in the group photo)
Want to thank the Misfits and everyone involved with WERA, N2, all the teams out there, the friends and family that came out to support & spectate, PIRC, the corner workers.....literally everyone who was out there. It was a struggle and we finished 50 laps down, but I'm proud to be part of the Misfits!