VIR National Endurance/Challenge Series VIR
September 20 - 22, 2001

Last race weekend of the regular season. I had decided (actually my credit card bills had decided for me) that I wasn't going to be able to afford racing the following year, so Dave and I came up with a plan to go endurance racing. For endurance racing you need a team of riders, crew and only one bike. The costs are shared, so it would be easier for me to keep racing. To test out the theory Dave picked up a Suzuki GSX-R 600 superbike for us to race. The last WERA weekend was a combined National Endurance/Challenge and Sportsman weekend. Usually there's only one endurance race on an endurance race weekend lasting 4 - 8. This weekend was a make-up for two missed races, so there were 2 three hour races. Dave, Brian Roach, Jason Clay and myself formed a team name No Quarter and gave it a try.

Here's the pig. After being used to riding lightweight and race specific machines, this 600 seemed like a boat. It met superbike qualifications which meant it was lighter and faster than regular 600's, but it didn't feel any faster than my FZR400.

Being a 3 hour race with 4 riders, we each had about 45 minutes out on the track. When we saw our sign held by Jason's lovely tramp Sheila, we knew it was time to come in. The longest I had raced up to this weekend was 20 minutesand that was on a lighter bike. The 45 minutes was grueling. I actually ended up with a condition in my ankle much like carpel tunnel you get in your wrist. We finished 4th out of 5 in our class and 17th out of 26 overall. Not bad for our first try and with a bike we all hated.

The second race didn't go so well. Brian had a mishap with another rider and crashed the bike. One of the oil covers was damaged and needed replacing. Once we got a new one on, the rest of the bike back together and running, we noticed a very bad vibration in the bike that had not been there before. Jason tried to run it for a few laps but came back defeated. Apparently the crank shaft took a hit in the crash and was now wobbleing ever so slightly in the crank case causing the vibration. Here's Jeff, Jason and his tramp in the aftermath.

A close-up of their disappointment. I'm not sure who had the nerve to take this picture.

This was a really long and exhausting weekend. We arrived Thursday nigth for Friday practice. I was racing three different bikes this weekend, I felt like I was on the track constantly. I had gotten my FZR back from Speedwerks and was racing it in my D-Superbike and F2 Sportsman classes. I raced the 600 in the endurance race and I had borrowed John Lemak's Aprillia RS250 to race in the National Lightweight Twins race, which I got a humiliatiing 2nd place out of 2. But this was it. My last race weekend ever. I didn't have the energy or money to make it to the Grand National Finals at Road Atlanta that October. I was on my way to pay all this off. Which I did finally two years later.