Friday the 13th found me flying Flight 436 (adds up to 13) to Virginia International Raceway to compete in the new-for-2010 AMA Pro Racing Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XR1200 spec series—the third of five races. HOG, the Harley Owners Group, had put together a race-prepped XR1200 to play host to a different guest racer/journo type for each round; VIR was my turn to play.
At 530 pounds and 83 horsepower, the XR is not quite the ultimate sportbike, but after being outfitted with $3500 worth of Vance & Hines race package, fully track-readied with adjustable Race Tech piggyback shocks and fork kit, and the latest Dunlop D211 GP-A supersport race rubber, things were definitely headed in the right direction.
After a few laps of this beautifully flowing, challenging circuit, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. Since the XR doesn’t accelerate or stop particularly fast by racebike standards, it’s up to the rider to work hard at maintaining rolling speed: Good line choice and use of the draft are imperative. Then again, spec racing means everyone’s riding the same bike, leveling the pavement field, if not the talent pool.
Glorious speed, agonizing stop: Flicked and flying on the HOG-sponsored Vance & Hines XR1200 spec-class racer, Cernicky was running fifth when he dipped a bit too deeply into the cornering clearance and exited the party at a tangent. Both bike and rider were dirty and bruised but lived to race another day.
I hadn’t roadraced for almost two years—since the 8 Hours of Oschersleben on a KTM RC8 (CW, February, 2009)—so I needed any advantage I could find. Lucky for me, at the end of my first practice session, Danny Eslick tow-tutelaged me around to the tune of 2 seconds faster a lap. (Eslick, who ultimately won the XR1200 series and finished second in the AMA Daytona SportBike standings this season, had us all covered, so he didn’t mind giving advice.) Suspension adjustments and more track time dropped a couple more seconds in qualifying.
Lights on, lights off—I didn’t get the best of starts for the 18-lapper but made that (and more) up going into Turn 1, putting myself behind Eric Stump and Travis Wyman, who I watched slide off the track exiting Turn 1 on lap two. See ya later, buddy! Trying to get with it and stay with Stump, I had a big slide coming out of the final turn, 17, onto the front straight, allowing another Wyman (Kyle) past at start/finish to provide a convenient tow toward Stump in third. Noting that the next rider rearward was a ways back, I settled in for the last 16 laps behind Wyman and Stump, battling directly ahead of me, while I was safely ensconced in the double draft. Eslick, meanwhile, had checked out at the front, so I was in as good a place as I could be for the time being. Patience. And it was just then that I felt a hard part—footpeg, engine-case, frame rail?—contact the curb on the inside of Turn 4, boink! It was just enough to loosen the Dunlop’s grip and put me and my HOG out to pasture. Is there any worse feeling than crashing out?
Perusing lap charts at the aftermath BBQ, I saw my race lap times had dropped more than 2 seconds from qualifying; one of the addicting things about racing is you feel like you can always improve…especially when you crash. The what-ifs are a killer. Stump crashed out a couple laps after me, then Jake Holden ran off the track (twice), leaving Travis Wyman to finish second behind Eslick. I should’ve been right behind him. Or maybe right ahead?! My potential porcine podium—so close and yet so far away—vaporized in an instant in a red haze of Virginia dust. Speaking of Virginia, was it Robert E. Lee who said, it is good that racing is so terrible—otherwise we would grow too fond of it. Something like that…
