Village Idiots Come Back To Win CMRA’s 8 Hours of Texas Big Bike Endurance Chris Headley, final rider for the Village Idiots team, rode their Dunlop-shod RaceworX Yamaha YZF-R6 to a razor thin margin of victory at the Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association’s (CMRA) 8 Hours of Texas Endurance race this past Saturday, March 23. CMRA held its second round of Big Bike Endurance and Mini Sprint grids, bringing over 10 hours of racing action to the Texas World Speedway course in College Station, Texas. The weather was cloudy and cool, and the track conditions were fair, making for fast lap times on the 2.9 mile full course.
The Mini Sprint grids ran the 1.8 mile short course and were an exciting warm up for the 8 hour endurance race, with Formula 4 and Texas Tornado Boot Camp Superstock E having about 20 entries each. California-based WERA 250 multiple class champion Brian Bartlow even made the trip to come and do some racing Texas-style.
The 8 Hours of Texas Endurance race had a combined grid of 35 teams, with classes including A Superbike, C Superbike, Formula 2, and Modern Classic Endurance. When the green flag dropped at 10:30 am, the racing was immediately exciting and competitive. The Village Idiots team of Brandon Cleland, Chris Headley, John Orchard, and Garet Tomlinson battled the 212Decals.com team of Dirk Anderson, Allan Campbell, Brandt Dillon, William Guthrie, and Eddie Thornton on their Dunlop-shod Suzuki GSX-R1000 for the lead the entire race. The other fierce battle for third immediately shaped up between the Yamaha YZF-R1 mounted Desert Rats Racing team and LocoMotion on a Yamaha YZF-R6.
The racing was intense, with these four teams holding on to the top four spots for the entire race, despite any difficulties. The Village Idiots had a small crash when their rider came together with a lapped rider in the Turn 12 chicane, but got the bike into the pits quickly, fixed it, and got back onto the track, dropping to fourth. The 212Decals.com team took over the lead and held it until the last hour of the race. The final 30 minutes was a nail biter, and some very exciting racing was shaping up. The Village Idiots rider Chris Headley had gained the lead back, and both the Village Idiots and 212Decals.com were going to have another pit stop. Desert Rats Racing had just slid by LocoMotion, and both were going to have a pit stop also.
As the pit boards flashed and the teams came in for the final stop, it was a sprint to the finish between 212Decals.com and the Village Idiots. The Village Idiots had the lead coming out of the pit stop with Chris Headley on the bike, but 212Decals.com rider Eddie Thornton was bearing down on them, gaining ground every single lap. The Desert Rats had gotten out first, LocoMotion developed a mechanical issue, and the Yamaha YZF-R6 team Privateer Tools took over their spot chasing down the Desert Rats.
Everyone was standing on the wall as the final time of this exciting race ticked off the clock. When the checkers dropped at 6:30 p.m., the Village Idiots team crossed the line just over three seconds ahead, taking the win in C Superbike and the overall win. 212Decals.com took the win in A Superbike and second overall. The Desert Rats Racing team of Stephen Guynes, Rick Hogge, Derek Thomas, and Greg Wanless took second in A Superbike and third overall.
Village Idiots team captain Chris Headley shared this, “The race started off good for us. I took the start and set a good pace to keep up with the leaders for the first hour. Garet Tomlinson set a blistering pace of 1:49-50’s and gave us a nice cushion in front of the race leaders to give us some breathing room. We did our first tire change at two and a half hours and put Brandon Cleland on the bike. Cleland has zero seat time on our endurance bike this season, and our larger capacity tank is a factor. He came together with a lapped rider in turn 12 at the chicane and went down. But he picked up the bike and rode it back to the pits, even though he was injured.
“We fixed minor damage on the bike, swapped out a broken windscreen and fender, re-teched and got back out. We were out for 10 minutes, and that put us down five laps. John Orchard rode next and did consistent and fast laps, before handing it back off to Tomlinson. Garet dropped the hammer and made up a lot of time for us, and when I got back on the bike, my goal was to stay where Garet had gotten us. I knew we were in a podium position, and my team started showing me pit boards telling me I was catching the leaders. It came down to the last hour, and how effectively we did our last pit stop to overtake the race leaders. I got back out there after the last stop, and regained the lead for the win. It was a hard fought battle to the end, and even after eight hours, our margin of victory was only 3.8 seconds. We ran the entire race on one Dunlop front, and the tires were great this race. We’d really like to thank Whoopie at Whoopie’s Cycles, Moto Liberty, Jim Cambora at RaceworX, Lone Star Track Days, Woodcraft, and Mike Patterson at Totally Graphic Designs for all of their help with our program this season.”
Also racing this weekend for the Davis Rod & Cycle team were CMRA Hall of Fame’s 1993 500cc Grand Prix World Champion Kevin Schwantz and 1993 AMA Pro 750cc Supersport Champion Britt Turkington, joined by two-time AMA Pro Superbike Championship runner-up Blake Young, and CMRA racer Jesse Davis. The team fielded a Suzuki GSX-R600, struggled with some bike issues, but put up some great lap times and everyone enjoyed watching them race. Kevin Schwantz had this to say about the experience, “This was sort of a last minute thing we decided to do, and we kind of went out half-cocked. Blake Young was our first rider on the bike. We realized at about lap 2 that we didn’t have the transponder on the bike. We got Blake back in on lap 5 to fix that, so that cost us some time right there, we went down about 2 laps. After the first hour, we checked our tire pressure on a pit stop, noticed it was too high, and backed some air out. Sometime between hour 2 and hour 3, we developed a slow leak and had the rear tire go flat. When we made the next pit stop, our rider Jesse said the tire felt like crap, Blake kicked it, and it buckled. It had about 4 pounds of air in it. So we changed it. At hour 5, we had an issue with the shifter, a pin we had put it to make changing from standard to reverse shifting faster had worked it’s way out, leaving the bike in standard. So we put a bolt in it to fix it, and then around hour 6, a bolt on the battery terminal worked it’s way out, so we needed to come in and safety wire that piece. “It’s been 30 years since I rode Texas World, my first time racing a street bike was at Texas World in 1983, and that’s when I discovered my true love of road racing. I did the endurance race at the end of the season at Texas World, it was four hours, and I rode with Kenny Morgan and David Donahoe on a Yamaha 750 Seca. I came back to do this race this weekend, because I just wanted to have some fun, and Blake, Britt and myself really enjoyed it. We’re planning on doing as many of the remaining big bike endurance rounds as we can, because we just had a good time this weekend and we want to do more.”
For a complete list of results and standings, please visit the website: www.CMRAracing.com. The next CMRA Endurance round will be a 6-Hour held on Saturday, June 15, 2013, at NOLA Motorsports Park, Avondale, LA.
CMRA SATURDAY SPRINTS
K&N MOTORCYCLES – JUNIOR MOTARD 1. Shaine Giarratano (Orion OPBS-X3R) 2. Daniel Phillips (Kaw KLX110) 3. Hayden Giarratano (Piranha ZTX90) 4. Kevin Bradford Nolde (Kaw KLX110) 5. Makayla Benke (Yam TTR90) 6. Chandler Geary (Yam TTR110)
TEXAS TORNADO BOOT CAMP – E SUPERSTOCK 1. Brian Bartlow (Kaw EX250) 2. William Renville (Kaw EX250) 3. Ken Ryder (Kaw EX250) 4. Brad Thomas (Kaw EX250) 5. Jim Whitten (Hon CBR250RR) 6. Sheila Paul (Kaw EX250)
ROAD & TRACK SUSPENSION – FORMULA 4 1. Brian Bartlow (Kaw EX250) 2. William Renville (Kaw EX250) 3. Ken Ryder (Kaw EX250) 4. Brad Thomas (Kaw EX250) 5. Sheila Paul (Kaw EX250) 6. Nick Doolan (Apr RS125)
ONROAD OFFROAD SUSPENSION – FORMULA 5 1. Roger Albert (Hon CBR150) 2. Joe Prussiano (Hon CBR160) 3. Mark Shim (Hon CBR160) 4. Steven Barone (Derbi 50)
FORMULA 6 1. Trey Walker (Hon NSF100)
FORMULA 7 1. Jose Gutierrez (Hon NSF100) 2. Tarah Lyttle (SSR 107) 3. Caleb Luu (Kaw KLX110)
CMRA 8-HOUR Of TEXAS BIG BIKE ENDURANCE OVERALL 1.Village Idiots (Brandon Cleland/Chris Headley/John Orchard/Garet Tomlinson), Yam YZF-R6, C Superbike, 231 laps 2. 212Decals.com (Dirk Anderson/Allan Campbell/Brandt Dillon/William Guthrie/Eddie Thornton), A Superbike, Suz GSX-R1000, 231 laps 3. Desert Rats Racing (Stephen Guynes/Rick Hogge/Derek Thomas/Greg Wanless), Yam YZF-R1, A Superbike, Yam YZF-R6, 229 laps 4. Privateer Tools (Ulug Bayramoglu/Paul Coste/Sean Gurevich/Michael Humphries/Brad Kelly), C Superbike, Kaw ZX-6R, 219 laps 5. D.T.O. (Hunter Coffin/Tim Hines Jr/Craig Montgomery/William Renville/Chris Sarbora), Yam YZF-R6, 216 laps 6. TPM (Jason Pettice/Kevin Taylor/Matthew Taylor), Hon CBR1000RR, A Superbike, 211 laps
A SUPERBIKE ENDURANCE 1. 212Decals.com (Dirk Anderson/Allan Campbell/Brandt Dillon/William Guthrie/Eddie Thornton), Suz GSX-R1000, 231 laps 2. Desert Rats Racing (Stephen Guynes/Rick Hogge/Derek Thomas/Greg Wanless), Yam YZF-R1, 229 laps 3. TPM (Jason Pettice/Kevin Taylor/Matthew Taylor), Hon CBR1000RR, 211 laps 4. Taco Thieves (Thomas Cocker/Ben Jones/Harold Lambert/Loyd Rasco/Stacey Braden), Suz GSX-R750, 63 laps 5. Toon Squad Racing (Chris Leggett/Jack Moss/Jack Pozin/Christopher Walicek), Suz GSX-R1000, 59 laps 6. NORDCO Racing (Todd Larson/Michael Rochester/Brandon Young), Yam YZF-R1, 48 laps
C SUPERBIKE ENDURANCE 1. Village Idiots (Brandon Cleland/Chris Headley/John Orchard/Garet Tomlinson), Yam YZF-R6, 231 laps 2. Privateer Tools (Ulug Bayramoglu/Paul Coste/Sean Gurevich/Michael Humphries/Brad Kelly), Yam YZF-R6, 219 laps 3. D.T.O. (Hunter Coffin/Tim Hines Jr/Craig Montgomery/William Renville/Chris Sarbora), Yam YZF-R6, 216 laps 4. LocoMotion (Alonzo Contreras/Ryan Max Johnson/Matt Vastine/Mark Windham), Yam YZF-R6, 210 laps 5. Rumspringa! (David Baumgarten/Patrick Kelly/Frank Rodriguez/Joe Rodriguez/David Thompson), Hon CBR600RR, 209 laps 6. Broke Backmarkers (Jim Dugger/Andy Gilliland/Carl Price/Mark Sneed/Jim Webster), Suz GSX-R600, 199 laps
FORMULA 2 ENDURANCE 1. Team EDS (David Branyon/Scott Eichhorn/Darrell Ricks/Mike Sweeney/Shane Zelm), Suz SV650, 211 laps 2. GBaby Racing (Nicole Ayres/Rebecca Caudle/Jim Doyle/Jeremy Harvey), Suz SV650, 106 laps
MODERN CLASSIC ENDURANCE 1. Sweeney’s SV Service (David Branyon/Darrell Ricks/Mike Sweeney/Shane Zelm), Suz SV650, 211 laps 2. Bohica (Chris Davis/Arthur Fonseca Jr./Robert Green/Ben Gooding/Patt Hagens), Suz GSX-R750, 202 laps 3. Crazy Dog Racing (Weslie Eastveld/Robert Henriksen/Tristan Reeves/Mark Shim/Yorke Oldfather), Hon CBR600RR, 200 laps 4. BF1 Racing (Thomas Anderson/Robert Bradlaw/Glenn Bradshaw/Schuyler Dhooghe/David Tiede), Apr RSV1000, 192 laps 5. Dallas Honda (Nick Chapman/Daisy DeSimone/Bill Klindworth/Larry Wise), Hon CBR600RR, 190 laps
More, from a press release issued by D.T.O.:
D.T.O. Podiums In Class And A Top Five Finish In CMRA’s 8 Hours Of Texas Endurance Race
The D.T.O. team of Craig Montgomery, Chris Sarbora, Tim Hines, Hunter Coffin, and William Renville took a third place finish in C Superbike and fifth overall at Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association’s (CMRA) 8 Hours Of Texas Endurance race this past Saturday, March 23, at the Texas World Speedway course in College Station, Texas.
The race had a combined grid of 35 teams, with classes including A Superbike, C Superbike, Formula 2, and Modern Classic Endurance.
This was the first race for the team, and the first weekend that they had all ridden together, as the riders are from different parts of the country and race with different clubs. Montgomery lives in Dallas and races with CMRA. Sarbora hails from Seattle, WA, and competes in the Isle of Man TT. Hines comes from North Dakota and races with WERA. Coffin is from California, and raced with WERA West and AMA. Renville is from Austin, has a motocross background, and races with CMRA. The Friday practice day was also the first time over half the team had ever seen Texas World Speedway, and they had to acclimate quickly.
On Saturday, with overcast skies and cool temperatures, the team gridded up on a Dunlop-shod Superstock Yamaha YZF-R6. Montgomery took the start for the team and set down a blistering pace for the first hour, running a fast lap of 1:50.223, and putting the team in fifth place overall. After a quick fuel stop and rider change at minute 51, Sarbora was next on the bike, riding consistent 1:52’s for the next hour in the race. The third stop was a fuel stop with a rider change, and Hines was next. Then it was Coffin’s turn running consistent laps, and at the 40 minute mark of his stint, there was pit stop for the first rear tire change, fuel, and rider swap.
Running a stock tank on the bike meant pitting just shy of an hour, as the fuel light came on at the 47 minute mark, and the rider was brought in at minute 51. Even with efficient stops, running against teams with bigger tanks meant more pit ins. So after the tire change, the team had slipped to ninth. Renville went out next, running his 51 minute leg, and holding on to ninth place. He handed back off to Montgomery after a fuel stop, and Montgomery went out, turned fast laps again for his stint, pulling the team back into seventh overall. Hines was next and held onto seventh place with a fading rear tire. Renville was up next, and was brought in at the 40 minute mark of his leg for the final tire change and rider swap. Sarbora went out last, riding a one hour fifteen minute leg, with a fuel stop at minute 51.
The last thirty minutes of the race was a nail biter, as the leaders teams came in for their final pit stops, and D.T.O. had pulled into sixth place and was gaining ground on fifth. As the final laps wound down, Sarbora put his head down and rode the team back into fifth overall, and a podium in C Superbike.
Team owner Shandra Crawford said, ” This was a great finish for the team, especially since we haven’t been able to practice together. This was the first time the entire team met. Not only was distance a challenge, but there were other factors for the team to overcome as well. This was Hunter and Chris’s first weekend back racing after a long hiatus due to injuries from crashes last season. William has just started road racing and has never raced a 600 before. Tim has also had a long winter break, and this was his first weekend doing endurance. We had good stints, our pit stops were good, and I think we jelled well as a team. I think one of the factors we were able to do well was I had a good lead rider. Craig is so solid at this track, and he set a great pace to follow.
“Another thing that really helped the other riders was our team coach, Zac Chapman. He gave us really good insight on some of the tricky areas of the track, and how to get the best speed coming out of some of the key corners. The coaching between riding legs really helped too. On Friday, Shea Fouchek worked with the guys at the practice day, showing them lines and working with them individually. I think both of those things really helped with lap times. My pit crew was awesome too, Danny Coffin did the fuel, Michelle Coffin was the fire extinguisher, Jason Renville was the tire guy, and Luke Judy ran the pit board. I really appreciate all their hard work this weekend, because a good crew is very important to have a smooth running team.
“We did the entire race on the same Dunlop front, and we used three Dunlop tires on the rear. They held up great and gripped well. I need to thank David Roy from North Texas Superbikes for the set up help getting the geometry of the bike dialed in, and doing the last minute things to make the bike perfect. I also would like to thank Steve Upchurch at Race Engine Services for keeping my motor in the best shape possible. My sponsors: Dunlop, Whoopies Cycle, Cortech, Superbike Chassis, SBKPaint.com, Woodcraft, GPR, Pit Bull, Stone Brewing Company, Galfer, Driven, Leo Vince, Catalyst Racing Composites, RK Excel, Saddleman, High Speed Nutrition, K&N, and Roseville Yamaha, without your help and support, the season would be impossible to get through.”
The next race for the team will be April 27, 2013, with WERA for the National Endurance series opener at Talladega Gran Prix Raceway in Talladega, AL. Full results and more information is available at the team’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Defy-The-Odds-DTO