California State Championship Four-Hour Endurance Challenge: Drama And Determination

The California State Championship Four-Hour Endurance Challenge ran on Saturday, Sept. 18, at WIllow Springs Raceway and was the kick off for the final round of the California State Championship. The classes were: Heavyweight Superbike, Heavyweight Superstock, Middleweight Superbike, Middleweight Superstock and Lightweight Superbike. A cash prize was awarded to first place in each class, and trophies were awarded to third place in each class.

An unusual back up scoring system was utilized; the scoring ladies from the AFM volunteered to assist, bringing their AMB system and electronic scorer to triple check the results and insure the scoring didn’t go down. This was believed to be the first time an endurance event outside of WERA didn’t use hand scoring, and relied entirely on an electronic system to score the race.

Twelve teams were gridded for the start, but a last minute mechanical problem kept Trail Tricks Suspension (HSS) from making the grid. Despite the small field, the racing was edge-of-your-seat action. The first 30 minutes saw R.Tillery Rough Riders battling Cycleheads for the lead, with Team WT minus F holding on to third. Allstars Relentless Racing encountered a fuse problem early on, and had to pull off for a quick pit stop, putting them in fourth, and Team Guardian was running fifth.

At the one hour mark, Allstars Relentless Racing held the lead over R.Tillery Rough Riders, with West Coast GP Cycles pulling into third, Cycleheads dropping into fourth after their first pit stop, and Team Guardian still running fifth.

“Chris Duran and I had really good battles with the Cycleheads riders and Team Allstars. We lost a valve and then the motor went just after the one hour mark,” said Scott Tillery, R. Tillery team captain. “We immediately started wrenching to try to get back into it, we just wanted to ride and show that we had the endurance to compete.”

The 1 hour 30 minute mark had Team Guardian in the lead over Cycleheads, with Twin Works Factory I in third, Los Pendejos del Mono in fourth, and Allstars Relentless Racing in fifth. Problems in the pits and on the track had cost West Coast GP Cycles several laps at that point.

“The first hour was back and forth with Stuart Smith from West Coast GP Cycles and Jay from our team. We were in front, and just needed to do good pit stops,” said Zoran Vujasinovic of Twin Works. “We were going to run the full race on the same set Pirelli Pro Slick tires, so there wouldn’t be that much drama.”

Meanwhile, Allstars Relentless racing was battling electrical problems.

“We had a problem with the system cutting out on us, and we were blowing fuses. Reno (Karimian) got on the bike for his leg, and it died coming into Turn Nine. Reno managed to coast it off the track onto the track exit, and then pushed the bike the length of the hot pit lane unassisted to get it back to our pits. We ended up pulling a 25 amp fuse from a Toyota Tundra and putting it into the fuse box to finally solve the problem. We were averaging 11-12 sec a pit stop for tires and gas,” according to Armen Manougian, team captain.

The 2 hour mark had Cycleheads back in the lead, with Twin Works I in second, Los Pendejos del Mono in thrid, Team Guardian in fourth, and Just Shenanigans in fifth. Just Shenaningans did their only tire change – one rear tire – and did the whole race on the same front tire. “Our strategy was to pit about every half hour,” said Dustin Coyner, team captain.” We were running the new Pirelli Superbike tire and it was great. We were making up time on SBK Paint, and it was a lot of fun dicing with them.”

R.Tillery Rough Riders re-entered the race on a back up bike with Shawn Higbee riding; “Shawn’s willingness to jump on the bike at 33 laps down and just say let’s go – we can do this was just inspiring” said Scott, ” We put on a flipped Dunlop DOT we when went back in, and we were going to finish the race on that tire.”

At 2 hours 30 minutes, Cycleheads still led, with Twin Works I in second, Team Guardian in third, Los Pendejos del Mono in fourth, and Just Shenanigans in fifth. “I had a lot of fun racing against Krystyna Kubran from Formula Femme on my second leg,” said Tommy Bednash from Team WT minus F. “I was on her tail the whole time, playing pass and pass back until she slid out right in front of me in Turn Four. We only had one pit person, so our pit stops were slowing us down, but our tires were holding up great – Dunlop British Ntec DOT’s – so we didn’t have that many changes. We were outgunned and outmanned, but we just wanted to race and have fun.”

Greg Nulman of Motoyard.com loaned the Formula Femme team his Yamaha R6 to re-enter the race as well. “I can’t thank Greg enough for the loan to let my team continue,” said team owner Shandra Crawford. “When my bike came in on the crash truck, I knew the subframe was cracked, and there were parts that wouldn’t be fixable trackside. The girls were running sixth overall when they went down, and i just wanted them to be able to finish. Krystyna was OK, and they were all ready to ride. Plus Greg’s bike set up was very similar to mine, and we were both using the same Dunlop DOT’s.”

The three-hour mark had Cycleheads still in the lead, Team Guardian in second, Twin Works I in third, Allstars Relentless Racing in fourth and Los Pendejos del Mono in fifth. “Although our overall lap times weren’t that fast, our pit stops were flawless due to our recently acquired dry break fueling system,” said David Sapsis from Los Pendejos.” On Zoran’s advice, we also used Pirelli Pro Slick tires and went the full race on one set. It was really satisfying to be only 5 laps down from the leader on such a fast track, while staying out of Jeff Stern’s way at the same time.”

Shortly after the three-hour mark, West Coast GP Cycles had moved back past Los Pendejos into second in class and fifth overall before a mechanical failure ended their track time.

“Andy Palmer and West Coast GP Cycles built a fantastic bike and Stuart Smith assembled an amazing pit crew,” said Michael Gougis of West Coast GP Cycles. “Twin Works sets the standard for SV endurance racing. To be leading them was one of the high points of the afternoon. We’re a rookie team and we made rookie mistakes. But even after digging ourselves a hole of several laps, we had clawed our way back to second in class and fifth overall before a mechanical finally put us out. It was insane it was like a three-hour sprint race. I ran every lap of my stint as hard as I could. To pull back several laps during my time on the track was deeply satisfying. And right up until the final mechanical put us out, we still had a plan to win the thing.”

3 1/2 hours had Cycleheads still in the lead, Allstars Relentless Racing in second, Team Guardian in third, Twin Works I in fourth, Los Pendejos del Mono in fifth. Jesse Carter, team captain for the Cycleheads, offered this: “Coming down to WSMC and beating some guys was a good time. It was the ultimate tortoise and hare race. We were a little short on people, so Dave Moss from Catalyst Reaction and Alex from Fastline jumped in to help with our pit stops. We used one new rear tire to start, and put take offs on for the next two changes. The Dunlop 211’s held up great and I was real happy with how well the rubber lasted.”

SBK Paint had their hands full with the Shenanigans team; “Battling with Dustin form Shenanigans was really fun,” said David from SBK Paint. “We were side by side going into Turn One and it was some really good racing. Coming in for pit stops was like NASCAR on bikes, it was really fun. Special thanks to Dan from DHS racing for helping us with our stops so they went smoothly.”

The last 20 minutes of the race saw some very tight battling, with Cycleheads still in the lead, Allstars Relentless Racing in second, Team Guardian in third, Twin Works I in fourth, and Just Shenanigans pulling up into fifth. Robert Chavez of Team Guardian said: “This was so different from any type of racing I’ve done up to this point, I really enjoyed it, and it’s the best race day I’ve had so far. Chasing Sander Donkers from SBK Paint and pulling into the pits to find out I’m not in last place was awesome. Our pit crew handled the stops smoothly after some coaching from Matthias, and it was just a great experience.”

“I would like to say thank you to the teams that competed, to Dunlop and Pirelli for offering contingency, and a big thank you to Kathy, Mary, and Paddy of the AFM for driving six hours south to help insure the success of my event.” Shandra Crawford, Organizer, California State Championship.

Heavyweight SBK

1) Team Allstars Relentless Racing (WSMC) [Suz GSX-R1000]:

Armen Manougian

Curtis Adams

Jeff Stern

Reno Karminian

Heavyweight SS

1) Cycleheads (AFM) [SUZ GSX-R1000]:

Neil Atterbury

Jesse Carter

Harley Barnes

2) Team WT minus F (WERA) [Suz GSX-R750]:

Tommy Bednash

John Thomas

Middleweight SBK

1) Just Shenanigans (WSMC) [Yam YZF-R6]:

Dustin Coyner

Jacob West

Danny “Careful Kitty” Sillet

Brad MacArthur

2) SBK Paint (WSMC) [Suz GSX-R600]

David Tovar

Sander Donkers

Chris Reese

3) R.Tillery Rough Riders (WSMC) [Suz GSX-R600]

1) Scott Tillery

2) Chris Duran

3) Shawn Higbee

4) Bryce Prince

Middleweight SS

1) Team Guardian (WSMC) [Hon CBR600RR]

Robert Chavez

Matthias Jasinek

2) Formula Femme (WERA) (Yam YZF-R6)

Krystyne Kubran

Christie Cooley

Nadine LaJoie

Lightweight SBK

1) Twin Works I (AFM) [Suz SV650]

Zoran Vujasinovic

Joe Sickle

Jon Forman

Jason Catching

Jay Avansino

2) Los Pendejos del Mono (AFM) [Suz SV650]

David Sapsis

Scott Reavey

Bill Wickersham

Rick Cramer

Peter Licht

3) West Coast GP Cycles (WSMC) [Suz SV650]

Michael Gougis

Andy Palmer

Stuart Smith

Overall Finishes (overall was not given awards for laps, and did not count towards in class finishes)

1) Cycleheads

2) Team Allstars Relentless Racing

3) Team Guardian

4) Twin Works I

5) Just Shenanigans

6) SBK Paint

7) Los Pendejos del Mono

8) Team WT minus F

9) West Coast GP Cycles

10) R.Tillery Rough Riders

11) Formula Femme