RACING

We were hoping to run the 2012 AMA Pro Racing Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson XR 1200 series this year. However due to some of our sponsors not stepping up to what they promised it's not looking good. We are only short about $1200 per event so if your company would like to be part of our team please give me a call.

Old Pro’s take 3rd at VIR

Paul Schwemmer and Brett Ray teamed up to take the #37 Old Pro’s / R&R Racing Aprilia to a 3rd place podium finish at VIR.

This was definitely a weekend of highs and lows for us. First we showed up at VIR with a bike that we weren’t to sure about, having had a lot of work being done on it after being crashed at the race in Topeka. After the crash there we found out that the steering neck on the frame was bent pretty bad. The front wheel was off to one side by more than 1.5 in. but we had no choice and had to go ahead and race it like that, without great results. As would be expected. I got it fixed in time the VIR race so off we went.

There is such limited track time at an AMA race that you better be ready right off the truck. Being on such a tight budget doesn’t help much either. Most teams put new tires on first thing, unfortunately we don‘t have that luxury. We used the same tires for practice and qualifying that we had used for the race at Topeka. With the AMA purse only paying $500 for anything from 2nd to 10th place, there’s not much reason to spend money on tires. So we only buy one set of tires a weekend, we put the new set on for the race and just make due for practice.

Paul took the bike out for the first practice, rode a few laps then pulled in and said it’s not running right. So I got on to check it out and only went a couple of laps. The new PC III I had put on was way off. It was like a light switch either on or off. If you tried to ease the throttle on it would bog, bump and jump then pow, go. That is one of the low points. So I pulled in and said lets go back and see if we can fix it, besides it also needed some changes on the front end. This wasn’t a good start to the race weekend since neither Paul or myself had ever ridded the AMA track at VIR and needed the track time.

We got it back to the pits and made the changes we “hoped” would work, since the next time out was qualifying. Paul was the first to take it out to qualify. He was going to go about half the session then I would go and see what I could do. Before he even got a chance to get up to speed, well.. Paul had a little incident while on the track, and well… the bike got crashed and that ended our session, another low point, but we were in the race. Oh good a high point.

Back to the pits we go to get to work on fixing the bike. Lucky for us it wasn’t to bad. A brake lever, foot peg, handle bar, grips and some beat up body work was about it. We got it all fixed for the practice on Saturday morning. I took the bike out and everything seemed fine, except for the front tire. It was the same tire that got crashed and it was shaking violently. Other than that, it was great.

Paul had injured his left hand and hurt his right wrist in the wreck and wasn’t sure if he would be able to ride or not. Again another low point. He decided he wanted to try and was going to start the race. He told me to be ready just in case he couldn’t. Well he only lasted a few laps before coming in. We got a splash of gas, I got on the bike and took off. I started thinking about riding almost 2 hours in the heat and making the tires last. With out much track time I decided to just set a comfortable pace, stay out of trouble and just last to the end of the race. As it turned out that was a pretty good game plan. As I rode around I watched rider after rider get caught out and go down. That put us in a very good position. We ended up in 3rd place for the race and 3rd in points. As we went to the podium that was the high point for the weekend.

I thought that everything was great and nothing could ruin the day. There I go thinking again. As it turned out we were in for one more low point. We headed for the dyno, I knew it would be OK because the limit for the class is 130hp. I had ran it earlier and it was only 117hp, we had it made. I had told Paul after the race that something didn’t feel right, it was running bad again, but at least it finished. Well guess what, it only had 80 hp on the first run and 81hp on the second, and then on the third run the engine just let go. That pretty much took the cake as far as the low points for the weekend.

So now we are scrambling to try to make it to New Jersey in just 2 weeks. We’ll see how it goes and let you know.

We would like to thank all the people without who’s help we couldn’t be here.

Aprilia USA
R-R-Racing.com
Level 10 contractors
No-Mar tire changers
Level One exhaust
EBC Brakes
Arai helmets
BG Oil products
Fly-N-Cycle.com
WhiteEagleLounge.com

Topeka:
Coming soon

Daytona:
Not much to report here. We were doing great, then the engine let go.

Atlanta:
We were #2 qualifier for the race, but a crash in turn 5 took us out of the race.

Barber:
We just skipped this one and fixed the bike.

Road America:
It was cold! It was raining!
Did I mention it was cold? Click here, this about sums it up.

Mid Ohio:
We had some minor problems but still finished. Oh guess what, it was cold. Read more click here.

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