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Buell XBRR the first Race 2008 DCR
3-12-2011 - 2008 The Sound off Thunder race, Ducati Club Races, location Assen Netherlands.
After weeks off preparation, the Buell XBRR was ready to go.
Ed and Daan prepping the bike
Ed van Weel on speed
1125 Ready to go
Tried to fit the RR front in the 1125 , didn't fit
start in the rain
Brake Disk Olympics
Seat time by Daan for good luck
Back in the pits, the rear shock preload was a little softened.
As soon as the track was cleaned, we where ready for a restart.
It was a pity there where only 8 laps left, because Ed was doing well , very well, making up time as he was getting used to the bike, he finished 16e in a very strong field. Way the go Ed.
Julius Ilmberger on the Bonn 1125 race bike finished on the 4e place a very very good place,
We lifted the front just a little back up for the 2th race, changed the front brakes again
Put some fuel in , tyre warmers on and she was ready to go..
2th race
Again a full starting field, the rain now was poring out off the sky,
Again easy on the start, there’s no sense in crashing in the first 3 corners,
But steadily Ed was making progress, he was making up 3 to 4 second every lap , and drove a 2.07.192 as fastest , and finished as 12th very good on a stock street 1125,
If the race was 3 laps more he would drove in the top 10 .
All and all a very good result..
Ed van Weel jr. unbelievable nice and very fast guy,
His girlfriend Danielle , with a never ending enthusiasm
Mister Ed van Weel sr. For his technical support
Jessica from HD-Buell Benelux for every thing she has don,
The Crew from Central-Harley and in special to Robert and Jean-Claude and Evelien
The ducracing.nl team for the hospitality and fried eggs and BBQ
The Make a wish foundation, I made several
All the buellforum.nl clan for the support and laughs
And the rain tyres where brought in , because the weather forecast was rain for the race on Sunday.
We hoped on that, because with a little under powered ( please note we where racing in a
205 Hp Ducati class ) we could make some fire works.
Warm up on Sunday felt good, bike was good to go
Decision was made to put the rain tyres on , because changing the stock rims takes a little longer than on a race bike. The decision was good, because it began to rain and it didn’t stop for the whole day.
Warm up lap,
The start is always a nice thing to see when all those bikes take off, but Ed wise as he is , did take it slow at the start, and in the 5th corner a lot off people crashed, leaving a mesh on the track, so the race was red flagged.
Ed tried to make the best off the suspension set-up, Ed has never before drove a Buell 1125R,
But we made the 2th qualifying round.
We where all surprised with the out off the box performance off the bike
And notice the fact that this is a Euro 3 catalectic converter street bike,
Ed drove here to a 1.54 as best and he was just getting the hang off it. and qualified on the grid at the 30 position All good feelings for the races on Sunday.
We did some more work on the suspension, and lowered the front legs a little more
We where ready for the last training session, so we thought , the 5 minutes call came and we tried to start the bike..
I say tried because she would not start…tension was building up.. she was always a hard to start bike when she is cold, but we never had this problem before,
SO we missed the last training session,
First thoughts , fuel mapping wrong, checked and double checked every thing.
And made the decision to change the sparkplugs ( you have to rotated the engine to do that )
After removing the headers, I noticed the rear header was wet from unburned fuel, but the front header was covered in engine oil…bad sign.
But plugs where fouled any way so we changed them.
And after checking other most obvious things, like the crank position sensor ( was covered with metal parts ) but that’s not strange because the sensor is positioned in the primary case,
Cleaned here up, and completed the oil change and checked every thing and it was time to start here up again, after 3 crank rotations she again was back firing. I called it a day it was already very late in the night..
We hade a short sleep, and continued in the early morning ,
Dris had a good look at the software off the ecu.. and noticed something strange, there was a hex file complete blank in the ecu , I still wonder how that could happen, but reloaded the ecm again with a good hex file, and presto she was starting again ,
Made a rush for the race office to approve the bike and exhaust noise. She past the test ,
Bike was shut off, but she would start again. So again we changed the plugs again, noticed that the oil coming out off the front exhaust port was getting worse and worse.. checked the oil lever and already she had eaten some oil…Mmmhhh.
After the plug change she was starting again, but she was smoking and oil consumption was so heavily that racing and even running the engine was not responsible any more , we still have to look for the problem, but first thoughts, a valve sticking and pushed the guide out.
Moral was down…deep down..
But Dris made a call with the Buell branch office , and asked if we could used a demo 1125R
( Buell brought there demo fleet to the races )
After signing some papers.. every thing was ok ( Thanks again Jessica ) So we could race again.. First we stripped off all the thing we not needed on the 1125, we changed the tyres , put the racing brakes in ( Thanks Hans for your help ) and where ready to go.
We modified the rear-end of the Buell XBRR to have a better seat position for Ed van Weel ( our driver )
On Friday we had our first training day, new tyres, new brake disk, the XBRR was spinning like a mean tiger. Every thing felt good..
The first laps where fast, Ed was getting a better feeling with the bike , and soon the lap times where steady getting faster and faster.
After changing the gearing, the gearing was perfect, top speed was ok , and the bike felt really powerful, and could be used in the full power band.
The 6th training time was set in the grid ( the starting field was really big with very fast bikes and riders )
Before the second session, we changed the front disk again, and she was ready to go,
The lap times where steady progressing, and the feel for the bike was getting better and better,
Ed did a 1.53 as fastest lap, and still there was a small hick-up in the lower regions, we tried to change the fuel mapping a little..