Village Idiots Win CMRA Endurance At Texas World Speedway
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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 Turkinton, 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 at 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.
