| Author | Message | ||
     Slaughter |
OK - it's gonna happen. Bartels 1125R racebike is in their shop and Bill Bartels will be having Shawn Higbee race it each month at Willow! Wish I had more details - maybe I'll make a phone call and find out. You all have to come to Willow this weekend. Gonna be some kinda interesting racing! | ||
| Blake |
Very cool! | ||
| Slaughter |
Just got off the phone with Bill. Higbee will race in the 2 primary Buell classes - BOTT Heavyweight and Formula Twins. Depending on how he is feeling, he may try racing our Formula One class for the money too. Gonna be way cool! | ||
| Eweaver |
Cool news. It'll be great to have another Buell out there duck hunting. | ||
| Blake |
Go Shawn Higbee and Bartels Racing! | ||
| Rsh |
I stopped by Bartels after work yesterday to check out the race bike. It already had some well used slicks on it, a belly pan and an aftermarket rear shock. It was also still belt drive and had a stock looking exhaust. It will be interesting to say the least. | ||
| Slaughter |
I gotta get some pics today and tomorrow. Today is going to be kinda busy so no guarantees that I'll have anything posted til tomorrow night. | ||
| Slaughter |
Wow! Interesting practice day yesterday... Higbee is out running a virtually stock 1125R (except slicks and steering damper) Wind was TERRIBLE and yet on an un-sorted bike, on a track he hasn't ridden since 2000, he was running a pace that should put him in the money on the Buell and Glendale contingency classes (BOTT Heavyweight and Formula Twins) - and nearly puts him in contention in the unlimited Formula One main event against the litrebikes! Today however, we'll see if he actually does try to thrash the bike in the Formula One class. That is a LOT of abuse running 20 laps against the likes of Jeremy Toye, Jeff Tigert, Robbie Dowie and others who are pretty regular winners every month - AND who are running litrebikes with almost 60 more HP!!! Hope you can make it out to watch today. Hopefully the Glendale XBRR is running OK, the dyno crapped out when we were trying to get her tuned on Friday - and found a bad coil after much swearing and cursing at an intermittent electrical problem. Higbee was looking at some of Dixon's lap times at dinner last night and beating Dixon is not going to be trivial. Much as I'd hate to see Dixon beaten by another rider, I'd say the Twins races today are going to be amazing if both of them go head-to-head. Either way, there's an excellent chance that we'll be seeing those Buells doing some serious "Duck Hunting." Hope you can make it. Gotta leave... playing pit slave today. | ||
| Doerman |
It is great to be a Buell fan these days. It was a fun Sunday at Willow (come to think of it, they all are) Here are the riders Left: Shawn Higbee - Buell rider extraordinaire from the east Right: Jeff Dixon - Buell rider extraordinaire from the left coast Anchored by Mr. Bill Bartels in the center  And then the weapon:  Club racing is not a glorious endeavor. Here's Bartels tech Mitsu changing brake disks  Picture is better than words (even if I am using a crappy camera) . This is how Mr. Higbee deals with the competition. That man knows how to pilot a motorcycle. And it was weird to hear a bone stock bike on the track. Hardly a sound coming from it as it rushes by.  As he glides through turn 1:  Not all race days are a success. The Glendale XB12R was having pushrod trouble.  | ||
| Bobup |
and the results are........?????????? | ||
| Doerman |
I thought the picture told the story. - In BOTT Higbee beat the 1098 by somewhere in the vicinity of 7 seconds. (Picture above) - In the Formula Twins race, Higbee took second place just behind the 1098. Higbee held a commanding lead until two laps were left when the 1098 started to gain on him and overtook Higbee on the final lap. The rear tire on the 1125R started to get too slippery and Higbee could not maintain the corner speed. (The same bikes/rider race both BOTT and Formula Twin) - Higbee started in Formula One but pulled out after 5 laps (out of 20 total). He was the only V-twin in the F1 race and held his own (around 6-7 place) I'm hoping Steve will correct me here if I got the Race Classes confused. Don't worry, teh results are not confused.  | ||
| Slaughter |
Higbee won the BOTT Twins - and led the Formula Twins race by nearly 6 seconds until the tires started to go off in lap 4. He thought he had more of a lead than he did... and Eric Nolan on the 1098 caught and passed him. Nolan out-powered Higbee til the end. Since Nolan was pitting right next to us, he came over after the race and basically BEGGED Higbee to NOT change anything on the gearing or engine - knowing that Higbee and the 1125R would DOMINATE the Twins classes. Higbee's best lap was a full 0.5 seconds faster than Nolan's best. Higbee is still sorting out the 1125R on the track (his first time on Willow since 2000) - Nolan has been racing every month here this year on the bike and has it very well sorted! On Saturday afternoon, Shawn entered the Solo race (50 miles) - and came in 5th overall. On Sunday, he entered the Formula One race (the pro-level race in which there are NO restrictions and pays money back to 12th place) - he used it as a way to test out the Dunlops and pulled out without finishing... since he couldn't finish in the money, it made more sense to save the tires for the next race. Time was CRITICAL since his 3 races were race #13, race 15 and race 18. Not much time between for tire changes or anything else. That is Nolan on the 1098 in Asbjorn's pic above. | ||
| Slaughter |
I'll do some more editing when I get time (late leaving for work this AM) Higbee in the announce tower with Davie Koenig doing some open-mic work while the earlier racing was going on:  Getting ready:    Returning with Eric Nolan:  Handshake with Nolan:  Comparing "notes" with Nolan:  Bartels Racing (left to right - forgive my not having last names): David, Earl, Wil, Mitsu, Bill Bartels  | ||
| Buellishxx |
Results from roadracing world, scroll to the bottom. http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?artic le=32142 |
