| Author | Message | ||
     Slaughter |
Just talked to Walt Sipp - he's now in town and going to race in the Formula Twins! This is going to be a real treat - TWO XBRR's duking it out - Jeff Dixon and Walt Sipp. Spent the day on the dyno on Bartels' RR-motored XB and it's still not sweet - going to spend a couple hours tomorrow PM with a re-done electrical system to see if it'll come together. If so I guess that will mean 2 1/2 RR's racing. "Fast Fread" Finnerty will be racing the Bartels XB with the RR motor. Stay tuned! There WILL be pictures. | ||
| Blake |
Cool! And how about a video or twenty with full sound uploaded to YouTube or the like? Feed our addiction, please!  | ||
| Doerman |
And a great weekend it was.. XBRRs beating Ducs, Aprilias and the likes. I'll just stick to posting some pics and let Slaughter get the race report details. Sorry Blake, no videos. But take my word for it. Hearing three XBRRs thundering through Willow is really cool! Let's start with our guests at the track this weekend. Bison Racing's XBRR and Walter Sipp. The Bison racing machine:  And Walt's most excellent streetride! Blown Road King producing 102HP to the rear wheel! Contact Walt if you want one to liven up your Harley.  Glendale supports racing at Willow with their own XBRR and the primus motor for this effort is Glendale's sales manager Ernie Snair. Here he is with the XBRR  There are three ingedients that win races, the machine, the rider and the tuner. Jeff Dixon was unbeatable today on Glendales XBRR. Ducs and Aprilias did not have a good day because the combination of Machine, Rider and Tuner just had an excellent day. Don Tutt is the tuner and I believe he has become an XBRR savant. Picture taken as Jeff Dixon leaves the pits:  It just took one lap and Jeff Dixon and the XBRR had a commanding lead and the XBRR ruled the day:  I mentioned that there were 3 XBRRs at the track today. Well this is Bartels XBRR. It is really a hybrid. XB frame and XBRR motor. Bartels has had a bit of a problem getting the machine tuned properly. It did a bit better today. The Machine is piloted by Fread Finnerty  There are so many classes at Willow. This is Bartels entry in the vintage heavyweight. This 1985 sporty piloted by Fread beat a 1987 CBR 900 to the finish in this race. Really exiting to see since it was very close racing to the end!  It was a great day and a lot of fun! Asbjorn | ||
| Imonabuss |
Man I love hearing about XBRRs winning. That is just too cool. The bike that was so maligned still out there cranking out wins over the best in water-cooled European Superbikes. Foundationally a great racing motorcycle, built around the ultimate version of a legendary engine. The secret is as said above, a great team is required. Nothing ever was wrong with the XBRR that a top team couldn't have solved, as witnessed by these wins at Willow, and the championship in France. I heard also a rumor that one won a number of races in Germany also. I wish I could get out to Willow and see Jeff ride the evil beast! Post video if anyone has it! | ||
| Blake |
Ditto! Thanks for the report and photos Asbjorn! | ||
| Slaughter |
I am guilty of NOT really doing a good writeup. Year end at work is extremely demanding and there's loads of other excuses. I wish we could get MORE of the folks who think the XBRR is not a racebike out to the RACES! There are more HP in these bikes that will be coming out on the dyno this month. The original motor is tuned for a different fuel and Glendale and Bartels are both using yet OTHER fuels in their bikes (VP and Sunoco) Nobody makes this easy! <edit> and to clarify - Glendale chosing one fuel and then Bartels chosing another fuel - and NEITHER of those being the fuels that the Factory maps were developed to run!!!! Yeah, my ONLY disappointment was that Walt didn't get a day on the track Friday so he could have gotten more used to it before racing. I thought he had raced here a couple times 5 or 6 years ago - I hadn't realized that he'd NEVER been to Willow before - and STILL was laying down lap times that were nearly podium times! I don't care what people say, having recent time under your butt on the track is a HUGE advantage and he was racing against folks who race here sometimes 4 times a month on every 3rd Sunday! Don't get me wrong, I can't say that I'm bummed that Dixon won both of his races. You shoulda heard our announcer playing up Walt Sipp and his being the FIRST Buell to finish Daytona! He also talked up the fact that Bison Racing had EVERYTHING to do with Bison as a protein source and also was a cool image of power! It was truly a fun time and for those folks who haven't yet met Walt, you are missing one of the most easy to get to know guys and true motorhead. He'd talk to anybody who stopped in the pits about the RR, Bison Racing, Daytona, those clever blown Harleys he had with him (see Doerman's pic above) This racing is fun - sure but the Buell folks are just a different breed altogether. (Message edited by slaughter on December 18, 2007) | ||
| Slaughter |
The guy who normally does photo work was out there with his digital movie cam (in addition to his staff "triggerman" doing the still shots). He is experimenting to see what would be good shots for video - mostly for track days but we might have some usable video. I'll see if he has some since he stopped by and was talking to Dixon, we might get lucky. I'll see if he has some hosting links somewhere that I can point to. | ||
| Elvis |
"You shoulda heard our announcer playing up Walt Sipp and his being the FIRST Buell to finish Daytona!" That's the kind of thing nobody can ever take away. No matter what happens from here on, nobody else will have that spot in the record-books. And Walt EARNED it too. I was watching it live, and when I saw him go down, I thought he was done, but he toughed it out and got his spot in history. . . . now who's going to be the first Buell to podium at the Daytona 200? Sure would be cool to see Walt get that honor too. | ||
| Slaughter |
Sure would be cool to see Walt get that honor too. DANGED RIGHT! | ||
| Blake |
Thanks Steve! | ||
| 1313 |
Sure would be cool to see Walt get that honor too. +13 And I could say I knew him WAY back when... 1313  | ||
| Surgeon |
congrats to slip dixon,mad dog racing,glendale harley, and all the others who helped. CONGRATS!!!! | ||
| Slaughter |
HEY SERGE! Cool bike! If it's not too freaking cold in January, ride your new 1125R to the track! Asbjorn Doerman and Mario Vindeni are likely gonna be out and with their new 1125Rs as well (just riding out, NOT racing!). Willow Springs racing is a fun hang-out even if you're not racing. Hope you would feel welcome. We're going to have a New Year and New Season celebration on Saturday. Food and drinks on us (and no, by "on us" I'm NOT talking food fight) You gotta come out and hang out on race Sunday regardless! I gotta get some writing done up, collect some pics and get this posted... 'Twas an awesome weekend. (Message edited by slaughter on December 20, 2007) | ||
| Slaughter |
Hey Serge - I grew up in RPV - high school at Miraleste. You're right about your local hills - where I first rode a steetbike! (a Yammie 80 BTW) | ||
| Walt221 |
Well, I wasn't much competition for the regular WSMC competitors, but I had fun and I learned a new track so it was a successful weekend. Thanks to all the Buell guys for the hospitality. By the way, the Road King pictured above has the blower on a completely stock motor. I have bikes here with built motors making 175+ HP on pump gas that can be ridden all day. Harley's will NEVER be as much fun as Buell's, but one has to try! | ||
| Slaughter |
You guys ought to check those blower designs out sometime. With the LSR folks on this board and others (are you lissenin' Fireman???) - they are a really clean, well-executed system. Blake - you NEED to see them. David from Bartels was out. He's the dude wrenching at Bartels who holds a few class records on Bonneville and El Mirage and does drags on the same bike. This really could be cool stuff! | ||
| Doerman |
Another excellent Sunday at Willow Springs for the XBRR, Jeff “Slipp” Dixon and Glendale! What an exciting race. Jeff and the XBRR had not had a date since our last report and win in December. That also includes no warmup and tuning session on Saturday. In order to get reacquainted with each other and work out potential wrinkles, Jeff raced in a previous class just for warmup purposes and pulled in after 3 laps. The heavyweight Formula Twin class is where the XBRR is competing against an array of Ducatis and a smattering of other large displacement twins. The field in this class is about 12-15 bikes. Ok, the race is on. Slipp is lined up in eight position on the grid, gets a great start and bolts forward to 5th position before turn 1. He has 4 Ducatis ahead of him. In 4th there’s a 999R, and further ahead a 749, a 748 and in the lead a 1098. Slipp immediately goes to work on the 999R showing the wheel on several occasions finally getting him in an “adventurous” pass in turn six on lap 2. By now there’s about what seems like 100 bike lengths between the XBRR and the 1098. A distance I did not think that Slipp and the XBRR could close in the 4 remaining laps. He quickly closes the gap to the next Duc (749) and passes him on lap 3. He used the next lap to close the gap on the rider in 2nd, it took another lap before he passed the 748 and passing him on lap 4. he is really racing like an animal in the turns and the XBRR is holding its own against the Ducs on the straights. Seems like the combination of Slipp and the XBRR has a great advantage in the turns. After passing to take second place on lap 5, Slipp is now about 8 bikelenghts behind Nolan on the 1098. By turn three on lap 6 he’s starting to show the wheel on the 1098 and he passes him on turn 7 in the final lap. He manages to put a gap of 3 bikelenghts on the 1098 on the short straight between turn 7 and 8. They are both riding the wheels off the bikes through turns 8 and 9. Dixon manages to hold the lead and the line while Nolan on the 1098 goes a tad wide. After 6 laps of heart stopping exciting riding, Dixon and the XBRR with excellent support by the Glendale crew takes the checkered flag. This was a fun race to watch. I can’t wait until next month again at Willow followed by Dixon’s AMA FX debut on the XBRR at Fontana in April. Asbjorn (Message edited by doerman on February 19, 2008) | ||
| Zac4mac |
Thanks Asbjorn, I felt like I was there for a minute. Z |
