Month: May 2021

RRR – N2/WERA Endurance Race – May 2021

Moto Mom

ENDURING THE CHAOS

This weekend we were down in Bloomingdale, Georgia at Roebling Road Raceway for the N2/WERA Motorcycle Endurance Races. All weekend the mornings and evenings were cool but the days were warm and sunny. It was wonderful! Blake didn’t have school Friday so; we could do Friday’s practice guilt free! Of course, I have an idea I would have been the only one feeling guilty.

Pretty much Friday was about getting the 3 motorcycles Blake would be racing set up for the weekend. The Yamaha R3 and the Robem Engineering/Lucas Oil sponsored, Suzuki 650 were the motorcycles for the endurance races. Then, he’d use the Yamaha R6 and R3 for WERA’s sprint races.

N2/WERA 2-HR MOTORCYCLE ENDURANCE RACE

Fifty teams, yes 5-0, gridded up for the endurance races this weekend! It was a lot of fun; there was so much busy-ness and excitement amongst the riders and crew beforehand and during the races.

Jack Roach, who races the Westby motorcycle in MotoAmerica’s Sportbike Track Gear Junior Cup, was Blake’s teammate in the 2-hour endurance race on the Yamaha R3. The practice for the endurance races is also the qualifying session; Blake and Jack qualified first.

Starting P1, Jack got the boys off to a great start. At about the 30-minute mark he was battling for first, when he came in for a mechanical issue. After checking things out, the team felt good about sending Jack back out on the motorcycle. Unfortunately, that put the team a lap down and in 5th place. He was able to gain a position before handing the motorcycle off to Blake, 30 minutes later.

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MotoAmerica – Road Atlanta

Moto Mom

MotoAmerica’s 2021 Season Premiere Motorcycle Race

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For those of you who don’t know, MotoAmerica is the United State’s professional motorcycle road racing series. Basically, it’s the NASCAR for motorcycles. A typical weekend goes like this:

A Typical MotoAmerica Weekend

Thursday, we arrive at the track, unload, set up the pits, and take the motorcycle to tech inspection.
Friday morning is when the spectators start coming in. The STG Junior Cup (Blake’s class) gets a practice session and then their first qualifying session (Q1). They are given a second qualifying session (Q2) Saturday morning.

The qualifying sessions give the riders the opportunity to get the fastest lap time they can. If they don’t like how the motorcycle is set up, they can come in, make adjustments and keep trying to lower their time. They don’t have to go out at all if they don’t want to; the goal is to get a good starting position for the races. MotoAmerica uses everyone’s best time, no matter which session it was in, to line everyone up on the grid for both races of the weekend.

Blake is in the Sportbike Track Gear Junior Cup which is the entry level class where they ride small displacement, production-based motorcycles. The premier race class, HONOS Superbike, has racers on top-of-the-line, highly modified motorcycles capable of speeds approaching 200 miles per hour and there’s 3 other classes in between.

Spectators can come Friday for practices but, most come Saturday and Sunday. If ever you have a chance to go to the races, bring your camp chair, sunscreen, and your cooler. You can move around the track and watch from different spots and MotoAmerica always has a “Fan Zone” with vendors, shows, even motorcycles you can ride. Shoot, they even offer tickets to ride with a former pro on the back of his motorcycle. I’m hoping I get a chance to do that one time…sort of.

Season Premiere

motorcycle racer
Photo By: Brian J Nelson

The first race of the season was held at Road Atlanta. There’s always some “housekeeping” that has to be done at the first race. Fill out forms, get your head shot taken for broadcasting purposes, etc. Once the day wrapped up, the city of Gainesville, Georgia hosted a meet and greet with MotoAmerica racers in their downtown square. Motorcycles were on display, games were played, and autographs signed. Blake was part of the meet and greet and met a new fan. The emcee announced a chicken-wing-eating contest and the fan challenged Blake. In one minute, Blake ate a whopping one and a half chicken wings. I think we all can agree he needs to stick to motorcycle racing!

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