Next race is with CMRA March 22 at Motor Sport Ranch, Cresson TX

Round 2 of CMRA Shogun Mini endurance racing at Motor Sports Ranch March 22, 2008

Another long weekend was upon us with Thursday travel, Friday trackday, Saturday racing and returning home on Sunday. This weekend was a very exciting race weekend for us. Alan Taylor from JT Motorsporst and WWW.Crotchrocket.COM stepped up to the plate and helped sponsor 3-Musteteers Racing by supplying a NSR50 for the endurance races. This was also going to be Brandon's first race weekend on the new RS85.

Friday Track day:
With the two NSR's set up slightly different I needed Brandon to get as much seat time as possible on both bikes, as well as get comfortable on his RS85. I needed to make sure he could safely run with the other Formula 4 riders. Brandon ran his sprint NSR first turning consistent 1:53 - 1:54's, right on track with his times from last year. Next was the endurance NSR. He was running consistent 1:50 - 1:51's, amazing what a fresh motor can do. The rest of the day was spent on his RS85. He was running mid 1:43 - 1:44's which would place him just out side the top ten from last year but not be too so slow that he would be a rolling chicane. After the last session Brandon was complaining that the motor would rev high coming out of the high speed turns when he was on the gas.... yep, sounds like the clutch was gone. Sandra was coming up Friday night so I put in a call for her to bring a blown 85 motor from home with a good clutch for a clutch swap. It was a late night for me swapping the clutches and making sure the RS was ready to go for morning practice.

I woke up early, 6 a.m., to check everything one more time before getting the bike tech'd when I found a puddle of oil under the bike. Damn! It wasn't as bad as I thought after looking at it, or so it seemed. The leak was slow and under the water pump just below the oil level screw which means not much would leak out but there would still be enough oil in the case to run the race. I cleaned up the oil and got the bike tech'd. I gave it a once over again and it seemed the oil had stopped leaking so I sent Brandon on his way for his 20 minute practice. After practice, 10 minutes before the race was to start, he said the tire never warmed up and he was sliding all over the place and almost crashed a couple of times. His lap times were pretty good, still in the mid to low 1:40's, so I went to reach back to feel the rear tire and noticed it was SOAKED in oil. Amazing he didn't go down. I check the motor again and this time the oil was leaking from the very bottom twice as fast as it was before... sorry son, you're done. Sad that he couldn't run in the Formula 4 race he got ready for his Formula 7 race.

Formula 7:
With 9 riders in the race and Brandon sitting in first place in points he needed to have a good race. It was going to be hard with his two teammates in the same race. Green flag drops and Brandon finds himself in 5th place by the first turn. Half way through the first lap he passes for 4th place. He stayed in 4th place for a good lap or so with his teammates in 1st and 2nd slowly pulling away. He finally got around 4th place and put his head down and caught up to Joey. While Joey and Brandon battle it out Austin was pulling away and had a good 4-5 second lead over Joey. Brandon finally passed Joey for 2nd place and on the last lap both boys had caught up to Austin who had broken his shifter and couldn't get out of 4th gear. Austin took a quick look back to see Brandon and Joey getting ready to pass. Not sure what happened but Brandon and Joey were splitting Austin when he swerved into Brandon causing Brandon to swerve to avoid crashing into him. Brandon then went around Austin on the other side giving chase to Joey. Austin was in hot pursuit in 4th gear passing Brandon with 4 turns to go. With two turns to go Austin passed Joey for the win. Brandon came in 3rd and maintains his points lead by 2 points. Again, 3-Musketeers Racing came in 1-2-3 for Formula 7 sprints.

2 Hour Mini Endurance:
Again, 3-Musketeers Racing were the only Formula 7 entry? Woo Hoo 1st place baby! And again, to challenge the boys we wanted to see how far up they can place over all and in the next class up in Formula 6. The running order was Joey Howells to start us off followed by Austin Gore and then Brandon bringing it home. The boys finished the 2 hour race with 62 laps on one tank of gas changing riders every 40 minutes. If we were to race up in the Formula 6 class we would have been in 3rd place, 2 laps down from 2nd and 1 lap over the 3rd place team. I looked at the Formula 5 results and we would have also been in 3rd place down by 1 lap from 2nd place and on the same lap, just in front of AF1 Racing2 team who came in 3rd place.

Brandon would like to thank his sponsors: Star Graphics, Fabtech Rigging and Elite Trackdays for ALL their support.

3-Musketeers Racing would like to thank: JT Motorsports, Crotchrocket.com, Motovation Accessories, Total Rider Motorcycle Safety Training, Performance Insulation Contractors, Cleaveland Regional Medical Center, RBR Trucking, Creative Automation & Design and H&H Communications.

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