Wednesday 7 september 2005
My first endurance. I had entered as part of the Super Single Racing Team. That team further consists of
Gijs with his tuned MuZ Skorpion, Ab with his Aprilia RS (2-cyl. 2 stroke :X) and John with his Yamaha SZR.
Unfortunately Ab and John could not participate. So Gijs and I had to see who would complete our team. We
heard that on race day: Arthur with his Yamaha R1! Arthur had brought a friend to help him and Gijs had
brought 4 people to help too. And Ab came by to wish us good luck.
The riders and the bikes. © Inge van Hesteren.
The untimed practice session was only meant to get used to the bike and track. The starting grid was determined by the starting number of the team. We had number 19. Every team gets 1 transponder that has to be taken across from one bike to the other during a rider change. Minimum stint time is 13 minutes, maximum is 21 minutes and every team has to do at least 8 rider changes. This means you have to keep track of the time a rider spends on the track. And all team members have to ride in a designated order indicated with their assigned letter (A, B or C). All this is meant to give all riders more or less equal track time (thus preventing that the fastest member gets much more track time than the rest).
Our team order was alphabetical: Arthur - Gijs - Mark. Therefor Arthur got to do the Le Mans start. That
went very well. Arthur's fastest lap was 2:17.425.
Arthur in action. © Inge van Hesteren.
Teammanager Huub kept a good eye on the time. After
5 laps Arthus was signalled to come in. The transponder was quickly mounted on Gijs' bike. And Gijs could start.
Gijs in action. © Inge van Hesteren.
Gijs' fastest time was 2:33.780. During his last lap there was a 'code 60'.
Transponder change over in the pits. © Inge van Hesteren.
Unfortunately for me this code 60 lasted my whole stint! So I cruised around the track at 60 km/h for 4 laps. My 'fastest' time was therefor 4:17.177!
During Arthur's 2nd stint the code 60 was ended and he could get on the gas again. In this stint Arthur did a fastest lap of 2:20.036.
After Arthur it was Gijs again. His best time 2:34.288 was a bit slower than his fastest of the first stint. At the end of Gijs' stint another code 60! And because Gijs could see from far that our 'IN' sign was out he decided to come in immediately! I was ready to go but there was no one to swap the transponder.
So after a bit of a delay I could go, still under code 60. Luckily code 60 ended after 1.5 laps. On the
gas at last. Via lap times 2:39, 2:34 and 2:31 I did a best lap of 2:29.362.
Mark in action. © Inge van Hesteren.
Arthur could start his last stint. In that he did his (and therefor 'our') best lap time of 2:17.356.
Gijs continues. He stops the clocks at 2:37.296. And another code 60 at the end of his stint (Gijs, what have you been doing out there)!
Another easy start for me. And this code 60 lastet the whole stint again. And since it was the last stint the race ended under this code 60.
We ended in 37th place of 39 teams.
From this place I want to thank our helpers: Arthur's friend, Inge (pitsign + photos), Huub (teammanager),
Peer-Ole ('manusje van alles'), Elisabeth (transponder swaps) and Ab (for moral support).
End result ZAC Endurance (PDF)
Lap times ZAC Endurance (PDF)
Next race: in 2006.
(c) MR Racing - software version 2.14 - 05 January 2019.