The long racing weekend got off to a slow start—and nearly didn’t start at all. The axle on the transport trailer had a part failure and left the vehicle disabled in Kentucky which left us scrambling to find a solution. Salvation came in the form of a few Midwest racers that sacrificed their time and sweat to outfit a second trailer and delivery it to Kentucky to get all the bikes swapped over. We cannot thank them enough. It saved our entire weekend. We missed the Team Hammer practice day on Thursday, but the bus rolled in at 6PM—one hour before the garages closed for the night.
Team Shocker Endurance Race (SV650) – With only two morning practice/qualifying sessions to feel out the bike and get reacquainted with the track, the (scheduled) 2.5 hour endurance race was the first race of the weekend. Matt Treske and Chuck Burton would be splitting riding duties. After a bunch of napkin calculations to determine pit stop strategy, Matt took the green flag and put in work on the first two stints. We got our ace—Chuck—on the bike with what should have been 45 minutes remaining, and he immediately started clocking quick laps. The race ended up shortened though, and the #109 Shocker SV650 finished P5 in ASRA Endurance GTL. The 5th place finish was enough to lock up the overall GTL championship for Team Shocker Racing—more to follow in an upcoming post.
Aaron Gustafson #97 (RS660) – Aaron was a man on a mission this weekend and immediately got up to speed quicker than either of the other TSR lightweight riders. Friday saw Aaron take a P4 in the competitive Lightweight Supersport (LWSS) and then a huge time jump in Lightweight GP (LWGP) to take home a podium and some hardware with a P3 and 2:07.985 lap time. On Saturday in his last race of the weekend—the 25 minute GTL race—Aaron threw down and took no prisoners battling with Shon Stanton (#013 RS660) for the lead and ultimately took that amateur victory by 4 seconds and a best lap time of 2:06.492. It was a storybook race and podium by three guys that had been racing with one another for decades.
Chris LaBuguen #41 (RS660) – Coming off a trip from low earth orbit in the Ozarks a month prior, Chris battled to get himself up to speed with the Aprilia that had been painstakingly reassembled. Friday saw Chris take a P7 in LWSS. Saturday morning saw a big time jump as he got more comfortable, and the #41 machine came across the line for a podium in Lightweight Formula 40 finishing P3 with a 2:12.664 best time. Fueled by the best meals in Daytona, Chris had the race of his weekend in GTL and took the final podium spot over the #412 GSX8R machine of Scott Langley by under 0.1s to finish P3 and a best lap time of 2:09.474.
Chuck Burton IV #444 (ZX6R) – Chuck made his first return to the World Center of Racing for the first time in 15 years to battle it out with the middle and heavy weights. After putting in his stint in the endurance, Chuck got on his Kawasaki and rode his #444 machine to P9 in Heavyweight Supersport and P12 in the highly competitive Middleweight GP with a best lap time of 1:57.970. Chuck would see a big jump in pace in the Sunday afternoon races. He nearly saw a podium in Middlweight Superbike in a race that 3 riders were all battling back and forth for the last podium spot (finished P4). He saved the best for last and ran out to take a P2 finish in Heavyweight Superbike with a best lap time of 1:56.784.
Ethan Song # 41XXX (RS660) – Satisfied with his P3 in GTL, Chris handed over the reins of his Aprilia RS660 to Ethan Song on Sunday to give him a chance to experience Daytona. Having only seen the track surface in the virtual world of iRacing prior to that morning’s warmup, Tech Support came online quickly to the high banks taking two second place finishes in Lightweight Superbike and AMA Thunderbike amateur with a quickest lap of 2:07.140.
