Background—The Kramer stayed home, this is all SV this weekend. I made this decision based on the fact I didn’t think the Kramer would be any faster than the SV (it wouldn’t—I outran the other Kramer there), we needed an Endurance Race bike (the SV), and I had unfinished business due to mechanical issues on the SV here last year. Previously l was able to get a 2:15.x on the SV. It’d be a tall order, but I felt like I could best that by 5 seconds if given another shot. 2024 saw me have a fantastic experience while finishing last place in every race. I was positive I could hustle the SV a bit better this time even with the big horsepower disadvantage.
Practice Day and Logistics—As I mentioned in a previous post, we hit a major snag on getting down to Daytona. My buddy Chris and I flew down Wednesday. The transport vehicle departed Tuesday but hit something in a construction zone that disabled the trailer by breaking the axle. We scrambled and everyone was calling everyone they could think of to figure out a solution. Salvation came in the form of a Midwest racer that sacrificed an entire day and a lot of sweat setting up a second trailer for all the bikes and then delivering it from northern Illinois to the disabled trailer in Kentucky. They swapped all machinery at 10PM. The trailer made it to the track at 6PM Thursday—one hour before the garages lock closed for the evening. We had missed the entire Team Hammer practice day, but we had our bikes.
Kristi also had a huge surprise for me. I didn’t know any of it, but she had been speaking to ASRA to work the flags for the Daytona event, and she flew down on Thursday. She was so damn adamant we take her CB100 down to Daytona for the past month that I didn’t understand it. Everything made sense once I realized she would actually be at Daytona!
The last time I rode the SV650 was in July for the Blackhawk practice round when I hit the electrical issue that sidelined the bike. The bike had since been ridden in the 2 hour event by my teammates Chuck and Aaron at Summit and also for a weekend of sprint races by my buddy Ethan. They hated my really soft setup and made huge changes to the rear preload (effectively maxed) and the front rebound.
Qualifying – I hopped on the bike to put in my first qualifying effort without having the benefit of a practice day. Jesus Chris this bike was unrideable. I thought the tire warmers weren’t on or something. I was excited to try the new setup that they all liked—I am telling you I thought I was just going to fall over. I went 2:23 at the fastest which is equivalent to the lap time of a Rascal Scooter. I only had one more qualifying session to go before the endurance race. We took a big swing at undoing everything they had done to the rear. The bike immediately felt like a rideable motorcycle again, and I got down to 2:14 something. Not great, but still faster than I’d gone all last year. There was a lot more to gain though.
Endurance Race – The endurance race was scheduled for 2.5 hours. We did some measuring to see how much fuel I burned in qualifying and tried to work out fuel mileage. I have the benefit of being pitted with a guy that crew chiefed a Daytona 200 winning bike a few years ago—so if he tells me we’re doing something, I do whatever he tells me. We felt we could do 20 laps with a liter to spare. Since running out of fuel would be brutal, our plan was to come in at 19 laps. I would start the race, Chuck would ride the middle stint, then I would get back on. If the race went green the whole way, we’d need a stop and go for the last ~5 laps. We put on new Pirelli SC2’s prior to practice.
I was nervous as hell for this since the longest I’d ever been on a bike was 42 minutes at CMP in April. I believe there were 9 other Lightweight endurance racers. There were 1000cc bikes clocking over 200mph and pro teams practicing for the Daytona 200 in this race whereas I was maxing out at about 135ish pushing my own air and about 140mph if I caught the right draft. I got good start and settled in. 17 laps went by and as I was getting ready to tap my head to signal I’d be coming in soon, we had our first red flag.
You can’t both fuel and change rider under red. Physically and mentally I was not tired at all—just my left hamstring close to cramp from grabbing the tank so hard transitioning from the banking to the straightaway. So we fueled and I went back out to do a double stint and we’d finish the race with Chuck. Another immediate red flag. This time only 8 minutes. I go out for the second restart. I’m basically using this as practice and on lap ~13 of this stint, I try adding a shift in Turn 3 and realize it’s worth about a second (lol) and I get down to a 2:11.85. Now my leg is cramping and I’m losing the battle. I can ride it out, but we’re losing time. I want to come in at 15 laps instead of 19 since we burned some on the restart. I miss turn 1 twice focusing on tapping my head at 140mph on the front straight. I lose us about 8 seconds by not just coming in earlier.
I hop off the bike and Chuck goes out. Chuck immediately up to speed running a 14, then 13, then 12, then a 2:11.86. He’s 9 seconds behind 4th place. And then ASRA calls the race short since there are so many bikes to pick up and they’re already behind schedule. Fuuuuuuuuuccckkkkk! Chuck only got 10 minutes on the bike. We finish P5. My left leg is toast.
We scored enough points to lock up the 2025 Overall GTL Lightweight Endurance Championship. 5 different riders and 2 SV’s and 1 RS660 over the course of the year. Team Shocker Racing is your 2025 Lightweight Endurance Champions. Hell yea!
Saturday Race Day – GTL
I got massive starts all weekend. This had never happened before. I had a decent race, made good time through the infield, and knocked off another second down to the 2:10.7s. I get absolutely motored on straightaways to the tune of several seconds each lap by the 660s and others, but it was fun. I’m still struggling to set the tip on the two horseshoes though; however, I managed to catch a triple draft with the wind blowing at our backs on the front stretch and actually hit 144.2mph (! Holy shit).
The highlight of this race was my teammates putting it on the podium and winning the amateur. I knew Aaron was the first amateur to get passed me, then about a lap later the next one did on the white flag lap, so I knew Aaron just got his first ever win at Daytona. What I didn’t realize was the my buddy Chris also got P3 at the line by less than 0.1s!
Sunday Race Day – AMA Thunderbike and ASRA Thunderbike
I went out for morning practice after removing some rebound from my front fork. I got in after practice thinking… why do I feel so much more comfortable in the infield? Then I remembered it’s because I un-fubared the front end. Oh shit, we are ready to rock now. It was worth about a second in the infield. 2:09’s are in sight. Unfortunately, the wind completely switched direction and I was not able to push my own air quicker than ~134mph today and a draft only got me to about 137/8mph, so overall lap times were down.
I gained a bunch of spots on lap one of each race in the infield. Actually managed to keep a couple good riders on 660s behind me until the latter stages. I left both races feeling very good about the gains I was making in the infield. I’m also finding that I can push the turn 1 braking point even further. I’m starting to get the rear to the lift point on the bus stop and into turn 3. It’s getting fun. Turn 6 is about the only turn I really don’t have a great read on braking and entry yet. I’ve seen a lot of bikes stuck in the T6 air fence, so I’m a bit hesitant with that one.
Last Race—The Important One—Ultralightweight Superbike
ULSB is the last race of the weekend for me. This is the race I’ve been waiting for. The one race I believe I can be competitive in, and the only race I have an outside shot at a podium. There’s one ZX4RR with a really great rider on it that will walk away most likely. Another really good one that will probably do the same. And then I assume a gaggle of 5 of us based on grid sheets that will fight for P3.
I start P7 and get a big start again and move into P4 out of the infield of the first lap. I’m behind another SV650 and I can see we have the same speed. I didn’t push the issue into T6 first lap like I should have. I draft with him and hoped to pass him first banking run and didn’t make it happen. Instead, I get passed by an 85# rider on an NSF250R that looks like a toy (I’ve raced with him before at CMP). So now I’m in 5th on lap 2, and the NSF250, the other gen 1 SV, and myself are locked in a battle for the final podium spot.
I ride around taking notes of where I’m faster and where I’m slower. I do not believe I can draft passed both of them on the last lap (6 lap race), so I need to be P4 at least leaving the infield on last lap. On second to last lap, I test a pass I don’t intend to make into Turn 1. I’m certain I can take the SV there.
White flag is thrown, and I go around the SV650 on the outside of turn 1. What I didn’t expect is that I was also going to get a great turn 3 and massive run on the NSF250. I decided to just say, screw it, let’s try and break as much draft as possible by getting through the infield quick. I think I got maybe ½-3/4 second on them at the release of turn 6. I make it through the bus stop decent (not great) and run a high line for most of the banking and come down to try to pick up as much speed as possible. Agam on the #42 NSF250 gets me to the line and snags the last podium. Heartbreak. Just gutted.
Summary
So I didn’t take home a podium like I had hoped. I gave it everything I could, but I didn’t have the experience to know how to take it. Realistically I should have tried to push the issue earlier to get out to P3 on the first lap. I was much faster through the infield than I was lapping at, but I settled in setting up everything for the last lap. I should have started to try to move through the field quicker and gotten the other two bikes to battle—even if we probably would have kept swapping positions on the banking. If I ever went into Turn 1 in 3rd place, I’d have been able to open up a second or more I believe with how weird the NSF had to be geared to hit the crazy speeds it was.
Another great experience. We won the lightweight endurance championship. Everyone I travelled with besides me got a podium. I put in about 1hr25min during the endurance race and didn’t die nor did I even get that scared—it was a big character building exercise for me. My leg held up, and my mind held up. My rebuilt SV650 held up. It was a great year.
I’m not ready for this season to be over. But it is.
On to 2026.
Full Weekend Video Recap on YouTube:
