Intentional Destruction of Laboriously Engineered Artifacts
Part I

By Sam Q Fleming 

2013 was our first year racing BMWs.  More importantly, it was our first year of racing in more than a half-assed part-time last-minute fashion since 2005.  We knew going into 2013 that we had to do something new and different or we just wouldn't have the interest to put in the hours that a full endurance season would require.  As it turned out, there were more than a few times over the year when we would have happily substituted "familiar and functioning" for "new and fickle".

In 2014 the WERA National Endurance series also took a new form.  Since participation in the 2013 endurance season was low, WERA struck an agreement with Texas-based CMRA to form the US National Endurance (USNE) series.  Basically the idea was that CMRA, who had been running a very well attended endurance series based in and around Texas for years, would combine some of their endurance events with some WERA races to try to increase participation and re-ignite interest in the WERA series by bringing together the top WERA teams and the top CMRA teams.

Intentional Destruction of Laboriously Engineered Artifacts
Part II

By Sam Q. Fleming

After we had recovered from our 28 hour drive home from Texas to DC, we set about doing a post mortem analysis of the race to figure out where we needed to improve.  The low hanging fruit was having a motorcycle that could complete a lap without needing to power cycle the ECUs and having a sprocket carrier that didn't double as a swingarm milling machine.  We then promptly bricked the diagnosis of both of these problems, and, in our state of ignorance, swapped out the Bazazz ECU for a new one and began researching double row sprocket carrier bearings.

With those "repairs" completed, we repacked the trailer and set off for our 19 hour drive to New Orleans with confidence.  The demotivational poster for endurance racing should read: CONFIDENCE - the feeling you have when you don't know the big picture.

Intentional Destruction of Laboriously Engineered Artifacts
Part III

By Sam Q. Fleming

Victory is a double-edged sword.  Like narcotics, the sweetness of the moment quickly erodes to a dry craving for more.  After eight races with the BMW we had finally managed to take the final step up the podium from second to first.

Amidst the Denny's celebrations on the long drive home from Okalahoma we deconstructed the race and looked for areas where we could still improve.  We all agreed that we were getting close on the suspension but that we were still leaving outright speed and tire life on the table through a combination of static and dynamic geometry.