Moto ST 8 Hour
 

This year Biketoberfest in Daytona featured the inaugural running of the Moto-ST 8 hour endurance race. I watched all but 1 hour of the race and it was great. The event only had 34 entrants, but one was a Superhawk that finished 20th overall.

For those who haven't heard Moto ST is a racing series devoted to sport twin motorcycles only. Go to [http://www.moto-st.com] and read all about it.

The overall race winner was a BMW R1200S followed by a couple of SV1000S's and then another Beemer. The M4 Emgo Suzuki SV1000S was consistently the fastest and should have won, but pit lane issues relegated them to 2nd just 24 seconds behind the winning BMW. It looked as if a Ducati 750 may have taken the overall but for a mid race crash as they were closing in on the leader.

The show was stolen by the 650 class competition though. They made the race into an 8 hour sprint, with lead changes every lap for an hour at a time. The Kawasaki ER650 seemed to have the Suzuki SV650s number, but once again, rider-pit lane error cost the fastest bike a victory.

As for the number 96 Superhawk, it sounded good and looked good, but the riders appeared to be in a very conservative mood. The on track announcer visited the Superhawk pits and interviewed the team while they were swapping the shift linkage during a rider change pit stop. One of the riders used GP shifting while the other preffered the conventional street pattern.

Go to [http://www.moto-st.com/Results/Sessi..._DaytonaR.htm] for the results.

KEB

Here's an interesting article about the race:
http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2006/...1026expdel.htm

AFM racer, Brian Parriott rode that beemer.
They are based out of San Jose BMW.
If anyone remembers Brian raced in europe in the Boxer Cup.
He's got lots of experience hustling heavy underpower motorcycles around.
He'd probably do just fine on a superhawk.

:)