EBR in World Superbike

[Scott]

According to a sidebar on the WSBK article in today's issue of Cycle News, Geoff has used up his allotment of 8 engines while Aaron still has several spares (?). Apparently the team requested an exception to the rules to allow them to exceed the allotment of 8 engines which was denied. Per the rules, this means Geoff has to start from the pits for 2 races. That would seem to be a negligible penalty for the team at this point. Very curious that Geoff would have had so many more engine failures, especially since he missed 2 or 3 races early in the season after his injury. Perhaps the two bikes are running different parts or electronics?

Read it here: http://cyclenews.uberflip.com/i/334712

The silver lining to that is engines are no longer a concern - at least for Geoff. If he goes through 1 or 10 from now until the end of the season, he'll still be starting from the same spot, so take some chances and see what the engine (hopefully with some experimental parts) can do.

The other silver lining is every broken engine should provide valuable information. What failed? Why? Can that part be strengthened within WSBK rules? Can it be strengthened with a modified part that can be included in the 2015 model?

As long as Hero and EBR are willing to stick it out for the long-haul, what doesn't kill them should make them stronger.

[Classax]

The silver lining to that is engines are no longer a concern - at least for Geoff. If he goes through 1 or 10 from now until the end of the season, he'll still be starting from the same spot, so take some chances and see what the engine (hopefully with some experimental parts) can do.

The other silver lining is every broken engine should provide valuable information. What failed? Why? Can that part be strengthened within WSBK rules? Can it be strengthened with a modified part that can be included in the 2015 model?

As long as Hero and EBR are willing to stick it out for the long-haul, what doesn't kill them should make them stronger.

In the past May was about 2 seconds a lap quciker than Yates on avergage so I think he rides the bike much harder. At this point there's no where to go but home or up. Doesn't look like they even know how to say the word quit so...

[Scott]

In the past May was about 2 seconds a lap quciker than Yates on avergage so I think he rides the bike much harder. At this point there's no where to go but home or up. Doesn't look like they even know how to say the word quit so...

This has been one of the bizarre and frustrating things. Aaron seems to be getting consistent laps in and making some small improvements, but Geoff is all over the place. If Geoff was running as consistently as Aaron he could probably be finishing in the top 15 with some consistency.

I might suspect the shoulder injury, but it seems like Geoff just can't get any laps in during practice or actual races without something going wrong. I don't know if Aaron's crew is that much better or if Geoff is just having an awful string of bad luck, but if Geoff could get some more laps in, I think it would change the look of this effort for the better.

[Hughlysses]

Looks like we're in for another miserable weekend in WSBK. Geoff didn't run in FP1; no clue why. Aaron was the slowest bike out. In FP2, both bikes were running, but they're still 1-2 seconds/lap too slow to even make the field, much less get a decent finish.

I'm really convinced the EBR bikes used some trick engine parts at Isle of Man that could at least put the bikes in the points race in WSBK (listen to Mark Miller's interview, linked elsewhere). Why they aren't using them in WSBK (yet?), I have no idea. If they don't do any better than this at Laguna Seca, it will NOT be good.

BTW- Larry Pegram is sitting out the AMA Superbike race at LS and will run his EBR in WSBK as a wildcard. The press release noted he has to add a quieter muffler and run aluminum wheels vice the regular magnesium ones to meet WSBK requirements. Interesting.

[Scott]

Looks like we're in for another miserable weekend in WSBK. Geoff didn't run in FP1; no clue why. Aaron was the slowest bike out. In FP2, both bikes were running, but they're still 1-2 seconds/lap too slow to even make the field, much less get a decent finish.

I'm really convinced the EBR bikes used some trick engine parts at Isle of Man that could at least put the bikes in the points race in WSBK (listen to Mark Miller's interview, linked elsewhere). Why they aren't using them in WSBK (yet?), I have no idea. If they don't do any better than this at Laguna Seca, it will NOT be good.

BTW- Larry Pegram is sitting out the AMA Superbike race at LS and will run his EBR in WSBK as a wildcard. The press release noted he has to add a quieter muffler and run aluminum wheels vice the regular magnesium ones to meet WSBK requirements. Interesting.

Actually, this morning, Geoff and his team seemed to finally make some progress. This may not look like much, but at 103.7 % of the fastest time, he's finally starting to make a dent:


http://resources.worldsbk.com/files/...LA/Results.pdf

[Hughlysses]

Yea, they had a couple of press releases. Apparently Geoff's engine was tied up in Portugese customs and barely made it there in time to be installed for FP2. The release clearly says it's an "improved engine" and Geoff is apparently pleased. He was ~2 seconds/lap faster that Aaron (who is running a "non-improved engine") despite having much less practice time than Aaron.

Now, if it'll just hold together for the races tomorrow...

[Scott]

Yea, they had a couple of press releases. Apparently Geoff's engine was tied up in Portugese customs and barely made it there in time to be installed for FP2. The release clearly says it's an "improved engine" and Geoff is apparently pleased. He was ~2 seconds/lap faster that Aaron (who is running a "non-improved engine") despite having much less practice time than Aaron.

Now, if it'll just hold together for the races tomorrow...

Very cool. It seems like, up until now, they've been racing a basically a stock engine vs. the best Superbike engines in the world. It's frustrating they didn't start sooner, but maybe they were being very conservative. Now that Geoff has used up all his engines, maybe they'll take the risks they need to improve.

[Hughlysses]

Press release after today's races:

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b1964295d7f155 fa8c439a200&id=cc505b42c5

---

quote:Geoff May – “It’s no secret that we are onto engine ten with five races to go. It is impossible to do anything here from the pit lane so we chose to save our engine. We accomplished what we needed to this weekend in terms of testing the new parts and the results were pleasing so we move on to Laguna next week where I won’t need to start pit lane.”

---

It sounds like May deliberately ran as few laps as possible this weekend to save the "improved engine" for Laguna Seca. Perhaps Aaron dropped out of race 2 deliberately as well?

I guess we'll see if they've got anything next weekend. It'll be the best engine they've had all season on a track the riders know and they should have knowledge of how to set up the bikes for the track, assuming the factory and AMA guys are involved in the pits.

[Scott]

Press release after today's races:

http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b1964295d7f155 fa8c439a200&id=cc505b42c5

---

quote:Geoff May – “It’s no secret that we are onto engine ten with five races to go. It is impossible to do anything here from the pit lane so we chose to save our engine. We accomplished what we needed to this weekend in terms of testing the new parts and the results were pleasing so we move on to Laguna next week where I won’t need to start pit lane.”

---

It sounds like May deliberately ran as few laps as possible this weekend to save the "improved engine" for Laguna Seca. Perhaps Aaron dropped out of race 2 deliberately as well?

I guess we'll see if they've got anything next weekend. It'll be the best engine they've had all season on a track the riders know and they should have knowledge of how to set up the bikes for the track, assuming the factory and AMA guys are involved in the pits.

Race 2 was wet, so I doubt they wanted to risk bike and limb with no chance for points. I don't understand the comment about not starting from pit lane. I thought that was for the rest of the season. Is it one race per engine over the limit or something?

[Hughlysses]

I believe the penalty is to start 2 races from pit lane for each engine over 8. 2 races today takes care of Geoff's current penalty.