Daytona 675
On The Podium

Monday, August 4, 2008

One more long weekend race day. It’s Monday and Nikola Racunica hoped the turn out will be good. As usual there are always more intermediate riders than expert riders. The day was sunny and hot and perfect weather conditions for a race day.

Nikola qualified for front row for all races. We made a few changes on the rear suspension so we could run Pirelli SC1 tire for more than two races. During the practice and qualifying runs our setup seemed to work well.

For the Superbike Race 1 Nikola had a good start and got mixed up with some expert riders. He was swaping places with bike #14 following him through corners and trying to pass him. Three laps to go, in corner #3 he lost my front end finishing the race with a low side. Just before the crash Nikola was second in my class. He watched the rest of the race from the corner marshal’s station. The damage to the bike was minor – a bent shifter pedal and a few scratches on the body work. It took the team twenty minutes to repair the damage and now he’s ready for the next race.

600SS: Nikola had a good start, but missed the shift going into turn #1 so he was fifth out of turn one. He had to put a few good laps to catch up with the leading pack ahead of him. Once he caught up and was running with them, it took him two more laps to make his way up to second place. After the race, the rear tire looked pretty good compared to previous race days. For the next race they installed new tires and did a few more adjustments to the suspension.

Open SS: Nikola had a good start again because the Triumph racing first gear upgrade seems to work excellent; But again he made a mistake going into turn #1 and ran a bit wide which gave two riders the opportunity to pass on the inside. Once again, he was working extra hard to catch up to the riders ahead. After a few laps he was riding with those who passed him in turn #1. Nikola’s corner speed was much higher than theirs’ and after two laps he regained his lead in second place. The last lap of the race, the engine started misfiring. He knew right away what the problem was… Nikola was just out of fuel. Lucky for him the third place rider was a few seconds behind which gave him enough time to pass the start/finish line in second place. Nikola was shaking his bike from side to side to make it to the finish line!

Going into Superbike Race 2, Nikola was tired because it was a very hot day and all he wanted to do was to just finish the race without crashing. He did not have a good start and was fifth after the first lap. Working my way through once again, he was in second place. Half way through the race he had a pretty good lead over the third place rider. With two laps to go, on the exit out of turn #3 Nikola was a little bit too early on the throttle causing the rear tire to break loose. The bike stepped out underneath him and tried to throw him over the handle bars. Luckily he didn’t high side and just kept going, trying to make it in one piece across the finish line.

Nikola put the Triumph Daytona 675 on the podium one more time this season. Two second places and one sixth place overall in Superbike and a minor crash made for a successful race day.