MotoAmerica – Round 2 – COTA
Austin, TX – The second stop of the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship was held in conjunction with MotoGP this past weekend from the world class circuit, The Circuit Of The Americas (COTA). For the last seven years, this combination has been a fan favorite as the atmosphere is carnival like. There’s a great deal of pageantry that comes with the MotoGP circus and our national series riders benefit from that overflow. The best that MotoAmerica has to offer gets an opportunity to go on full display in front of a large, multi-national audience. When you ask one of the MA riders if they feel any additional pressure, they’ll most likely tell you, “No… Not really”. Sorry to say but that’s FAKE NEWS. When the eyes of the world are suddenly on them, they most definitely feel the pressure.
As is customary for this event, MotoAmerica participants have their normal schedules turn on their heads. This year would be no different. For starters, there was only one class, Superbikes. Other MotoAmerica classes got the weekend off to further prepare for VIR. Those superbikes who made the trip would see a consolidated Friday schedule. Two practice / qualifying sessions wherein the combined times were taken into account to determine the Top 9 riders who would advance to Superpole a mere 15 mins following that second session. With such a tight schedule, the men in red (That’s us, Genuine Broaster Chicken / Honda) would have to go out and make an impression from the very first lap.
Needing to shake off the memories from Road Atlanta, just a few days ago, Cam was eager to get out on a track that he likes and has done well at in the past. A normal practice of the team is to send Cam out for about 5-6 laps to get a good feel for how the machine is acting. Unfortunately a condensed Friday schedule left little room to make monumental leaps, things had to be kept to that tight protocol. At 11 am it was time to get rolling for QP1 and with the bike full prepped, Cam got to the business of putting the Genuine Broaster Chicken / Honda through its paces. As the session wore on, it was becoming apparent that there was a problem. While Cam’s times weren’t too off the quickest pace set by the factory bikes, it was indicative of a potential issue. At the end of that first session, Cam had dropped outside the Superpole cutoff in P10. After debriefing with his crew chief, it was determined that there may be a transmission issue as first gear wasn’t available to Cam while he circulated the technical sections of the circuit.
Having only enough time to make superficial changes before QP2; the Camp45 Crew did all that they could do to address the problem. However, as Cameron rolled out for his first few laps, there was still that lingering problem of not being able to get the bike into fist gear. Unable to ride around the problem, Cam was unable to go any faster than he had in QP1. At the end of the session, Cam was still in P10, just one spot outside the Superpole cutoff. This would also be Cam’s starting position for the weekend’s racing. The good that came out of not going directly to Superpole, was that it afforded the team time to make the critical engine swap.
With a brand new engine tucked inside the Big Red Motorcycle, Saturday was promised to be a leap forward in the fortunes of the team. Despite the positive vibes and high fives, the weather gods had a completely different plan. Their idea for the race would be to pour down gallons of water and throw in a bit of wind with a temperature drop. Race One would be declared a “Wet Race” which meant that, as the teams were preparing to roll onto the track for their warm-up lap, tires would have to be changed and suspension would have to be adjusted. No data to draw from meant that the team would have to use a base set-up and hope that the warm-up lap would provide enough of a feeling for Cam to make some basic adjustments. The starting grid was complete chaos. All teams scrambled to make changes and even to understand what the procedure was going to be. Finally, after a bit of delay, the riders took their positions and the crews ran off the grid. As the revs went up the rain continued to pour down and then the grid was released to begin their battle. The anxiety was palpable as the riders approached T1 at the top of a very big hill. All riders tiptoed through and made it out as a group. Cam had made a decent start, but got collected in the T1 tiptoe exercise and was back in P12 heading down the hill. Eventually, Cam would settle in and begin working on picking up his pace. Unfortunately, “Lady Luck” is a cruel mistress and she came to play havoc with Cam in T9. Just as he was getting on the gas to make the left hand turn, the rear end tried to become the front end. The ensuing high side was an extremely hard pill to swallow. Cam was finished with race one before the mid way point of the race. The bike took the brunt of the impact as Cam was left to deal with the emotional wreckage.
There is no time to sit by and feel bad in racing. There’s only time to learn and move on. Race Two was scheduled for Sunday afternoon and this time the weather was set to be ideal. As soon as the MotoGP races were finished, it was again time to hustle and set-up the MotoAmerica Paddock. With a large crowd still on hand, all the Superbike riders made their warm-up laps and took to their starting positions. It’s a beautiful sight to see the Superbikes line up on that famous track with a crowd in the grandstands cheering them on. Lights off and once again the bikes roared to life and thundered up the hill to T1. Cam made another good start and would find himself in a decent battle to a top 10 finish. After about 6 laps, however, Cam would end up running a lonely race. His only competition would be his own heart rate and nerves. Circulating the track and a steady pace and not making any errors, Cam was counting down the laps until he took that white flag. One lap left. One lap until he could take those checkers. Calm and smooth, Cam completed that last lap and took home tenth place. In doing so, Cam also collected his first MotoAmerica Superbike Championship points.
In this business of racing, the most important thing to have on your side is patience. Results will come, but only if you’re patient enough to work for them. With four races down and now with Cam in the points, the team moves onward to Virginia International Raceway. Step by step, the Genuine Broaster Chicken / Honda team is making progress and is looking forward to two more opportunities to showcase their capabilities.
Forward to VIR – #on2vir
Quotes
Cameron Petersen – 45
“Round 2 at COTA was a better weekend for us as we scored our first points with a top ten.
Race One was really tricky and it started to pour down as we lined up for the race, I felt really good and made my way up to 8th. Unfortunately I lost the rear end a few laps into the race at T9 and that was the end of the race for me.
Race Two I got off to another good start. I’ve learned a couple of lessons and settled down into the race knowing that needed to finish and score some points. I was able to finish in tenth and I was happy to grab those needed points.
I am going to keep building off of this weekend and I can’t wait for VIR. Thanks to the team for an awesome weekend. Once again everyone worked extremely hard and I know the results are coming for efforts”
Danny Walker – Team Principal
“This combined weekend is always a little different for us. This weekend was no exception. Our normal Friday was condensed and throwing a Superpole in at the end of the afternoon created an interesting wrinkle.
Unfortunately we had a little issue on Friday that was a result for our crash at Road Atlanta. So right off the bat we were a little behind, but the guys were able to determine the issue and swapped out the motor. We were hoping that with the fix and Cam feeling better on the bike we would be in a good place for the races.
It’s been since Race One at Barber last year that we finished a race and I won’t hide that a DNF on Saturday was a bit of blow to the team. We had to really pull everyone together and have a “Family Meeting”. It was a really healthy conversation and I think coming into Sunday, we were pretty renewed and working towards a positive outcome for Race Two.
It’s pretty amazing how a tenth place can lift the crew’s spirits. We are all working towards Cam’s development with the bike. We all support his efforts to work his own way into feeling comfortable on the bike. We’ve developed the bike quite a bit since last season so we have to balance both development cycles and be patient.
After getting the finish we did one Sunday Cam learned so much about the launch control and getting a solid 20 laps to really get a feel of where the bike is at and what his needs are. I’m feeling good ahead of VIR and I’m looking forward to more racing and moving up the ladder each weekend.
Scott Jensen – Crew Chief
“COTA is always an exciting event as it is in conjunction with MotoGP, this also brings it’s significant hurdles as well. Coming into COTA we were all very eager to get our season going the direction we all want after the difficult weekend at Atlanta, unfortunately the Atlanta event was not fully behind us as we had a transmission issue stemming from the last crash at Atlanta. This meant we would be swapping engines. By the end of qualifying Cameron was pretty happy with the motorcycle and we were excited to get the races started.
Within moments of race one starting the skies opened and the rains came so now we were starting the pre-race sighting laps with no wet time at this track on the CBR1000RR SP2 and no wet time at all on our current electronics package. After two practice laps in the wet we were lined up at the start ready to go racing. Unfortunately we had a crash on lap three and the bike was too damaged to pick up and continue the race. Race two brought us a beautiful day for racing and a 10th place result.
Now we prepare and head for VIR!!”
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