Suzuka or Bust

I have been invited by Team 38 to re-join them for the 2012 Suzuka 8 Hours Race! I am now looking for sponsors and re-started my training! I look forward to next year! I am sure we can improve on our results from 2011 and try our best to put the Team 38 ZX-10R in the top 10 for 2012!

Suzuka is in the books. It was the single most greatest motorcycle race I have ever been a part of. I am very thankful for the entire Team 38 crew for all their hard work this week. It was an experience I will never forget.

My good friend, and old endurance teammate, Ben Walters just so happened to be in Japan for work. He took the weekend off and came to the track to hang out. The team adopted his services and he became part of the pit crew.

I knew that the race was going to be difficult. I had to learn a new track in a short time. Not only that, I was racing around with World Endurance Championship riders as well as local Japanese superstars.

Thursday’s first free practice was canceled due to heavy rain. 50 minutes was added to the second session, but that left no time to make any big changes to the bike. My main objective was just to turn laps and learn the track, but we needed all 3 of the riders to split the practice time. That meant I got about 8 laps in for my first day.

On Friday our plan was to use the qualifying sessions as set up time for the bike and practice for me. Each rider got 2 30 minute sessions for qualifying. I dropped my lap times down to the 2:18 mark, which is the pace my teammates would end up running during the race. The team was happy with my progress, but as a racer you always want to go faster. Karita clicked off a 2:15 which put us 34th on the grid. He spent most of both his sessions testing different suspension settings and never really got a chance to put in a hard lap.

There were rumors of rain for race day, which got me excited because I’m a good rain rider. The morning skies looked threatening, but by race time the sun was shining.

Karita got a good start and worked his way up to 26th position. I got on next and was able to reel in some of the teams just in front of us and was 22nd at the end of my stint. Things were going really good until the 4th hour when the bracket for the rear shock’s hydraulic pre-load adjuster broke off taking the hydraulic adjuster and all the pre-load with it! The following pit stop took extra long because we needed to make sure there wasn’t any fluid leaking from the shock and we needed to secure the remaining hydraulic line. Needless to say, the bike’s handling suffered dearly from this situation.

When I got on for the last stint of the race we were running closely with a few other teams just outside the top 20. Half way through the final hour the quickshifter stopped working and then wuth 15 minutes to go the bike completely shut down. I quickly got off the racing line and I thought the race was over for us so close to the end! Then, the bike regained its life and I carried on. I switched over to the “M” mode and the bike went on to finish the race.

We ended up 24th, which isn’t too bad considering all the obstacles we had. The team was happy for a safe race with a solid finish, I was happy to get to take part in one of the World’s greatest motorcycle races! Afterward there was a podium celebration for all the finishing teams. There was champagne and metals, but most of all it was a chance to celebrate with the entire team!

I hope that this will not be my last Suzuka experience. I’m hooked after my first visit!

This website will be airing all the events of the Suzuka 8 hour week, including practice, qualifying, Super Pole and the entire race!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/suzuka-event

I was lucky enough to have a work trip to Japan scheduled a few days before the official 8 hour team test. I was able to join Team 38 for the last day of the test.

The weather was wet all day! I didn’t care, I just wanted to turn some laps so I clould learn the track before the race weekend. They seperated all the teams into 2 groups. Our first session was 90 minutes and I rode as much as I could, stopping into the pits for brief setting changes. I learned the track quickly and finished the session 9th overall, bettering my temate by 1 second.

We continued to make setting changes throught the second session. My teamate and I were chasing the same issues, so it made set up a little easier. The KYB guys were on hand to make suspension changes. I did a few laps on the new setting and it was a step better. We changed the rear tire and I went out again. The new tire didn’t feel quite right, but I wanted to give it a couple of laps to see if it would eventually come in. After 2 laps it didn’t feel much better so I decided to bring the bike in, but before I could make it to pit lane the rear let loose in the spoon curve and down I went.

It wasn’t a bad crash because I was going slower than normal. I got a ride to the pits on the crash truck and explained to the team what happened. I was really sorry for the incident and I took full responsibility for the crash. They understood and wanted me to go out on the main bike, but the rain started comming down harder and we decided it wasn’t worth the risk to go back out on track.

The day ended well. My best lap put us 18th overall with both groups combined. My teamate was right behind me in 19th so our wet track times are pretty equal. With all the team times combined we were 12th overall. I know that if I didn’t have the crash I could have improved my times much more but it is better to be walking away healthy with a good result than pushing too hard and having a bigger mistake! The team was happy and we are looking forward to the 8 hour race in 2 weeks time!

I have colaborated with Pilot USA to make an American theme suit for Suzuka. Pilot did an awesome job with the details! I’m really excited to represent the red white and blue over in Japan!

Hello! The purpose of this website is to gather support through donations to get me to this year’s Suzuka 8 hour race. You can donate any amount via pay pal and any excess money that I receive will be donated to the Japan Disaster Relief fund.

I will also be posting updates on my preparations for the race, pictures, videos and race results. There is also more information about myself, the team, Suzuka and the new ZX-10R on the “about” page.

Thanks for your support!

-Derek Keyes