It was a long weekend of trial and error that ultimately resulted in solid consistency and a podium finish. Paul Schwemmer took the bike out for the first practice session and immediately determined that the team had some setup work ahead of them. Neither Schwemmer or Ray had ever ridden the AMA track at VIR and needed all the track time they could get.
“We got it back to the pits and made the changes we hoped would work, since the next time out was qualifying,” explained Ray. “Paul was the first to take it out to qualify. He was going to go about half the session then I would go and see what I could do. Before he even got a chance to get up to speed, Paul had a little incident while on the track, and crashed and that ended our session…another low point, but we were in the race!”
Back to the pits for the team with a laundry list of small repairs but all in all it wasn’t bad and everything seemed sorted out by Saturday morning except for one thing. Schwemmer injured his right wrist in the wreck and wasn’t sure if he could ride. Later, the team decided that Schwemmer would start the race but Ray would be at the ready just in case.
That turned out to be a good contingency plan because the pain was too great and Brett took over after the first few laps. “We got a splash of gas, I got on the bike and took off, “said Ray. “I started thinking about riding almost 2 hours in the heat and making the tires last. With out much track time I decided to just set a comfortable pace, stay out of trouble and just last to the end of the race. As it turned out that was a pretty good game plan. As I rode around I watched rider after rider get caught out and go down. That put us in a very good position.”
Through perseverance and consistent lap times, the Old Pros / R&R Racing Aprilia finished a strong 3rd place for the race and 3rd in points.
The team is sponsored by: Aprilia USA, R-R-Racing.com, Level 10 contractors, No-Mar tire changers, Level One exhaust, EBC Brakes, Arai helmets, BG Oil products, Fly-N-Cycle.com, WhiteEagleLounge.com .