Wera National Endurance @ Barber Video

[GregGorman]

I haven't been on the forum in a while but I've been busy.

 

I participated in the WERA National 4 Hour Endurance at Barber Motorsports Park on Saturday, 9/11. I was riding 2008 ZX-10 with co-rider JD Mosely. This event was simply to be a test for me to see if I could ride 25 laps at speed consistently. I needed to know if I could do it because I'll be racing AMA Daytona Sportbike on Geoff May's prepped GSX-R600 the 24th-26th at Barber.

 

The Race:

At the riders meeting, the starter very nicely went over his exact starting procedure and timing. As I was gridded on the last row, 14, of a two wave start, I got to see the procedure again for the first wave. By the time he flagged the second wave, I had his timing and was off. Quite possibly my best start ever. I had the thought I might have even jumped the start, but I didn't.

 

I passed almost half the field going into turn 1 and then lost a few spots when I got pushed wide cresting the hill at turn 4 - we were 4 wide there. By the time we got to the 9-10 esses, we were pretty much single file and sorted out.

 

I got distracted 3 laps in when a rider low sided in front of me and then again the next lap when the debris flag was shown in that area. That hesitation allowed the two guys I was running with to gap me and I was running alone after 6 laps. I eventually got up to 8th place and was running consistent 1:34s-37s depending on traffic.

 

Around 9 laps in my right foot started falling asleep and demanded considerable attention. I tried using my outside leg more but that made my lower back cramp up. Still, I made my 25 lap goal at speed and improved my best time to a 1:33.9.

 

Due to the foot and back problems, my teammate and I decided to retire at the 3 hour mark after 94 laps and we finished 6th in the Heavyweight class of nine, and 25th of the 30 bike grid.

 

Two weeks to AMA!

 

As promised here's the video - the start and the first few laps.

 

 

and some more: about 15 laps into the first hour following TVR 131

[fossilfuel]

Greg,

Great to hear about the Endurance race. I wish I had known you were there. I had friends who raced so I was at pit lane for a while. I would have gladly ridden a few laps to keep you in the race. I want to get into that next year.

I ran in the Senior Superbike Novice finishing 2nd and had the 5th best lap times of the Expert and Novice field and ran in the National Formula 1 race finishing 5th. Let me know if you are going to be at Road Atlanta for the WERA GNF and I will look you up.

[Cobie Fair]

Greg,

Great to hear about the Endurance race. I wish I had known you were there. I had friends who raced so I was at pit lane for a while. I would have gladly ridden a few laps to keep you in the race. I want to get into that next year.

I ran in the Senior Superbike Novice finishing 2nd and had the 5th best lap times of the Expert and Novice field and ran in the National Formula 1 race finishing 5th. Let me know if you are going to be at Road Atlanta for the WERA GNF and I will look you up.

 

Endurance racing is a blast. One part that I really enjoyed is it really turned the whole activity into a team sport, great fun. I think the last one we did was a 24 hour (that was a long race, and really just an accoplishment to finish it).

[GregGorman]

Greg,

Great to hear about the Endurance race. I wish I had known you were there. I had friends who raced so I was at pit lane for a while. I would have gladly ridden a few laps to keep you in the race. I want to get into that next year.

I ran in the Senior Superbike Novice finishing 2nd and had the 5th best lap times of the Expert and Novice field and ran in the National Formula 1 race finishing 5th. Let me know if you are going to be at Road Atlanta for the WERA GNF and I will look you up.

 

Thank you for the offer! I'll definitely keep it in mind next time I run.

 

I won't be doing the GNF, other obligations are calling this year.

[Crash106]

Dear Greg,

 

After watching you fly around that the Barber track, peaking at 130+mph and entering some turns at 90 mph, I'm starting to understand why I'm such a fan of WATCHING motorcycle racing. Oooo, boy! That's all too fast for me, but it looks like great fun for you. How can you even see your entrance points? I'm watching the readout on the GPS and I'm still lost about which way to turn at the end of the straights. Some of those corners seem to be double apex turns. That looks tricky to keep track of, and, jeez Greg, do you have to replace your elbow pads every few laps?

 

Seriously, I enjoyed the video. Great work. So nice to see it with such clarity and the GPS readout makes it much more lively and amazing. Thank you.

[GregGorman]

Wow! Thank you!

 

 

You see the entry points by following reference points that lead to them. It's just a game of connect the dots.

[Bullet]

Wow! Thank you!

 

 

You see the entry points by following reference points that lead to them. It's just a game of connect the dots.

 

 

Hi mate,

 

great effort, and I really fancy some endurance racing myself. A couple of the guys fancy it and we might well have a pop at that in 2011. I think Cobie's point about team and all being in it is very pertinent and at odds to club racing and attracts me more in reality.

 

I wondered if you could spill more on your video setup as it's brilliant and I really like the video overlay GPS piece you have. I've looked into this a little, and am thinking the Aim Smartycam looks good, but you've done this differently by the looks of it.

 

Cheers man

 

Bullet

[GregGorman]

 

Hi mate,

 

great effort, and I really fancy some endurance racing myself. A couple of the guys fancy it and we might well have a pop at that in 2011. I think Cobie's point about team and all being in it is very pertinent and at odds to club racing and attracts me more in reality.

 

I wondered if you could spill more on your video setup as it's brilliant and I really like the video overlay GPS piece you have. I've looked into this a little, and am thinking the Aim Smartycam looks good, but you've done this differently by the looks of it.

 

Cheers man

 

Bullet

 

Wow! That SmartyCam is COOL! I don't like that it's not HD but that's just my personal preference. A 10Hz GPS is good and it has an accelerometer too. Very nice.

 

I'm using the ContourHD 1080 to record the video with. Standard stuff there.

 

To do the data logging I use some software called RaceChrono which I run on a cell phone - an old cell phone I no longer use for phone calls. The cell phone connects via Bluetooth to a 5hz GPS Antenna from QStarz (818x.)

 

The cell phone actually functions as my lap timer while I'm riding. And I can do lap time analysis on it - compare sectors, laps, hi/lo speed, etc...

 

When I get home, I use some software called RaceChrono2AVI, which converts all the GPS data to a video file. I then use Sony Vegas video editing software to sync the data overlay with the video from the ContourHD. That's why the data isn't really in sync. Sometimes I get it just right, sometimes I get it close enough.

 

Yeah, a lot of work and moving pieces in that process.

[Bullet]

Hi mate,

 

great effort, and I really fancy some endurance racing myself. A couple of the guys fancy it and we might well have a pop at that in 2011. I think Cobie's point about team and all being in it is very pertinent and at odds to club racing and attracts me more in reality.

 

I wondered if you could spill more on your video setup as it's brilliant and I really like the video overlay GPS piece you have. I've looked into this a little, and am thinking the Aim Smartycam looks good, but you've done this differently by the looks of it.

 

Cheers man

 

Bullet

 

Wow! That SmartyCam is COOL! I don't like that it's not HD but that's just my personal preference. A 10Hz GPS is good and it has an accelerometer too. Very nice.

 

I'm using the ContourHD 1080 to record the video with. Standard stuff there.

 

To do the data logging I use some software called RaceChrono which I run on a cell phone - an old cell phone I no longer use for phone calls. The cell phone connects via Bluetooth to a 5hz GPS Antenna from QStarz (818x.)

 

The cell phone actually functions as my lap timer while I'm riding. And I can do lap time analysis on it - compare sectors, laps, hi/lo speed, etc...

 

When I get home, I use some software called RaceChrono2AVI, which converts all the GPS data to a video file. I then use Sony Vegas video editing software to sync the data overlay with the video from the ContourHD. That's why the data isn't really in sync. Sometimes I get it just right, sometimes I get it close enough.

 

Yeah, a lot of work and moving pieces in that process.

 

Thanks for that info Greg. I have to say, your efforts are well rewarded as it really does look very good, and I suspect only the very exacting would ever really notice it's out of sync, though I guess you do, which is irksome. The video quality and the sound of the CountourHD is very good I have to say, most impressed by that for sure. Not sure i could go through all the editing though, must take sometime?

 

Yeah, the smartycam does indeed look very good, it's not cheap, but looks like it has some excellent features, though I do agree, the only downer is the lack of HD quality video. The pros though are the ability to overlay the datalogging info, and you can also buy an ecu bridge, which connects and shows revs throttle position and the like, seemingly very good quality output for not to unreasonable money really.

 

I'm going to dig further, keep you posted.

 

Thanks again, and really great work.

 

Bullet

[GregGorman]

Something to check on is how it handles water. You'd think that a camera made for EXTREME conditions would handle water without some goofy case around it. They don't. The GoPro and ContourHD both require cases which make them difficult to mount in a position you could actually race with them. The Oregon Scientific ATC9K is waterproof but... I don't know. I just don't like it.

[jasonbw]

OUTSTANDING video there Greg, not just the clarity but great footage of the race!!!!

 

I completely understand the fun you have when synchronizing the GPS and video feeds! My first ever race day I did that at a track called Oran Park in Oz:

 

Video/Audio looks like utter ###### compared to your setup! The clarity on yours is like MotoGP broadcast - or better!

[Bullet]

OUTSTANDING video there Greg, not just the clarity but great footage of the race!!!!

 

I completely understand the fun you have when synchronizing the GPS and video feeds! My first ever race day I did that at a track called Oran Park in Oz:

 

Video/Audio looks like utter ###### compared to your setup! The clarity on yours is like MotoGP broadcast - or better!

 

Ok, so the video looks like a 90's porn movie in comparison, but what a cool track that is man. I do hope you've got better at starts? You got mobbed mate.

 

Bullet

[jasonbw]

My starts are just as bad as ever (see the other videos under my userid), The GPS data is very useful... when sync'd correctly you can see exactly when you get on the gas, how you apply the throttle to particular turns, when you brake, combine that with the visual reference points and you can make it a top training tool.

 

The product I used for GPS is from racelogic, called the 'performanceBox', siming to Greg in that it logs the same data, racechrono2avi does the overlay.

 

And best of all, you can't avoid seeing all the potential improvements (my video - not yours Greg!).

 

6 months later that track was bulldozed to make way for a housing development...