Smash Allen
Active member
During the last couple AFM rounds I have watched as Chad Swain piloted the Hustle Hard Racing BMW S1000RR to six podiums including one victory. I had an immediate connection to his efforts as I am riding the same model and color.
When co-owner Mark Harper introduced himself and we got to talking, it became apparent that some software glitches from both his laptop and datalogger were preventing proper download and subsequent analysis of Chad’s riding. Through a series of fortunate events an offer was extended and graciously accepted, resulting in a place for me to pit during AFM rounds under the HHR canopy in exchange for data collection and analysis.
When Mark mentioned he was trying to get Chad to MotoAmerica at Sonoma but needed a crew, I jumped at the chance along with Daniel Velazco, AFM expert #986. Mark was going to be in England all week, and so Daniel and I worked together with Mark to organize the logistics of Chad flying in from Calgary, the bike from Norris Racing(thank you Kelly!) and the gear from Omega Moto(thank you Ken!).
I arrived Friday morning and got my crew pass from registration, thankful I brought my truck with my bicycle as the parking was up the hill from the pits. I met up with Kelly of Norris Racing and verified all our parts were present and accounted for and luckily Omega Moto pits were just one aisle over. I carried all the tools and canopies and bike over and met Ken of Omega Moto who graciously gave up a spot under their canopy in their badass pits. I setup the Hustle Hard Canopy and the rest of our pits, draining the oil and visually checking over the bike.
Thanks to Arrow Exhaust we had a full system ready to install but unfortunately it was with Daniel, who was waiting to pick up Chad from the airport and whose plane was delayed an hour. I removed the Akrapovic system and nervously watched the clock as tech was only open from 4-5 for the Stock 1000 class. Chads flight finally landed and Daniel and Chad jetted up to Sonoma, arriving around 4, just as tech opened. It was a mad rush to get the exhaust installed and bike to tech before they closed at 5, but we did it!
I had the amazing opportunity to meet Steve Weir of BMW Motorrad, North America race support specialist. We are two like minds, in that everything we do is based off of hard numbers and facts. He dropped in the new fuel map for the Arrow exhaust and verified the traction control map was setup to his liking. I will be working more with Steve and BMW in the future to provide trackside support and get more BMWs on the podium in club race series and MotoAmerica.
Saturday arrived and with it, the only practice session before qualifying. Stock 1000 practice was at 9 and we were having lots of wheelie issues, forcing Chad to modulate the throttle and lose time. Before qualifying 1 we decided to drop a tooth on the rear sprocket which would increase the swingarm length while also reducing the torque to the wheel. We also added a couple turns of preload to the rear shock to prevent so much wheel squat. After discussing things with Steve we decided to increase the spring rate of the rear shock on Saturday night. Big thanks to Vinnie with Omega Moto who swapped the spring and got the preload very close to match effective spring rate of the old spring.
I hosted Chad at my house Saturday night and we had a good dinner in downtown Concord. “I arrived in a Porsche and left in a Ford” said Chad, leaving out the fact that it is an old 1992 F250 diesel farm truck with no AC. “I spent all my money on my bike, must be nice to arrive and ride!” I retorted. Chad is a good guy and I am happy we got a chance to get to know each other.
Sunday morning arrived and traffic on highway 37 wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We arrived to the track and got things ready for qualifying 2. The increased rear spring rate improved the feeling and we dropped a good chunk of time in qualifying 2. We ended up starting 6th on the grid and after a rocky start Chad ran wide on turn one after the first lap, giving Sebastio his place and losing a few precious seconds from the fight for the podium. Over the next 8 laps Chad put his head down and made up the gap and passed Sebastio to take back sixth place. Chad had an ideal lap in the 1:37’s and was just about to tie the sectors together, when with four laps to go one of the other BMW riders crashed out. Since the bike landed on the rider and he wasn’t able to extricate himself the race was red flagged and since it was past ⅔ distance the race was called. This bumped Chad to fifth place for a pretty good ending to Hustle Hard’s first MotoAmerica @ Sonoma showing.
https://motoamerica.com/2018/08/must-watch-tv-stock-1000-full-race-video-from-sonoma/
When co-owner Mark Harper introduced himself and we got to talking, it became apparent that some software glitches from both his laptop and datalogger were preventing proper download and subsequent analysis of Chad’s riding. Through a series of fortunate events an offer was extended and graciously accepted, resulting in a place for me to pit during AFM rounds under the HHR canopy in exchange for data collection and analysis.
When Mark mentioned he was trying to get Chad to MotoAmerica at Sonoma but needed a crew, I jumped at the chance along with Daniel Velazco, AFM expert #986. Mark was going to be in England all week, and so Daniel and I worked together with Mark to organize the logistics of Chad flying in from Calgary, the bike from Norris Racing(thank you Kelly!) and the gear from Omega Moto(thank you Ken!).
I arrived Friday morning and got my crew pass from registration, thankful I brought my truck with my bicycle as the parking was up the hill from the pits. I met up with Kelly of Norris Racing and verified all our parts were present and accounted for and luckily Omega Moto pits were just one aisle over. I carried all the tools and canopies and bike over and met Ken of Omega Moto who graciously gave up a spot under their canopy in their badass pits. I setup the Hustle Hard Canopy and the rest of our pits, draining the oil and visually checking over the bike.
Thanks to Arrow Exhaust we had a full system ready to install but unfortunately it was with Daniel, who was waiting to pick up Chad from the airport and whose plane was delayed an hour. I removed the Akrapovic system and nervously watched the clock as tech was only open from 4-5 for the Stock 1000 class. Chads flight finally landed and Daniel and Chad jetted up to Sonoma, arriving around 4, just as tech opened. It was a mad rush to get the exhaust installed and bike to tech before they closed at 5, but we did it!
I had the amazing opportunity to meet Steve Weir of BMW Motorrad, North America race support specialist. We are two like minds, in that everything we do is based off of hard numbers and facts. He dropped in the new fuel map for the Arrow exhaust and verified the traction control map was setup to his liking. I will be working more with Steve and BMW in the future to provide trackside support and get more BMWs on the podium in club race series and MotoAmerica.
Saturday arrived and with it, the only practice session before qualifying. Stock 1000 practice was at 9 and we were having lots of wheelie issues, forcing Chad to modulate the throttle and lose time. Before qualifying 1 we decided to drop a tooth on the rear sprocket which would increase the swingarm length while also reducing the torque to the wheel. We also added a couple turns of preload to the rear shock to prevent so much wheel squat. After discussing things with Steve we decided to increase the spring rate of the rear shock on Saturday night. Big thanks to Vinnie with Omega Moto who swapped the spring and got the preload very close to match effective spring rate of the old spring.
I hosted Chad at my house Saturday night and we had a good dinner in downtown Concord. “I arrived in a Porsche and left in a Ford” said Chad, leaving out the fact that it is an old 1992 F250 diesel farm truck with no AC. “I spent all my money on my bike, must be nice to arrive and ride!” I retorted. Chad is a good guy and I am happy we got a chance to get to know each other.
Sunday morning arrived and traffic on highway 37 wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We arrived to the track and got things ready for qualifying 2. The increased rear spring rate improved the feeling and we dropped a good chunk of time in qualifying 2. We ended up starting 6th on the grid and after a rocky start Chad ran wide on turn one after the first lap, giving Sebastio his place and losing a few precious seconds from the fight for the podium. Over the next 8 laps Chad put his head down and made up the gap and passed Sebastio to take back sixth place. Chad had an ideal lap in the 1:37’s and was just about to tie the sectors together, when with four laps to go one of the other BMW riders crashed out. Since the bike landed on the rider and he wasn’t able to extricate himself the race was red flagged and since it was past ⅔ distance the race was called. This bumped Chad to fifth place for a pretty good ending to Hustle Hard’s first MotoAmerica @ Sonoma showing.
https://motoamerica.com/2018/08/must-watch-tv-stock-1000-full-race-video-from-sonoma/
it was sweet seeing you there, hopefully it's not the closest we get to an MA event 