Reprint Courtesy of Roadracing World
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THE HOW TRACTION CONTROL AND OTHER CRASH ELECTRONIC AIDS ARE RUINING RACING PAGE Reprint Courtesy of Roadracing World www.roadracingworld.com Volume 17, Number 9 September 2007 $399U.S. $499 Canada www.roadracingworld.com RIDINGRIDING BOULDERBOULDER HE’S CONQUERED AMERICA AND SEES HIS FORMER TEAMMATE MOTORSPORTS’MOTORSPORTS’ MAKING MILLIONS. NOW AMA SUPERBIKE CHAMPION 850cc850cc DUCATIDUCATI 749R749R BEN SPIES IS HEADED AMAAMA FORMULAFORMULA FOR MotoGP XTREMEXTREME RACEBIKERACEBIKE On Racing Against AMA Superbike’s Factory Few, And The Trouble With Unobtanium Parts: MICHAEL CASEY STONER JORDAN And Ducati March On In MotoGP RIDERSRIDERS VERSUSVERSUS THETHE TRACKTRACK ININ MOTO-STMOTO-ST INSIDEINSIDE INFOINFO •• LIDZ:LIDZ: HELMETSHELMETS OFOF THETHE STARSSTARS •• NEWNEW PRODUCTSPRODUCTS •• CRIBS: CRIBS: JORDANJORDAN SZOKESZOKE •• MotoGPMotoGP TRIVIATRIVIA •• JOHNJOHN HOPKINS:HOPKINS: HOPPER!HOPPER! •• GIRLGIRL RACERRACER •• RACING,RACING, TRACKTRACK DAYDAY ANDAND SCHOOLSCHOOL CALENDARCALENDAR •• THETHE KIDSKIDS PAGEPAGE •• ASRA/CCSASRA/CCS NEWSLETTERNEWSLETTER •• MOTO-ST MOTO-ST NEWSLETTERNEWSLETTER • • WANTWANT ADSADS •• HIGH-PERFORMANCEHIGH-PERFORMANCE PARTSPARTS && SERVICESSERVICES DIRECTORYDIRECTORY •• Riding Marty Craggill’s 850cc Ducati 749R Formula Xtreme Racebike Tooele, Utah FXFX RxRx ByBy DavidDavid SwartsSwarts ’m standing at pit wall along Sucks and Steaming Pile of Slag. racebike. And the story of how formance Ducati tuning shop. Miller Motorsports Park’s front They don’t laugh and can barely the BMS Ducati effort came to be Sharp didn’t have to be asked Istraightaway with Boulder fake smiles. is just as good. twice and packed up his wife and Motor Sports Ducati Team Man- Then Ulrich roared by, tucked Sharp, 35, previously worked their three children and headed ager/Crew Chief Brian Sharp, under the paint, throttle pinned, for Advanced Motor Sports (AMS) north to Colorado to open Boul- Mechanic Jeff Leef and rider Marty and the stopwatch read 2:01.9. Ducati’s Jeff Nash, a New Zealan- der Motor Sports. Craggill, and we’re waiting for “He just went fast enough to have der who won the AMA Pro Thun- “We started off with getting Racing Editor Chris Ulrich to qualified for the AMA Formula der Championship as a rider in the shop going,” said Sharp, who appear out of the final corner and Xtreme race on his very first 2000 and then won it again in with the help of his wife, Kim, complete his first flying lap of the lap on the bike,” I said. A col- 2002 as a team owner with Aus- runs the small but busy tuning 3.048-mile AMA course on the lective sigh of relief was heard. tralian Kirk McCarthy riding and shop, “and then we introduced team’s 848cc Ducati 749R AMA Ulrich rode the bike for a total Sharp wrenching on a 748. racing into it as a way to promote Formula Xtreme racer. of three short sessions during an Fast forward a few years. The it and kick the shop off. That’s Knowing Ulrich can be a APEX Trackdays event, got his original AMS shop grew into an the reason you saw me at Day- harsh critic of motorcycles at lap times down to 1:57 (which, if award-winning Ducati dealership tona in October with Doug Polen.” times and that he just finished repeated 13 times, could have and Nash then opened a second Polen rode a Boulder Motor riding his own 1000cc Super- earned him a top-10 finish in the dealership in downtown Dallas, Sports Ducati 999R to win the stock racebike for four days on AMA Formula Xtreme race) and which Sharp was in charge of CCS SuperTwins National Cham- the same track, including tak- did it all without changing any- running. Sharp was then pionship at Daytona, and with ing seventh in the AMA Super- thing on the bike except for the approached by a Ducati enthu- it a $10,000 contingency award stock race, Sharp, Leef and shifter position. This is not what siast and business investor from from Ducati. But to truly pro- Craggill are somewhat appre- normally happens when moto- his hometown of Boulder, Col- mote the shop, Sharp knew hensive. I do nothing to help journalists test front-line race- orado. The investor, whose name he had to keep racing, and AMA their mood when I jokingly give bikes, but then again Ulrich isn’t Sharp declined to reveal, asked Formula Xtreme seemed like them Ulrich’s rating scale: Pretty your typical editor and the BMS Sharp if he would like to return the perfect match. Good, OK, Sucks, Completely Ducati isn’t just your average to Boulder to open a high-per- “The AMA rules made sense Roadracing World, September 2007 for us to race Formula Xtreme,” the stock 94mm bore pistons Sharp said he didn’t get 150 mark,” said Sharp, who has said Sharp. “I didn’t really see out and putting 100mm (Pistal baseline horsepower numbers done porting work to increase it as a viable option to race in brand) pistons (which are lighter when his bikes were still in 749 flow through the cylinder heads. Superbike this year, judging by even though they are larger) trim, but according to Andrews’ “And it’s pretty broad. The torque what’s happened the last cou- in bored-out cylinders,” said father and former Crew Chief curve is really good. It does tend ple of years. They were going Sharp. “The cams are just the Mark Andrews, their bikes made to make more power up top. pretty good but not at the level 749R kit cams. Stock rods. Stock about 130-135 rear-wheel horse- That’s where the cams work.” where they needed to be. Then crank. It’s essentially a 749R power on a Dynojet dyno. Ducati recommends that a the AMA said, ‘OK, you can run with bigger slugs in it.” “We’re pretty close to the 749R World Supersport race an 850 (in FX) now.’ Just on paper it made a lot of sense, that we could be competitive continued with the 600s.” Next, Sharp needed a rider, and he already had someone in mind, saying, “I used to work with Marty’s best friend, Kirk McCarthy. I sort of kept track of what Marty was up to. I saw that he was with Mat (Mladin Motorsports). I kept in touch with him. At Mid-Ohio, the last round (of 2006), I asked him if he had interest in doing some- thing this year.” In November of 2006, Crag- gill accompanied Sharp to Ducati Corse headquarters in Italy, where Craggill (a two-time Aus- tralian Superbike Champion and former World and British Superbike competitor) used his contacts to facilitate a sup- port deal for the team. But after that trip, the racing team was put on hold while the final prepa- rations were made to officially open Boulder Motor Sports in January. One month later, Sharp and his business investor had another meeting with Ducati Corse to finalize some details, and the race team was given its final green light. “After that it was go, go, go,” said Sharp, who said he slept very little from that point until the season-opener four weeks later at Daytona. He had to final- ize Craggill’s deal, purchase the ex-Parts Unlimited Ducati semi- truck and get it to Colorado, obtain three Ducati 749Rs (two that were ex-Ryan Andrews race- bikes, which were ridden by Doug Chandler before Andrews raced them, and one World Supersport-spec machine directly from Ducati Corse) and prepare the machines to go AMA For- mula Xtreme racing. (Opposite page) Chris Ulrich’s first flying lap on the Boulder Motorsports Ducati at Miller Motorsports Park Sharp says that increasing would have been fast enough to qualify for the previous weekend’s AMA Formula Xtreme race. (Above) A the displacement of the Ducati pair of 100mm pistons brings the 749R’s displacement up to 848cc, and raises horsepower on a Dynojet 749R to 848cc was very straight- Dyno from about 135 to about 150. Photos by Brian J. Nelson. forward. “It’s basically taking www.roadracingworld.com Roadracing World, September 2007 FX Ducati continued engine be torn down, inspected and rebuilt every 750 kilometers, or 466 miles. Sharp does this 20- man-hour task each time one of his six engines reaches 300- 400 km, or 186-248 miles. “It’s more a preventative maintenance type thing,” said Sharp. “I probably could go fur- ther on them. And honestly, when I’ve been pulling them down between 300 and 400 kilo- meters, the rod bearings and everything looks pretty good. But at this level, competing against the factory guys, it’s something that you can’t not do. You can’t let it go and have it come back to bite you.” As far as the engine per- formance goes, the team is very happy. Peak power comes at Chris Ulrich found that the Boulder Motorsports Ducati 749R turned very but nothing is holding him back 12,700 rpm and the rev-limiter well, easily finishing the corner. Photo by Brian J. Nelson. more right now than that dip kicks in at a conservative 13,000 in the midrange of the power- rpm, even though stock-bore band. World Supersport 749Rs can by the end of July, a little bit more Thursday talking to people with “We’re trying to work that be revved over 14,000 rpm. The engine management stuff, some experience riding Ducatis try- out,” said Craggill, “because I’m team’s only real engine concern wheel speed sensor stuff, poten- ing to figure out what to do, and finding where I’ve been losing is a pronounced dip in the mid- tiometers on the suspension so I was still sucking.