More On AOD’s Overall Endurance Win At Jennings GP

More On AOD’s Overall Endurance Win At Jennings GP

© 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc. From a press release issued By Army Of Darkness Ministry of Information.

From a press release issued by Army Of Darkness Ministry of Information:

Five-time WERA National Endurance Mediumweight Superbike Champions Army Of Darkness have a new rider line up for 2004 but this weekend’s results show that the team’s winning ways remain the same. Scott Brown and Ben Walters have joined Sam Fleming on the rider roster for Army Of Darkness with Crew Chief Tim Gooding shouldering the brunt of the effort for machinery preparation.

The weekend had an inauspicious beginning when the new A motor suffered a parts failure in its first laps. While Gooding spent the day installing an old stock motor in the chassis, Brown, Walters and Fleming focused on chassis set-up and consistent lap times on the back-up bike. Michelin provided a variety of front and rear tires for evaluation.

In the practice session before the start of the race the racebike was destroyed in a crash in the fastest turn on the track. Brown was lucky to avoid serious injury when he caught a false neutral bending into turn three.

Gooding’s engine swapping diligence paid off since AOD was to now start the race with its B chassis and a C motor. “Loudoun Motorsports had supplied us with a new 2003 model for this season. Without that bike we would have had to be spectators today,” Gooding said.

With Brown still sore from the crash Walters took the start of the race and quickly put the AOD bike into second place overall behind a liter class machine. The long distance capacity supplied by the Eric Wallgren-built gas tank allowed the AOD machine to take the overall lead when the bigger bike was forced to pit for fuel.

At the 80-minute point Brown had recovered sufficiently from his tumble to ride and demonstrated the talent that won him two national endurance titles in the past. Between the fast riding and flawless pit stops AOD built up a two-lap lead.

Walters took the third stint and stretched the lead to three laps before triggering the tip-over switch on the bike with a long slide. AOD lost two laps before getting the bike restarted.

Fleming took over the controls with a one-lap lead and held a consistent gap over second place. With 40 minutes left in the race AOD completed its last pit stop and Walters took the flag for AOD’s first overall win.

Tire availability became a minor issue. Many endurance teams switched to Michelins from last year but had failed to call ahead with their tire needs leaving the usually well-stocked Michelin truck a little bare. “It’s a good thing these tires wear so well because we had to use a take-off for our last stint,” Fleming said. “Now that Walt (Schaefer, Michelin vendor) knows that the demand is three times higher than last year he might have to bring a bigger trailer.”

It was the first overall endurance win for a middleweight class machine since 2000.

Army Of Darkness is sponsored by: LoudounMotorsports.com, Michelin, Walt Schaefer Cycle Supply, M4 Exhausts, Cooper Performance, Vesrah Brakes, Battley Cycles, www.monkeywrenchmachineworks.com, Zero Gravity.

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