Our 2003 season was pretty lame.

Steve, who was busy buying a new house and moving, changed careers, helped out with the MARRC Road Racing School, and managed to put his wrecked TL-R back together, did not even enter a single race on the might TL-R all year long. In fact Team Charm's only race outing all season, the six hour at home track Summit Point, below is the race report, was a smashing success that served to remind us how much we lover being at the track.

Rich, being happily burned out from our most excellent 2002 season, took some time off under the flawed theory that he would have more spare time.

Next year will have Steve competing in local races on the TL-R, helping out again with the Road Racing School, and looking to facilitate Rich's re-entry into a racing orbit.

Reported by Team Charm Staff;

This weekend saw the first successful outting for Team Charm since the last race the team actually finished, being the Texas World Speedway round of the 2002 WERA National Endurance Series in September of last year. Out of 10 entries in the lightweight class, six started the race, with Team Charm being one of them. After a cautious race Team Charm inherited 2nd place in mixed, mostly dry, track conditions when the competition spent too much time in the pits service their equipment.

Followers of these chronicles will notice that Team Charm has been somewhat inactive this year. Since last year Rich has decided to take some time off from racing, being happily burned out after the 2002 season. Steve has been too busy with new house purchase and a busy job to pursue a series this year, opting instead to focus on getting the mighty TL back together (it is) and helping out with the MARRC RRS (he has).

After some discussion Eric & Steve decided to do the annual event at Summit Point on Eric's SV650. They enlisted the help of local riders Brian Summers and Bernie Conaster. Rich still came up to the track in a non-rider support roll and was instrumental in setup and preparation of the machine. Thursday night found Eric & Tara sleeping in a rain soaked tent at the track after having driven down from CT that afternoon. Rich joined them Friday with Bernie to provide sage advise for set up, the bike having new suspension parts thanks to Dave Yaakov of Cycle Accessory Discounter's, who did the forks to his excellent spec. Steve and Brian couldn't make the practice day due to being too busy with work. Rich, Eric and Bernie were able to get the bike set up on the mostly wet riding conditions on Friday, with no major problems encountered except for the rain.

Friday night Steve & Anya joined the group for a late dinner after Steve picked up his awesome new leathers from Cliff & Paige at Advance Design Leathers, but more about them in a minute. Unfortunately Dyonesis spent a little too much time with the team on that evening, it being too much fun seeing old friends during a wonderful warm night under the stars hanging out in "Turn Eleven."

Saturday morning the team slowly awoke to find that Brian had made it to the track, sans the tires we were suppose to be using for this weekend, courtesy of Dunlop, but otherwise prepared to ride. Steve and Brian split the first practice, Steve to check the placement of the pads on his new leathers, and Brian to get some seat time, the last race completed being the 6 hour of 2000. The bike had some serious corning clearance problems on the right side, Eric and Bernie not finding this during Fridays wet practice, that where were quickly fixed with a hammer. We added some front spring pre-load and fine tuned some of the controls for lighter operation. Steve was somewhat startled when he went out for his first practice in his new leathers, finding the fit of the two piece design a little less noticeable than normal, or as Steve puts it:

Steve, assured that he was not flashing the cornerworkers, and Brian, getting used to the light spring settings, the first practice went well. During the 2nd endurance only practice the corning clearance problems were confirmed to be resolved and the team got ready for the race. For rider order Eric would start and pass off to Bernie who in turn would pass off the Brian who then would pass off to Steve. Each stint would be 45 minutes and the rotation cycle would repeat once if there were no race stoppage. The plan being that Steve is best to have ride last on the worn tires and Eric should go first as he owns the bike. We mounted the Dunlops, a 208 front and a 207 rear and planned to go the entire race without changing tires. We had the practice set ready to go incase there were any problems.

The race was flagged off at 11:30am by Al Wilcox and Eric promptly dominated last place for the fist couple of laps until he made passed the next to last. After that the order became confused from the lapping by the race leaders, most of his laps being in the 1:30 range. Once the requisite 45 minutes had gone by the team gave Eric the Pit signal for our first pit stop at 12:14. Eric, who damaged his knee during a practice crash for this event last year, was concerned that he might not be able to complete a second 45 minute stint. Bernie took the track and ran very consistent 1:28-1:29 for his 45 minute stint, this being his first endurance race and the longest time he has spent on a bike racing at one time. At the end of his 45 minutes Steve gave Bernie the pit signal, Rich having left the track to go a wedding, the team readied Brian for his first 45 minutes with our second pit stop. Brian ran a very respectable 45 minutes, running consistent lap time in the 1:28-1:29 with a couple of 1:27's. Bernie, who was totally psyched at riding the SV, here babbles like a idiot about his stint:

Brian had been out for 35 minutes when the red flag came out due to a crash at the exit of T5, commenting that the front end was chattering in T5, but otherwise had fun during his stint. Due to the red flag time being lost on the track, it was decided that Steve would do the re-start, ride for another 5 laps, then come in for a fuel fill up, then ride a hour, and be finished riding for the day. After the warm up lap for the re-start, the red flag came out AGAIN on the 2 minute board due to a non-racing ambulance call in the pits. The clock running during the stoppage, the team plan looked about the same after the 2nd re-start. Steve took to the track and put in about 50 minutes when the red flag came out again, due to a big crash at the exit of ten caused be rain coming down. He took the re-start, with the plan to ride another 5 laps on the partially wet track handing off to Eric. As Steve sez;

Steve came in with a hour and eight minutes left on the clock, handing off to Eric who rode for about 15 minutes due to his knee bothering him, and in turn handed off to Bernie who only planned to ride 20 minutes or so. Unfortunately Steve was not present for the planning of this pit stop. For reasons that seemed to make sense at the time, the crew elected to NOT PUT GAS IN THE BIKE DURING THIS PIT STOP, under the idea the bike would be re-fueled during its finally pit stop to put Brian aboard. It was about this time the team learned, from the PA system, they were currently in second, but no account of how close to third or first place.

Steve, foaming at the mouth about the need to have re-fueled the bike incase we needed to leave Bernie out to defend 2nd place or take first, proceeded to abuse all hands verbally that you ALWAYS PUT GAS IN TH BIKE, PERIOD. The last pit stop happened with 28 minutes left on the clock, with a gallon added for safety and to shut up Steve. With Brian taking the remaining stint under strict orders to ride fast incase 3rd or 1st were close at hand. After a check of the computer scoring system it was obvious that, unless a crash or mechanical, the positions were locked up. The team finished without incident taking 2nd place in class, 25th overall. Congrats to Tight Squeeze Racing who, while beat by Team Charm this weekend, tied up the Championship for the lightweight class this weekend (Not 100% sure about that)

Thanks to all the pit crew; Tara, Anya, George and Lori, the riders, Rich for his help, Dunlop and our families for their support.

Here Brian thanks Dunlop, Fastlane Cycles c/o Rick Beggs.

Also thanks to Anya for taking the pictures!! 

Be sure to visit our sponsors: Cycle Accessory Discounter's and Dunlop Tires.