Lemans 24 hr. Endurance race.

[scooter69]

LOOKS LIKE bp46 has gone down 7 places, must be an extended pit stop.

[Deans BMW]

Just woke up, and the race is still on???????

#71 bike at 16th. Looked like the #17 bike moved up in the DNF standings ?????? WTF????

[roger albert]

> moved up in the DNF standings ?????? WTF????

Yes, how do you do that? Did you look at the laptimes. Fastest lap was nearly the slowest of the field (only 3 bikes were slower) Shows how much consistency and pitstops (quality and quantity) matter for endurance racing.

Anyone know what happened to teh #17 yet?

[GotRoad?]

>Anyone know what happened to teh #17 yet?

From the event log:
01:36:00
01:36:00 MERTENS S.
MERTENS S. 6bis WITHDRAWAL : BROKEN ENGINE/
01:06:00
01:06:00 MERTENS S.
MERTENS S. poste 5 BACK TO THE PIT USING SECURITY ACCESS/WITHDRAWAL :/
00:56:00
00:56:00 PENZKOFER R.
PENZKOFER R. poste6 STOP ON TRACK AT POST/
00:55:00
00:55:00 PENZKOFER R.
PENZKOFER R. poste 5 BACK TO THE PIT USING SECURITY ACCESS/
00:52:00
00:52:00 PENZKOFER R.
PENZKOFER R. poste 5 STOP ON TRACK AT POST/

[Guest24]

Congratulations!!! 71 HP2 Team --BP46, Mini and Nion made the 24 hrs and win the Open Class. BMW went the distance...

[Dr. Curve]

The new HP2 chalks up another outright victory over multiple nay-sayers concerning the future of a air-cooled boxer twin. Congratulations to a great team and a soon to be legendary radial valve twin.

[Skippy]

To be fair Dr. Curve the open class is 3 bikes or something isn't it?! I've also seen the Kawasaki crash when the first rain began to fall, man that was one brutal crash one of the worst I've seen lately on television. Still cool to see BMW racing and can't wait to see the new S1000RR in action.

[Skippy]

Here's that Kawa crashing. Gotta love YouTube!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hh-yHMD7rQk

[EZ-RIDER]

I am glad the bike finished the race, but still a 50% failure rate

[Dr. Curve]

There are only three in the class because the others have long since gave up. BMW stays tenacious till the last corner, doggedly determined to seek, safety, performance, ease of maintenance, and high quality components as quality goals for their continuing efforts.

[roger albert]

BMW stays tenacious?

They haven't even bothered to keep in the game the last couple decades,
and just started racing last year, and only a bit even then.

They haven't stayed the course. They've just now set out.

Glad they did though.

[EZ-RIDER]

the two Suzuki's made the grade and finished 1st & 2nd

[throttlemeister]

Originally Posted by Dr. Curve

There are only three in the class because the others have long since gave up. BMW stays tenacious till the last corner, doggedly determined to seek, safety, performance, ease of maintenance, and high quality components as quality goals for their continuing efforts.

Come Curve, that's just plain BS. There was hardly anyone in the open class before BMW came back and there is still nobody there. Hardly due to anything BMW did. And winning a class that only has 3 teams can hardly be called an achievement. It only makes nice statistics when everybody has forgotten there were only 3 teams entered. Maybe you should try life without them pink glasses for a change.

Personally, I am more impressed by them coming in at P16 with a more or less stock bike, after a whole fleet of full on superbikes. There is no shame in coming in behind those bikes.

[EZ-RIDER]

I love BMW's but I don't goose step to the bmw Roundel

[Skippy]

Come on give the Doc a break. Nothing wrong with some pink glasses, I wear them all the time, without them the world prabably ends up looking mutch to gloomy;-)

[Guest24]

You guys kill me. You spend all day cussin' the bike you love to ride. I think the guys that ride the Rim Rockets respect the BMW more than the eclectic group that rides them. Lets spend less time in Wal Mart bike world and catch the spirit that keeps the San Jose's, ATL's and Morton's of our bike trying to compete. Open is the class BMW runs in and open is the class it won.

[EZ-RIDER]

I am glad that BMW has returned to Racing" back to their roots!!
And 16th place finish overall is pretty good, But I think they can take it a few
notches higher, They have the money, more so then Ducati.
I just don't walk down the BMW path with my eyes closed

[Guest24]

Originally Posted by EZ-RIDER

I am glad that BMW has returned to Racing" back to their roots!!
And 16th place finish overall is pretty good, But I think they can take it a few
notches higher, They have the money, more so then Ducati.
I just don't walk down the BMW path with my eyes closed

That's gonna take time and effort EZ. They gave the rimsters a 24 lap (months) advantage. Just like Nate not having a Daytona fuel tank and suspension for AMA competition at Barber. They (BMW AG) are way down on the learning curve.

[roger albert]

> I love BMW's but I don't goose step to the bmw Roundel

Exactly. I'm glad they're there, and applaud it, but 1st out of 3 is a hollow victory.
Pitching a tent w/o context. You have to look at what you accomplished.
I've personally won a ton of races in easier classes, and don't pat myself on the back much.
Otoh, I've had 2nds, 3rds, and 4ths that were BIG accomplishments. The scope of a victory is based on the quality of the competition.

Now, 16th overall against liquid cooled 4s with a bunch of history. That's an accomplishment, and I applaud them. Guess maybe it's quibbling. It was the same race bike and race either way. I just think one context is way more impressive than the other.

No worries. We're all fans. We just pay tribute a bit differently from one another.

[Dr. Curve]

I seem to be living in a forum-land of "can't stand it's." The new bike does something "great" and I crow out BMW positives to ears that only hear their own echo of negative emptiness. As far as I am concerned there is only ONE in the class that BMW competes in..................and thats just fine with me. Finishing first in your class and 16th overall at La Mans is a "hollow" Victory????

My, my, a tookie must need a pet.................