VOLUME 56 ISSUE 43 OCTOBER 29, 2019 P99
By hour three, Kris was
in control, until he wasn't,
crashing at turn four. He got the
bike back to the pits, losing a
total of seven minutes by the
time I was given back the bike
for my second stint.
At this stage, we were second
in class and I was thoroughly
pissed off. Luckily, we were on
the same lap as the #3 Kramer,
and by the next round of stops
were back in the lead after I put
in a series of 1:50.1-second laps.
Yet more problems came the
way of the #3, and we had a
new problem—a Yamaha YZF600
with a tank about as big as a
Ford Raptor's. That meant they
had to only stop once per every
two of ours, but we were still
10 seconds per lap faster and
eventually Troy got us back in
the lead by our last stop.
It was decided for me to
bring the bike home, and I got
the team one lap up on the
Super Tanker to cruise home
and take the GP2 class win. We
also placed fifth overall.
Amazingly, we used the same
set of Pirelli Super Corsa SC1
front and SC2 rear slick tires
all race, although the front was
absolutely shot by the end of
the five hours.
What a day. Thanks very much
to the guys at Kramer Motorcycles
USA, Ben and Joe, plus Joe's wife
Brittany for the amazing support
during the weekend. Same time
next year, guys?
(Above) Asphalt and Rubber's Jensen Beeler gets
ready for his stint. (Right) Winners are grinners! Team
Krämer USA from left: Kris Skellenger, Troy Siahaan,
Rennie, team manager Joe, Jensen and mechanic, Ben.
UP7X 17 x 3.5 front and 17 x 5.5 rear forged wheels.
"It's a very simple chassis, but what is unique
about it is the fixture point is the pivot shaft for
the rear of the engine, for the swingarm and main
frame," says Joe. "The front of the engine is located
on the standard engine mounts for the KTM 690
motor, but our front engine mounts are floating.
"Inside the frame there's floating inserts that al-
low the chassis to flex more. This way, you can get
more torsional and lateral flex out of the chassis
because of that engine mounting configuration.
"There's no top engine mount, either. Just a front
and back mount. The front mount is floating. It was
proven to be the best solution when it came to
chassis dynamics."
The golden rule with racing motorcycles is to
have the optimum balance front and rear, and much
of this problem is dictated by the fuel and where
it's placed on the motorcycle. Many engineers get
around this problem by putting the fuel tank under
the seat so as to keep the distribution even as the
fuel load goes down, but Krämer takes things in a
different direction. On a Krämer HKR-EVO2 R (or
any Kramer for that matter), the fuel tank triples as
the place where the fuel goes, the subframe and
where the rider sits. It's all one unit.
