Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

Vertemati Supermotard SR570 It GUALIFVING HEAT RACES By BLAKE CONNER was time to put up or shut up. I'd been running my mouth too much lately about wanting to participate in a Supermotard race - so, when the perfect opportunity was presented to me, I jumped on it. Darrick Lucchesi from Mx Imports Inc. called me up after reading my "Supermotard Madness" feature, (Issue #9, March 6, 2002) and asked me if I wanted to test his new SR570 Supermotard-specific factory race bike. I, of course, said yes, but I then asked, "Where the hell do you test a Supermotard bike?" Darrick wasn't sure either, so we sat on the idea for a couple of weeks. The next time I heard from Darrick, he had a plan he proposed that I race the bike in the season-opening STTARS (Super TT American Racing Series) event at Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, California. I'm always up for a little trial-by-fire, so I thought, "What the hell, why not?" I arrived at Mesa Marin and ran into road racer Mark Miller, who was to be my teammate for the day, riding a Vertemati as well. Having never even ridden in an actual Supermotard race, I was a little bit embarrassed to be riding what was easily the trickest bike in the paddock - the bike would probably do a lot better in the hands of my colleague Don Canet from Cycle World magazine, but oh well. That's why Darrick brought Miller along, so I was just going to try and have fun. 26 MAY 8, 2002' cue I • Before my heat races, I was able to get in two short practice sessions on the bike, and get a feel for it. The first thing I noticed was that the bike has power - I mean serious power. It was way faster than the YZ426F Supermotard bike I had previously ridden (Vertemati claims that the bike makes 70 hp at the crankshaft). It was also a lot faster than the Honda CRF450R, or KTM 520SX motocross bikes I've ridden recently. The difference here is that the SR570 was easily able to pull taller gearing, making the thing a rocket ship. The bike is virtually race-ready out of the crate. The only items that need to be changed are the tires - depending on the type of track it will be raced on. It comes with Dunlop slicks front and rear, but as was the case with Mesa Marin, which had a dirt section with a decent-sized jump, slicks weren't going to cut it. Darrick fitted an Avon Gripster AV37 racing rain tire on the front 17 -inch Excel rim - which is soft enough to offer awesome traction in all conditions and cut grooves into the 17-inch rear slick for additional traction in the dirt section. The Vertemati comes with a host of trick items, such as little miniature catch tanks which all of the vent hoses drain into. It also features a crankcase-pressure release valve that vents into the frame and has a drain plug at the bottom that can be emptied at the end of the day. The SR570 n e VII' Sf comes out of the crate safety wired and I mean everything is safety wired. It should save the buyer a lot of drill bits, not to mention headaches. For whatever reason, I was gridded on the front row for my Novice-class heat race and got an okay start despite the fact that I smoked the tire and wheelied at the drop of the green flag. I really didn't have any idea how fast the guys around me were, so I just tried to ride smoothly and get a feel for the bike. I was running in second place and making good time in the pavement sections, but I was getting killed in the dirt section. The problem was that I was having so much fun launching off the 25-30foot jump and landing with the throttle pinned that the rear slick was spinning wildly grasping for traction while the rear end swapped from side to side like a pendulum. I didn't realize that former motocross racer Darrick from Vertemati (also in his maiden Supermotard race) was catching me through that section. We diced back and forth all the way to the checkered flag, crossing the line side by side, both convinced that we had finished second (he did). That heat-race dicing with Darrick was one of the most exciting things that I'd ever done on a motorcycle, and it was cool because I knew I would legitimately be starting from the front row for the main event. As for the bike, I was really impressed with its speed, and also with how well it handled in the tight corners and flew straight and level over the jump every time. The thing that was freaking me out, however, was getting on the throttle coming out of the tight corners. The bike has so much power that it was just lighting up the rear tire everywhere, and in a couple of places there were concrete walls that I really didn't want to get intimate with. I also entered the Open-class event just for fun, knowing that all of the fast guys that were going to race in the Premier-class event that evening were riding it as well. I started my Open-class heat race from the front row, which I didn't deserve because at the start about 10 guys shot past me into turn one. I ended up finishing 10th out 25, which was fine with me, because I wouldn't have to mess with the fast guys at the start of the main. Then things got interesting because, while we were waiting to race in the main events, it started to rain. The track was soaking wet, and as we sat in the rnotorhome eating soup, it looked like the day was going to get rained out. The next thing I knew, they were calling the Novice race to the grid, and the track was still very wet. I was a little concerned because the track was a banked oval with a concrete wall around the perimeter. Also, I was running a cut-slick rear tire on which the grooves weren't cut all the way to the edges, and there wasn't time to cut them. RACES In the novice race, I decided to start in second gear - to help quell the wheelspin - and was first into turn one. The track was pretty damned slick, but I'd ridden in worse conditions, so I just started going for it. Going for it led to me making one of the biggest rookie mistakes possible: I never looked back to see how big of a lead I had. I kept on pushing as hard as I dared - I wanted to win, you know? I think it was on the third lap that I went into turn one on the banking in fifth gear WFO, and for whatever reason was comfortable with the level of traction I was getting. "Urn, what traction?" I thought to myself as I lowsided at around 70 mph. I just had the thing leaned over way too far and was on the slick part of the rear tire - you know, the one that didn't have grooves cut to the edges. The next sequence of events was rather funny because, as I turned around to see if I was going to get run over, the bike had slid down the banking onto the apron, behind my back. So, when I turned around to find it, it wasn't there. Now I had to stand there and wait until every single rider went by before I could attempt to get to the bike. Then I had to kick over the flooded, forward-kick-Ievered Italian

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