Well, I'm bummed.
Last race of the season was Saturday and our bike (SV 650) developed an electrical problem during practice which resulted in the bike running on one cylinder intermittently. Tore the bike appart in an effort to resolve the problem before race start but were unsuccessful. Nothing left to do but load up and head home.
So our first season racing went like this:
First race (6 hour endurance event) - our "new" previously sprinted raced bike suffered some type of engine failure which required the addition of significant quantities of oil during each fuel stop. We finished the race about the middle of our class, which wasn't too bad considering the bike's condition and the time lost in the pits. Engine was toast.
Second race (new engine) one of our team members was cut off and ended up hitting the rider's back tire. This resulted in a brutal highside with the bike flipping and landing upside down. We were able to make enough repairs to partake in the race but missed the first 8 or so laps. We still finished about the middle of our class with one rider riding injured.
Our third race we had a flat tire which cost us several laps. We still managed to finish about the middle of our class.
Our fourth outing we finally had a clean race finishing fourth in class. We were pumped. Based on our lap times from previous races we knew we were competitive but couldn't seem to get a break. We were really looking forward to our next race.
Our gremlins returned during our fifth race with another flat tire. This time we were bumped from a potential podium finish to last place since we didn't have a spare ready to go. We got a new tire mounted and re-entered the race, but weren't able to make up the time lost.
We've learned a lot this season. We had a lot of fun in spite of our dissappointments. We're really looking forward to regrouping during the off season and kicking some butt next year. We shouldn't have any problems since we've already used up two seasons worth of bad luck!