ERIK BUELL RACING made another step in the phoenix comeback with the racing debut of the 1190RS in the AMA superbike championsip at Mid Ohio over the weekend.
EBR claimed two finishes in the top half of the field in the first race for the relatively untested 1190RS. In the hands of Geoff May the bike placed 11th in race one, finishing over 30 seconds behind the winner with a fastest lap of 1:27.225, 1.5 seconds slower than the fastest time. The second race May took 10th position on the Amsoil EBR 1190RS.
Stating in a post on the Erik Buell Racing Facebook page, the team underestimated the difficulty of setting-up the bike with the extra-weight from a 25lbs ballast to meet the minimum weight regulations. May also said how he struggled to cope with grip from a soft tyre in the second race - the Dunlop rear was 'destroyed mid race' after the team made changes to the chassis to compensate. Erik Buell praised May's performance on what he called 'the most stock bike' in the race.
EBR will attempt to get more testing before the next round at Laguna Seca, the same weekend as the MotoGP.
The Mid Ohio round also saw the racing debut of KTM in the States. Under the KTM-HMC Racing banner, Chris Fillmore rode a factory-prepped RC8R to a better debut taking seventh in race one and battling with the EBR in race two for tenth. Granted the performance from Fillmore on the KTM might be an unfair comparison to the likewise debut of the EBR 1190RS with the factory machine having more race experience in the IDM German superbike championship.
