Heart and soul of a privateer: racing at Road America
Maverick - Jun 12, 2009

It is said that privateers make up 99 percent of the motorcycle racing industry. These are young men and women who compete, week in and week out during the racing season, with minimal resources and sometimes inferior racing motorcycles.  

 

Mike Morgan, an AMA Pro Racing Sportbike privateer and Road America on June 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th, changed the tires, changed the oil, put the final tune on the engine, and dialed in the electrical, brake, suspension, and fuel systems to gain optimum performance from his 2008 Suzuki GSX-R600. He does it all including racing his motorcycle! 

 

Privateers come in different forms, but most privateer racing is made up of high energy and skilled athletes who love racing. Sometimes privateers have the support of one or two people (often a spouse or family member), who also give their time with no promise of anything in return. 

 

Privateers typically work full time in careers, unrelated to racing and often unrelated to motorcycling, to earn a living plus enough money to support their passion of motorcycle racing. Morgan works full time for Kenwood USA. 

 

                                

There is more!  Morgan, and other privateers we’ve interviewed, spend much of the off-season, generating sponsors which may provide cash, parts, oil and other liquids, energy drinks, tires, graphics, and so on. 

 

                                 

By contrast, Factory or Team riders are made up of a support team of professional mechanics that do everything with the exception of racing the motorcycle. When the rider comes to the race, the bike is ready to roll. If a race ends in a crash, the motorcycle is carefully rebuilt and tuned by professionals in time for the next race.  

 

                                 

When a race is completed, Factory/Team rider’s motorcycles are tended to by professional mechanics.

 

 

Quite a difference! As you will learn later in this article, Morgan slid into the grass on a wet race course late Saturday afternoon. He picked himself up, checking to be sure all body parts were connected, restarted his Suzuki and rode it into his garage; i.e., a six foot wide by ten foot long trailer. Granted most of the damage was to the exterior of the motorcycle, but Morgan spent the remainder of the day and most of the next morning preparing the Suzuki for Sunday’s race.

 

Morgan says racing and the lifestyle is like an addiction; “every year one gets a little better, acquires more sponsors, and comes away feeling hopeful of a better finish.”

 

There is also a culture among the racing community of helping each other, learning from each other, and looking out for each other.  In fact Morgan’s latest insight, a tip from a Team Mechanic, eliminated drag caused by the brake rotor on the front wheel by increasing brake pad thickness by 1 millimeter. The increase reduces the caliper play just enough to allow caliper to float more consistently. Pretty simple, but only something one learns by spending fulltime testing ways to increase lap time by two or three seconds. 

 

Morgan has been racing for six years and on Friday, qualified 40^th in a grid made up of 48 riders. 

 

                                  

After the first two rounds at Barber and Road Atlanta I was looking forward to Road America. I have done reasonably well at the track before, but I've also had some of the worst luck at this track. 

 

The weather in Wisconsin can always be tricky this time of the year because up here in the north we are still just getting into summer. In the springtime storms can be very unpredictable. And sure enough this year was no different than the previous years at Road America. A few nice days and then the rain came. Saturday was absolutely miserable with highs only in the 50s and raining.

 

I have come to realization that I'm a much better rider in the rain! And in motorcycle racing, it is generally said that a rain race is the great equalizer because horsepower means very little on a wet racetrack. 

 

So it brings the rider's talent into play much more than normal. Suspension does help, but being patient and having a good feel for what the motorcycle is doing will pay huge dividends. 

 

We were allowed one 10 minute warm-up session before the race to get a feel for the track conditions. Several racers crashed during the 10 minute warm-up session, so they never made it into the race. 

 

For the race, rain was constant rain and visibility was extremely poor! Going into turn one was very interesting to say the least. The visibility only cleared once everybody started to get on the brakes going into the turn. Simply staying upright through this first turn was a challenge. But I was able to get through relatively easily and continue to move forward on the first lap. 

 

During the first few laps I was catching and passing people that I do not normally race with on a dry track, so that was very exciting. I also watched two of my friends crash right in front of me, but they were okay and ended up watching from the sidelines. 

 

Then several laps into the race the Pace Car came out. This ended up being good for me as I was able to catch the front pack and the safety car stayed out for two laps. Conditions necessitated a restart, and going through turn one for the second time was a little easier. People were being extremely timid and I was able to take advantage of this. It is amazing how well motorcycle racing rain tires work! So again I ended up catching and passing several people and continue to move up in position. The tight curve of the carousel (portion of the track), provided opportunity to estimate my position and things were looking good for me.  However, I did not know that I had gained 25 positions and was now in 15^th position. 

 

On the final lap of the race I could see one factory rider directly in front of me and all I could think about was making the pass and beating him to the finish line. That is when disaster occurred, as

 

Entering turn three, I positioned myself for a potential pass on the next strait when the rear end of the bike locked up because I let the clutch out too fast, and the motorcycle started to fishtail. Unable to recover, I ran off the track, hit the wet grass went down. 

 

While tumbling through the gravel trap, I could not believe what had just happened. I was only half a lap away from my best AMA finish ever! 

 

Finishing anywhere near the top 10 in a national event is a huge achievement. I did finish the race but very disappointed in myself for not being more patient. That is racing and I was pushing to take the better position because that's what you do in racing. 

 

After staying up late Saturday to repair the motorcycle from the crash and finishing pre-race preparation on Sunday morning, Sunday's race proved to be a little more difficult. 

 

I ended up with a terrible start and the front brakes and tires just did not feel correct. So I was very timid at the beginning of the race. And the same thing that caused me to crash the day before made me struggle during the race. So with me thinking everything was not right I just went slower. Lap times were okay, but the motorcycle didn't start to feel right until about lap four, and by that time I had lost touch with most of the racers in front of me. And with Road America being such a high speed track with very long straight-aways, the draft is very important. 

 

                               

The race ended with Morgan running out of fuel, but he demonstrated much courage and a will to succeed in a motorsport that demands a lot to be competitive with no promise of any return other than a racer being able to say; “I did my best!”

 

Click here to learn more about Mike Morgan and to follow his racing throughout the 2009 racing season.

 

 

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