Rain, a lapper, a loose nut, and two wins…Peter Lenz races in Canada

May 22, 2008, From a Press Release

It isn’t often that a racer will travel 24 hours to a race in another country with a bike he had never ridden, but that is exactly what Peter Lenz did this past weekend. The results were very good all things considered. Peter ended up with two second place finishes on the new bike and two wins on his two trusty steeds and a tough fourth place finish in the rain.

Peter’s 1994 Honda RS85 was only finished at 4am Friday morning. The bike is powered by a bone stock 1998 Honda CR85 motor and was dyno’d by Eric Dorn of EDR Performance the day before, putting out 18.8hp. Other Formula GP motors have been known to produce easily over 10 more horsepower than the motor Peter was going to run. It was going to be a challenging weekend on a number of fronts.

Peter rode at Stratotech Park Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta one year prior when he rode his 50cc and 65cc MiniGP bikes in the CMA sanctioned CNMRA event. He enjoyed the track so much, he was willing to make the long drive to repeat last year’s wins.

After only one practice session, Peter put the RS85 on the front row with the second fastest qualifying time behind 13-year old Bodhi Edie from Warman, Saskatchewan. He also made a good showing with the Honda NSR50 and his KTM65, taking pole in several classes.

Come Sunday the weather turned from 70 degrees and sunny to cold and rainy. Even though Peter lives in Washington state he has minimal rain racing experience and the first race of the day was patchy wet. After loosing the front and rear multiple times in the opening laps of the Under 21 Spec class aboard his NSR50, Peter settled into a safe pace and came home a distant 4th.

In the Formula GP race aboard his stock RS85 Peter was determined to show that there is more to riding than horsepower alone as he took his underpowered RS85 and made his way in front of early leader, Canadian Superbike regular Dave Stokowski. He also fought off the continual hounding of Edie with his own seemingly rocket ship powered RS85. When he was passed by power Peter made his way back around Edie in the corners. As the race progressed Peter continued to learn the track with his new big wheeled bike and made it harder and harder for Edie to pass him down the straights as Peter got better and better drives down the long Stratotech straights. The race was by far the best with Edie and Peter swapping the lead several times, riding within inches of each other. The race came down to the last two corners when they came upon a lapper, Peter who was leading went around the outside while Edie went underneath. The lapper stood up as Edie went underneath pushing Peter wide and killing his drive to the line. Edie was able to pull out the win by a bike length over Peter.

Bodhi Edie and Peter squared off again on their RS85s in the Under 21 Formula GP race. This time Peter got the holeshot and easily led the race until his bike wouldn’t shift and Edie got by. Peter started to loose touch with Edie as the shifting problems continued and severe chatter developed. Peter brought his bike home two seconds back of Edie for second place. Upon returning to the pits it was obvious what the issue was, the swingarm bolt had lost its nut and backed out - far enough that it was preventing the shiftlever from moving and the chatter Peter had felt was in fact the swingarm working itself loose of the frame. Peter was lucky to even bring the bike back to the pits let alone turn the lap times he did and finish only two seconds back.

In the Spec Supersport race Peter put his 2004 Honda NSR50 out to a sizable lead and brought home the win. Peter repeated the performance aboard his KTM65 in the Formula Thunder race winning again by a sizable margin.

Due to the current price of gas and the lack of financial backing Peter’s race season has been shortened and additional dates are also at risk. A shortened race schedule is now posted on Peter website: http://peterlenz.com/schedule/
Peter will be riding this weekend at his local track in McMinnville, Oregon.

Peter Lenz is sponsored by his Mom and Dad, California Superbike School, Arai Helmets, EDR Performance, Pro Honda Oils & Chemicals, FNB Racing, Vortex, Performance Under Gear (PUG), Pro Caliber Motorsports, RK Racing Chains, Spiegler Brake Lines, MiniGPX.com, PMP, Miller Paint and Graphics, Motion Pro, Barnett Clutches, SBS Brake Pads, Spider Grips, Chicken Hawk Racing, All Things Drywall.