Well, here we are, already working in the 2018 Pikes Peak Project. Time flies and the 24th of June (race day) is approaching very fast!
This year our rider is Rennie Scaysbrook, who finished 2nd in the last 2 Pikes Peak editions riding a KTM. He is one of the very few riders who has managed to climb the mountain in less than 10 minutes.
Kriega will continue supporting us in 2018. As you know they were our main sponsor in 2017 and this year they will make again a new Bottpower Pikes Peak limited edition backpack design (I have seen some drawings and it looks really cool) to help us with the project funding.
At Bottpower, we are preparing also some new and very cool stuff. T-shirts, jackets, caps, etc. Stay tuned! 🙂
Besides racing in Pikes Peak, Rennie is the road test editor of Cycle News magazine.
By the end of January, Ducati made the world presentation of the new Ducati Panigale V4 in Ricardo Tormo circuit (Valencia, Spain) and Rennie came to our city to test it. Taking profit that he was coming to Valencia, we organized a small test that allowed Rennie to have a first contact with the BOTT XR1R.
The bike didn’t have yet any of the improvements that we are preparing for this year’s race, but even so we thought that it would be very good that Rennie could test it. In that way we could have his feedback to take it into account for the evolution work that we are doing right now.
Next photo shows the bike with the “winter test livery”. It really makes sense to use this decoration during the first tests because we are still talking with several companies about sponsoring Bottpower’s 2018 Pikes Peak project. Interested parties who would like to join Bottpower on this epic journey, please do not hesitate in contacting us.
We tested the bike in the “Kartodromo Lucas Guerrero” track which is quite close to Ricardo Tormo Circuit. Rennie adapted quickly to the bike and in the end, he was riding fast, lapping in a constant way in the same lap times, which were the fastest that the XR1R has made until now on this track.
We made some setup changes that improved clearly the bike behavior and Rennie gave us his feedback regarding what we must improve: initial throttle response and also the tendency that the bike has to wheelie at the exit of slow corners.
In summary, it was a very positive first contact.
During the next chapters, we will explain the different aspects in which we are working to prepare the bike for the race.
This year the Pikes Peak race will be very hard, mainly because the Ducati official team comes back to the competition at the mountain after some years without racing at Pikes Peak in an official way.
We know that it will be very difficult, but for sure that we will give our 100% to try to beat them.
Here you have a short video of the test. Please enjoy the sound! 🙂