Watch the Honda TT Legends Endurance Racing Team Complete a Pit Stop – Video

Endurance racing and superbike racing have a lot in common. Both types of racing use similar machines and often feature the same riders. Some endurance races, the Daytona 200 perhaps the most notable of them, are included as regular points-scoring rounds in championships that otherwise feature rounds that are a quarter the length. But there are also some key differences such as functional lights, swapping riders and, of course, the overall length of a race. One of the most important differences, and one that plays a vital role in team strategy, is the pit stop.

The 2013 FIM Endurance World Championship kicks off this weekend, April 20-21, with the Bol d’Or 24-hour race at Magny-Cours in France. To mark the start of the Endurance racing season, the Honda TT Legends team released a new video breaking down its pit stop procedure. The team’s race manager Russell Benney talks us through the many steps involved in a standard pit stop.

Crew members work quickly to first prop the team’s CBR1000RR up on both side and rear stands. The pit crew then swaps out the front and rear tires while the fueling team refills the tank. Refueling is only allowed once all other mechanical changes, including tire swaps, are complete. As we can see in the video, the CBR1000RR has two fuel openings to allow for a quicker refueling process.

The whole process, shown in real time with footage from the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans, takes less than 20 seconds to complete.

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The 2013 Bol d’Or begins 9 am EST on April 20. The race will be streamed live on http://www.fim-tv.com/.

[Source: Honda TT Legends (YouTube)]

By Dennis Chung