Nate down, but certainly not out.
When it comes to bravery, you have to hand it to Nate Kern. The BMW racer suffered a collapsed lung and six fractured ribs while competing in South Africa earlier this month, but just 14 days later found himself in Florida, and qualifying on pole position for the 25th Annual ASRA Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway.
Nate Kern is closely followed by British rider Richard Cooper at Daytona
Despite having 'wrapped up' the championship last month with this final round to spare, Nate didn't even need to race, but he was determined to finish his 2008 season on a high note, rather than the memory of a painful crash at Cape Town's Killarney Circuit a fortnight earlier. Unable to compete in the annual Eight Hours race at Daytona due to a lack of physical strength needed to have a chance of any success in this hard-fought endurance format, Kern nevertheless wanted to give the shorter Sprint format a try, and so entered the season-ending Pro Thunderbike National race at the historic circuit.
True to form, Kern was the fast qualifier at Daytona with a lap of 1:55.6 seconds. British rider Richard Cooper had made the trip all the way from the UK to race an R 1200 S supplied by the Fredericksberg BMW dealership Morton’s of Virginia. The 25-year-old Nottingham rider posted a best time of 1:56.2, which put him second fastest and on the front row alongside Kern. The two BMW riders led from the start of the eight-lap race, with Buell rider David Estok following closely in third place. Unfortunately, Richard Cooper crashed out of the race on lap three, while Estok closed in on Kern and stayed just behind the BMW rider until the pair exited the final turn of the high-banked Daytona track.
Timing the draft perfectly, Estok slipped past Nate as the pair approached the final drag for the finish line, just edging ahead of Kern and taking the win. Nate describes how this dramatic finale to the 2008 series came about.
"What a race! Cooper and I had made a plan to work together to break away at the start and then it would be 'gloves off' for the last few laps! I got a great start and Coops got in a good battle with Estok, who is a hell of a rider. On lap three, Cooper left his braking too late and locked up going into a big dip, catching his cylinder head and crashing into the air-fence. From there Dave really put his head down and a momentary lapse in concentration caused me to miss a gear selection which cost me quite a bit of time.
"Then as the race progressed, I came to regret having adjusted the pressure in my rear tire to compensate for winds cooling the track, so my tire started to overheat and I wasn't able to get the power down the way I wanted. Dave soon latched on to this and I knew I couldn't get any distance between us. Even worse was the fact that the best place to be on the final lap is right behind the leading rider, so that you can use the slipstream to slide past. I tried everything to get Dave to pass me on the last lap but he just wouldn't! I knew what was coming and even though I held my line, he got that half a bike length in front of me at the chequered flag. It was a tough race and I tried as best as I could, but in the end I just didn't execute it well enough!”
Nate on the podium at the 25th Annual ASRA Race of Champions at Daytona International Speedway, having wrapped up the 2008 title during the previous round
Despite (only) finishing in second place, Nate still dominated the eight-race 2008 ASRA Pro Thunderbike championship, finishing up with 254 points to win the title. Dave Estok was second with 197 points, with Dan Bilansky third on 136 points.