The team manager

We caught up with Luis Borras to find out more about what it means to manage a bagger racing team

“At Joe Rascal Racing, we created a complete new team from scratch,” says Luis Borras, the Joe Rascal Racing Team Manager.

Luis has more than 20 years of experience in race team management, running teams in the Spanish and world championships. His role at Joe Rascal Racing consists of two parts: Crew Chief for racer Archie McDonald and Team Manager for the race team as a whole.

The role of crew chief is very focused on a single bike’s set-up and performance: “I work with Archie to make sure everything for the race weekend is structured in the best way possible for his success. I’ve worked with him for a few years now, so I know his skills, I know he’s fast on these bikes at the track and during the race. He knows exactly what is happening with the bike, so we can concentrate on working on the bike to make sure it’s as successful as possible for him.”

Then Luis takes this to the next stage, making it work for the whole team and ensuring everything has been thought of. “As the team manager I make sure everything is working and in place, liaising with the co-ordinator to identify what we can do better and basically approaching the event with the work already done, so we can concentrate on the race and give the riders the best chance possible.

“It’s a very complex logistics operation to make sure all necessary equipment has reached the track and that nothing is missing. We had just two months to do that for the first race, but everything came together. Now the focus has moved to making performance improvements to go faster on the track.”

This interview was carried out just before the second round of the Harley-Davidson Bagger World Cup at Mugello.

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