2008 WERA Round 4 Race Report

Whoa

June 6, 7 and 8 was the 4th round of the WERA Bridgestone National Endurance and Michelin National Challenge series, at Miller Motorsports Park down in Utah. Just one week prior, WSBK and AMA both had their races at the very same track. I would be racing with AMA professionals, WERA semi-professionals, and top riders from all over the country. To top it all off, I’d never been at Miller before, and I hadn’t even seen video of the layout we’d be running. Needless to say, the night before, I was pretty nervous

I flew down Thursday night with the usual suspects: Mario Alvarez Sr. and Jr. of Adrenaline Freaks Trackdays, Corey Baum, Brandon Bones of Studio819 Photography, Will Grenier, Troy Knapp and Duane Warren. When we got to the track, we began the (fairly sizable) task of unloading the trailer - and all my tires - and setting up our garages. Corey had rented two day garages for the weekend, and they turned out to be one of the best investments of the trip, with power, air, water, bathrooms and shelter all in one. Too hot/cold/windy/rainy/noisy outside? No problem, close the door! Plus, we were fortunate enough to find that our spaces were in the same overall garage as AMA riders Amber Rimes and Chad Lewin, Majik X riders Amy Karthaus and Mike Zottmann, and even one of the tire vendors.

Friday morning I was joined by my endurance partner Damon Mon Wai, OMRRA #1/WMMRA #4 back in 1994, and his friends Alfred and Eric. On Friday we got four practice sessions, but I only ended up running one of them, giving the bike to Damon for the rest so that he could familiarize himself with how it handled. I had a small scare in the morning when I heard what I thought was a valve tap, putting the fear of another engine failure into my head. As I fretted, Big Mario came over and only needed to listen to it for about half a second before confidently dismissing it as an exhaust leak. The bike indeed lasted the weekend, and most importantly I didn’t worry about it again, so whether he was right or wrong that was exactly what I needed to hear.

Saturday - Endurance

Saturday morning we woke to find something interesting - a sopping-wet track, and ominous clouds indicating that it’d stay that way! I remember hopping up and quickly switching my bike to the rains I’d brought on the 10% chance that it might be wet, and thinking to myself, Please, God, let it piss rain all day!! Being from the Northwest, I knew that Damon and I would be very comfortable and at home on a wet track, whereas most of the other competition would probably not be. My goal for the endurance race was initially just to complete all six hours and get some experience on the track, but if it was raining we might be able to actually get something done! But, the weather did not cooperate (or perhaps it did for everyone else). By the time my practice session came up, the track was dry enough that I found myself actively hunting for wet spots to cool the tires down, and by the second lap I was spinning up the rear due to overheating. I came in and with Will and Corey’s help, made a record-time tire change back to dry tires: In and out in about four minutes I went back out and finished that session, then gave the bike to Damon for the second practice while Alfred, Eric and I started bringing things over to the hot pit wall in preparation for the endurance race.

When the race itself started, I actually ignored my grid position completely and started straight from the pits. I figured in a six-hour race, where our team had only two riders, no dry-break fuel cans, no quick-change wheels, eight-year-old equipment and no track experience, the 30 seconds I lost at the start wouldn’t end up amounting to much. Better to start 30 seconds after the pack and with a clear track than catch red mist and shag the tire for half an hour trying to keep up with the big teams! However somehow a mix-up occurred between registration and scoring, and pit gate wouldn’t let me on the track, because apparently I wasn’t on the grid in the first place! After a couple more minutes we finally sorted it out - somehow Team Shake ‘n Bake had gotten registered with #44 instead of the 262 that was on the bike. I got the green flag and was off, settling in for a comfy half hour of riding before Damon’s turn.

While we wait out six hours, a couple things about endurance racing:

First, it’s kick ass. Try it. There’s not as much adrenaline and raw, bleeding-edge action, but there’s a lot more strategy and planning involved, and it’s definitely a team-oriented sport instead of a solo one. Many times racers have a “go it alone” mentality, and in endurance racing that attitude is both logistically and physically impossible.

Second, it’s the most exhausting thing on the planet. Never in my life have I been more tired than my last two half-hour sessions. The Vesrah Suzuki guys next to us were running hourlong shifts, and after getting off the bike after 30 minutes, my eyes bugged out at the thought of going another half hour.

Third, awesome people race endurance. We were pitted on the very end of the hot pits, next to Vesrah Suzuki, which is made up of some of the coolest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of being around. Despite all the extra junk Damon and I brought specifically for the endurance race, we were still woefully ill-prepared, and Vesrah Suzuki graciously lent us tools, shade, water, food, duct tape, and even encouragement.

Fourth, the equipment used in endurance racing is way cooler than the equipment used in sprint racing. Recall above where I said that Will, Corey and I changed my tires in a record four minutes? The Vesrah guys would refuel, change riders and change tires in under twelve seconds, from bike stopped to bike moving. Just before one of them came in, Bones noticed the crew preparing for a stop. He started booking it across the hot pits to try to take some photos - before he even got there, the stop was done and the bike was on its way out.

Fifth, .. it’s kick ass, try it!

Damon and I switched off every half hour, with Alfred and Eric timing and supporting us. We steadily improved from 2:20+ to a race best of 2:09 for me and 2:08 for Damon. The best times were actually achieved about halfway through the race; beyond that we were too tired to go any faster! However, the times did hold pretty steady as we fatigued, meaning that although there wasn’t numeric improvement, we did get steadier and smoother as the race went on. The equipment we ran held up remarkably: The bike didn’t complain even once, the brakes held up admirably, and the tire wear we faced was unbelievably gentle. I had brought three Medium DOT rears (already had them) from home for the weekend and I bought two new Hard slick fronts, but we ended up using only two rears and one front, for six straight hours in the desert. And the tires weren’t even bad when we took them off - the front looks like it could go a whole ‘nother six hours, and the rear we switched out (at four and a half hours, not three) easily has a few trackdays left on it. Bottom line: Bridgestone tires last forever! Bad for Troy, great for us! We ended up taking fourth in our class, Heavyweight Superbike. I was pretty happy with that result, considering it was a national event at a track we’d never ridden, I’d never run an endurance before, we didn’t have endurance equipment, and we didn’t come in planning to really compete

The only hiccup we ran into during the endurance race was in the very last few minutes - the rear wheel siezed up, bucking Damon off the bike in Turn 2. He was very lucky in that he came out with nothing more than some bruises and scrapes, considering that T2 at Miller is about a 100mph turn and (I’m pretty sure) the crash was technically a highside. My first thought was that the motor had finally given up and that I was out a bike for the sprints on Sunday When we got it back to the garage, though, the motor started up and revved fine, and sounded like there was nothing wrong. Wheel spun fine, tranny felt fine, nothing wrong with the chain.. but, just to be on the safe side, we swapped out the rear wheel for the sprints the next day. I was lucky about the crash as well in the fact that there was almost no damage to the bike - scraped up fairings and a broken lever and rearset peg were all it cost. Amber Rimes was kind enough to give me a brake lever, and Brian Trudeau (who flew in during the e-race) lent me his spare peg for the sprints the next day. After taking care of all that and changing the oil, I found some Icy-Hot for my legs and slept like a baby.

Sunday - Sprints

On Sunday, I awoke pretty relaxed, and surprisingly limber considering what I’d put myself through the previous day. After discovering and sorting out some registration hiccups (I was registered to race in a class with 100hp less than my bike), I spent some time going over the bike and double-checking everything, still a little wary of the lockup that had caused Damon to crash earlier. I ended up actually skipping the first practice session for this, but it didn’t worry me as I figured I’d got enough practice the day before, heh. When the second practice session came around, I went out to warm myself up for the day and stretch out, then I came back in and started mentally prepping myself for my first race of the day: Formula 1, somewhat akin to WMRRA’s Formula Ultra class. I had a while to wait, so during the downtime I helped out the other guys when they needed it, and otherwise kicked my feet up

For Formula 1 I was gridded directly at the back of the first wave, with only novices behind me. Duane was in the same race as they ran Experts and Novices together, and somewhere back in the second wave I could tell he was drilling into my back with his eyes, dying for a chance to stuff me. For my part, my goal for the race was simply, beat Duane. It wouldn’t be a very fair goal, as I’d have a good 30-second lead on him at the start, but judging by the laptimes and track experience we each had, it was still a needed one. Board’s up, board’s sideways, go!!

I got an alright start and picked off a few people on the straight, then merged into the pack and took a tight line for the first turn, a sweeping left. I kept up and did well through T1, but after T2 and T3, very fast right- and left-handers, the pack began to spread out. I did my best to stick close to the bike just in front of me, using him as both a tow and a teacher. He pulled away from me on the exit of 3 but I reeled him back in on the brakes into 5, a hairpin left. He pulled away again on the exit of 5 and that time I couldn’t make it back up on the brakes, as he had a better line through 6. I made a mental note to try that one on the next lap and concentrated on getting back on him, but by the next turn he’d powered away far enough that I wasn’t close enough to study him anymore. I continued this pattern for the rest of the race, studying the sprint lines of whoever was in front of me and at the same time trying keep up the pace and not become simply a rolling roadblock, until Duane passed me on the brakes in the last section before the straight! This will not fly, I said to myself, and with renewed spirit I chased him as best I could. Unfortunately for me, he had more track time and was better through the corners than I, and the usual Fuzimoto Advantage(R) I enjoy over my competition was null against Duane’s Speeddealer-built GSX-R1000. All I could do in the straights was keep up (which in itself speaks volumes to Fuzzy, considering the base differences between my ‘01 750 and his ‘05 1000), and he crossed the finish line two laps later just out of reach. Back in the pits, he and I congratulated each other on a great race, and I got plenty of ribbing for letting a Novice (quote quote) beat me in a National. Duane may be many things, but a novice he certainly is not! I ended up taking 15th of 18 experts, with Duane finishing 5th of 10 “Novices”.

My next race was the one I was most excited about - B (750) Superbike. I had no power disadvantage in this race, so I was determined to do as well as I could. I was gridded again right near the back in the second wave, but on the start was a bit more careful with the clutch and made good time getting off the line. By the time I entered T1, I was at the front of the second wave and within sight of the first. I held on pretty well through turns 1 - 4 and even made some passes on the brakes into turn 5, but started to lose ground again in the more technical back stretches of the track. However, I didn’t lose too much and I knew that since this race was only four laps, if I could tooth-and-nail it well enough through the back sections to keep up until the straight, I might be able to do well. I stuck to that plan as best I could, and coming onto the front straight I planted myself firmly in the draft of the bike ahead of me, letting me slingshot past about halfway down. I got the guy ahead of him a few seconds later as we entered the braking zone for T1 and I deliberately pushed myself well past where I’d normally been braking, just like the Adrenaline Freaks motto says.. “Wide open ’til you see God, THEN brake!” I definitely saw something as I tipped in, but I’m still not sure whether it was God or simply my life flashing past. Either way, though, the pass stuck and I made the corner… then quickly romped back on the throttle for turns 2 and 3 I ended up finishing 16th of 24 in that race, far better than I’d either expected or hoped! I also ended up getting my best time of the weekend; 2:06.032 around the Perimeter (World Superbike) course.

Finally, the last race of the day, A (Open) Superbike rolled around. Duane and I were again both in the same heat, and this time I had a score to settle. I was gridded at the back of the Expert wave, and he at the back of the Novices. I nailed the start and flew up into mid-pack down the straight, bombing into T1. On the exit I immediately lost some ground to the bigger bikes, but I didn’t worry about it as I know many of these racers are fast by AMA standards. I instead concentrated on pushing myself to gas earlier, brake later, and turn harder, hoping that if I could ride the snot out of the old machine I was on, I could stem the bleeding and keep up better with the big boys. However, right as we entered Witchcraft, the very fast turn 7 on the Perimeter course, the red flag comes out. Crap! I couldn’t see the crash as I went around back to grid, but it turned out that the rider was OK and the red flag was just due to the bike laying in the race line.

With blood flowing and adrenaline from the previous half lap still pumping, we lined up for grid again I nailed the start again and drove hard into T1, and caught quite a scare for a moment as I grab the brakes and didn’t slow down. Apparently the endurance the day before wore them down quite a bit! I pulled the lever harder and found the bite I wanted, though at much higher lever pressure than I was used to. Conveniently, that little episode helped me brake later, though! I put my head down and really concentrated on the areas I knew I was weak - T2 and T3, T6 and T7, and the final corners just before the main straight - as in this race I had a disadvantage in both the power and track experience department, and I needed to find a few seconds to keep ahead of Duane. For the first three laps I managed to hold my own, wringing my poor 750’s neck and diving deep into corners to try to keep pace with all the built literbikes around me, but finally on the fourth lap I figure out that I’m not going to catch the guy just ahead. I also knew that Duane was somewhere behind me, probably creeping close up on my rear tire, so on the fourth lap I started running slower but more defensive lines - tighter corner entries, not leaving as much room on the exit, etc, hoping that even if Duane was indeed faster than me, I’d prove too difficult to pass By the time I entered the last section leading on to the straight, I could practically feel him behind me. I entered hot and late into Clubhouse, a 90-degree left hander, then immediately exited wide and set up tight for Windup, a right-hand loop leading into the final corner of the track, Release. I did the same wide exit from Windup and held a tight line through the sweeping final left turn, then smashed open the throttle and tucked like my life depended on it. Out to the rumble strips, row through the gearbox, pin the limiter and … finish!!!

The gamble worked, and I crossed the finish line just ahead of Duane. He caught up to me on the straight and gave me the thumbs up as we looped around the rest of the track. He ran a hell of a race and made up probably a 30-second time difference to finish just behind me - congrats, man For my part, I got not-dead-last again, which along with beating Duane, was my goal! Final result was 13th of 15, which on an eight-year-old 750 in a National Challenge Open Superbike race at a track I’ve never seen before, I think is pretty good

All in all, this was an amazing experience, one that I hope to repeat over and over again in the future. I will definitely be competing in as much of the WERA West and WERA National Challenge series as I can in 2009, and hopefully I’ll get to do an Endurance or two as well. I want to thank my sponsors over and over again, for they make this dream possible for me and I couldn’t do it without every one of ‘em. Adrenaline Freaks Track Days, Studio819 Photography, Highway 66 Motorsports/Bridgestone, MorePower Racing, PowerStands Racing, RaceTech Suspension, new sponsor V-holdR Cameras, Vortex, Motorex, Pipercross Filters, Junior Monkey Design and last but never least PNWRIDERS.COM! They give me their support, so show your appreciation and give them yours!

2008 WMRRA 750SS Race

The June 14th WMRRA 750SS race. My worst race ever! my biggest crash of the year…

How I Broke My Collar Bone

This is my stupid crash in turn 3 at Pacific Raceways on June 14th durning the 750 SuperSport race.

2008 WMRRA 600SS Round 2 - Rain Race Start

The 600 Super Sport race star and first lap at Pacific Raceways for WMRRA. Rain Race!

2008 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report

Hmm.. I’ve got a lot of work to do.

I learned and experienced a lot this weekend. Saturday it rained, Sunday I raced the most powerful machine I’ve ever sat on top of. The results I ended up posting didn’t quite meet my expectations, but I’m not down about it, nor am I chalking it up to a “bad” weekend. The results just tell me I need to grow a pair and work harder

Saturday - Rain, rain, go away

Saturday morning was dry and cool, with only a spotty shower in the forecast. The clouds above looked threatening, but the most they let loose for most of the morning was a short misting.

I used the first practice session to bed in my new Performance Friction brakes and try to get a feel for how they responded to brake pressure. Mike McConaghey mentioned that they ramp up their torque as they heat up, and he was exactly right: Holding the same lever pressure coming into a corner, the brakes would go from not-much to on-your-nose stopping power as they heated up. I’m not entirely sure I like it, but I’ll see if I can get more used to it next week in Portland.

The second practice was just after lunch. The “spotty shower” had started up just before lunch, and about halfway through, we realized it wasn’t going to stop. I didn’t have time to change to rains before lunch was over, because I’ve only got one rear wheel at the moment. I went out anyway, hoping for the track to be dry enough to ride decently on DOTs, but came in after just a few laps. It was definitely wet out, and I am neither brave nor skilled enough to ride DOTs in the wet!

Quickly, I changed out my wheels and sent the rims over to Troy of Hwy 66 Motorsports, the new Bridgestone vendor (coming all the way up from Medford!). We got the rains mounted up, put the rims back in, and turned the warmers down to a relatively-cool 40*C. Rain tires are designed to operate and grip at a much lower temperature than normal dry tires, so baking them at normal temperatures would cause the tires to literally begin melting!

My first race of the day was 600 Supersport. It was raining pretty steadily at this point, but I had chickened out due to weather in the first WMRRA round and I knew I had to learn to ride in the rain sometime. I entered the warmup lap with the simple goal of preventing anything but the wheels and possibly my kneepucks from touching the ground. This would be the first time I’d ever tried to go fast in the rain, and I figured that I, of all people, needed no help crashing.. so making the checkered flag was my only goal of this race. When we gridded up, my visor began to fog, and by the time we started I could barely see! I ended up actually coming off at T9, wiping the fog away and having pit gate open all my helmet vents, then re-entering the track a lap behind. I took the rest of the race pretty easy, but I made it to the end and got my first rain race out of the way.

My second and last race on Saturday was 750 Supersport. I mentioned my visor problems to Troy of Bridgestone and he immediately offered me his personal Shoei, which is vented much better than my Scorpion. I wore that during the race, and along with some Rain-X on the visor and a makeship duct-tape Fog Shield, I could see perfectly! I was much more comfortable during the second race, not only because I could see but also because I was beginning to trust the rain tires. Kevin and I had a good battle for a few laps - a couple times he showed me a wheel coming into a corner, but I’d say “no, sir” and dive in anyway. Eventually he got me on the brakes coming into T2, and then immediately put on a pretty good gap. That kind of kicked me in the butt and got me to step up the pace a bit, and I started working on reeling him in, but didn’t make it before the race was red-flagged. Several riders had gone down, but one bike had fallen in T8 and gone into the airfence, which is never a good place to be. Luckily though no one was hurt, and back in the pits Kevin and I congratulated each other on a great race.

Sunday - The Beast

Dry pavement! Sun! Hoowah!

Practice on the CBR wasn’t very comfortable, until I realized I was still running rain settings on my suspension. In the rain, braking and throttle inputs are much gentler, so the dampening forces in play don’t need to be as hard. With a softer suspension comes better tracking of the racing surface, so racers back off their dampeners quite a bit. In the dry, however, the control inputs will easily overpower the softer rain suspension, making the bike feel loose and hard to control. As soon as I figured that out and fixed it, I was much happier.

600 Superbike was first up. I was gridded in the second row of the second wave, and at the start I shot forward to catch the holeshot of the wave. By the entrance to T2, I’d almost caught the back of the first wave. On the straight a lap later I figured out why I had such an easy time shooting forward on the start, though: I was still running LVMS gearing! I was about five teeth shorter than I should’ve been for Pacific, causing me to bounce off the rev limiter from the exit of the chute all the way to the entrance of T2. Still, I did the best I could and ended up only losing one position due to the top-speed limitation. I may have actually profited in the end from the gearing, as my bike was a monster coming out of corners and I did a fair amount of passing that way. A couple laps later I had a close call with Darrel Nice - coming out of T4 I drifted wide to set up for the back straight and slammed into Darrel, trying to set up an outside pass! I was afraid I was going to put him into the dirt for a minute, but he kept it upright and on the pavement. Then finally, around lap 7 or 8, I got black flagged! Damn! I immediately looked around to see what could be wrong with me, and got off the line just in case I was leaking something. I came into the hot pits and one of the workers runs up and tells me I’m missing my bellypan. Apparently I’d been dragging it for several laps, and then it finally fell off between 2 and 3.. and I’d had no clue. I got back to the pits and checked it out, and sure enough the entire piece had ripped right off, taking a chunk of my main fairing with it. Luckily, 600SB was the last race I’d be doing on the CBR.

Up next was 750 Superbike… on The Beast A bit about this bike: It’s eight years old, and will pace a modern literbike down the straight. It’s got enough power to lift the front on command in third gear and enough brakes to lift the rear with two fingers. On top of all that, its suspension was not set up for me - it was set up for a rider with 30 or 40lb on me. Needless to say, this machine definitely frightens me, and unfortunately during this race it showed. As many people observed, I am much more comfortable on the CBR than the GSXR. Still, I managed to have fun as Kevin flew by me early in the race and I worked on catching up. I finally got him back on the last or second-to-last lap by simply motoring on past Scary or not, there is something to be said for having the bigger gun.

Back in the pits, I got the suspension tweaked a bit, and then Formula Ultra was on me before I knew it. The day was running late so the race was only 8 laps, which I was actually thankful for - when you’re uncomfortable you tire much more quickly on the bike. At the track entrance, I was sitting next to Eli Edwards, Mark DeGross, Pat Bertram, Mike Sullivan, and Mike McConaghey, among others… It was a pretty intimidating moment! However they’re all extremely nice guys. I wished Mark good luck, and he wished me the same. We went out for the warmup lap, and coming up to grid, I realized I’d forgotten to check my grid position. I figured I’d be gridded at the back anyway, so I just waited until everyone else was in position and then scooted up to the back row.

Board’s up.. board’s sideways.. light’s out, go! We all took off and settled in. I had grown a tiny bit more confident on the bike during the 750SB race and so was willing to actually get in there and fight for position, which is good, because I needed to! Several times I saw #14, Warren Brones, poke his wheel into my field of view, but each time I did my best to shut the door on him. Then, in Turn 9, he beat me into the bus stop and took off down the straight. He led me for a couple laps and then I managed to get on his rear wheel coming into the chute. I moved up next to him coming down the main straight, and then squeezed past through T1, with Warren, me, then the wall! A lap later the race was red-flagged - and there was no 14 behind me I was worried for a moment that I’d put him down as a result of the T1 pass, but thankfully I saw him up and walking in 4.

All in all, I didn’t do quite as well as I’d hoped, but I raced in a couple very new situations for me and got some valuable experience, in rain and on a very mean bike. Between now and June I’ve got several trackdays lined up, so hopefully I’ll have all my suspension and brake issues, rain fears, power fears and whatever else sorted out by then. For now.. gotta go fix the CBR’s fairing for Portland next weekend! As always, I’d like to thank my sponsors from the bottom of my heart for all that they help me with - Adrenaline Freaks Track Days, MorePower Racing, Highway 66 Bridgestone, Studio819 Photography, Race Tech Suspension, Vortex, Motorex, Pipercross, Junior Monkey Design and last but never least PNWRIDERS DOT COM All of you guys rock, and without you I could not do what I do. These guys support me, so everyone please show your appreciation and support them.

2008 WMRRA Round 2 Race Report - Slow Eric

Phew, first race finally in the books! Saturday’s practices started out ok. Novices practice first and it was pretty chilly when we headed out there. My plan for the first practice was my plan for the whole weekend, don’t die. I went out and did a few laps and made sure everything felt good and came in. I had a couple hours before my next practice so I got my dbcom set up (after making sure it worked) and made sure everything was tight and ready to go. 11am came around so I threw on the lap timer and headed out for practice #2. After a couple laps I was feeling good but noticed my lap timer wasn’t picking up a beacon, not a big deal since the lap times for practice would be posted shortly after out session. I was feeling pretty good and was pretty sure it was the quickest I had gone on that bike.

An hour after practice I stopped by registration to check my times….. Annnnddd nothing. My transponder didn’t get picked up. I took it and tested it again, worked great. I didn’t really know what to do so I just figured I’d hope it worked. First races started around 1 and by then, rain was falling. I wasn’t worried at that point, figured the track might be damp but the rain would surely stop in a few minutes… it didn’t. So I didn’t race. Oh well. No rain tires means no riding through puddles. Watched a couple more races and saw some pretty creative new ways to crash in 5 and 6. Tons of crashes but everyone seemed ok.

It was tough waking up Sunday morning (I’m not a morning person) but as soon as I realized my alarm was going off for a good reason, I popped out of bed. Forecast for Sunday was good. Arrived to a damp track but the weather looked like it was going to clear off and stay dry, and it did. Practice went well and the track was almost totally dry. I had my lap timer on and was really anxious to see how I was doing but of course there was no beacon out. After practice was over I checked the times and they weren’t able to record the novice race so I had no idea still if my transponder worked or not. I had also left my battery in it all night and heard that they don’t last two whole days. Oh well. I was sick of unhooking it (I didn’t have a proper bag for it so it was a pain.)

I had over 4 hours before my race so I had plenty of time to develop my strategy. I checked my grid position and I was starting dead last, row 10, since the strategy for my weekend was to survive, I figured I would take it easy in 1 and 2 and hang back and let the carnage play out before trying to make my way throught the pack. My goal was to finish in the middle (around 20th out of 40 or so riders.) I expected to get nervous as the race got closer but then I walked around and saw Tokin and remember that was my competition, I relaxed. All of a sudden it was about 2pm and off come the warmers and away I go…

We line up to get ready and roll out for the warm up lap. I take it easy and look at how everyone else looks and try to find the people I know are gridding in front of me. Lap comes to an end and we grid up. Board goes up, I rev the enging, first wave takes off, flag goes, and I’m off. After about 0.2 seconds of seeing how everyone started, I threw my gameplan out the window and hit it the throttle. Dodged a guy who stalled or something in front of me (nice job getting your hand up fast by the way) and dove to the inside of 1. Kept on the gas late into 2 and took it really wide as the inside was a pretty much a clusterfuck. A couple guys on the outside came together and although they didn’t go down it pushed another rider off the track who was trying to pass them (amazing how much you notice around you while you are trying to push it at the same time.) I got past the first little bunch of riders and came down the hill where another bunch of riders were clustering together. Moved up a couple more spots by the end of the lap.

After two laps the clusters were gone and I just tried to chase down anyone in front of me. Looked down at my timer after lap 4 (shhh, bad I know) and saw a 37.xx, a personal best, just made me push harder. I was feeling great until lap 6 (I think) when I came around a slower rider on the outside of the apex of 6 (not where I want to pass.) I had to turn hard into 7 and jammed my peg into the track. Bike didn’t like that much and I was pretty sure it was going to spit me off (”pull a Jared”) but all it did was kick me up a bit. I barely stayed on the track, realized I wasn’t actually going to crash and decided it was kind of fun. By the last lap I was finally catching the group I saw in the distance, I passed the back rider and saw that next was Jim on his 1098. I caught up to him really fast in 5-7 (turned out he hit a false nuetral in 5) and kept the throttle pinned up into 8 trying to catch him before the busstop. I couldn’t quite pass in 9 so I backed off a hair hoping I could get a better drive than him out of the busstop. As I came out I pulled in front of him but then his extraa 500ccs kicked in and he beat me to the chute.

I checked the board a bit later and I finished 12th* which I was very happy about (next time I really need to start somewhere besides last) and saw my final lap was another personal best of 1:36.4xx! Thanks to Jim I think for the extra motivation to push it at the end.

All in a all I had an amazingly fun weekend and racing is even more fun than I hoped. Big thanks to my race team for helping me out so much to this point and to Taylor for keeping me company the whole weekend. Also an extra huge thanks to all the WMRRA volunteers. The more time I spend out there, the more I realize just how much they really do. Good seeing all of you out there!

*Nico note: I realize I didn’t “place” 12th, I merely finished my first heat.

P.S. I think I need to get my suspension looked at, still haven’t touched it since buying the bike….

2008 OMRRA 600SBK - 2nd Half Race

OMRRA at PIR 600SBK - Watch the second half of the race!

2008 OMRRA 600SBK First Half of Race

This is the 600 Superbike Race from my vantage point. I was gridded at J1, way in the back, and it was a little more difficult race for me. A total blast!!!

2008 OMRRA 600SS Second half of the race

600SS OMRRA - 2nd Half of Race - April 13th, 2008

Some laps and crashes at PIR

A few laps on Saturday at PIR / OMRRA weekend.

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