Introduction

My biography section is intended to reveal the person behind the Schmidtastic title. You can check out my career by reviewing the biography section, or you can check out the story behind this site and the whole Schmidtastic thing.

Biography

I live in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada which is approximately a 4 hour drive away from Vancouver, BC, the third largest city in Canada. During the week, I work for the BC Ministry of Transportation (I'm pretty much the Canadian version of a US Highway Patrolman). Fortunately, this position offers up some flexibility in my work schedule, allowing me to travel to races all across Canada and the United States.

I've always been active in the sport of racing, starting as a kid with BMX and then progressing to motocross, snowboard boardercross, and most recently motorcycle ice racing. But the sport that I enjoy, and excel at, is definitely motorcycle roadracing.

I started road racing in 1993 at Portland International Raceway on a bike I road to the track (Canada to Portland, OR is at least a 5 hour ride!!) and finished 10th in my first novice race.

I wasn't able to race again until 1996 when I moved back close enough to civilization to make it to a track. That year was spent in 600 and 750 Supersport with OMRRA working my way up to a best finish of 6th. 1997 and 1998 were years of growth that saw me establishing myself as a podium regular at the club level as well as making it out to a few AMA Nationals.

In 1999, my talents were beginning to be obvious. I won most of the club races I entered for the last half of the year and was really beginning to make a name for myself in the Northwest. I finished the 1999 season with the OMRRA #2 overall championship plate.

Things exploded in 2000, with me riding full time for Tuff Dog Racing and travelling to many of the AMA Nationals with successes from all angles. I placed 2nd at an FUSA National race before being disqualified for my bike making 1/10th of a horsepower too much. I also achieved my first AMA top 10 at Pikes Peak in 750 Supersport on my Yamaha 600. In between the Nationals, I won practically everything I entered back at the club scene and in 2000, I set a new 600 lap record of 1:09.67 at Portland International Raceway. Even though I couldn't participate in all the club races because of schedule conflicts with the National events, I still managed to finish the season with the #4 championship plate.

My 2001 season was nothing short of a total roller coaster ride with its high highs and very low lows. The AMA season was a learning experience seeing me racing a new bike, in a new class, on some tracks that I had never raced at before. With all that in mind, I am truly pleased with my consistent top 10 finishes in the 750 Supersport races, but had it not been for a few mechanical problems suffered throughout the season, I believe I would have been fighting for a top 5 championship position against the well known teams like Corona EBSCO Suzuki and Vesrah Suzuki. My 2001 OMRRA results speak for themselves: seventeen wins, four 2nds, one 3rd, and one 4th in twenty-three races. Not too bad for a 750 Supersport bike competing at a horsepower track against GSXR1000s, R1s, and RC51 superbikes.

My 2002 season has had its up's and down's with some stellar performances early with the month of July saturated with bad luck. My results steadily improved through the season until I was running at the front of the AMA Superstock pack during the Road America and Brainerd rounds. The ball was finally rolling as fast as I wanted it to right up until it stopped dead. July brought me the worst luck I've ever encountered in my racing career. In three weekends I completely destroyed a bike, crashed three times and blew up two motors. The 2002 AMA season has been a learning experience seeing me racing on some tracks that I had never raced at before. With all that in mind, I am truly pleased with my results when the bad luck clouds didn't hang over me. I significantly improved my best ever lap times at almost every track I went to that year, and showed a lot more of the factory support guys the fast way around than ever before. In terms of the Portland club scene, I think my 2002 results speak for themselves with four wins, and threes second place finishes.

My 2003 season was one I'm glad is behind me. Unfortunately I was just hit with one bad situation after another. I was out for about a month early in the year when my intestine got clogged (of all things). Thankfully surgery was not required, but I could not eat and lost 15 pounds in 10 days (I'm 5'9" and weigh 143lbs). From there I had my bike blow up right before a six-race road trip that was going to be the heart and soul of my season. Back home, the widespread forest fires came shortly after that, and just put a stop to all my plans. Even after all of that, I still managed to make it to 11 race events, although was off my game, recovering, for most of it. Because I switched bikes twice through the year, I was unable to gain significant points in any one class championship. Enough of the bad news stuff though - let's get onto what went well. Although I switched from a 750 to a 1000 to a 600 throughout the year, I still managed to pull off nine wins. In fact, the season ended quite strong after a switch to the new Yamaha R6. Out of six race starts I crashed out of the lead once, was run off the track on the first lap once (re-entered to finish 6th), and won the other four races!

I had a very stong 2004 season, whenever the bike held together on me! At the OMRRA regional races I won every 600 Supersport and Superbike race except for one where the bottom end of my motor let go (while I was leading). Some of my National road trips have been marred by mechanical DNF's, but my riding has been stronger than ever whenever I'm on the bike, and the results show that. I've put in impressive performances in many AMA and Canadian National events, including Laguna Seca, Calgary, Road America, Fontana, and Daytona. I won the OMRRA 600 Superbike Championship, finished 2nd in the 600 Supersport championship (despite winning every race but one), and won the OMRRA Overall Championship for the #1 plate for 2005. I also made it through the entire race season without crashing once!

Yet another strong season in 2005, once again winning the OMRRA Club Championship and securing the #1 plate for 2006. I won both of the OMRRA 600 Supersport and 600 Superbike class championships as well as the WMRC Open Supersport championship – winning every race I entered. Although I didn’t get to do as much travelling to National events as I’ve done in the past, I still put in some very respectable showings at both Calgary Cdn Nationals and Daytona AMA Nationals.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record, but I’ve had a very strong 2006 season, again winning the OMRRA Overall Championship and securing the #1 plate for 2007. I’m the third time repeat champion in that series now, and it will be very difficult for anyone to overthrow me. The #1 plate feels like it belongs on my bikes now. Additionally, I won the #2 plate for the WMRC Overall Championship (and just missed the #1 plate by a couple points), despite missing the first two rounds. I won both of the OMRRA 600 Superbike and 750 Superbike class championships as well as the WMRC Open Supersport championship – winning every race I entered. 2006 marked the first year in a long time that I didn’t attend many national events, but of the two I attended, I secured a win in 750 Superbike at the WERA National in Utah.

I’m not sure how to say this without coming off as boastful, but the truth is that I dominated in every class championship and overall championship I was involved in in 2007. I established the lead in each and every premier class in both organizations I compete in on each of their first weekends, winning every race, and relentlessly stretched out the lead in every class straight through to the last round in each where I won them all handily. I’m the four time repeat champion in the OMRRA series now, and current champ of the WMRC series as well. The #1 plate is firmly painted on the bikes now everywhere they travel to. I won the staggering number of 33 races on my way to seven class championships and two overall series championships.

History

Well, let me start off by explaining where the name "Schmidtastic" originated. The moniker is courtesy of Pat "Motoman" McGivern of Mototune Performance, and as you can probably decipher, it's the amalgamation of the words "Schmidt" and "fantastic". Pat started to call me Schmidtastic around the end of the 1998 season when I was starting to really develop myself as a front-runner in the Northwest. Once the 1999 season started, more and more people had picked up on my new nickname and it has stuck ever since. Recently, it has been brought to my attention that a well known, Australian professional roadracer, formerly of the AMA and WSBK series' and now in the MotoGP series, has developed a VERY similar name for himself. Perhaps his is a play on the word "ballistic", but the similarity is obvious. Rest assured, there is only one originator ... all the others are simply imitators!!

This website began during the winter of 1999-2000 after talking to Jon, a former OMRRA racer. Jon and I were both racing out of the Burnaby Kawasaki shop at the time and he had put up our team site the season before. The whole website project started out as a way to promote myself and my racing program to my current sponsors, but it soon started to take off and a lot of people began checking back regularly to read all my race reports.

Jon is on board again this season as one of my sponsors, so we'll be able to continue to provide visitors with all the inside scoop concerning my racing career and what goes on during a race weekend. I love to roadrace motorcycles in the summer and ice race in the winter, and whatever I'm doing, I will always be kicking ass to be the best. Hope you enjoy my site.