Race Report

Man, what a hectic weekend. It had everything from glorious victories, to racer/mechanic politics, to embarrassing starting grid moments.

We did some testing the previous weekend down at Sears Point for the upcoming AMA National round, so we had most of the kinks sorted out and the bike working great.

Friday we spent most of the afternoon chasing a rear suspension problem but still turned some fast laps in the high 1:08's on used tires. Saturday I fought and fought with the rear suspension without finding much of a cure, but still turning fast laps. I went out on my sponsor's SV650 for a practice session to see if I could make some suggestions as to bike set up. That was pretty fun, and it was kind of neat to see I was turning times on it fast enough to run at the front after one session. I also uncovered a few things that were helpful for him, which helps to make me feel like I'm earning my keep.

Saturday night I woke up in the middle of the night in my usual nervous night-before-the-race state and had some ideas about the rear suspension. I tried them for morning warm-up and it was pretty much solved. phwew. The morning started out great, I nailed my starts and led into turn 1 for all of my qualifiers and checked out from there. So I'm gridded on pole for all of the races in the afternoon, but it starts raining at lunch, and doesn't stop (which changes everything). 750SS - there's a couple guys at the track that I know are pretty fast in the rain, John Dugan in particular, so I'm expecting to have a tough afternoon. I tried hanging with John for the first few laps but ended up running off the track at the end of the back straight. I spooked myself bad enough to tell myself to play it cool. My track record up till this point in the wet is run at the front, then crash, every time. I was hoping to change that, and it worked. I finished 3rd.

Open Superbike is next and I basically finished second with Dugan riding off into the sunset in the lead. Problem is that he rode his 750 instead of his 1000 that he qualified on. I'm not sure why he swapped bikes (even though the 750 would be less of a handful in the wet), because he was the class of the field all day in the wet and was probably going to beat us no matter what he rode. The race directors, officials, scorers, and referee all knew that he cheated so I was told that all that was needed to do was for a rider to say something. I did that, and was awarded the win after he was disqualified. I kind of feel bad because I know that Johnny is going for the OMRRA championship, and he is my friend. But everyone needs to play by the rules, and I'd expect nothing else from him or any of my competitors if the situation were reversed. In the 750 Superbike race I just thought I'd play it cool. A few guys crashed out near the front and I ended up with the win. I hate racing in the rain, and I can't even get excited about winning in it.

Just in case the day was getting boring for anyone, I thought I'd put on a show for the last race of the day. On the start grid for the NWCycle Formula Unlimited race I spun my tire at the flag. I guess I was lined up on one of the launch pads for the drag cars or something, but with the wet pavement and all the inertia from the spinning tire it just wouldn't stop spinning. Basically the bike ended up pointing the wrong way by the time I got it under control. So I picked it up, got it pointed the right way, and took off with everyone already past turn one. That first straightaway seems like 10 miles long while I'm thinking about how much of a putz I must have looked like, and how I'm glad that the race is 14 laps instead of 10 so maybe I can catch more of the slower guys .... Anyway, I ended up finishing 2nd. I couldn't believe it, and had no idea until I made it back into the pits. I just kept spotting riders a couple turns ahead of me, giving motivation, and kept going. So the weekend ended up pretty good with two wins, a second, and a third. I'm OK with that, even though I was planning/hoping to win it all after smoking everyone in the morning qualifiers on used tires. It could have been much worse, the bike is still straight and we're getting ready for Sears Point on May 4,5,6. Watch for us, I'm trying to lay down another solid finish to really get the ball rolling in the AMA 750 Supersport class. Wish me luck!