Race Report

Considering all that I've been working through, I'm happy with my results for the weekend. After the tremendous hole that I worked myself into last year, and getting over a tweaked shoulder from a bone-head move on a snowmobile in the off-season, I'm happy to get through the weekend getting the feel of the tires moving around under me again.

I spent pretty much the whole first Superbike race on the heels of Mike Ciccotto. It was kind of weird, we caught and passed people, and had someone come through us and move forward too, but we were just locked together for the duration. I did get by at one point, but Mike quickly got me back. After that I never really got close enough to be an immediate threat and it ended that way at the flag.

The Superstock race was sort of bitter sweet. The sweet part was that I got a really good start by taking the wide line into the first braking section. I was so wide that I was practically up onto the banking when normally the racing line is well down on the apron. I must have passed about 10 or 12 guys. The bitter part was that I ended up dropping back as I wasn't able to turn the times that the guys around me could. I eventually faded back to a somewhat dismal 17th place finish.

Sunday was redemption day for me. I finally felt back into the whole road racing thing again after a long winter on snowmobiles. I almost had my chances of feeling good on the drive home slashed from me when I got behind a bike that was spraying oil in the early laps. The oil completely covered the whole front of me, my bike, and (the worst part) my facesheild. There was so much that it was literally running up my windsheild. I dropped back heavily, going about 4 seconds a lap slower than normal. It was all I could do to keep it between the curbs. The last section of the track is just made up of plastic curbing in the middle of basically a big parking lot. It's also into the sun in that section. I was nowhere near the limit of the tires, but still running over the curbs almost every lap. I just couldn't see them. It wasn't fun. I didn't know if I should try wiping my visor, but I thought it might be disasterous. Even though I wasn't getting any more oil on it, it kept getting worse and worse as the dust and dirt was sticking to it. I was lucky enough to get my red flag. In the restart I ended up battling with Marco Martinez on a GSXR-1000. I could pass him at the end of the back straight, but then he'd just get be down the front right afterwards. I had to put together an absolutely hairball move to get by into the first braking section so I'd have a full lap of corners to get a lead on him before the straight. It worked out, and I moved up to 20th for the final result.

I didn't exactly set the world on fire down in Fontana. But my confidence is up now, and I'm looking forward to some better results at Sears Point.