Race Report

After two full days of rain delay at Sears Point, I pretty much rule at X-Box Mech Warrior. Thankfully we got a bunch of practice in on Thursday before Friday and Saturday's activities were cancelled because of rain and water on the track. For a bit I almost felt bad hanging out in a big pimp-daddy motorhome with my feet up playing video games for two days straight while so many other people sat in lawn chairs outside, but it passed. My thumbs were sore from working the controller. I was a little worried that when it finally was time to ride I'd try to steer my bike like a Mech Warrior.

Once it was decided that there would be no qualifying for any of the races, and that they'd be all run on Sunday with no breaks or lunch in between I knew it would be a busy day on Sunday. I didn't have any pit help this weekend, so had to take care of the whole program myself, including tire/wheel/brake changes in between sessions. Since there were no qualifiers at all, they just gridded us based on season points. My buddy Nathan didn't have any points so got jacked out of the whole day on Sunday. It sure sucked for him, but provided a spare set of hands for me to help with the bike.

The first Superbike race went really well. I spent the whole time dicing with the Canadian National Blackfoot Motorsports riders Francis Martin and Clint McBain. It felt pretty good to run with them, as they are fellow Canadians and on factory 1000cc superbikes, whereas I was on my superstock 750cc. Clint and I traded spots a number of times through the race, with all the passes really clean. We must have been pushing each other, as later in the race we started catching riders that were well ahead before. In the end I put a rider in between us, and pulled out a gap on them to finish 20th. I am really happy with the result, especially since I charged up through the field so much.

The Superstock race went equally well. I lowered my lap times even further, and charged up through the field once again to finish a solid 14th. If only I had a chance to qualify, and get a better grid position for the start than what they gave me based on points.

This is where my weekend fell apart. The second Superbike race was immediately following the Superstock race. I had about 10 minutes where the bike was up on the stand in between races. We barely had time to change the rear tire and fill it with gas. No front tire or brake change at all. But the killer was that I didn't consciously think about rehydrating. I took a couple sips of Poweraid, but that didn't cut it. At about 1/3 distance I just fell apart. My arms and legs got so weak I couldn't hang onto the bike any more. It's kind of embarrassing really. In the braking sections it was trying to hold my weight back while hanging of the side of the bike that murdered me. My shoulders just killed. Instead of hanging off while braking I had to sit straight up and pinch the tank with my legs. I felt like a spode. There was a huge bump in a fast "S" section that you'd kind of soak up with your legs to keep from upsetting the chassis. Well, by the end I couldn't hold myself up any more with my legs and it was just rocking me all over the place, running wide ... not very confidence inspiring. I ended up getting beat by a guy I beat by over 35 seconds in the first race (and all the guys in front of him).

I'm not letting the last race bother me though. I know my head and right hand still had it in them, I just came up on a wall from dehydration. I'll be a better rider for it from now on too, I won't make that mistake again.

I want to give a huge thanks to Hester Racing for helping me out so much with travel, pit set-up and everything else last weekend. Also big props to Pirelli, Gericke, Held, EBC and Maxima for the continued support.

Stay tuned for the next adventures ...