Race Report

I had a weekend of brutal extremes at Portland last weekend. Thankfully it started bad and ended good, rather than the other way around. Right off the bat on Saturday morning I realized that body of the rear shock had a crack in it and was leaking oil. It was unfixable, and the part would need to come from Sweden – needless to say, I rode a leaky shock all weekend.

I got boxed in off the start of my first qualifier, then struggled with a cold tire through the first lap to put me third on the grid for the main. The second qualifier of the morning was definitely the low point of the day. I start a decent launch (like, my only one for the day) from my third row grid spot, just to have someone directly in front of me on the front row miss a shift or something. I tatered him from behind pretty serious. My left arm got ripped right off the handlebar, and it was a miracle that neither of us went down. The end result was me filing into turn one in around 20th or so. I passed about 2 or 3 guys per corner for the first lap and ended up 4th at the end of the 4-lap heat. I don't know if other stuff might have been bothering me too, but was I ever mad after that race. I think it was mostly because I told myself that it was my redemption time from earlier in the day and it just didn't pan out. It was nobody's fault, I was just plain ticked. That set my attitude through lunch though – and my mindset for the afternoon.

In the 750 Supersport race I entered turn one in second place. John Dugan was leading, and pulled a small gap on me in the first lap. I followed him at that distance for a couple laps, having to push very hard because John was obviously hooked up in the traction department. While driving out of the left hand turn 3 with the back end stepped out, all of a sudden it got a little more sideways than I wanted. I stayed on the throttle as the back end came back, then went again. The rear of the bike straightened out after only a couple shimmies, but it transferred the wobble to the front. I still stayed on the gas but the front end was slapping back and forth so hard that I could hear the front tire barking on the pavement. This continued all the way to the edge of the track where I was forced to let go of the throttle. The front straightened out just in time for me to grab the brakes for the next right hander. The lever came into the bar with no brakes. The front wobble must have knocked the brake pads away from the disks. Luckily the second grab resulted in a little brake pressure and I made the turn, but ran very wide. This obviously resulted in a huge gap to the leader, and I had to settle for second.

750 Superbike went a little more my way. It got red flagged about two laps in, just after I took the lead following yet another atrocious start. We waited for about 15 minutes while an injured rider was attended to. I'm not sure what happened to him, or if he was OK in the end. I got a better start finally in the restart and kept the lead, pulling a large gap of about a half mile before the chequered flag. That was the extreme good. Nice way to end it.

I'm pleased with the way my riding has been progressing since the disastrous end to last year. It feels good to have the fire in my eyes again. I'm really looking forward to the next few Nationals coming up here soon. Special thanks goes out to Flexi-Glass bodywork for the excellent support and superior product. Check out their site – there's links to all my sponsors on the right hand column.