Race Report

Hi everyone. It sure has been a long time since we've done an update to the site. I've been able to race sporadically here and there but the last half of my summer has been spent fighting fire. I work for the BC Forest Service and we pretty much burned the house down this summer. A couple times I managed to talk my way into getting 2 days off here and there and blasted down to Portland for some racing, but other than that, all my big trips had to get cancelled. I truly apologize to all of my sponsors that maybe expected to see my name on the results and little more often this year. There's not much left to burn for next year though, so I'm guessing I'll make it up to you then.

I did make it to the OMRRA race of August 24th. It was the first time I'd seen the new R6 I was to use that weekend. I spent a day getting it all together and set up with a few parts to make it work. I hadn't ridden in any of the 600 races so far through the year so had poor grid positions for both my qualifiers. I worked my way up to finish 3rd in the first qualifier and won the second. Tragically the bike was seriously underpowered. I couldn't keep anyone behind me on the front straight, no matter what kind of drive I got. The afternoon had it's share of excitement as me and my teammate Matt Zurbuchen went at it hard the duration of the races. In the first race we must have gone back and forth at least three times a lap until on the last lap, heading into the last braking section off of the back straight we were side by side with Matt on the inside. I had to start turning in and we lightly touched. We separated for a second and touched again, this time it was a fairly heavy push. It lasted long enough for me to know I wasn't going to make the turn. I stood it up straight to bomb through the grass on the inside of turn 8, when I saw Matt doing the same out of the corner of my eye. My focus was on staying upright at first, but once I got the bike settled I quickly realized that we were still racing, side by side, through the grass, on the last lap. I hit the gas until my line reconnected with the pavement, stomped a downshift and gassed it across the line to win. I can safely say that it was the most exciting and intense race I had ever been in (and I've been in my share).

The second race was almost as exciting, with us swapping places the entire time once again. In the end it came down to the last braking section once again, same players, same positions. This time I braked just a little later though, and turned in in the lead for a clean win.