Race Report

Daytona Beach is a long drive from home. Thankfully I flew home, as it would have been a much longer drive back given how things worked (or didn't work) for me in the race.

After a few mishaps on the way down (snowstorms, clogged fuel filters, pooping pug dogs in the motorhome, etc.) we made it to Daytona with a day to spare to get our gear organized and bikes through tech and stuff. It was nice to have a couple days to unwind and goof off a bit after logging so many miles on the road.

Going out for first practice I hadn't ridden on pavement since last October. I did a bunch of ice racing this past winter though, and actually felt stronger about hopping on the bike than I usually do for the first time of the year. I only had one practice on Wednesday due to the schedule, and had never ridden a 600 at Daytona before. At the end of the session I turned a 2:00.4, and had a smile on my face. I knew I'd get a ton faster, but I just had a blast out on the track!

Daytona's a pretty crazy place to ride a bike around. Although it was a lot tamer on the 600 than previous year on bigger bikes, it still gets your attention. Most notably is how steep the banking is. To give you perspective: in order to ride on the very center of the tire going around the banking (I tested this during a cool-down lap) you have to go 11,500 in 5th gear. That's pretty fast! Anyway, when you going around it at speed, tucked under the windshield, you're crushed against the tank hard enough to bruise your sternum, the suspension is bottomed from the G-forces, and in order to look into the turn you have to look almost straight up with your neck all kinked up like an elk. It's pretty funked out.

Finally on Thursday I get to ride twice! I made some changes from the previous day and took off another 0.7 seconds to turn a 1:59.7. Still not fast enough to make me happy, but a decent improvement. For the qualifier that afternoon I made a pretty drastic gearing change, along with some other stuff (like new tires) that all added up to losing another 1.4 seconds to turn a 1:58.3, and qualify 23rd. Now I was getting somewhere. It's pretty strange only running one class, as normally I'd have had that much my track time by the end of the first day. Now I'm going into race day and still slashing GOBS of time off lap times and wishing I had some more testing. Oh well.

Friday was a good time. We hung out on the beach a bit, soaked up some sun, and frolicked in the ocean (that froze the steelies right up) body surfing and stuff. We watched the Supercross that night, which was pretty cool. Normally the run it during the day and I'm doing the 200 the next day so we're practising pit stops and whatnot. This year neither was the case. It was a pretty good show. It made me wish I knew how to ride a dirtbike so good.

Saturday morning we have a little warm-up, then we grid up as we're the first race of the day. At the drop of the flag I wheelie the thing up in the air like a full-on novice spode. I fight that situation all the way to the first turn, losing tons of positions. I'm feeling 'on' though, and I'm just slicing through the field. I'm getting about 4 to 6 guys every lap for 3 laps or so. It felt pretty cool, then there was a red flag. I got a better launch the second time and filed into turn one in about 20th or so. I picked off 4 guys in the next lap to get into 16th by the time we crossed the stripe. I just got in behind Jason Perez and Lee Acree when, while exiting the chicane, my bike throw it's chain. On Speedvision they played it up like my motor blew (which I actually thought was what happened), but it reality the loose chain came around the engine sprocket and sawed the oil filter in half. The oil pump emptied the crankcase out of the filter which is mounted to the side of the motor. Because it blew out the side instead of the bottom or front, the fairing lower didn't hardly do anything. The oil soaked the rear wheel and the track BAD. It stopped the whole party for about 35 minutes while they cleaned up my mess. And that was the end of my day.

The worst part about the whole deal is that I never got a chance to do my thing. I felt so strong in the race, and because I hardly completed any flying laps due to the previous red flag, then how fast my DNF came after that, my strength didn't even show in my lap times. I did match my qualifying time though, while passing at least 4 to 6 guys per lap, so that's something I guess. Man, does that stuff ever make me hungry to get to Fontana now though.

I want to give a special thank you to a couple of my sponsors that went out of their way for me. Flexi-Glass bodywork: thanks Trev for looking after me so well (I got you a shirt too). Spike's Sprockets: My newest sponsor, and one I'm proud to have. Thanks for going out of your way for me Victor. I'm really happy with the sprockets, and glad to be working with another Canadian company. Check out the link to the right.

Talk to you all after Fontana.