Race Report

Well, let's just start by saying the flavour of the weekend was bitter/sweet. Sweet in the sense that while on the bike I annihilated the competition, winning all the heat races and mains by huge margins, only to have the motor let go while leading the last main of the day. A difficult way to deal with the long drive home.

The weekend started out fairly well, except for during the Saturday practice it seemed like all I did was scramble between practice sessions trying to keep both the 1000 and 600 ready for the next time out. In general I just wasn't having a good time. I was riding really strong on both bikes, but it just seemed like the 1000 was stressing me out. I thought about it a bit on Saturday night and decided to leave the 1000 (officially now named Das Tousant Von Taintstein) parked for Sunday. It's a bike that has perfect function, but its form has been a little lackluster. Well, I've now got brand new bodywork, tank, and exhaust canister for it and plan to set it all up for sale at the next OMRRA weekend. I need to free up some $$ in a bad way right now, and that's one of my required steps.

Sunday morning I felt great. Not having the worry of prepping two bikes all day sure lightened the load off of my head. I felt great in morning warmup and couldn't wait to see my first green flag.

Into the first turn of the first heat, me and Matt Zurbuchen go in side by side with Matt on the inside. I eased ahead just a little, but not enough to close the door on him. Now we're going through turn one side by side. In efforts to keep from running wide, but still trying to keep race pace to beat him to turn 2, the back end stepped out and stayed out there for quite a while (it felt pretty cool). I managed to pull into the lead there and strung it out for a win by a large margin. The second heat I sort of out braked myself and couldn't hold the line into turn one. Matt got by on the inside and I had to follow him until the brakes coming into turn 7 on the first lap. From there I strung out another large lead and took pole for both the mains that afternoon.

In 600 Superbike I took the holeshot from pole position and basically checked out. I can't wait to see the dbCom lap times once they are posted, as I really felt on my game. The bike, tires, and my brain were all on track on Sunday. It really felt good. Unfortunately Darin Sims was involved in a bad crash going into turn one on about lap 6 or 7 that brought out a red flag and ended the race. I hear that he has a broken femur, but is generally doing well. I wish him the best, and a speedy recovery. There's been a lot of talk lately of the 600 class and the dangerous hooligans that race in it. I think that's all horse puckey, and people have the wrong idea. We're the same people that race in any other class. There's just a lot more of us on the 600's and, as a result, there's a lot more things that can happen. It's competitive, yes. But to say that the 600 riders are meat-heads is wrong (or at least more of meat-heads than the guys on 750's or 1000's), and it's getting a little old.

After lengthy delays, the 600 Supersport was finally under way, and also going my way. I led into turn one and remained in the lead for the entire time the bike ran. Problem is that it didn't keep running. On the start of lap 5 going into turn one the motor let go just before I grabbed the brakes. Let's just say that 15,500 rpm is pretty spectacular even when things are going right. A rod bolt let go and the bottom of the connecting rod came off. I pulled the motor out last night (Tuesday night). I haven't taken it apart yet, but the diagnosis isn't too hard through the new window in the crankcase.

I'll be fixed up again before too long. I was leading the championship there by a healthy margin, but now I'm just in the hunt for it again along with everyone else. I'm confident that we'll get a new motor in there that works as good as the last one 'did', and I'll be back winning races in no time.

Thanks all, for keeping up with my dramas, and supporting me when things are tough. Please support the companies that support the sport. Check out the links on this page to the right, as there's a lot of cool stuff to see on those web pages.