Race Report

As my life has been swirling around in the never ending circle of travel, racing, and life lessons, I've been delinquent in my race reports. Catch up time I guess.

Mission, B.C., the first race of the WMRC series for 2005 and my first "home" race for a lot of my sponsors. It was kind of a strange deal showing up there for that race. There seemed to be a lot of hype about me coming racing there, and I thought that was all sort of strange. I'm not one to get amped up about hype, especially about me, and between that and the fact that I've had a lot on my mind in the last while, my attitude was maybe a little extra laid back. It was just weird having all that energy around me from everyone else.

I didn't have the greatest grid spots for the qualifiers, as they grid based on points - of which I had next to none from last season. Mission's really a strange little track, as EVERY turn but one on the track is tighter than ANY turn on any other track. Although I've done my share of racing, it's almost like having to learn something new. I was looking forward to the qualifiers to get a chance to follow some of the faster guys around to learn some of the peculiar lines. The Q's went OK, and I was set for the afternoon.

The superbike races don't have qualifiers, so they gridded me on row 5. I managed to do a lot of passing in the first three turns and had a view of the leaders, but as I bent the bike into turn 4 the front end went away. I didn't know it, but it turned out that when we changed from the wets to the dry tires, the warmers were only on for 5 minutes. Cold front tire = DNF.

600 Supersport was a bit of a let-down. I was running in 3rd, just ahead of Steve Crevier, and just caught the leaders when it started to spit rain. After my most recent crash, I decided it wasn't worth it and kicked it back a couple notches. Steve passed, and went on to take the lead and win. I faded to a safe 4th place finish.

Open Supersport went a bit better. The 1000 sure is a handful around the little Mission track. There's only about 300 yards of the whole place where I get to hold the throttle open. In a way it kind of makes it fun, actually. If the rear wheel isn't spinning it wants to wheelie. Coming towards turn 4 from turn 3 is probably the most interesting, as you have to change direction while on the gas. You slide sideways coming out of the left hand turn three, then it wheelies. You have to play with the throttle to keep the front wheel bouncing on the ground enough to bend the bike to the right, then it wheelies some more before you have to get on the brakes. Anyway - I got off topic there - I got the holeshot and won the Open Supersport race by a safe margin.

The last Superbike race of the day was a bit of a let down. I was running in second, caught the leader, passed for the lead and was in first heading into the last turn of the last lap. I made sure I took a tight inside line to ensure there was no room for 2nd to make a pass. Well, he ran up the curb and tried anyway, ramming me hard enough to get the bike so out of shape I left a mark on the bottom front of the outside of the windsheild with the chin bar of my helmet. My legs were over my head. Anyway, it was a pretty cheap move, and I ended up second.

A huge thanks goes out to Over The Top Performance. Check out their site with the link to the right, or come by the pits some time to say "Hi" and I'll show you the subframe and fairing stays they make. They're really nice pieces, excellent craftsmanship, and well priced. Try it, you'll like it.