Race Report

Man, it just seems like I can’t quite get things to run smoothly for me whenever I go racing at Mission. I can’t say that it’s my favourite track I’ve ever raced on, but I’m sure I’d feel a lot better about it if I could just put it all together for a weekend.

The first race of the day is Pro Superbike, right after lunch. I pulled off a holeshot and spent the first couple laps stretching out a small lead. I was fighting the front end in almost all of the turns. The forks were bottoming while I was on the brakes, and not rebounding when I got off of them. All of the forces were being transferred to the tire carcass and it couldn’t take it. Finally it washed out on me while trying to get it slowed down for Turn 1. DNF was the result.

The next race was the Pro 600 Supersport battle. I haven’t had the best of luck trying to get the 600 to make it down the straights at the same rate as the other bikes on the track. I was struggling to keep in touch with the leaders, and made an attempt to bomb up the inside for 2nd place on the last lap but I couldn’t hold my line. I had to settle for third. After the race WMRC had the bikes go up on the dyno to ensure that they were not over 115 hp. That wasn’t much of a problem for my bike. 101 hp is all she could muster up there.

Pro Open Supersport wasn’t too much of a problem for me, as there was really no competition. I was able to coast around safely for the win.

The last race of the day was the second Pro Superbike race, and I was desperately hoping that the changes I made to Blitzkrieg were going to make a difference. It seemed slightly improved the last time out, but I really didn’t need to push the limits at all, so it wasn’t a true test. Sure enough, she acted up again right away. Blitzkrieg has been diagnosed with clinical depression. She has suicidal tendencies, and has made several attempts to end her life. I fought pretty hard to keep the both of us alive last weekend. How we finished in the race was only a secondary concern. To compound things, I believe that the steering head has come loose significantly as well. The back end would step out in a big way every time I got on the brakes, even when straight up and down. Heading down the stretch between turns 2 and 3 you have to brake alongside of a concrete wall to the rider’s right. I actually had to move my line in from where I normally line up on the track to keep from hitting the wall with the rear tire while I was slowing it down on the brakes. Another third position finish was the result of our efforts.

I want to give a huge thumbs up to Tom at PSI leathers for going out of his way to make sure I was comfy as a couch in my custom leathers. Also Gateway Powersports and Suzuki have been really showing a lot of faith in me, even though I’ve sent their bikes down the road more than my share of times. GP suspension has been able to keep my bikes working perfectly all year. I didn’t have access to their services last weekend, and it hurt me. I look forward to riding Blitzkrieg once they massage her back into submission. They’re the only ones that know exactly where her ‘submit’ button is. Lord knows I haven’t found it.

I’m headed to Portland to paint some black lines on the track in a couple weekends. I’m looking forward to it. Portland in August is always a good time. Cheers, and keep posted for my next round of antics.