Race Report

Miller Motorsports Park is the sort of place that the North American racing community can be very pleased to have access too. Not only is the racing surface top notch, but the run-off is more than excellent, and there’s been no spared expense in erecting the facility at all. It was really special to be a part of the first competitive event to be held at the track, and the piece of hardware they gave me to remember it by must have cost hundreds of dollars to make.

The WERA National Challenge Series holds their sprint races on Saturday, so that they have a full day on Sunday to conduct their 6-hour endurance race. We weren’t a part of that, so it was an early weekend to start and end. Friday was off-and-on rain showers for the whole day. I only got one fully dry session on each of my bikes before the day was cut short due to poor weather. The real bummer (that haunted me for the whole next day) was that they cancelled qualifying and gridded everyone for the mains based on series points (of which I have none). To make matters worse, since there were so many entries they had to start the races in two waves. You can guess where I was gridded….

Well from row 18 and 20, in the second wave, it’s hard to make a charge for the lead when the guys on the front rows actually know what they’re doing and you’ve got that much ground, time, and positions to make up. I think I finished somewhere in the neighbourhood of 8th to 10th in my first three races – the frustrating part was that I was catching many riders in the lead group and felt that if I got a chance to start with them I might be able to have something for them. Although the day was frustrating in my desire to get to the front, it was really quite rewarding in the sense that I must have passed a hundred guys for position throughout the day.

Miller is such a cool place to ride. There’s this one section where you drive out of a fast 3rd gear left hand turn, keeping it on the side of the tire the whole way while running out wide to the outside of the track (pinned). From there you grab 4th, keep it tapped, and keep holding the inside bar down as you bring it back to the inside of another turn and drift wide as you grab 5th. The whole time you’re on the edge of traction and can see big dark lines getting painted by competitors’ bikes around you. Now, that’s on the 600. On the 750 it’s just a flipping blast! It’s super fast and you can just light it up sideways out of there. I can’t say I’ve had that much fun on one of my race bikes for a while now. It really makes me want to go back.

Finally for the last race of the day, 750 Superbike, I was gridded in the first wave (albeit still on row 8). My determination before that race was exactly where I knew it needed to be. I got a decent start and immediately put myself up into second place going into turn 1. I spent the first lap on the rear tire of the leader before taking the lead going into turn 1 to start the second lap. From there I just enjoyed myself riding the 750 sideways out of the fast turns for the rest of the race and took the win.

The excellent weekend really made the long trip home so much better. Although it was hard to get past what the weekend could have been had we completed qualifying, I won’t soon forget the silky smooth, fast turns, slicing through the field race after race, and taking the chequered flag in my last lap of action there. Plus, the trophy they gave me for first place is just out of hand. It probably weighs 20 pounds, is this huge bronzed metal eagle with its wings up, and is incredibly detailed. I’m pretty glad that I went up to the ceremony to gather it before I left.

I want to give huge thanks to a couple of my biggest supporters that’ve been going out of their way to look after me. Pirelli tires and Maxima Racing Oils are making sure that I’m always decked with the best equipment available in the industry. Miller is tremendously hard on tires, but the Pirelli’s fared better than all right till the end of the races – even through the sheer abuse I was dishing out in that fast left hander. To tell you the truth, I was having so much fun through there I didn’t really care what I was doing to my rear tire! And Maxima not only keeps my equipment working properly all the time, but also keeps the bikes sharp, makes clean-up a breeze and even makes the exhaust of my chainsaw smell like a factory motocrosser! And I can’t say enough about the carbon SBS brakes that I run. I’ve had the same pads in the calipers of both my 600 and 750 for 2 and a half weekends now and they still work awesome. They’ve got laser cut backing plates so they never warp and feel mushy, and you can wear them down to paper thin without losing brake power or feel. I honestly can’t believe that everyone doesn’t run them.

All the best, and I look forward to seeing many of you out at Portland in a week or so.