Race Report

With everything being as dramatic as it’s been all season I was really hoping for sanity. It really felt like I was going to get the weekend I was looking for all along, right up until the end of it.

I attended a Cascade Tracktime day the Thursday before the race to try to blow some of the cobwebs out and get some seat time before the event on Sunday. Truth be told, I actually had such a great time racing at Miller a couple weekends before that I just couldn’t wait to get back on the GSXR’s. The trackday worked out uneventful for me, but ended in a multi-bike crash that actually took out the organizer of the event. That ended the day early, and in the end either people were alright, or are healing up nicely. Get well soon, Tyson.

I participated in the 4-hour endurance race on Saturday afternoon. I’m really not much of an endurance racer (I prefer the handlebar to handlebar sort of stuff) but my buddies that make up Team No Dignity have just the proper fun/serious ratio. It’s mostly their deal; I just drained a tank for them to give them a little jump start on the competition. We ended up 2nd at the end of it.

The qualifiers Sunday morning turned out to be uneventful. I either won or came close in all of them, securing me front row positions for the mains in the afternoon.

600 Superbike was the first race of the day. I filed into second, and followed the leader for about 1.5 laps before he fell heavily before we drove out onto the back straight, handing me the lead. From there I kept a fair pace until nearly the end when some lappers allowed two of my competitors to climb all over top of me. In the very last lap of the race there was a waving yellow flag (no racing – no passing) for the last three corners. I knew my competitors (one of which with a much faster superbike than my supersport bike) were right on my back tire. I swept from one wall to the other on the run to the flag and won by about a half a wheel (more on this later).

From that point on there really wasn’t much to comment on as far as the racing went. I pretty much just took the holeshot in each event and ran away, putting over a second per lap on my competitors to win by a landslide (7 seconds in 600SS, 10 seconds in 750SS, 16 seconds in 750SB).

So four wins out of four is all I could ask for. Basically it was a perfect day of racing. Except, while packing up at the end of the day I was informed by the OMRRA ref and pres that I was being penalized for my actions (determined to be a weave) at the end of the 600SB race, that the decision was final, and I had no right to appeal. The problem with all of that is I remembered in graphic detail the definition of the weaving rule as it was communicated during previous rider’s meetings. Basically, things weren’t exactly handled very professionally either by the club or by me. I got a little upset and told the pres to do a couple things I maybe shouldn’t have. The whole fiasco went round and round with an exponentially whiny competitor spurring it on with multiple frivolous protests against me.

It’s funny how things work out some times. I’ve had some challenges with the club this year, and at this point I was totally convinced that the problem had reached an epidemic. Although I wouldn’t stretch it to the point that I would call this situation good in any way, I would consider the outcome to be favourable for both sides. As it turns out I didn’t really know many of the board members of the club until a couple of them really took the time out to listen to my side. Since I didn’t know better I basically painted them with the same broad brush, and that was a mistake. It turns out that there are some very level headed people at the helm of the organization, and I think we are all thankful for that. I know I am, and not just because all of the protests against me were turned down, but more so because my faith and perspective in the organization is back to where it’s been for the last 10 years. One parasitic personality persists, but as a whole, I have every confidence that unbiased minds prevail.

I want to say a huge thanks to Tigershark Racing for taking such good care of me over the years. Josh has a way of keeping operations professional while still ensuring the fun never ends. The nail in the competitor’s coffin is the fact that he’s teamed up with the best tires in roadracing these days: Pirelli.