Race Report

Up until the July event at Mission the weather had been bad enough that I hadn’t even turned a wheel in anger yet there this year. Canada Day long weekend had stellar weather, and the racing proved to be quite similar.

Mission is about a 3 hour drive from my house in Kamloops, B.C. and since there was no practice the day before I decided to just make a day trip out of it (albeit a long one). So I got myself all packed up the night before, woke up at 4:30am and drove down to be at the gate shortly after 7:00am.

Although I hadn’t really ridden the track all year, and I was scrambling to get wheels on the bikes and warmers on, I still set the fast time, in the only morning warm-up we had, by almost 2 seconds. Not bad for a guy that got up at 4:30am!

WMRC only runs qualifiers for the supersport classes. I had to start those from the back since I didn’t have any points, but finished 2nd in each of them (Pro Open and Pro 600). For Superbike they grid up based on points, so I didn’t have that great of a position for the first Superbike event, but the second they grid based on the finish from the first…..

Superbike Race 1 is the first event after lunch. It took me a lap or so to get into second place while the leader strung out a healthy lead. Oliver Jervis races at Mission all the time and really has that place figured out well. It’s a very unique technical little track, with some tricks, and he’s got a few there. It took me a couple laps to get my groove, then I closed the gap to him, but ran out of laps. I finished 2nd on his rear wheel, and was looking forward to the next event.

The Pro 600 Supersport race went alright. After getting shoved to the outside of the track in turn one of the first lap I managed to get myself into second before too long. It was difficult to make time back up on the leader though, and I finished off the race a lonely second.

Pro Open Supersport was a bit of a runaway. The only thing that caught my attention was that Steve Crevier was taking to the grid for the race. He was on a borrowed bike, and didn’t ride previously to this event, so it turned out he wasn’t in contention for the lead (plus I think he had to start from the back). Anyway, it was a runaway win for me.

I knew at the end of the Pro Open race that I was going to have trouble in the last Superbike race of the day. Mission has a lot of very hard braking sections with fairly bumpy entries to the sharp corners. It requires very heavy trail braking while your body is set up off of the side of the bike. The fact that the track is bumpy makes it so that you can’t support your weight with your thighs as it transfers too much of your weight to the front wheel. You need to hold yourself back with your arms alone to allow them to work as suspension to keep the front wheel under you. My left shoulder and tricep pretty much had enough by the end of the Open SS race, and the writing was on the wall for the last Superbike race. I closed up on the leader again once I got into second, but he rode an excellent race. He never made any mistakes for me to capitalize on, and by the time my arm started to cavitate again I really didn’t have anything for him.

Overall it was a really good race weekend. Excellent weather, good competition, and the sense of family at the WMRC is pretty cool. I want to say a huge thanks to the Suzuki crew down there. As much as I loved spinning the rear tire of my 1000 around that track, I think I actually enjoy riding the GSXR 750 even more there. It handles so well through the tight stuff I swear I can’t even tell if it’s my 600 or not until the corner exits. Colin and Amber Rimes are super nice to me there, let me bum pit space and power from their generator and stuff. There’s a really cool little Suzuki support crew going on down there. I look forward to the upcoming events.