Race Report

It’s catch up time in the race report department for me. So for those of you ‘Jones’ing for a super saturated schmidtastic experience: get yourself sat down with your favourite form of relaxation and get ready for some fun of the wet and wild variation.

I’ve got to take you way back to May 20th for this one. It was one of those days at the track that nobody wishes for. Some people do better at racing in the rain than they normally do, and they enjoy the results I’m sure, but I don’t think you’ll find anyone that’ll tell you they’d rather ride a track soaked in water than a dry one. It’s just cold, stressful, and super risky! You don’t even need to make a mistake to get chucked off on a wet track.

Some days at the track there’s more to lose than there is to gain. That’s especially the case when all you’re doing is qualifying. I just tooled around for the whole morning without ever risking a fall. I think I finished 3rd or 4th in all my qualifiers – I can’t even say for sure as all it really means is starting 10 feet to the left or 10 feet to the right. I know I was on the front row for all my mains anyway…..

600 Superbike was a total cluster. It was the first race up after lunch, the track had basically dried, but it was just starting to spit rain again. Some riders were on dry tires, and some on wets. The warm-up lap showed that the track ‘looked’ dry. I had a little slip in turn 3 that made me wonder (first warning), but the tire warmers hadn’t been on that long so I didn’t worry about it too much. At the drop of the flag I got the jump and was leading heading for the first turn. I saw a wheel inside me and let the rider through so he could set the pace in the uncertain conditions. It was Oliver Jervis, and I could see that he had a wet tire on. I was sure I had the better tire for the conditions, but still had another rear wheel slip in the middle of turn 1 (second warning. How many before I should start paying attention?). When I followed Oli through turn 2 the front tire went away and I was down. I began picking my bike up off in the grass when I could hear the unmistakable sound of a crashing bike in turn 3. I saw the waving flags, but was surprised that they were waving the red flag (stopping the race), when I knew I was well out of the way. That’s when I looked back to turn 1 to the SEA of riders that went down behind me. And it was indeed Oli, the leader, who only made it another turn before crashing out as well. The track was deceptively slippery, and it took its toll on a number of riders. It turned out that my buddy Oli broke his lower leg in the crash. I wish you a speedy recovery Oli. Looking forward to racing with you again soon.

We tried to get my bike back together in time for the restart, but one of the case covers was cracked and needed to be repaired. We taped over the 33’s on my buddy Josh’s bike with white duct tape, made a black duct tape #1 on his bike, and out I went. Only problem was that the track was now certainly wet, and we only had time to get a wet rear tire on but only an intermediate front (read: bad combo). On the restart I only made it about 1.2 laps before losing the front of Josh’s Triumph in the EXACT same spot that I lost the front of my GSXR only 1.2 laps earlier. I didn’t want his bike to get messed up in the crash but it was torn from my hands so I held onto it with my legs “Indian leg wrestle” style to keep it from flipping. It worked, but I felt a little strange getting pulled through the grass by a Triumph 600 by my legs. Kinda wet banana to the tenth power. The race was red flagged once again due to another crash in turn 4 and it was decided to run this race at the end of the day. That was great for me, as we’d have time to get my bike fixed, but put me in a never-before position of having crashed out of a race twice on two different bikes, and we still needed to run the race!

The 750 Superbike race I just played it cool after all that excitement (and crashing). I just rolled around in third place for the entire race watching the two in front of me race for the lead. In the last turn one of them crashed, handing me 2nd place. At this point, I was happy to be finishing in the single digits, so 2nd sounded good to me.

You can usually count on the 600 Supersport race for a little excitement. This one didn’t disappoint for me, but only because of my brain fade. I guess I must have been a little frazzled from the way the day had been going and thought it was this race I needed to start from last place on the grid due to my crash. Doh! They drop the flag (probably wondering why there’s an empty spot on the front row), and off we go. Man, I’m not used to starting from the back, and in the wet – I’m telling you – it’s a freaky deal back there with the spray coming off of all the rear tires. By the time you click into 5th it seems like you’re just going into the Pearly Gates. It’s just a blank white canvas that you’ve got your throttle pinned wailing into at a buck-thirty or so (ok, I cracked it off the stop there for a little bit, but don’t tell anyone, especially any girls…..). I picked my way through the sea of riders, but by this time of the day we were so behind schedule that the organizers had shortened all the race distances and all I could manage was fifth. But I was riding strong and felt like I could do well given a decent start.

The 750 Supersport race worked out fairly well for me. I can’t remember the details but I was following the leader (who was proving to be quite fast in the wet so far) for a good part of the race and was surprised that the pace was as slow as it was. The conditions in this race were much worse than the others, with rain heavily falling. My visor was fogging and the idea of getting into the lead and not eating any tire spray was appealing. I overtook for the lead, half expecting that I was just going to wake him up and he’d be coming right back by again soon, but held it for a number of laps to the line to take the win.

So to end the day off we finally get to run that elusive 600 Superbike race that we’d tried already a couple times. The GSXR’s all fixed up, and this time I KNOW I have to start from the back. Off we go and it’s basically a repeat of the first 600 race. I just worked my way through the field until I ran out of laps. I was steadily catching all the bikes in front of me but ended up in 6th at the flag.

All in all I was happy to have made it through the day. It took some perseverance, and a bunch of help from my buddies to get things straightened out, but we pulled it off – retaining the overall points lead as well as the lead in all but one of the individual classes.

A monstrous thanks goes out to Josh Bryan of Tigershark Racing and Pirelli tires. If it wasn’t for him the 600 Superbike race would have been a write off. Not only did he ditch out of the class himself to let me ride his bike, but while his crew are taping my number onto his bike he’s wrenching away on mine trying to get it fixed. Josh is one of my best friends. I already stay at his house and eat his food, now he lets me crash his bikes too. Hey Josh, can I drive your car next time I’m down? And you got any single sisters left?

Also, major props goes out to SBS brakes and Lithium Motorsports. They’ve teamed up to keep my bikes stopping like no others’. I hadn’t had a chance to use the Dual Carbon brakes in the wet before this weekend and I was amazed at how well they worked. Generally a sintered pad is the first choice for wet races, but these were just as good or better. I wouldn’t even consider changing them out for a sintered pad now in the wet. Thanks Lithium, thanks SBS, and thanks Parts Unlimited.