Race Report

I’m starting to think that the races in Portland should be run on Saturdays instead of Sundays. The weather just doesn’t want to cooperate with us on Sundays. After a nice little practice on Saturday morning, and a little rest time to get caught up on the bikes during the afternoon we had the forecast of hail and thunderstorms the next day to look forward to. Sweet.

All my qualifiers in the morning were basically dry, but rain was looking imminent, and could happen at any time. I won all of my qualifiers except for one of the 750 events when it started to spit rain on the last lap. I wasn’t interested in risking anything just to get to start a little over to the left of the front row so I let my two competitors by and finished a safe third.

Well, the rain came at lunch, and it came in spades. It fricken dumped rain, completely soaking everything to the core. But then it stopped…..and up the spider went.

So we’re gridded up for the 750 Supersport race and the warm-up lap proved that the track was indeed fully wet. Everyone’s on wet tires and off we go. It took almost no time for the track to start drying in patches once we started racing on it. I was circulating in second or third when the red flag came out on about the third lap to clean up a crashed bike. They gridded us back up and off we went again. I filed into second straight away off of the start. Jason Bluth was leading, and riding real strong in the wet conditions. I wanted to play it safe, but didn’t want to let him get away as I knew it was going to get drier and drier. He rode really well in the changing conditions though, and I wasn’t able to bring him back. The rain tires were squirming around quite a bit on the dry track (I’m sure for both of us), and he held me off to the flag. I finished in second.

The 600 Supersport race was a pretty interesting one. Moments before we headed out for the warm-up lap the track was basically dry, but it was misting enough that at any second it could start misting just a little harder and the wet tires would be the best call. However, at any second the mist could clear up and the track would most certainly be better suited for dry tires. We put the rear dry tire on, and decided to put the dry front on literally after the 2nd call to the grid. The guys thrashed to get it put back together in time for me to make it out and take the warm-up lap. The first two turns were still wet, but the rest of the track was pretty much dry, and the mist had dried up everywhere.

At the drop of the flag I was in third behind two riders on wet tires. They gapped me out a little bit going through the first couple turns, but I brought them back in the rest of the track. We repeated that one more time before there was the slightest of dry lines going through most of the first two turns. That didn’t allow me to rail the turns, but at least let me keep pace with the guys on the wet tires. I passed them immediately following to take the lead and never saw them again. My plan was to cruise to a very restful and easy win from here, except another fast rider also chose dry tires. Shucks! Really, at this point in the day I didn’t want to have to ride any faster than I had to. Some of the cracks in the pavement still had water in them, and all it would take would be to cross one of those the wrong way with the front tire when it’s all loaded up to take a guy down. Dave kept me honest though, and passed me a couple times to make sure I didn’t get too lazy. I upped the pace just enough to keep him behind me to secure the win.

The 750 Superbike race was pretty uneventful from my perspective. We finally had a solidly dry track and I was looking forward to really leaning on the inside bar for the first time all day. Out of the gate I did just that. I got the holeshot and began having a little fun and trying to get back in touch with my dry reference points. I took a look back after a little while and saw that I stretched out a big lead. Although I was having a good time I kicked her back a couple notches and cruised to the win.

The last race of the day for me was the 600 Superbike event, and I was really looking forward to it. I was pumped that I had made it through the tough part of the day with a couple wins, and was confident I could have a good time riding to my third win of the day. I again got the holeshot and began stepping up the pace as I got comfortable with the 600 on the dry track. About lap 3 or 4, when I was starting to feel like I was getting along pretty well, my buddy Nathan comes by going into turn 3. I was surprised to see anyone came with me, but a little excited that it was going to be a real race! I passed him back on the back stretch and started pushing my marks a little harder to see if he could match my mojo. We had a crazy headwind down the front straight and it was amazing how long you could hold the throttle on before getting on the brakes. Each lap I pushed it a little further and further but knew that Natedog was still there as I saw his shadow in turn 3 one lap late in the race. The next lap I went through about 3 or 4 lappers. Some of the passes I had to make were in weird places like the outside of turn 5 and through the fast ‘esses’ of turns 7 and 8. I wanted to see if Nate followed me through all of those or if I got a little gap on him, but didn’t see him when I looked back on the straight. I took another look back as I began the final lap but again didn’t see him. Since we had a MASSIVE lead on third place it was nothing to take the win. It wasn’t until the cool-down lap that I saw him up near the wall outside of turn 3 like a gender-neutral shipwrecked sailor waving at me. I pulled over to give him a ride back to the pits, and congratulate him on his ride. Nate’s recently got over a bad injury and resulting surgery/recovery time and this is the first he’s shown of his previous ju-ju. I knew it was only a matter of time before he’d have his ‘game’ back, but it’s still good to see. We’re going to have some fun racing together this year yet. I’m looking forward to it.

Thanks of epic proportions go out to my pit-bitches Aaron, Andy, and Uncle Chuckers the Chimo. Those guys busted their ballz to keep the bikes in order, and the proper tires on at the proper time – even when under the gun for time. We had a great weekend result-wise, securing and stretching out the lead in every class we’re in as well as the overall points.

Maxima Racing Oils and GPR Stabilizers came up big for me this weekend with some new products. I’ve been running the Ultra 5w40 Maxima oil now for years (well, not the same three quarts, but you know what I mean….) and every time the motor comes apart it looks like the day it was put together. And I just received my new GPR4 dampeners and LOVE them. They look bad-ass, are super simple to work/install/adjust, and do everything just the way they’re supposed to.

I’m into a pretty hectic part of my schedule, so you’ll hear from me in just a short while as I race again at Mission this coming holiday Monday.