Race Report

Man, I tell you, racing can sometimes wear a guy out like almost nothing else. It’s a good thing that waking up at 4:30am, driving to the track, racing all day, driving home and not being showered and unloaded until 11:00pm is much easier to deal with when you have such a successful day.

Going against the wishes of the weather forecasters we were greeted to sunny skies and warm temperatures upon arrival, and since much of my racing this year has involved rain tires I was relieved. We got to work straight away by winning both the Pro 600 Supersport and Pro Open Supersport qualifying heats in the morning to secure pole for those main events for the afternoon. The Pro Superbike class runs two mains per day, with the gridding based on season points, so I also had pole position for those.

Heat #1 of Pro Superbike was my first main event of the day. I got the holeshot and immediately stretched out a nice secure lead to finish in first place.

Because I wasn’t pushed at all so far during any of my heats I was still becoming acclimated with my reference points. On top of that I had only travelled four laps of the circuit on my 600 at all in the previous month and a half, and was even further behind my game on it. That boiled to the surface in the Pro 600 Supersport event. I was second into the first turn and looking for a way by into the lead for the first couple of laps. I never found one, and my opportunities diminished soon after that. Although I was pushing quite hard, apparently I was pushing in the wrong places and was unable to stay on the back wheel of my competitor. I was having trouble with rear tire traction in the middle of the slow corners and straight up wasn’t able to ‘hang’. I ended up second.

For the Pro Open Supersport race I was determined to use my new knowledge to my advantage. Based on what a learned on the GSXR600 I made a slight change to my GSXR750 which proved positive. I got the holeshot and immediately got to work setting a blistering pace. Not including the first lap from a standing start, the next 5 were under the previous track record. Obviously I won the race in convincing fashion, and in the end I upped the ante of the Mission track record by over 0.6 of a second to set a new best of 1:09.361. Since the track is very short and tight, with a large ‘point and shoot’ component, that record stands as the outright track record for both cars and bikes. Someone put it to me that no other person has ever travelled around that track faster than me. It didn’t seem like a big deal to me until I heard it that way. I guess it’s pretty cool. Another thing to point out is that it was set on a supersport spec GSXR750 with Pirelli Supercorsa DOT tires.

The results of that race could have been much worse for me though. At one point while going through the tight second gear left hand turn 7 I almost binned it. I was off the brakes and at full lean, almost to the apex and back on the throttle slightly when the front started to push. I levered my knee into the ground and kept the throttle on “Doohan style” to save it, albeit running a bit wide on the exit. The moment caught my attention, but was soon forgotten as I continued getting down to business. That was only the case until I came around the next lap and saw the black banana I painted on the track with my front wheel (we changed the front tire out after that)!

Heat #2 of Pro Superbike proved to be a much similar race to the Open Supersport event. Again I secured the lead going into the first turn and stretched it out immediately. I’m not sure as to the laptimes I might have been travelling at, but they were good enough to do what I wanted to do. Secure the lead, stretch it out, and take the win.

So that leaves me in a position I’ve never been in. I’m not counting my chickens by any means, as we know how racing often works, but I’m leading the overall points chase as well as each and every class that I’m involved in for both the OMRRA and WMRC organizations.

I have to give big thanks to Ron’s Performance Motorcycles who does my engines. Ron’s been working on my stuff for quite a number of years now, and you couldn’t find a more talented, thorough, honest, and meticulous guy to work on your stuff. I’ve had more than my share of offers from other engine builders (many of which offer to do the work for free), but Ron’s stuff is always fast as hell, he’s stayed behind me when times are tough, and is always willing to go the extra mile. He’s not the best at self-promotion, but makes up for that with fast motors. He has a purpose built motorcycle race engine shop in Portland, Oregon with a fully equipped dyno room. I highly recommend contacting Ron Hopkins at 503 421 9123 to get your engine built, tuned, or have performance modifications done.