Race Report

Well, the longest and probably most important race weekend of the OMRRA season was upon us. I was excited about the event, and determined to make the best of it. For me it was quite the up and down and back up again adventure.

Practice on Friday and Saturday morning went really well. Knowing that I had to put in a good ride come Sunday, I really put my head down and took advantage of the extended practice. I’d been thinking of a couple parts of the track where I might be able to make up a little time, and it was good to finally have the track time to work on it. My riding was strong, and I felt good about my outlook for the mains on Sunday.

The motorcycle racing clubs in the NW have this strange phenomenon going on. It started small, but has grown into something quite unique. There’s a stack of guys that race these mid 60’s Honda CB160’s. It’s not very serious racing, as the riders have something of a “gentleman’s code” that doesn’t exist with us riding the modern sportbikes. Anyway, it was “Vintage Day” on the Saturday, and I had the opportunity to ride the Tuff Dog CB160.

They had two main events for the 160 races that day. Something went amiss with the qualifying results and I was gridded dead last for the first event. I got a decent start, and managed to get past 23 guys on the first lap to put me into 5th. I didn’t make it much farther than that though, as I spun the back end around coming out of the slowest left turn on the track. I guess I couldn’t quite handle the 7 horsepower (or whatever the things make)!

They put me onto the front row for the second race though (I think out of safety considerations for my competitors after witnessing my first lap of the initial race). I got off the line fairly well and actually got the holeshot into the first turn. I held the lead until we got to the back straight, at which point a bike went by me fast enough for me to think it was in another class. I could barely stay in the draft, and pulling out of it was disastrous. I knew then that my only hope for the win was to stay on his back wheel, size him up, and wait for the last lap flag to make a pass. I went to put my plan into action around the outside of the long left hand (well, it’s long on a 160 anyway) turn 3 and into the right hand turn 4. Since you don’t use the brakes on these bikes, and the lines you take swoop across the entire track, you really can’t “outbrake” someone going into a turn. It didn’t quite work for me. If it wasn’t the “gentleman’s class”, I would have ran it in there – as I’m sure I could have made it happen, but it wouldn’t have been pretty. That was my only shot at the win, so when it didn’t work I conceded to take the flag in second place.

Sunday put me back out on the real sized bikes. Morning warm-up sure was an eye opener after spending half a day trying to twist as much speed as I could out of 1.5 inch wide tires and <10hp – straight onto the 145hp GSXR750 with warmed up Pirelli Supercorsas. Not exactly a seamless transition! Despite that challenge I managed to win three out of four of my morning qualifiers. I crashed out of the lead on the first lap of one of the 750 qualies on a cold rear tire that didn’t get plugged in on time. The back end came around and sent me and bike for a pretty good ride. I banged my knee up pretty seriously, and would have to start from last for that main event in the afternoon.

My guys worked double time to get the 750 back in shape to ride. Nothing was seriously wrecked, but seemingly everything was kinda wrecked. It almost cleared out my spares tub to git ‘er done. Thank so much for Andy and Aaron. Those guys are top notch. We work real well together, with everyone keeping a clear head without rushing or panicking. I’m grateful for their professionalism.

My 600 Supersport, 600 Superbike, and 750 Supersport races don’t really leave me with much to report out on. Despite my leg looking like I had elephantitis, having to ice it between riding sessions, and dealing with excruciating pain (mostly in the accelerating transitions from left to right) I got the holeshot in each of those, controlled the races from the front, and won them all.

Since I crashed out of the qualifier for the 750 Superbike event, I had to start from dead last – 26th position. I hit the start really well, carrying the front for a couple gears just a few inches off the tarmac. I was all the way over to the far right (inside) of the track as we got closer to the braking zone. I was hoping for a little room so I could set up a little more to the left and be able to carry some speed into the first turn. That didn’t happen. I ran it into the braking zone very deep to try to get as many of my competitors as I could, but literally had my rear wheel in the air and my front contact patch on the inch of pavement between the white line and the grass on the far right. I held that position (absolutely sucking the goggles off people) from about 135mph down to 80 or so. I couldn’t keep it on the racing line by the time I got to the first turn and needed to berm off my buddy Todd Frey to make the turn. Sorry Todd, but thanks for being there for me! We both stayed upright, so it was all OK.

From there I simply went on a tear. I sliced my way up into 5th place by the time we hit the front straight on the first lap (having past 21 guys. Maybe my 160 practice paid off?). I was in third by that time the next lap, and took the lead the lap after that. From there I stretched it out to win by over 6 seconds.

Sometimes you have to push through the challenges in order to achieve success, especially when success is measured over the course of a full racing season. This past weekend proved that theory for certain. Despite only a couple hours sleep the night before the race, crashing the poop out of one of my bikes, working double time to fix it during lunch, starting from dead last, and having a severely hurt leg – I won all of my main events once again and stretched out the lead in all fronts going into the last race of the season.

As I write this it’s less than a week to the last round of the OMRRA season. I’ve got a healthy lead going in, and can only thank my supporters for getting me through to this point.

Cheers to my sponsors, friends, and supporters – and wish me luck racing this weekend.

BTW: for anyone that’s going to be at PIR this weekend – we’re going mechanical bull riding after the races. Ask me about it if you’re interested. Otherwise, you’re just not one of the ‘cool kids’!