Race Report

You’d think after such a dominating weekend my last time out at Portland International Raceway that I’d be at my keyboard typing up the details faster than ever. Well, I’ve been thrashing away at every facet of my life hard enough to keep me away – but you shall wait no more…..

Going into the last round of the OMRRA series I was in the position I wanted to be. I extended my points lead throughout the entire season until I only needed to finish in 3rd out of any of my four races to secure the #1 plate yet again. To add a little tension to the situation there was no practice before the event. I believe that plays into my favour though, as I’m usually pretty strong “out of the box”.

The morning qualifiers were fairly uneventful for me. I won three out of four, and got second in the fourth one. Going into the afternoon main events I led the points in all four of my class championships by healthy enough margins that I could cruise around in 4th or 5th all day and win the overall as well as the class championships. I felt like I was riding strong, and very confident that I could cruise to some safe finishes.

Well, the 750 Superbike race was the first up after lunch, and seemingly expectedly we forgot to plug the tire warmers in until second call. Great way to start the important part of the day off! There’s only really three left hand turns on the track, and only one that will put any heat in the tire. While I tried to warm the left side of the tire on the warm up lap I also was formulating my plan for the first couple of laps. I was going to try desperately to get the holeshot, and hopefully hold the entire pack up behind me for as long as I could while trying to heat the tires up. That way nobody would get a gap on me. My plan worked for the first two turns anyway, but I had to go so gingerly into the first left hander that one rider got by. I passed him back to start the second lap, and re-engaged my plan for the second lap, only at a slightly quicker pace. It worked, and before long my tires were good to go and I spaced out a gap to win by 5 seconds. With that finish I secured the #1 plate for the 2008 season.

Apparently the 600 Superbike race was interesting. I didn’t really know that though, as all I saw for the most part was open track, but my buddy Nathan came with me. We turned the fastest laps ever on 600’s in the process. I knew he was going to be strong, so I pushed quite hard, but couldn’t lose him given that I was pushing all the wind for him on both of the straights every lap. Any gap I established would be swallowed up again on the straights. Once we got into the lappers I just tried not to do anything stupid, and won with a few bike lengths to spare. Both of our bikes run RPM engines, Pirelli DOT tires, and have wing nuts for “throttle actuators”. We smoked the field by over 6 seconds.

The second 750 race of the day (750 Supersport) was highly successful, if not highly entertaining. I got the lead going into the first turn and sort of half planned to take it easy and follow for most of the race. I cruised around at a very relaxed pace and, at the end of the first lap, took a look back to see who was with me. Well, I’d already put a gap on the field, so rather than follow I thought I’d bump it up for another lap to see what happens. I looked back after the second lap and decided there was no point in doing anything different than what I was doing, and cruised along at a safe pace to finish with a huge 10 second lead. I wasn’t riding all that strong, but I guess everyone else was napping? Oh well, I’ll take it.

I didn’t really expect much out of the last race of the day. At that point I’d already won three of my class championships and the #1 plate. I only had to finish the race to win all four, and I knew Nathan was very hungry for the win and riding strong (read: I had nothing to gain and everything to loose). I thought I’d try to get into the lead early and see where that took me. It took us a few starts before we finally got going for good, but when we did I quickly took the lead. Basically from there I set the pace and controlled the race from the front for the duration. We picked our way through the lappers, and in the end I held Nathan off by a wheel at the finish line.

Definitely not the way I expected to close out the day. I went into the weekend convincing myself that the best thing to do was to play it safe, pass up on the wins if I had to, and bring all the championships home. There’s a certain something in the brain of a fast racer that motivates him to push for the win. That certain something can be hard (or impossible) to shut off when you need to just bring it home. That something is what gets you near the front in the first place, but can be your worst enemy. My inability to shut that certain something off worked in my favour this time. I suppose what I feel best about this particular weekend isn’t the race wins, but rather the combination of the situation and the race wins. Someone looking at the results on the internet 3 years from now will see that I won all the class championships and the #1 plate. But what matters to me is the few guys out there that knew I didn’t need to, but regardless wrung the necks of my GSXR’s all afternoon, with all the risks piled against me, and won all my races anyway.

A huge thanks go out to all of my racing supporters, and all of the companies that support our sport. As well, I’d like to thank the many volunteers and dedicated people that make our race days possible. It means a lot to me when some of the volunteers excitedly tell me at the end of the day about some of the close calls, slides, or near brushes with the walls I experience while racing. As a racer, you put those moments out of your head as quickly as they happen, and rarely do I even mention the events to my pit crew. I just sort of assume they’re moments that are mine alone to soon forget. But hearing them from someone else, and realizing that I’m providing part of the reason why they’re out there in the first place, is something special. They’re out there just for the love of the sport and the enjoyment of watching us tear around on the track possessed, like the only thing that can satisfy us is the win. For some that is true. I’m just glad to do my part to ensure my relationship with the volunteers is symbiotic.

Also, many thanks goes to my competitors. If there wasn’t talent in our club, there wouldn’t be much satisfaction in winning. Thanks for the good close racing, the excitement, the sportsmanship, and the talent you have that makes it feel so good to win!