Race Report

Well, since the bike was working just fine (and something needed to go wrong leading up to the weekend) I got sick. I had a pretty good case of the sniffles come on during Saturday practice and was NOT looking forward to wrenching my bike around the physically demanding Mission Raceway Park the following day.

Although my head pounded and I never really got my focus during the practice day, at least I started remembering where the track went. A newly reconfigured first turn had me a little confused too. All day I never did get a session to click. Usually about part way through the second practice session of the weekend I get in the groove, and then just work on the details from there. It’s rare that it takes longer, but this was one of those times…. I kept blowing turns and missing my marks and whatnot. I just felt kinda sloppy, and far from confident (well, for me anyway) going into the race day.

Sunday morning, I’m sick, my riding’s been shite, but it’s drier than the stupid weatherman figured…..so hey – I’ll cling onto that.

Open Supersport has a qualifier in the morning. I got the jump on everyone and managed to stretch out a lead to secure the pole for the main that afternoon. We had a short break for lunch and straight into the mains……

Pretty much not a lot to say here; every race was a carbon copy of the others. Either my launches were crappy (like the one where I was almost still turned around backwards checking to see if the back of the grid was lined up while they were raising the start flag) or I blew the first turn, or something to get me into the first turn in second position. From there though, I was all over the back tire in front of me for only two turns; impatiently waiting for my first chance to pass. I had almost a second a lap on the rest of the field, so from there I just basically checked out. The longer the races went, the more I would win by. I led every single race lap for all my Q’s and mains all day, and took first place in all three of my main events by huge margins.

I can’t say that I ever felt like I was riding in full form. I was pushing for the first few laps in each race to ensure I had a little bit of breathing room in case I made a little mistake or something, but I never really got my game – if you know what I mean? I think the biggest part of it was my illness. I’m figuring my body just refused (or deferred) my illness for a day. I felt like crap Saturday, and absolute horror on Monday, but don’t really remember much other than some weakness on Sunday. Funny how that works?

Anyway – I have to give a huge shout out to Simon Pierre Smith and Janice Logan for running and lending parts to me. You guys saved the day for me. It was really great to see you up in Canada too! Thanks again goes to Suzuki bikes - working with me and giving me the best tool for the job. I can never say enough about my GSXR 750, and this past weekend proved once again how accurate of a tool the bike really is. Big thanks out to Orca Bay Suzuki as well for going the extra mile getting everything I need and always being so helpful and dependable. You guys rock.