Race Report

After a long summer break away from racing I was more than eager to run the GSXR’s once again. I try to keep my skills sharp dirtbiking and keeping the wind in my face however I can, but it just doesn’t quite prepare you for 180mph the way you need. Luckily we had a Cascade Track Time event the Friday before the OMRRA races to blow some cobwebs out at.

The trackday and Saturday practice went fine enough. I got to run several laps on both the 600 and 750, and was feeling pretty good about the whole situ come Saturday night before race day.

Unfortunately Saturday night brought the wet weather, and I’m greeted to a wet cold morning come sunrise when the alarm goes off. Some people claim that they like racing in the rain. They lie. Those people happen to be good at it, and finish better than they normally would. They like that, and get it confused with actually enjoying an activity. That’s my take on it anyway. It’s cold, wet, slippery, the bikes weren’t designed for it, you can’t get the same level of intensity – it just sucks – unless you’re good at it, and enjoy the result. I’m alright at it, but no super-hero, and happen to be racing for a championship that most of the fast rain-specialists aren’t concerned with, so I’m forced to leave a little bit on the table. Anyway, that’s a long way of saying I wasn’t pleased to see wet weather in the forecast for the rest of the day.

We had a wet track for the first bit of warm up in the morning, but by the time the first green flag dropped the track was dry from curb to curb. I got the perfect launch off the line with my GSXR 750, one of those launches you envision (you know the one) with the front wheel 2” off the ground through the entire first gear, and nobody was in sight as we made the angry run to the first turn. From there I stretched out the lead for the duration of the race to win by a safe margin.

The 600 Supersport race proved to be the nail biter of the weekend. I led for the first couple of laps before the visiting rider, Lenny Hale, came by for the first time. He was carrying very fast corner entry and mid corner speeds, obviously with large trust in the front Pirelli tire, so I shrugged and thought to myself – OK, if this is what we’ve got to do to win this…….let’s get on with it. We traded positions about 3 times per lap for the next 6 or 7 laps. Finally, while we were going side by side blasting a barn door sized hole in the wind Chris came by like he had a 7th gear. Until this point I thought Lenny and I were alone. We continued trading positions every corner, all wanting the same one, with Lenny fast going into the infield corners, me fast on the corner exits and hard braking, and Chris fast as hell on the straights. To start the final lap Lenny and I were side by side for the lead headed down the straightaway. I had about 4 inches on him as we crossed the line, which proved to be critical as we didn’t cross it again. We were slicing through the lapped traffic like you wouldn’t believe (I bet a few of them could tell some good stories), but only made it to the second turn before Lenny’s race was over. I was in the lead, so didn’t even know it happened, but I guess he launched himself pretty high into the air trying to get out of turn 2 strongly. I made it to turn 7 before I saw the red flag stopping the race. Lenny broke a vertebra during the landing and luckily that’s all that was damaged. I was glad to hear he was walking and talking, and I wish him as speedy of a recovery as he is on his bike. I see some good racing with Lenny in the future, and look forward to it. I was credited the win as I crossed the line in first place the last time around.

The 750 Superbike race was the most treacherous race I’ve ever been in. It was dry as we took to the warm up lap, but started to sprinkle just a little at one end of the track by the time they dropped the flag. I took it very tentatively through that part of the track during the first few laps as the conditions worsened, choosing to follow in second place. I guess the leader must have got a scare at one point as the rain fell harder cause all of the sudden his pace slowed dramatically. It wasn’t long before I was into the lead, but the conditions were horrible, and literally as I was passing for first around the back straight I thought “what am I doing? I don’t want to set the pace in this!”. I slowed to let the next bike by to follow. By now the conditions were so brutal I couldn’t even get out of fourth gear on the back straight! There were literally sheets of water on the racing surface as the rain fell much faster than it could drain. It was like racing on a mirrored surface. I signalled frantically every time we crossed the start/finish in hopes they would stop the race, while continuing to follow the leader. The combination of the field being on DOT’s or slick racing tires and the deep layer of pooling water was a total mind-freak. The bike was spinning up in a straight line! Finally they stopped it and I was more than happy to take the second place position to park the bike with my life spared.

The 600 Superbike race was your typical wet racing event. I say typical because at least we all knew what we were getting into. Never once did I have a tire slip as obviously I left a little bit on the table and let the rain specialists vie for the win. I crossed the line in 6th, with my championship point lead (along with the bike and body) intact.

In a few weeks we head into the final round, and I must have a solid weekend to sew it up. Although every dry race finish except for one I’ve won, the aggregate of a crash, a blown up engine, and several wet race events have kept the points race close.

I’ve got to say a huge thanks to the crew at K&N and GPR Stabilizers for keeping me in the game in the final hour. Thanks for looking out for me, guys. My Zero Gravity windscreens have never scratched or broke for the entire season so far. I haven’t even needed my spare, so what else can I say about that! And of course I can’t say enough about my Pirelli tires that I couldn’t do it without, Cascade Tracktime that’s given me plenty of opportunity to keep the bikes tuned the way they need to be, and SDS Performace that’s just recently squeezed another few miraculous horses out of my little 600. And finally I want to give a shout out to my boys at OGIO, who I’ve got to get in to visit again one of these days for some new shirts and stuff. Your gear has it all for form and function – and I haven’t broke a thing on any of it in a full year of thrashing. That’s saying something. Cheers guys, and wish me luck headed into the final round of racing at the WMRC championship in two weeks.