Race Report

I’ve been putting off and putting off writing my report for the last weekend of WMRC racing in Mission to let my jets cool off. It’s not working. I’m thinking now that instead what I need to do is get it off my chest.

The weekend was a double-header, with full race days on both Saturday and Sunday. Going into the weekend the forecast was for nothing but wet wet wet weather. Leading up to the weekend I was first disappointed, and soon that changed to actual excitement about it. I was significantly behind in the points (despite having won every single one of my races) because I missed two rounds due to conflicting race events, and it was a bit of long shot for me to win the championship anyway. Plus, I could use the practice in the wet in case it rained the following weekend in Portland where I was leading the championship. So essentially, I decided I needed to be fast in the rain, and I was going to do it that weekend.

Right off the bat I felt strong in the wet, and began making some adjustments to my GSXR 750 to get it working even better in the slick conditions. With the classes that I run at Mission, the schedule works out so I hardly ride in the morning at all (two short sessions with big breaks on either end of them) then one full length race, another big break, then two more races almost back to back. I raced my one and only qualifier in the morning, and was looking forward to some solid wet track time in the afternoon.

First race out after lunch is Heat #1 of the Pro Superbike event. I quickly took the lead, and held it the full race distance to take the first win of the weekend. Now it was time to hurry up and wait. Get the bike set for the last two races at the end of the day, stay dry however possible, and keep my head in it.

Right before my next race the wind and rain picked up heavily. The cottonwood trees at the back section of the course were swaying back and forth, and you could watch the shower of orange leaves coming off of them. Race officials decided it was best if we took a look on our warm-up lap and decide if the track was ‘race-able’ or not. There was one 4’ strip of relatively clean track on the racing line, but the real story was everywhere else. I figured I’d better go out into it to see what the traction was like (don’t worry, I did it with the rear wheel, not the front…..). There were even branches out there, and the leaves piled up on the lower of my bike from just one lap made it look like I moto’d the thing. I can’t image how bad it would have looked if there weren’t huge 3” deep pools of standing water to clean it off with elsewhere on the track. Let’s just say it wasn’t ‘race-able’.

The club did the right thing in cancelling the last few races of the day. It wasn’t safe. The only question I was left with was what was going to happen with the points for those races? It was a long shot for me to come from so far behind, but I was winning, feeling strong, and looking forward to giving it my all. We’d race again the very next day, and I was hoping there’d be something like a make-up race to give me a chance. Keep reading the next report to find out the rest of the story.