Race Report

I’ll tell you; running six classes in a day always makes for a big crazy day, but combining that with some changing weather conditions and some bikes that were being a little temperamental..... and little did I know but I was in for a real ride.

The way the schedule works out I ride each of the three GSXR’s in order, then repeat all over again for the afternoon. First off in the day was the Open Supersport event. I did a little testing the day before with a set of slick tires on the big GSXR-1000 – and in doing so changed my set up a little bit. They have a slightly different profile and grip characteristic, so I made some adjustments to the chassis geometry in hopes of getting the most out of the tires. Well, you have to run on street legal DOT tires for the Supersport races, so I effectively tuned myself away from the DOT tires (without knowing it, of course....). Things seemed to be working fairly well for the first half of the race, despite being a little loose on the corner exits. Turns out I was eating up my rear tire fairly badly. With about three laps to go the rear grip went from decent to atrocious. I could hear a bike behind me, so knew I wasn’t alone - and I knew my tire wasn’t going to get any better. I just kept getting out of the turns best I could, but I couldn’t keep him behind me. The tire was so shot on the right side by the last lap I was flat tracking it into the turns, having to chase the rear wheel with the front instead of finishing my arc towards the apex. It’s a miracle I was able to hang onto second really....

The 750 grids have thinned out considerably. Couple that with the fact that the only competitor that really challenges me for the win crashed out and destroyed his bike last time out made for a fairly lonely race. I checked out. By ¾ distance I had a one-month lead. No, but seriously though, I won by about a half lap.

The 600 Supersport race was about the most annoying race I can imagine. This was a very strange race due to constantly changing track conditions. There was a slight rain shower that drifted across the track during the race. One lap turns 2 and 3 you’d have heavy water running off your facesheild, the next lap you wouldn’t, but you would in turn 4, then it’d be different again the next lap......all race long. Since the rain wasn’t enough to actually change the colour of the track it was really a guessing game as to whether the warmth of the asphalt had dried the surface since the last lap or not. It was purely a race based on risk, not skill. Anyone could have won that race had they’d wanted to roll the dice – there was probably 5 or 6 bikes in our pack for the lead and we all were leaving huge safety margins on the table. I took the lead at one point and decided that was a bad idea. Instead I figured I’d stay near the front waiting for the last lap flag to roll my dice. When we finally got it I had just been cut off leading onto the straightaway and it blew my drive. Despite this, I still managed to find myself near the lead as we approached the back straight. I made a run for it, but all I could manage was second. It was a really close one that I was happy to have behind me.

Finally; lunch time, and my only chance to pull my leathers off other than the end of the day. I woofed some food down, put my feet up, and gave some props to my buddies Chuck and Andy that were keeping track of the wrenching duties for me all day.

The rules for the Formula Unlimited event are exactly as it sounds. It’s a no-holds barred race that you can pretty much enter anything with two wheels in. It also is heavily awarded with points, to make it so that the fastest riders on the fastest bikes are the ones duelling for the #1 plate. My weapon of choice is a 2009 GSXR-1000. Although you’re pretty much allowed to do unlimited modifications, the motor in my bike is bone stock as it came from Japan. Aside from a GPR V-4 dampener, and some GP Suspension work this thing is pretty much a street bike. It’s never even been on a dynamometer in its entire life! It’s not lacking in the horsepower department though, not by any stretch.

5 minutes before they are to release us for the warm-up lap of the big points Formula Unlimited Race it starts to spit rain. The sky looks like it shouldn’t even be raining, so I was certain it was going to stop. I saw some people thrashing around changing tires and whatnot, but we decided to take our chances that if it got fairly wet, hopefully it’d dry out a bit by the end of the race that I could come from behind perhaps. I started to second guess our decision as I rolled into the hot-pit and saw most bikes roll up with some sort of wet combo on their bikes for a tire set up, and the track was fully wet. I was on full slicks and it was WET. They release us for the warm up lap and I’m blitzing down the straight getting ready for my track assessment. I get down to the braking zone for turn 1 and I’m trying to figure out if there’s a weird glare in my facesheild or something, cause it looks dry? I play with the throttle and lean angle a little bit to see how much grip is there and much to my surprise...... it’s dry? I keep going through the twisty part of the track and the whole thing is dry, all the way down to the last part of the lap and it was dry! Only about 2 ½ turns at the end of the lap were wet. I guess the rain shower just blew over the one corner of the track and the pits........ amazing. I lined up in my grid position and took a second look at my competitors’ tires. Two of the faster guys also had full dry set-ups, but everyone else seemed like they had a wet set-up for their tires. In fact, Mike Sullivan decided to skip the warm-up lap to outfit his bike with a wet tire. Since he didn’t have the luxury of the warm up lap he probably figured the entire circuit was wet, and was looking over at me on my dry tires saying “you’re screwed buddy”, while I was looking over at him saying the exact same thing!

At the drop of the flag I put my head down and decided to try to make time where I could before I got around to the wet part of the lap. In the braking zone off the end of the back straight I held the brakes on for an extra long time and just tooled around on the wet surface – half expecting someone to come by it felt like I was standing still. Crossing the wet painted lines driving off of the last turn and made for some excitement on the big ‘thou’. Even up in top gear crossing the big chequered start/finish stripe the bike would spool up the rear tire at about 160mph....... kind of made you have to pay attention! Turns out nobody was holding my pace. I put about 3 seconds on the field in the very first lap, and continued to stretch out the lead considerably over the entire first half of the race. I kept looking back to see what happened to everyone, cause I couldn’t understand why the other bikes with dry tires hadn’t kept up. Oh well, I guess that was their problem. The last bit of the race I just left a huge safety margin on the table, continually managing the gap. I finished the race with a massive lead, and took a commanding lead in the championship points race.

Based on the huge margin I won the previous 750 race by I decided to run take-off tires and skip the VP MR9 to use pump gas for the 750 Superbike event. It turned out not to make much of a difference. I still got the holeshot, led through the first turn, and continued to stretch out a lead for the entire race to win by another huge margin. Although the previous three races were won so convincingly, I knew I had my work cut out for me in the last 600 race.

My competitors are all riding really well on their 600’s, and I gotta say.... their bikes are fast. I doesn’t seem to matter how hard I run it through the turns, I just get swallowed back up on the straights. We get going and I file into the first turn in 2nd or 3rd. Right off the first lap we start a pattern that would last nearly the entire race: me hounding the leader through the turns, taking the lead before the end of the lap, then getting passed at the end of the front straight like I’m strapped to the fence. I had to pull some pretty crazy moves out of my hat to keep regaining the lead. I’d pass on the inside one lap, and on the outside the next. I was passing where it shouldn’t be possible to pass for the lead. I was determined and just kept leaning on that little GSXR with full confidence in my Pirelli Supercorsa’s to keep me in it to win it. Turns out about 2 laps from the end I took the lead and managed to get a lapper between myself and my competitors that held them up a little bit. That’s all needed was one clear run of the infield to put some distance on them. I put down the fastest lap of the race as soon as I got that clear track and pulled out to win a couple seconds clear of them.

This time I’ve got to say a huge thanks to my EBC brakes for getting me stopped at the end of the straights. I really was depending on them in that 600 Superbike event at the end of the day and they delivered in spades! Also I’d like to introduce a new sponsor of mine in Corazzo Designs. I’d checked them out online before, but the photos on the site didn’t prepare me for the quality of these products. Not only is the styling and fit right on spot, but the quality of the crash armour is top notch for a casual fit riding coat. Check them out – they’re locally based out of Portland, OR. Also a big thanks goes out to Ron’s Performance Motorcycles and Lyon’s Technical Machining. They’ve recently worked on my 750 and 600 and have made some huge improvements. The 750 is working simply awesome, and the 600 has come a long ways. Despite what my competitors might like, we’ve got some further plans for that little 600 to make it even more competitive.

Now I’ve got a couple of Canadian rounds to race before I’m back in the States again. There’s the WMRC race in about 1.5 weeks, then the third and fourth rounds of the Western Canadian Championship up in Edmonton, Alberta. Wish me luck!