Race Report

We show up in Portland for the July round of the OMRRA championship, and the weather forecast is for HOT, HOT, HOT weather! I’m running in six classes without hardly a chance to catch my breath between races, but still think the heat will play into my hands. Bring it I say!

I was excited about practice on Saturday. I had spent the day at GP Suspension getting the very first set of their 25mm cartridge conversion fork kits installed on my BPF 2009 GSXR1000 forks. I was keen to start testing them, as the stock set-up is not that great (I’m being kinda nice). I also had some ideas on what I could do with the rear end of the bike, and some testing time should get me going in the right direction.

The day went really well. We made steady progress all through the day using up some of my old left-over tires. I had a new tire profile to test from Pirelli as well, as I wanted to see if it would change my gearing or geometry very much. I went out and did about 2 laps before coming in to make an adjustment to the front of the bike. The first words out of my mouth to my crewcheif Chuck Burns were “I will break the track record tomorrow”! Well, even with a completely shagged front tire I had to baby going into the right handers I beat it a couple laps later with pump gas in the bike! I couldn’t wait for race day.

First race of the day for me was 750 Supersport. Generally I don’t have a lot for competition in the 750 classes, but I heard a rumour that ex-AMA National Champion, Jimmy Moore was going to be racing. I guess he was still getting acclimated to the bike or track, as I didn’t see anyone for the whole race. I checked out to win by a large margin.

OK, now it’s ON!! It’s time for the first race of the day where I get to pull the trigger on the big Gix! The previous month, in the last Open Supersport race, I couldn’t hold onto the lead cause my rear tire tore to bits. I was curious whether or not the changes I made to the bike would have brought it more into it’s “happy zone”. As an extra precautionary measure I thought I’d try a harder compound rear tire than I’d used previously as well. At the drop of the flag I got the jump on the field. Sometimes I wonder about my competitors and their starting techniques. We’ll all get off the line at the same time, and about halfway through the clutch run in first gear I’ll be seeing a front wheel on each side in my peripheral, then they either drop back or go straight up? I don’t think I’m really doing anything that special. I think they’re just kinda screwing things up...... whatever, I’ll take the holeshot.

On the first lap I didn’t know how much traction there was going to be in this rear tire. As I twisted the throttle on the back straight I was anticipating the slide – and it never came? So I get to the drive in turn 9 and I screw it on a little more – hey, it worked?! Next time on the back stretch again I give it a bit more juice – and it sticks! Alright then.... let’s have some fun. I keep feeding the gas to this tire more and more every lap (breaking the lap record lap after lap in the process) until I finally take a look back around the half way flag and saw that I dropped the entire field. Before I looked back I was thinking in my helmet “I think I’m going kinda fast? It feels kinda fast? I don’t think anyone’s coming with. Maybe? I better give it another lap before I look.....”. The final result was a 1:06.3, breaking my own previous record by nearly half a second! And this was in some serious heat, where the traction was compromised. On a cooler day...? My guess is if the weather man cooperates in August I’ll be able to turn 1:05’s. I won with a huge lead.

600 Supersport was a real barn burner. My 600 is quite a bit slower on the straights than all the other bikes out there (well, at least all the one’s I’m racing for position with), so it guarantees a dog fight if I was to try to win. Since that’s my goal – it means it’s a dog fight ?. Well, like Rossi says to Casey Stoner: “if you stop passing me on the straights, I’ll stop passing you in the corners”. I kept bombing my little Columbia River GSXR600 into the braking zones, retaking the lead. This went on for nearly the entire race until I think I managed to get a lapper in between myself and my pursuers. I squeaked the win off. I’m not sure of the margin, but I think I had a second or so on them. They weren’t about to pass me at the flag anyway.

Next up was once again The Mighty 1000 in the Formula Unlimited class!! Oh yes, I get excited about riding this bike! Although the heat had picked up since the morning I was pretty sure I could go much faster on the new slicks I had (which aren’t legal in the Supersport classes, so I couldn’t run them in the morning). Problem was that I only had them in a much softer compound. I didn’t know if they’d take the heat very well. Off the start I once again got the holeshot and started working away at trying to build a lead. Things weren’t working nearly as well though. I was making some mistakes in the early laps and the rear tire wasn’t happy in the heat at all. I still managed to build up a lead though, and won by a safe margin. The combination of the heat and the tire prevented me for bettering the lap record, but the win was important, and what I was really there for.

The 750 Superbike race was a bit of a let-down. Off the start I started gapping the field, but I didn’t even make it three times around before I noticed one lap that the bike didn’t pull top gear that well on the back stretch. On the front straight it was more of the same, so I took a look back to see if I was puking any smoke or anything. Nope. These are the exact same symptoms it had a year previous when the engine leaned out and started detonating. Rather than completely melt the engine I figured I’d just pull into the pit. Sadly what would have surely resulted in a win only chalked up a DNF!

Although the 600 Superbike race doesn’t mean much to me in terms of points, I somehow get excited about it just because of the battle I know I’m about the embark on. I filed into turn one in third off the start, and was ready to get it on! I think I got a little excited though going into turn one there on the second or third lap though, and couldn’t hold my line. It was everything I could do to keep it on the black, and I gave up a position and a lot of time in my mistake. Oliver Jervis had the lead, and a big one to boot. I quickly got back around the position I gave up, and started off after Quasimodo, I mean Mike Sullivan, in second. Just as I caught up to Mike though, he had an issue with some fluid coming out of his bike. He ended up pulling off, but not till after he’d messed around in front of me enough to cost even more time to Oliver in the lead. I was almost despondent at the lead in front of me. When I was exiting turn 4 he was already out of sight going around the back straight. I didn’t know if I could do much with the lead, since my bike was so much slower on the straights, but I thought I could have some fun by paying attention to where I was on the track when he went out of sight on the back straight to see if I was losing or gaining ground. Sure enough, I was gaining, but only slightly per lap. I continued on though, each lap giving me more and more incentive. As we neared about lap 8 of 12 I could tell I was going to catch him for sure. Now, catching him would be one thing, but leaving him might be another. It’s one thing to have a slower bike, but when the faster bike is behind you, and you’re blowing a big hole in the wind for it – it’s a WAY faster bike. Sure enough, he kept coming past on the straight – but I kept going past on the brakes. It was a good race that wasn’t over until the flag. We swapped the lead twice on the last lap, but I proved the victor. It was a close one though.

When it was all said and done I went 5 wins out of 6 starts, and just the one DNF while stretching out a lead to mar the perfect day. I opened out a gap a bit in the race for the #1 plate once again (which is very important to me), and set the motorcycle lap record in the process. A mighty fine day at the races indeed!

Monster props to my good friends and incredibly talented gurus at GP Suspension. Dave Hodges really knows his way around a set of suspension components, and with his help he got my super fast (albeit completely stock engine’d) GSXR1000 from being just a missle, to a laser guided homing missile! My buddy and crewchief, Chuck Burns, really earned his mettle on Sunday. Usually we’ve got a bit more help in the pit, but the boys were off on leave (or maybe kinda AWOL) and ‘Ol Man Burns was the chief, cook, and bottle washer. He did a mighty fine job. I can’t say enough about my Pirelli tires. I really was stunned at the grip I got out of the harder tire. When I’m used the bike shifting and sliding a bit after every shift on the back straight this thing just HOOKED UP perfectly in line shift after shift. It totally blew my mind. Ask my friends – it’s all I talked about for about a week after the race. I’ve gone around that back straight at PIR I don’t know how many times? But a LOT! I’ve NEVER gone around it as fast as I did in that one race. I could keep the throttle to the stop the whole way around, lap after lap, like I was on a 600! (and let me tell you, this bike has legs. It’s taking off like a dog in heat) I’m gonna try it with my chin on the tank next time!

Oh snap! Look out come the August race!!!!! I wish I could fast forward time right till then.