I didn't race. I was all prepared and even had the bike loaded up. Problem was I found out Friday evening that I did not have medical insurance. Thats one risk I don't really want to take. So the bike stayed put for the weekend and I spectated and volunteered where I could for OMRRA.
I ran this weekend but probably shouldn't have. The bike was spitting out water from a place I couldn't find. I'd come in from qualifiers and see spray marks on the side of the bike and my leathers would be wet on the right side. I topped off the fluid a couple times and figured it wasn't losing enough to do damage. Wrong! I ran part of one race in the afternoon after swapping radiators but I lost the temp sensor on about the 5th lap. I wasn't feeling that confident in a bike spitting out water anyways so I pulled it in and sat out the rest of the day.
I found that the water loss had over heated the head and warped it pretty badly. After getting it straightened and the motor put back together in the nick of time for the weekend. I had a fairly decent weekend. Decent becuase it was the first time really racing in nearly 9 months. 18th in 750SS out of 34 entries 20th in 600SS out of 30 entries 16th in 600SB out of 29 entries
I did not race due to lack of funds. That's the economy and the Oregon job market for ya!
I was instructing for the novice school and had no intention of racing due to funds again. But!...I got invited to do the endurance race on a friends GSX-R 600. It was more of a practice session and a chance to dial in suspension for him than a full on race effort. Which was good. I didn't need presure to crash a bike that wasn't mine. We had a good time and tamed the bike from a head shaking monster that wanted to spit you off everytime you grabbed a hand full of gas, to a decent slightly nervous handling bike. We had some moments during the race as well. The chain snapped and wedged itself between the frame and front sprocket. We lost nearly an hour in the pits between that incident and getting caught out in the pits during a red flag incident. Highlights for me were waving at the people I knew as I pulled them down the straights and finishing my last session with a 40 minute stint.
Being the last chance for me to race this season I pulled every cent I could together and made a weekend of it. It turned out decent. Saturday practice was on some very old race take offs so it was kind of mild. Sunday couldn't decide if it wanted to rain or shine. For the most part it shone. The only time it didn't shine was for the first 5 minutes of my 600 SS race. I was running in about 6th place coming thru turn 7 and I ran over a concrete patch about the size of a dollar bill. The front didn't like it and down I went with no notice. As I was sliding off the track I saw another bike in front of me who had done the exact same thing. I was fine and the bike suffered minor damage. I was back out later in the dry races but was a bit stiff so didn't finish too well. DNF 600SS 15th 750SB 17th 600SB 20th 750SS
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