Sept. 2003 Race Report

My first Super Sport podium finish ever!

As a lot of you are probably aware. I spent the last 2 weeks putting my bike back together after an unfortunate race incident at the Aug. race. When the Friday before the race weekend rolled around I was still waiting on one part that was critical to my bike being able to race. That part was a no show and my backup plan of borrowing one from another racer fell thru when he went in for surgery and was to out of it to be able to help. (Thanks anyways Scott )

Knowing that I didn't have all the parts to race I still went home after work and began the process to finish the bike for the weekend. I started at 6 PM and didn't finish until 4 AM! Big thanks to VinnyCBRF4i for coming over and helping me w/ assembly and keeping me company. You were a big help! In the 8 hours of work we managed to go from a bike w/ no brakes, no bodywork, and missing parts to a fully functioning race bike. There was a bit of Monster Garage fabricating and OCC yelling at times but the bike went together and I was in bed at 4AM.

Two and a half hours later I was awake and driving to the track. I had meant to set up pits for the practice day w/ gixxer232, FramerPDX, and others but I was just too tired to figure out how to meld my pits into thiers so I went back to my ussual spot next to E-tikit. First order of business was to swap brake pads as mine had barely 1mm of pad material left. EDR had a set overnighted in for me but unfortunatly his vendor made a mistake and I ended up w/ Brembo brake pads. Luckily EDR was in good position w/ the SB Motorsports guys and I was able to get a set of pads for my bike. I did just a few laps in the first session to bed in the brakes and see if my lack of sleep was going to be an issue. The session went well tho and the EBC brakes, while different, worked good for me. I spent the rest of the day working mainly on getting better at braking into T1 and T7 and not really worrying about my lap times. I packed up at the end of the day, made a stop on the way home to see a friend who had come up from Utah and was home by 8PM. I nearly fell asleep several times trying to eat dinner and was soundly asleep at 9PM.

I awoke Sunday and looked out the window and saw wet spots but it wasn't raining at the time. I managed to get to the track at a decent time and got my pit incorporated w/ gixxer232, FramerPDX, and the others. This turned out to be very crucial to my sucsses this day. I had good grid spots for all the AM qualifiers and the new and greatly improved starting grid location lended itself well to me keeping those good spots for the afternoon mains. Well, that is w/ one exception. I managed an 8th for the 600SB race but was in the process of swapping windscreens when second call came out for the 600SS race! I wasn't even in my gear at the time. Luckily Framer and Ricky jumped on it and got my windscreen on while I suited up. Then Ricky realized that this was indeed the 600SS qual and not the 750SS qual so he jumped on his bike quickly too. We both got to the pit lane as they were closing the warm up lap. We would both be starting the qual from pit lane after the entire field had gone by. We both made matters worse when we took off, wheeling, shifted to second and both caught false neutrals! (it must have been quite a site to see 2 X-6RR's wheeling away and then BAM the revs go sky high and the front wheels drop!) Well we both were on a tear during the 4 laps and managed to pass a little over half the field for 15th (Ricky) and 17th for me. The 750SS qual was less exciting and I managed 9th on the grid.

During the lunch hour I swapped over to a new set of Dunlop 208's with the intention of scrubbing them in during the TOR event at lunch. Well, TOR was canceled due to only 1 rider showing up on time. I ended up scrubbing the tire on the warm up lap of the 600SB race. I was tentative on the start due to not being sure of my tires. We did about 2 laps and were red flagged. We did a full restart and knowing that my tires were fully scrubbed I was able to stay w/ the fast guys. I had a good race trying to chase down the guys in front and was getting closer each lap but just ran out of laps. Still a respectable finish of 9th for me. Soon after was the 600SS race. The skies were looking threatening when we took off on the warm up lap and while coming thru T3-T4 I saw lightning in the distance. When I hit T7 I could see rain on my visor. I started from 17th on the grid w/ a very light rain falling. A lot of people were very timid in the conditions and I made up a lot of positions quickly. It continued to rain harder each lap and by lap 3 people were going very slowly! I railed around the outside of E-tikit in T-2 to take 3rd and was freaking out and trying to make myself stay focused and smooth! I was all ready to keep going for the front but unfortunatly they red flagged the race. (some of the turn workers stand on metal stands and there was lightning, plus a lot of *cough*pirelli*cough* riders were crashing out all over the place) We held an impromptu riders meeting on the hot pit lane and decided to move the race to the end of the day for a full restart. (much better than the alternative of canceling the race for no points, contingency, or results!) I started to pull my tires off to swap for rain tires but got interupted for another riders meeting. When I got back I continued to try to swap tires. My tire vendor had put his changer away tho and I had to have the Pirelli guy swap my DOT's for rains. He is a bit slower and they were making first call for my 750SS race and I had not got a tire back yet. Rick Frasier, FramerPDX, Gixxer232, and others all jumped in a worked as fast as humanly possible to get my tires on my bike while I suited up. They were still putting on the right front caliper when the race started. I had shut off the bike and was ready to call it but they insisted I go in case it was red flagged and I could make a full restart. I sped out of the pits and joined the race already in progress. By the time I started the leaders were probably entering T-6. (several turn workers later stated how surprised they were to see me coming after the rest of the field had disappeared) As I came onto the front straight for the first time I saw a couple bikes heading for the pits so I thought I wasn't that far behind. I circulated alone for awhile before passing NameMe and another rider then was quite lonely until the next to last lap when the leader actaully came by me. I took it easy out there just getting a feel for it but it was fun to see people on the pit wall cheering me on the whole time. I was amazed to find out that I actully finished 5th! My new best Expert finish ever! After a bit of a break and a LOT more rain the re-scheduled 600SS race started. A lot of the riders had already packed it in for the day so the grid was thinned a lot. While gridding for the restart Dave Salmi rode by me and motioned to me, "you and me, to the front!" It set the tone for the race (Thanks Dave!) I got a decent start but got stuck behind a rider who nearly took my front wheel off a couple times as he parked it in the corners! When I got around hime I was sitting in about 7th and started my push to the front. I made quick work of a few riders and then started chasing down Matt Zurbuchen (OMRRA #1 plate holder) and Dave Hosea. I would catch up to them each lap and eventually passed both in T-6. Matt decided he had had enough and dropped back but Dave kept fighting and we went back and forth a few times when the red flag was thrown. I'm positive I could have held him off w/ another lap but when we came thru T-4 and I saw Oliver Jervis down I started freaking out! I new I had just landed my first podium finish in 600SS in 4 years of trying! I was exstatic and it was great to share the moment w/ Melissa (my GF), Framer, Gixxer232, Ricky and everyone else. Thanks all you guys and gals for being there!

Packing up in the pouring rain was a bummer but I was still glowing and smiling the whole time.