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Series: WMRRA
Date: May 8 - 9
Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 1st!
600 Superbike - 2nd!
Formula Ultra- 3rd!
In a word I'm feeling grateful.
Grateful for the support, friends, and family that I have
behind me enabling me to pursue racing. I know I say it in
almost every report, but I need to do this as so many make
sacrifices just to help out. Take James Cyr, my crew, for
example. Here's a guy that takes a day off work, drives over
300km (one way) just to work his butt off all weekend (he
laughs his butt off too) and then drives home late on Sunday
night. It just seems thank you isn't enough. To James and
the countless others that put in the endless hours of work,
effort and sacrifice. Thank you! Without you we wouldn't be
racing!
My thoughts are also with my sponsor
and friend Brent Prindle and his wife Vicki. Brent was seriously
injured in a racing accident this weekend. Thankfully the
latest report I have from Vicki is that he will be OK but
that he has a long road of recovery ahead of him. Thinking
of you bud, heal up!
Practice
Not much to write about here as we focused on the ZX10R and
more importantly my lack of seat time on the bike. To date
I have less than thirty laps on the bike. Each session we
made improvements but, to be honest, the only nut that really
needs adjusting on the bike is me. I also need to thank Don
Beck for his guidance and expertise. I'm really enjoying working
with Don as we're becoming a bit more relaxed around each
other as each weekend goes by. Heck, he even flipped me some
shit this weekend! - A clear sign we're well on our way!
Video - What? - No onboard video?
Sorry folks, we shot some, er, video but our mount to get
the onboard stuff failed so I just posted some very short
clips from the pits this weekend. These clips show you the
light tone we have in our team and what happens when I give
James the video camera. Sorry about the language - I swear
once. And yes, we do have a lot of fun!
Race 1 600 Supersport
I got a decent start and with some aggressive moves was into
second place by turn two. For me it was déjà
vu as I was slotted right behind Eli Edwards. Eli was pushing
extremely hard, no exception really, and the pace was quite
fast. By the eighth lap we had swapped the lead a few times
but I had managed to nip the lead from him going into turn
three. From here I put in some solid laps as the Pirelli
tire was starting to show some stuff and, luckily, just managed
to hold him off. By just .33 of a second mind you. A great
race and genuinely the kind of races I live for. A total scrap,
flag to flag.
Race 2 600 Superbike
Did I mention déjà vu? Copy the start of the
last race and hit replay. Only this time Eli wanted nothing
to do with me. He rode exceptionally well and managed to gap
me by about a second in the first three laps. I managed to
take some time back towards the end, but it wasn't nearly
enough to challenge him for the win. - Also, I have to congratulate
Aaron Gwin for hounding me for the entire race. I barley held
him off for second - great job bud!
Race 3 - Formula Ultra
I really didn't know what to expect for this race. I was gridded
back on the third row and didn't truly know how we stacked
up against the competition. To make things more challenging
the clutch started dragging as I pulled up to the start line
so I had to rev the bike to keep it running while holding
on the front brake to keep it from rolling. All this while
looking for a great start in my first race on the bike. Surprisingly
I managed to do alright in the start and found myself fourth
in the early going. My plan was to ride the bike intelligently
and work my way up to the relevant limits and evaluate just
how competitive we were. I certainly wasn't willing to just
"roll the dice' at 180 mph. To summarize the race was
very enlightening for us. We know, quite clearly really, where
we need to improve. Although I was little disappointed with
my performance we had some luck and a great battle with Mike
MacConaghy and just managed to get third.
Wow, another weekend in the bank. From
here we are only part way through my nine weeks straight racing
and traveling. Next weekend it's off to Portland for some
PR duties as I've been "summoned' to Ducati NorthWest
event at PIR. I'll be doing some demonstration laps on a Desmosedici
RR and helping out riders on the track. The following day
we have a scheduled test session for the ZX10R to evaluate
some new parts and dial the bike in appropriately. At this
rate summer is going to go by in a flash.
Thanks for listening, stay tuned.
Oliver
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