Series: WMRRA
Date: June 12-13

Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 3rd
600 Superbike - 4th
Formula Ultra - 7th

I'm feeling a bit used up at the moment. It's been nine weeks straight of racing and travelling so I'm very much looking forward to the next weekend off. This weekend was a grinder for the team and I. We had some challenges, which you'll read about later, but ultimately got things sorted in the end. And with this I need to thank Don, Dan, James, Dale, Brad and Tom for their tremendous efforts. These guys slaved for me over the weekend, and in past weeks, and I'm grateful for their efforts.

VIDEO

Notes on practice:
Practice went well as we seemed to be comfortably within the range of lap times I needed to do on the 600 and, as we didn't have the Superbike this weekend, we could focus on the one bike which made things relatively easy (at first).

Race one - 600 Supersport
Let the work begin. I got a good start and ended up right behind Aaron Gwin going into turn two. Unfortunately, my start was a little too much for our clutch and it began to protest, but the bike was still moving forward, for now. I managed to get by Aaron on the next lap going into turn three but then started to experience some challenges with the electronics on the bike. It started to misfire in the higher rpms ultimately forcing me to short shift it to even accelerate at all. To make things just slightly more challenging, I had carried a little too much lean angle on the right hand side and in doing that had been dragging my bodywork on the ground. The result was a big piece of my lower bodywork came loose and ultimately came off the bike. Somehow, and I can't explain how I got this lucky, we held on for third.

Race two - 600 Superbike
After the team worked on the bike until late in the evening on Saturday (read HUGE effort here) we were ready to go. I tested the bike in practice and it seemed to be on full song, no issues. But in the race it wasn't meant to be. I got another good start and set off for what looked to be a phenomenal race; I even turned some of my best times around Seattle on our 600. Then the issue we had in the first race reappeared and I kept slipping back as the bike got slower and slower finishing, just barely, in fourth.

Race three - Formula Ultra
With some more work to the 600 the lads felt they had sorted out my challenge so I lined up for the Superbike race. As we didn't have the Superbike this weekend the 600 was doing double duty. Racing the 600 against 1000's can be a little frustrating, and a bit dangerous to be honest, like brining a knife to a gun fight. I got a killer start and went into turn two mid pack. No surprise here but I had to maximize the speed into and through the corners to have any chance of a decent result. I ended up having a great battle with Andy Brackett on his 1000(see the footage) which actually made my day. The bike was now on full song, no excuses, and it was a scrap to the end. Just the way I like it.

Now it's time for me to rest for a week, recharge, and come in swinging for the next Portland round.

Stay tuned. We might have our Superbike up and running.

Oliver