Series: WMRRA
Date: July 17-18

Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 3rd
600 Superbike - 2nd
Formula Ultra (Superbike) - DNF

There's so much to write about I honestly don't know where to begin. My mind is spinning from all the events of this weekend. Or maybe it's spinning from just two hours of sleep. Either way I'm smiling after a great weekend for us.

Thoughts:
Thinking of Dan Zlock and his family as they go through a challenging time right now.

Thanks:
Mike Sullivan: Thanks again for being so generous and letting us use your superbike this weekend. You're the king!
Dave Hodges & Barry Wressell (GP Suspension): Guys, thanks just doesn't quite seem enough for all the help and support you have granted us. I simply can't describe in words how phenomenal your cartridge kit works in our forks. Thank you.
Don Beck: Donnie, despite your Supercuts haircut I really have to thank you for your persistence, patience, and sacrifices for me and this race program.
Tom and Chris at Pirelli: HUGE thanks for your support. We make more progress every weekend!
My family: To everyone in my family for the sacrifices we make to do this. Thank you. And Happy Birthday to my son Connor - he turned one on Saturday!

Notes on practice:
The last time we were at Spokane we struggled, and that's putting it lightly. With that we came into the weekend with a plan, not only for me as a rider, but for the bike as well. The biggest change, other than my attitude, was going to be the forks on our ZX6R. Dave Hodges at GP Suspension had developed an entire cartridge replacement for the current design we were using. Luckily Barry Wressell was able to prepare and install the internals before things got going for the weekend. This modification and some ingenious changes implemented by Don Beck enabled us to drop a staggering 1.8 seconds off my best laps from the last round here. In racing this is an absolutely incredible number and I'm thrilled we accomplished this.

Race one 600 Supersport
I got a horrible start and had to be quite aggressive going into turn two. From here I simply set off after the leaders, Eli Edwards and Aaron Gwin. Unfortunately for me I had chosen too hard of a tire compound and with the heat I simply wasn't able to mount any sort of serious challenge for the lead, ultimately settling for third.

Race two 600 Superbike
I did much better off the line in this one and settled in behind Aaron as Eli was setting the pace. The changes we had made to the 600 were working well and things were well in control. On the third lap I started to see oil from Aaron's bike accumulating on my visor. After a few more corners, and near crashes for me, I became quite concerned for Aaron as he didn't know about situation developing with his bike. With the pace we were running an oil related crash in some of the faster sections could not end well. I began to signal to the corner workers as best I could, that he had a serious problem with his bike. Despite my antics it took almost two laps for them to signal him to stop racing. Thankfully, and luckily, he didn't crash before this.

Race three - Formula Ultra
Let the games begin. As I was on a borrowed bike I opted to skip practice to minimize the bikes exposure to the related risks of racing. I knew the bike was capable of amazing lap times and I simply needed to adapt to it quickly to make it work as best I could. I got a great start and slotted into third on the opening lap. From here I just focused on using the bike's power and the grip of the Pirellis to carry me through my lack of talent. Here's where things got interesting. Kawasaki ZX10's are synonymous with pressurizing their crankcases to the point where they pump the oil into the airbox, which is why we typically run the oil level quite low. However, before we took the bike out we decided to top up the oil to make sure nothing negative would happen. Regrettably our good intentions bit us in the ass as the bike was slightly overfilled with oil. This isn't particularly dangerous, at first, as the initial result is a plume of smoke from the engine digesting decent amounts of oil into the intake. Unbeknownst to me, our bike was doing this and was literally smoking out the competition. Can you imagine being in the draft of a superbike at over 190 mph turning into turn one only to see a plume of smoke engulf you? That's what happened to Mike MacConaghy on the BMW. Sorry Mike, that must have scared the crap out of you. Eventually the corner workers got my attention and pulled me off the track, but not before I had pretty much screwed the race for everyone behind me. With this I feel the need to apologize to my fellow racers. Even though it wasn't intentional, I still feel a little sheepish about the whole deal. As Don said later that day, "It's racing. Relax. What are you? Canadian?"

Congrats go out to my good friend Brian Moe. In Brian's class the top ten were inspected for rules infractions. He was only one of two within the rules and got on the podium! Awesome and funny at the same time!

Stay tuned - next race this weekend!

Oliver