Series: OMRRA
Date: June 2-3

Classes raced and results
LW Superbike - 1st
MW GP Twins - 1st
600 SS - 2nd

Rewind back to the first week in May and the phone rings. My call display says "Zlock Racing". I answer, and on the other end is team principle Dan Zlock. Here is how the conversation goes:

Dan - Hey Oli, are you available to ride one of my superbikes in June in Portland?
Me (immediately) - Yup
Dan - Great, do you need to check your schedule first?
Me (immediately) - Nope
Dan (now laughing) - You're a racer to the core.
Me (chuckling) - What makes you say that Dan?
Dan (laughing even harder now) - Because you're ready to race at a moments notice and drop virtually anything.
Me (now I'm laughing as I've seen how quick I was to respond) - Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess I need a "fix", see you June 1st.

This call set in motion my focus for the next several weeks culminating with the writing of this report. The race weekend, as you'll read below, was a welcome one for me on many levels. Beyond the actual racing (which was such a small part of it) it gave me the opportunity to spend some long overdue time with people that I refer to as my racing family. These are the phenomenal people I've spent almost every other weekend with over the span of ten summers. Then, with the economy etc slowing down in the US, racing slowed down for me. As a result I hadn't, until this past weekend, seen this group in just over a year. And I won't B.S. you, it's been tough not seeing them and not spending time in the culture.

Prep
It's only been fairly recently that I've reflected on what it is about racing that truly draws me into it. Surprisingly to most it isn't always the actual riding that makes me want more. It has a lot to do with the preparation - getting a group of people together to take on a seemingly insurmountable challenge that all comes together (physical, mental & logistical), and with a little luck so does some success. It's staggering really but for every minute we spend on the track there are one to two hours of prep time. On the physical front I was 100% ready to go. A strong winter training program has me about as lean as I can get (155lbs) without losing the needed strength. Being "bike fit" is another thing entirely so I've been riding the wheels off my supermoto bike every Tuesday to work those muscles and keep the senses sharp.

Practice
Thankfully I know the Portland track quite well so getting up speed wasn't an issue. Dan sent me out in the first session to shake the bike down and get a feel for it again. I have to say jumping on the SV was like coming home. This is a bike that has carried me to over four championships. It's a physical manifestation of Dan's amazing engineering and racing experience and honestly is a blast to ride. It's also a bike that I feel made me a better rider in many ways. Because it doesn't have 180+hp it forced me to pay attention to the smallest details when pushing for those last tenths of a second. Details that add up over the course of a lap.

The races
I won't give you a lap by lap recount of the races as I'm sure the one person reading these reports might stop. As you can see from the results we got quite lucky and didn't have too much drama through the weekend. The highlight for me personally was the last race, the 600 class. We had looked at the lap times from the earlier races and thought, with a lot of luck, we might actually podium in this class. Despite having a serious disadvantage in outright speed we somehow finished second. I ended up having a great scrap with a guy (sorry don't know his name) throughout the entire race. It forced me to think about a strategy for the last few laps, decide on what I needed to do (taking what I felt were my strengths) and then put it all together before the finish. I LOVE races like this. Anyway, I'm sure you're getting how much I enjoyed this one.

Dan, thanks for the call.

Gratitude
None of this would have been possible if it weren't for the help of some key people. Here are just a few that need special mention.

My bride and kids - Thanks for the weekend off so dad could play
Dan & Dale Zlock - No words really - Thanks
Jeff & Francie LaMarche - You're my racing Mom & Dad
The Pinkstaff clan - What can I say
Brian Moe - Thanks for keeping it fun bud
Ryan Phillips - Thanks for the amazing photographs
The Young Family - Thank you (missed you Tom)
The Prindles - Thank you
The crew and border guys at the COHO - Thanks for making things easy
Everyone at Pirelli - Jeff, Kevin, Chris, Tom, Barry - thank you
Bruce Parker & Max - Joe Rocket Canada - thank you
Bill Berroth - Motonation (SIDI) - thank you
Bruce Porter - Arai - thank you
Carmine Sparanese - Lifestyle Markets - thank you
The Crew at Canadian Biker Magazine - thank you
Jim at Silkolene - thank you
Robbie Burns - thank you
The team at Radar Hill - thank you

Stay tuned -

Oliver