This race season has been hectic to say the least. The race weekend has been generally filled with a lot of work as I volunteered to be referee. It has been enjoyable….or maybe entertaining is a better word, but it does take up a lot of my race day. This race report is going to be LONG since I missed the last race report from May. There was a lot of things going on towards the end of May both race and personally…so my mind was on other things. Another week before I hear back on one thing….the other thing will take me awhile to get over.

To add to the craziness this year I’ve had a run of bad luck with mechanicals. The first race weekend the SV500 failed. Dan and I agreed that due to time and budget it would be better to target next year for bringing that bike back. That is now in the works as Dan showed me the connecting rods…or more accurately what’s left of them. Followed by my favorite phrase of his “Surprisingly…..”. Keep in mind the Zlock’s have been in the business for like 30 years including winning national championships. You should get nervous when they say things like “Surprisingly…” or my other favorite “I’ve never seen anything like that before….”

Anyways….on Monday 6/15 at a track day the SV650 developed a problem. Having Mike Gray and Brian Pinkstaff’s help at the trackday to diagnose the problem we are thinking it’s a bearing, but the motor will have to come apart to check it. That left me without a ride for this weekend….something originally I was comfortable with. After Brian helped me remove the motor on Tuesday night…the realization of how addicted to this sport I am set in and with Brian encouraging me to ride, I concluded to try and figure out a way to race this weekend. So I placed a phone call, text, and email to one of the guys it has been my pleasure to get to know to hopefully ‘borrow’ a motor since he has offered it before. Geoff was just getting back from China on Wednesday when he called me back and he only had two questions….(1) Which motor did I want (a bone stock one or one that was built) and (2) when was a good time for ME so he could bring it over. I’ve said this before….the people you meet doing this are some of the best people around. I could not have raced this weekend without Geoff and Brian’s help and encouragement. Thanks guys.

So Thursday night Geoff and Brian come over to help me install the motor. There are a few complications since we are fitting a first generation motor into a second generation bike… but between their technical knowledge and me not breaking anything too badly….the job gets done.

I spend Friday night buttoning up the motor. I try starting it expecting some sort of problem… and it lights off on the first turn. I pack everything up and head to the track on Saturday to finish things off. Body work, safety wire, etc. No time to practice since its Vintage Day so I’ll just race not having really ridden for about a month.

Sunday rolls around and the prospect for rain is high. I hate racing in the rain, but with the added incentive of not being able to face Brian and Geoff after all the work they did to help me if I didn’t race I tried to get my mind ready to get out there. Getting my mind right has been tough as the referee duties include bike inspections in the morning and handling the various ‘issues’ that tend to pop up. While I note that some of the people you meet doing this are the greatest (luckily my circle of friends are great) the other group of people you meet are a whole host of other descriptive terms towards the other end of the spectrum from greatest and as referee I get to deal with them. But as my college professor said "Such is life...and bitching doesn't get the job done." Besides I volunteered.

Fortunately for me the weather worked out and I had good conditions for both races. As far as solid race report I can say the 2nd race of the day felt good. I ran some consistent lap times and my weak areas were the same as last year. Into 7 and out of 9 I give a lot of time up to my competitors. This year I’ve tried changing my line into and out of 4 with varying success. So I’ll have to continue working on these areas hopefully with some more track time. Additionally my fitness has been lacking. I’ll be the first to admit I did not prepare myself in the off season as hard as I should have and I’m definitely paying for it with the results.

May Results:
MP (12th place; 1:20.2 fastest lap)
4S (12th place: 1:19.6 fastest lap)

June Results
MP (9th place; 1:18.7 fastest lap)
I started this race slotted in 3rd row outside. I get an OK launch but not great as Kevin (who is gridded next to me) shows me how's its supposed to be done. I get in behind Sam Boggess. Mike gets around me on the back stretch and i start to give up some ground. I'm not really riding really smooth...I can feel the lower and exhaust start to drag and that makes me pick the bike up and make adjustments. So I go through T1~3 making little adjustments which makes me lose a lot of ground. Mentally I have to try to start to lean off more to stand the bike up...but making this adjustment during the race proves a bit difficult. On about lap 4 or 5 unfortunately i come around T2 to see Mike's bike off in the grass to the left. He's not around and there is no red flag so he must be OK...so I press on. I end up racing with Jeff Lavalee a little and David James Moore who gets me at the end. I'll have to ask him if he has some film as it looked like he had a camera on the back of the bike.

4S (11th place, 1:19.1 fastest lap)
I get a better start in this race. Going into T3 I see Dave Salmi who seems to have gotten a horrible start...so I try to show him a wheel into T4. He ends up passing me around the outside but it was a moment that made me laugh. I was happy as I was able to put in a consistent set of 1:19's on this race and keep some of the front group guys in sight a bit longer. I've still got some places where I can make up time and hopefully get back to 1:18's. I could swear I think I was almost there...but I'm blaming the head wind on this one. Unfortunately the race was cut short by Red Flag incidents...it does not sound like anyone is hurt too badly which is fortunate.

Next race is July 25/26th so hope to see some of you out there. Additionally the last race of the year will be August 22/23 and this will be a double header meaning races on BOTH days.