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Series: WMRRA
Date: May 3 - 4
Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 3rd
LW Superbike - 1st
600 Superbike - 2nd
MW GP Twins - 1st
Another GREAT weekend of racing!
In fact, a pretty special one for me personally as my Dad,
Hugh, came with me for the trip. Believe it or not this was
the first time he has traveled with me to a race in the US.
We had an awesome time and it was just really cool to spend
some quality time talking about when I was growing up and
telling stories of our adventures. I even learned some stuff
about him that I didn't know about before. He brought his
camera and made a semi "photo journal" of the weekend.
All told he shot close to a thousand pictures, just some of
which you'll find on the left and below. Thanks for coming
Dad - It meant a lot to have you there.
But, before I get into the details of the weekend, some thanks
are in order.
Tremendous thanks to Arai
Helmets, specifically Bruce Porter, for continuing to
keep me safe like only an Arai does. As you'll see in the
pictures, I was sporting some new lids for this weekend. Also,
thanks to Rob Burns, our team painter for doing a bunch of
work for us over the last few weeks. Thanks Rob, as always,
you're the best! - Also, I have to thank The Gua's, Brad,
Cindy, Adam & Erin for being the amazing people they are
with their hospitable nature. And I have to thank the guys
that put in the long hours at the shop to provide the fastest
bikes on the grid. Dan, Dale, and the whole team, thank you!
Notes on practice:
Not much to tell you here as I only did about four laps of
practice. Unfortunately, a weather system came in and the
changes to the bikes I was hoping to test weren't relevant
given the wet conditions. With that we just put the bikes
on the wet settings and waited for the first race of the day.
Race 1
600 SuperSport
Weather conditions - cold & wet
Tires front / rear - full rain front - full rain rear
Total laps - 10
Result - 3rd
I did well to get off the line and slot myself into third
going into turn two. I was in a fairly determined mood to
do well in this race, but, to be honest, I realized after
just four turns that we didn't have the package to even be
a threat for the win. I simply couldn't match the exit speeds
of the lead two bikes. I tempted fate a few times only to
have a few near misses. It seems the conditions at Seattle
with any amount of water have deteriorated to a point of extreme
danger. The problem area lies in the section of track that
leads you onto the existing drag strip. Regretsabbly the water
accumulates in this section which causes hydroplaning at 130+mph
while you're pointed at a wall. Precarious at best. Hopefully
the track and WMRRA have heard our concerns and have a plan
in place to improve the drainage in this area. With that I
just pushed as hard as I could working to maintain my gap
from the following riders and bring it home. Luckily I managed
to hold onto third
Race 2
650 GP Twins
Weather conditions - cool & dry
Tires front / rear - soft front - soft rear
Total laps - 10
Result - 1st
I didn't get the best start in this one but I did manage to
outbreak the lead rider going into turn two. From here I just
put the bike in the right places and let the Zlock SV do the
work to pull out a small lead on the pack. Again, I'm really
enjoying riding the SVZR. Compared to the 600 it's hard to
make it do anything wrong and it enables me to experiment
with the details of my riding to evaluate the results. We
have some additional tweaks lined up over the next few races
so it should be interesting to see what we can achieve in
terms of lap times with it.
Race 3
600 SuperBike
Weather conditions - warm & dry
Tires front / rear - soft dot front - med dot rear
Total laps - 10
Result 2nd
I knew this was going to be an action packed race, and it
didn't disappoint. I got an awesome start and went into turn
two in second behind Eli Edwards. By the time we got into
turn three Mike Sullivan had gone by both of us and was in
a charge for the win. Eli managed to get back in front on
the next lap, but highsided in a very big way on the exit
of turn three. (Thankfully and unbelievably he was relatively
unhurt in the crash). It came down to another Mike Sullivan
vs. Oliver Jervis battle for the win. I was content to sit
behind Mike for the first couple of laps to feel him out to
see what his pace was for the day. My plan was to get right
up on him for the whole race, maybe see a mistake, and, if
possible, show him what we had on the last lap. I've learned
in the past to not show Sully what you've got until the last
minute. Well, he didn't put a wheel wrong the entire race
and kept upping the ante each lap in an effort to "break"
me. We actually got into some decent lap times in the process
of this cat and mouse game. Thanks largely to a new rear tire
Josh at Pirelli
got me I was able to stay right with Mike. (Thanks Josh) In
the end it came down to some lapped traffic and my inability
to get through them as well as Mike did. Although, I have
to apologize to the rider I passed in turn three. I literally
slid the bike into this rider as we collided at the apex.
Somehow we didn't crash, although, I was crashing for a second
or two. No excuses though as I saw what Mike did on the last
lap in turns five and six. He executed, about as well as you
could, a pass on a lapped rider that left me measuring that
lap time with a sun dial. My hats off to him, his experience
played out and he took the win from me….. Looking forward
to the next one!
Race 4
Middle Weight Superbike
Weather conditions - warm & dry
Tires front / rear - soft dot front - soft dot rear
Total laps - 10
Result - 1st
I got a better start in this one and lead the field from the
green flag. The SVZR really churns out the lap times around
this track. The bike actually eats rear tires as I was spinning
the rear exiting turns three and nine respectively. Hard to
imagine that a 650 twin could do that, but this one does.
With this I managed to maintain a small gap from the pack
and hold them off to the checkered.
Again, I can't thank everyone involved in
our race program enough. Without the collective support from
all of you we wouldn't be doing this. Thank you.
Next race - next weekend - Portland
Stay tuned -
Oliver
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