Series: OMRRA
Date: July 26th

Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 4th
650 GP Twins - 1st
MW Superbike - 1st
600 Superbike - 2nd

Again, I'm on the ferry home from another weekend of racing.  The past two weeks have been a blur as Karla gave birth to our third child, Connor, just a few days before we had to come down for the races.  Saying things were hectic and exciting before this weekend is an understatement.  We arrived in Portland to temperatures well into the 30's which took its toll on the entire team as the heat seemed to zap everyone, including me.  I really need to thank the team this weekend, as always, but specifically Dale for really putting in an extraordinary effort.  Despite the heat the guy kept working with me to get our 600 functioning the way we need it to.  This effort, with continued support from Pirelli's Tom Young and Kevin Graham, gave us some critical insight to our 600 this weekend.  It allowed me to ride the bike like I wanted to, something I haven't been able to do all season and bodes well for the remainder of the year.  Also, I need to once again thank Jeff and Francie Lamarche for their amazing hospitality.

Notes on practice
We rode every practice session testing different tires, sizes, compounds, profiles, and the like.  By the end of the day we had our race set-up dialled in and ready to go, so I was really feeling confident and looking forward to the races.

Race one 600 Super Sport
I did okay off the line and slotted into fourth going into turn one.  I managed to work my way into third on the next lap.  Regrettably I wasn't nearly aggressive enough in the closing laps and didn't capitalize on opportunities through traffic, netting me a result that should have been better.

Race two – 650 GP Twins
I launched hard off the line in this one and lead the field into turn one.  With the SVZR dialled in I managed a 1:13.8 on my first flying lap, something that enabled a small gap that, with some luck through traffic, I was able to keep to the flag.

Race three – Middleweight SuperBike
I got lucky and put in a flyer of a first lap again.  Honestly, the SVZR makes me look much better than I am.  With the gap pulled on the first lap I managed to keep the pack at bay.

Race four – 600 SuperBike
I did alright off the line and slotted into second behind Mike Sullivan going into turn one.  Man, Sully gets good starts.  I managed to get by Mike and put in some decent laps at the front of the pack.  The laps kept winding down and after the halfway mark I started to back off a little as I was concerned about my rear tire going away due to the extreme heat.  This allowed Allan Schmidt to catch up and we began to battle for the win.  We swapped the lead so many times I lost count.  I got by him into turn four on the last lap and he retaliated in turn seven.  I made another shot on the exit of nine, but Al dodged to the right and broke my draft so I just missed him at the line.  A close but fun race.

From here I have a week off to enjoy the newest addition to my family and then it's back to work for the next round of the WMRRA series.

Stay tuned.

Oliver