Series: OMRRA
Date: May 9-10

Classes raced and results

LW Superbike - 1st
GP Twins - 1st

Hello Everyone.

What a weekend/trip.
I'm typing this report on the ferry home from the US feeling a bit tired, but satisfied, from the five day trip with the kids. The weather was scorching hot with temperatures into the high 90's so keeping cool was the priority. You'll see, from the video and the pictures, that we took a few days at the end of the trip to hit Great Wolf Lodge in WA. Had a blast - The pictures etc. will tell it all.

Notes on practice:
For this round OMRRA elected to use the festival curves, a chicane, approximately two thirds down Portland's long front straight. For me, this was another first as I'd never raced the track using that configuration. Given this new layout we had to change the gearing on the superbike to compensate for the shorter straight. This affected the bike more that I imagined (read hoped) it would. Without going into all the physics involved the bike simply wouldn't finish the turns in it's most efficient manner. To compensate I had to adjust my riding a bit but was still able to do a decent time in practice.

Notes on the races:

Race one:
I did a rubbish job in this race. I barely got off the line and had to be a bit forceful through the first turn to take the lead. For whatever reason (No excuses) I simply wasn't doing a great job on the bike. I found myself struggling to get the bike pointed out of the turns and failed to adjust (read think through) the challenges I was experiencing. We got away with a lucky win here.

Race two:
After the previous days race I was determined to be more effective. I managed to get the start the bike is capable of and also managed to do a decent job. Funny how a new day, and a new perspective, can deliver such a different performance. Candidly, the highlight was having all three of my kids there to see dad do his thing. We had an exceptional time both at the track and at the waterpark afterwards. - See pictures and video here.

Huge thanks to Dan, Dale and the team for their efforts in getting the bike ready for this round. Especially Robbie Burns (the team painter) who slaved away to get the crash damage from the last round tidied up.

Thanks for reading - stay tuned for the season - check out the video and pictures from the weekend here:

Oliver