National Motorcycle Racer - OliverJervis.com

 

Please note images from the weekend can be viewed here.

 


WMRRA Round 2

 

Series: WMRRA
Date: May 23-24

Classes raced and results

MW GP Twins - 1st
OPEN GP Twins - Crash

Ok. I've now confirmed ten people read my reports... Apparently listing this number in these reports provokes a lot of feedback... (thanks for the support everyone!)

It's 6:12 a.m. I've just walked into a local "American diner" in Port Angeles to grab a quick breakfast. It's obvious, maybe more from my perspective, but I'm not a local. I order my usual fare, a bowl of oatmeal, a poached egg, and a cup of tea. Yummy. Apparently, thought, my order isn't something the "locals" have ever seen. I'm trying not to laugh as the guy beside me asks me (in a rather funny tone) "what is it that you're drinking?" I look over and say why, it's black tea, have you ever had it before? I highly recommend it!. He says NO!.. LOL These, for me, are some of the funniest moments in racing.  Some guy in a diner in the middle of nowhere giving me the gears over drinking tea, and not coffee.. Hilarious!

Anyway, I'll stop rambling on and get back to some racing action. This weekend provided a unique challenge for me. It was the first time in a long time that I've been to a track that I haven't actually raced on before. In this case it was the Ridge complex in Shelton Washington. A relatively new facility that I did have had a chance to see at a track day but has recently been changed. Given this, I didn't arrive having a clear picture of what it would take to do a decent lap around the track. So the practice sessions were absolutely critical for me to get an understanding of where I needed to put the bike, and what I had to do to be effective.

The races.
Given our lap times from the day prior Dan allowed me to enter a different class for the bike for Sunday's race. in this case we entered a class that allowed for open displacement twin cylinder machines - typically in the 850cc to 1000cc range. (Note: we have 650cc displacement.) My hope was that we would really have to dig deep and push some limits to get a result. Both from the machine, and rider. I got what I was hoping for.... and more. I did a decent job off the start and managed to lead the race for the first five laps barely holding off fellow Canadian, Shane Moore, on his 848 Ducati Evo. On the last lap Shane got by me on the straight and opened up a decent gap going into turn one. Pushing things to the limit I managed to get up to him coming out of the exit of the carousel, turn six, and proceeded to set up a inside pass on the entry into turn eight. Things were looking great for a block pass into eight until we accidentally got together, and, I crashed with a minor low side mid way through eight, (No injury to me, thanks to my Speed & Strength leathers and Sidi boots.) Although I was a little frustrated with the crash I was happy with the bike's performance, and my performance, given the situations. The SV was sliding everywhere in an effort to keep up the pace and it definitely felt good for me to ride at that level again. Also, given the pace I was able to find some limitations with the bike which, in turn, provides some valuable feedback for bike development going forward. So, overall it was an exceptional race for the bike, and for me in the future. Bodes well.

From here I have a few weeks off to train and prepare for the upcoming rounds.

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

Oliver