Series: OMRRA
Date: May 11th
Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 3rd
650 GP Twins - 1st
600 Superbike - 5th
MW Superbike - 1st
Happy Mother's Day to all the Mom's reading
this.
It's about 1:20 AM on Monday morning. I'm
driving home from Portland in an effort to catch the first
Ferry home to Victoria. Yes, living in Canada's Western paradise
does have its costs. (Beyond the monetary ones that is) About
the only thing I enjoy with driving during these late hours
are the talk radio shows, specifically, the Dr. Drew Show.
Basically, the Jerry Springer show of Radio. I don't get the
chance to watch much TV, if any, so I guess this is my consumption
of "reality". I'm just thankful it's not my reality.
And now as I sit back and read my last paragraph I realize
I must be rather tired and not completely coherent to be writing
about a talk radio show in a race report. Oh well - It stays
- You'll read about everything that goes on in these repots
folks. Well almost everything.
Notes on practice:
Practice went really well as the weather system that was supposed
to come in never evolved into any precipitation. These days
the bikes spend more time warming up than do on the track
in practice as I'll only do two to four laps and come in.
If the bike is working as well as I think it can, we park
it for the races. We did make some changes to the 600, specifically,
to address my challenges from the first round here. Things
were working really well with my practice times almost equaling
my race times from the last round. Bodes well.
Race 1
600 SuperSport
Weather conditions - wet & cold
Tires front / rear - Rain, soft front &Med rear
Total laps - 12
Result - 3rd
Sometimes Mother Nature just messes with you. Here we were
bathed in sunshine right until they blew the horn for us to
go out for this race. We looked up and there was one little
cloud, in a sea of blue sky, which decided to open up on us.
Literally a sun shower! GREAT
. The team sprung into
action as the field went out on the sighting lap. The guys
hustled and managed to get the rain rims mounted on the bike
just as the field started to return to the grid for the start.
And I have to thank everyone for doing such an amazing job
of getting the bike ready in record time. Now, this meant
that we had to start from pit lane, but with the track now
completely soaked, we figured it was worth the gamble. A few
other riders decided to take the same chance we did and, for
the first time in my career, I started a race from pit lane
after the entire field had gone by. Now I have to tell you
that I had a few things on my mind. This was my first sample
of the new Portland surface in the wet, and the rain tires
I had on were stone cold. Those two reasons were more than
enough for me to tentatively sample the available traction
as the Pirellis came up to operating temperature. By the end
of the second lap I was in third and pretty much alone. I
don't think I have ever passed that many people in a race
ever. I just put it on cruise control as there was no way
I could make the gap to the leaders and I managed to hold
onto third.
Race 2
650 GP Twins
Weather conditions - wet - dry - wet again & cold
Tires front / rear -DOT soft - soft
Total laps - 12
Result - 1st
Did I mention Mother Nature can be a beast? Sure enough, the
track was 90% dry as we headed out for the sighting lap. I
could see another cloud approaching that certainly held some
precipitation and even had a few rain drops splash on my visor
as we went through turns two and three. OK - I was on DOT
tires, as was most of the field. I knew I had maybe one, or
two, laps before the rain came destroying anything that resembled
a decent lap. I got a good start and led the field into turn
one which was now completely soaked. Turns five through nine
we're, however, still dry. So with that I really pushed on
the opening laps in these sections and managed to get a gap
on the field. For the rest of the race I just worked on maintaining
the gap something I luckily managed to do despite the now
wet conditions.
Race 3
600 SuperBike
Weather conditions - wet & cold
Tires front / rear - soft Rain front - med Rain rear
Total laps - 12
Result 5th
I have to say that I was disappointed in my performance in
this race. I had the package to do much better than I actually
did, but I just didn't get the job done. In hindsight I didn't
get into a rhythm that allowed me to do consistently fast
laps. I would do one lap and think, "OK, just a few more
of those and we'll be up the order". Only to get into
some lapped traffic and make a mistake, etc etc. No excuses
though, as these are not the results I should be having with
the equipment and tires I'm on. We'll remedy this shortly.
Race 4
Middle Weight Superbike
Weather conditions - cool & damp
Tires front / rear - soft rain front - med rain rear
Total laps - 12
Result - 1st
I feel I equaled my best start on the SVZR in this one. The
bike wheelied ever so slightly as I slammed it into the second
ratio and it carried the front tire a few inches in the air
until I notched it into third. Cool! At this time dry lines
were appearing all over the track and I was starting to think
about tire management. Luckily for me, I had a medium Pirelli
Turbine rain on the rear. These tires are almost an intermediate
rain. They work well in these conditions as they hold up phenomenally
well as the track dries. With a small gap earned on the start
I managed the lead to the end.
Again, thanks to everyone that's involved
in our race program.
I now have a few weeks off from racing, so
it's time to get to all those household and property chores
that have been backing up. Looks like I get to build a shed.
Also, my trainer Dawn and I are going to work on some stuff
with the time off. And, I think it's time Carter caught his
first fish. Some fly fishing on Elk Lake or the Cowichan River
with my kids is definitely on the agenda.
I'll be at the PSSR track day in Seattle on
May 29th and the next race is in Seattle on June 14th - 15th
Stay tuned
Oliver
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