Series: WMRRA
Date: May 9-10

Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - ??Who Knows??
LW Superbike - 1st
600 Superbike - 2nd
MW GP Twins - 1st

This season is dedicated to the memory of my friends, Mike Battle, Keith Pinkstaff and Duane Grand -gone, but never forgotten.

The team really put in some long hours getting our equipment ready for this round so I need to thank them, specifically Dan, for his fifteen plus hour days getting the SVZR together. More on the new SVZR later. Again, you've been hearing me thank him in almost every report, I need to acknowledge the efforts and support from our team painter Rob Burns. Robbie actually came out on Saturday to drop off even more stuff for us and to work as crew as Dale was out of town for the weekend.

Notes on practice:
Things went fairly well in practice with the majority of my focus on two items. Getting confident in the 600's front fork characteristics and becoming reacquainted with the Zlock Racing SVZR 650. Now, it's funny when people ask me what bikes I enjoy most and, with our struggles on the 600 thus far, I have to admit I enjoy the SVZR just that much more. The latest evolution of Dan's mechanical genius is displayed in the power that this bike produces. Phenomenal to say the least. And with the development time we've invested, my confidence in the bike is at an all time high. As you might have read in the last report, I was quite frustrated with our performance. So, this weekend I went about not looking for answers from the bike. More specifically, I adjusted the one nut that needed to be tweaked, me.

Race one - 600 Supersport
Despite how this race might read (as in the result), I'm so pleased with where I finished, you can't imagine. Never, and I mean never, have I ridden so on the ragged edge for so many laps. And all this for seventh place! Here's how it went down: As I roll down to pre-grid I feel the bike "surging", or so I thought. I know something's up so I jump off and look at the rear wheel only to see that we have a slight tire/rear wheel challenge that I simply can't race on. I hustle the bike back to the pits and get the crew to work on it while the field does their sighting lap. We manage to get things squared away and I just make it to the back of the grid when the light goes green! I get a phenomenal start and slice through the field (sorry to all those that I passed so aggressively). As I get into turn two the rider in front of me, Aaron Guinn (poor guy) blows his motor and starts to pull out of turn two. Luckily no oil so we didn't have to deal with that. The race continues. I drive deep into turn three, get on the gas and almost highside myself to the moon. I initially put that down to cold tires but four turns later I found myself flat tracking to the very edge of the track when I know my Pirelli's should be hooking up and driving me forward. As it happens, we also have a pressure related challenge with the rear tire. By the third lap I'm riding what seems like the un-rideable experiencing huge rear end chatter going into the turns and virtually no drive grip on the exits. You may not believe it, but it was fun on some of the exits just sliding the bike at will. The rest of the race became a "salvage as many points as possible" exercise.

Race two - LW Superbike
I was in a rather determined mood for this one. I got the start of my life and led the field into the first two turns. From here I just focused on utilizing the outright horsepower advantage of the SVZR and the grip from the Pirelli's to pull out a win. I have to say it felt good to ride Dan's ultimate creation again.

Race three - 600 Superbike
With the prior 600 race well behind me I was quite determined to improve on my performance. I got a really good start and went into turn two with Eli Edwards and Mike Sullivan. I managed to squeak by Mike and set off to see what Eli had. Well, Eli had our numbers today and started to eek out a lead leaving the fight for second between Mike and I. As you can imagine, Mike and I had a barnburner of a race. It's truly a pleasure to race with him and I have to give him all the respect in the world. I was about five feet off his rear fender for most of the race and he made virtually no mistakes. In the end I managed to get by Mike on the last lap and we ended up having a drag race to the flag where I was just, and I mean just, able to fend him off. Loads of fun! Thanks Mike!

Race four
With my mind still fresh from the 600 race, the time on the SVZR was a welcome one. The bike does everything so well it's hard to fault it in any way. It allows me to experiment with different lines and techniques which I feel make me better. I am lucky to be riding it.

Next week I'm actually going to work as crew for one of my best friends, James Cyr. For those that may not know, James was one of my crew when I raced the WMRC series in 2005 and 2006. With his help we managed to win the 600, the Superbike, and the overall titles during those years. During that time we became very good friends, so it feels great to be able to help him with his first year of racing.

Also next weekend, Brian Pinkstaff is racing his first ever AMA National at Infineon. Dan is going down to work as his crew chief so I know he'll do really well. Good luck Brian - we'll be watching!

Thanks again to all the sponsors, friends and family. I couldn't do it without your support.

Stay tuned.

Oliver