Series: WMRRA
Date: July 11-12

Classes raced and results
600 Supersport - 5th
LW Superbike - 1st
600 Superbike - 4th
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.

As I sit in Sea-Tac Airport waiting for my 11:00 pm flight to take me home, I'm thinking I've got plenty to be grateful for. As you will read in the race results, the weekend went alright for us; frustrating in some ways and rewarding in others. I feel great as I rode my proverbial ass off in all the races, but had to dig deep to make things happen. As odd as this may sound, I was more motivated to do well for the team this weekend than any other I can remember. When I arrived in Spokane I was greeted to no less than eight dedicated people doing whatever they could to assist me with all the days of prep work, planning and other logistics, so special "thank you"s are in order. Thanks to Dale Zlock for working his butt off for me this weekend. Dale had double duty as Dan was off on a much deserved weekend away from the racetrack, and he really made some awesome decisions as crew chief this weekend. Also, I have to specially thank Jeff and Francie LaMarche for yet again treating us to hospitality and food that's hard to describe with words. Thank you. And certainly I have to thank the Pinkstaffs, Brian and Kevin, for assisting us this weekend. With Brian just getting a top ten at the AMA National in Laguna, he and Kev were exceptionally valuable this weekend with their perspectives as riders. There are so many more people that I have to thank, but for the sake of brevity just know I'm grateful beyond words for the efforts and support of my sponsors, friends and family. I'm a lucky man!

Practice:
Typically I get within a second of my race pace during practice, but when I was off the pace by over two, I became a little frustrated. I calmed down by the second session and really put in some clean laps, but the times just weren't coming. Dale and I worked on a solution, but with only two practice sessions we fell short of getting things going in the right direction.

Race one 600SS:
I didn't get the best start but managed to get into third going into turn two. Going into turn four things got a little haywire as everyone seemed to think that they should get to the front at that particular time. A close call later found me shuffled back to fifth with some work to do. I focused and put in some clean laps at my limit but watched, in total frustration, as the lead three sliced away a few tenths at a time. I made a run for fourth, but a miscalculation on my part around a lapper cost me any realistic chance at the spot.

Race two 650 GP Twins:
I did alright off the line, but Shawn Becker did one better as we lead the field into turn two. I managed to get the drive on him out of two, up the hill, and proceeded to put some focused laps in. Luckily I was able to get a small gap on the opening laps and hold the position to the flag.

Race three 600 Superbike:
I did alright off the line to slot into second going into turn two. I've often compared racing 600's to racing with a bunch of axe murderers; essentially, we'll all kill each other for one inch of racetrack so things get fierce indeed. Despite our apparent lack of relative safety and self preservation, I managed to get into the lead on the second lap and push from the front. Regrettably we didn't have the pace to take the win. Despite my best efforts, we slowly slipped to an eventual fourth place.

Race four Lightweight Superbike:
I did an excellent job off the line and luckily managed to grab the lead going into turn one. Again, I put in some focused laps, and with some luck through traffic was able to take the win.

I don't know if my frustration at the results on the 600 have come through in this report. All I can say is that Dale, Dan and I are using this week to formulate a plan to test some changes to our program.

Stay tuned - next race in two weeks in Portland, along with news of the birth of our third child any day now.

Oliver