Series: OMRRA
Date: May 9-10

Classes raced and results

LW Superbike - 1st
GP Twins - 1st

Pow.. now that was a full weekend!

Also, I've now confirmed three people read this stuff. Thanks to Mom, Dad, and now my sister, Kate. (Out of sympathy) LOL

Summary of events...

• One full on, OJ Simpson style, car chase on the drive there! No, I'm not kidding. No, it wasn't us...
  
• One flat tire... ( just before the first race.)
  
• Another instance of Dan saving my ass. (Note flat tire above)
  
• Two races
  
• One oil slick in turns seven, eight, and nine.
  
• An improvement in lap times.
  
• Two lucky wins
  
• Even more great times, and memories!

Get this, it's 4:30am, (yeah, I know what you're thinking, 0'dark thirty!!!!) I'm driving through Seattle on my way home reflecting on the weekend. I'm shocked to see how much traffic there is given the time of day.. crazy. .. Just a FYI Seattle's traffic "sucks". 

Oh yeah, the summary... 

The car chase.

Friday evening and Dan and I are plugging our way down to Portland, south bound, on I5.  I glance over and there is a rather shaggy looking GMC pickup truck in the right lane beside us.  All of a sudden there's sirens and a Police SUV right behind him! Next thing we see is this 80's pickup trying to evade the police by weaving in, and out, of traffic.  Surreal! Dan and I are just stunned, asking ourselves if what we're watching is actually happening.  The guy driving tries to go on the meridian and hits the grass throwing dirt and debris all over the road.  Thankfully, two things happen, the truck doesn't flip, right in front of us I might add, and, he decides, in his infinite wisdom, to take the next exit and outrun the now two police cruisers on his tail. I'm certainly not in Kansas anymore... Well that's one way to start the weekend!

The Flat Tire.

Race one wasn't without drama.  Let me rewind for just a second.  So Dan suffers, thankfully for me, from OCD.  I'm laughing as I type this. He checks, and rechecks things constantly. He never assumes anything is just "alright".  This is just part of what makes him so amazing at what he does.  In this instance it literally saves my ass as he checks the rear tire for pressure just before I'm scheduled to go out!  BOOM, it's flat!  We didn't know it at the time, but the tire's bead was damaged and it released pressure when we brought it up to operating temperature with the tie warmers.  So, with some quick decision making, and action, Dan get's another rear tire installed moments before we have to out.  Phenomenal! - Thanks Dan!

The oil slick.

Hmmmm. Just before my race on day two a bike blew up and spread the content's of it's crankcase (oil) all through turns seven, eight, and nine.  Concerning to say the least.  Thankfully, the OMRRA crew did an excellent job with cleaning it up as best they could.  Not that this instills much confidence though.  Imagine being the first bikes to run through what was an oil slick just thirty minutes prior....  Lets just call it "pucker factor".  Frustrating, as I had to change what would be my ideal race lines through the respective turns in a effort to avoid the compromised surface.  The result, as you might imagine, not the most impressive times I've turned on the bike.

So, in an effort to keep you engaged for future reading, I'll keep it at that for this report.

In an upcoming report I'll take you through what occurs when trying to put a decent lap together. - From my experience this is surprising to most... 

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

Oliver