Series: OMRRA
Date: Aug 15-16

Classes raced and results

LW Superbike - 1st
GP Twins - 1st

Hello Everyone.

It's Monday night, I'm tired from a early morning drive back home from what was a fun weekend of racing in the penultimate round of the 2015 OMRRA series.

I'll get to the report in a few moments but, to be honest, I'm actually feeling a bit dejected as the team just got news today that the Bonneville 2015 Race event has just been cancelled. For those that might not know Dan, Dale and the entire Zlock Racing team had been painstakingly preparing equipment, logistics, funding, people etc in an attempt to break a few land speed records at Bonneville this year. Unfortunately, weather conditions have forced the organizers to cancel the event this year. Only the second time in history I might add. The only analogy I can come up with is that it's like preparing for a test, for over a year, only to learn, just two weeks before the test, that you won't be able to take it.... Frustrating is possibly the politest word I could use...

In any event we did have some success this weekend in the races.

Despite the results, it wasn't all clear sailing this weekend for us. OMRRA runs two configurations of the Portland race course. One that includes whats called, "Festival Curves", a chicane that's approximately half way down Portland's front straight. The only challenge is that the chicane isn't conducive to safe racing when it's wet, or, the surface is compromised in the slightest way. Typically not a big deal but, for us, setting up the bike to run each respective configuration takes a bit of time. Different gearing, chassis geometry etc. So, when OMRRA closed the chicane due to severe "oiling" on the second day, Dan, and the team had to quickly, and methodically, prepare the bike to race the "long course". Naturally, they did it with flying colors but the stress on Dan was evident as he needs to know everything is "just right".

Notes on the races:
Race 1
Possibly my best start of the year. Nailed first and second gear with the front wheel just inches off the ground. Ran it deep into the first turn and used the bikes acceleration to get a small gap on the first lap. Luckily things progressed and we were able to keep the lead for the win.

Race 2
Did a decent job off the line and was able to lead the pack into turn one. From here I managed to get a few decent laps in but the race was red flagged due to a rider crashing (thankfully unhurt) in turn nine. On the restart I managed to repeat the previous start and put in a string of decent laps. One that was just outside my target lap record from a few years ago. Again, luckily, we were able to hold the lead for a win.

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

Oliver