Before I begin, I would like to thank my good friend Marc Burgess for all his help over the past weekend. Although he has a broken leg, he insisted on helping me and without him the following results would not have been possible. Also, I can't thank Zlock Racing enough for its support even if the key players are, at times, unable to personally attend a race with me.

I really didn't know where I would be racing this weekend. I had three options: a US AMA National at Mid Ohio, a WMRRA race weekend at Spokane or a WMRC double header at Mission. Mid Ohio was out due to logistics and manpower issues. Spokane was out because our tire shipment didn't arrive in time. It appeared Mission was the best bet. But, a fly in the ointment had Dan Zlock committed to the Suzuka Eight-hour endurance race as crew chief for none other than Anthony Gobert and Adam Ferguson; I told you this guy is the best! Needless to say he couldn't run our race program over the weekend, but Mission it would be!

With the van loaded like the Beverly Hillbillies, Marc and I set out for Mission in British Columbia's Fraser Valley. Rounds two and three were set back-to-back, Saturday and Sunday, with practice on Friday. As I mentioned earlier, tires were an issue for us so I opted to sit out Friday's practice to save what little tires we had for the races. Here's the scoop: We had one set of tires with about six laps on them from Laguna (when my shifter fell off) and one set I had used in Laguna for qualifying with 22 laps on them. For all intents and purposes, we were screwed. Time for a plan. Marc and I sat down, looked at the schedule and came up with what we thought was the best plan of tire rotation for the weekend. Time to roll the dice!

The races
I could honestly give you way too much to read if I wrote about each individual race, so I'll summarize for you. I went into this weekend with one goal in mind: to have FUN! Sometimes it seems you lose track of why you started all this and it takes away from your enjoyment of the sport. That's not to say I don't enjoy the competition, because I love riding with some of the local fast guys. In fact I had some terrific battles with Troy Burstyk, Steve Dick, and Scotty Borthwick, just to name a few. But, I want just to be racing with a smile on my face. No moments, no sketchy passes or riding, just good clean racing. Even on the second day when the tires were absolutely shagged I was still laughing in my helmet playing with the rear end on corner entries and exits. I like to get to that place where you can still rip off good laps well within your comfort zone. It makes it fun!

When all was said and done we had four podiums in four races. Not too bad all things considered. And to be honest, I can't believe how well the Pirellis lasted despite the number of laps on them. When Dan hears how many laps I put on those tires he's going to kill me.

Next up looks like Seattle, Aug. 9-10. We will have new tires by then, I promise!

Oliver

Photos
Please click on image to enlarge

Action shot	Another
Podium	Marc and Nicola