Notes on Practice:

Day one - Practice
Practice Session 1
Weather conditions - Dry and hot
Tires front / rear - soft front - soft rear
Total laps - 6
Best time - 1:32.02
Concerns/problems - None, bike is working great
Notes: Dan & I took an educated guess at what gearing we would now be pulling and hit the nail on the head. Also the last round's experience here had provided a good base setting for the suspension and geometry, so in essence, we hit the ground running.

Practise Session 2
Weather conditions - Dry and hot
Tires front / rear - soft front - soft rear
Total laps - 4
Best time - 1:32.52
Concerns/problems - Tires are shot
Notes: As the tires were well past their best, they started to slide around considerably so we just packed it up for the day rather than attempt to push the bike further on used tires.

Day 2

Practise Session 1
Weather conditions - Dry and hot
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 3
Best time - 1:32.6
Concerns/problems - Malfunction of the quick shifter
Notes: Somehow I managed to knock the quick shifter with my boot causing it to malfunction so I had to come in, but Dan got it all sorted out and ready to go for the race

Race 1 - 600 Superbike
Weather conditions - Dry and hot - strong tailwind
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 10
Best time - 1:30.52
Result - 2nd
Concerns/problems - Chaos in the first few laps
Notes: This has to have been one of the hairiest first few laps of a race I have ever done. I got a decent start and went into turn two in seventh. By the time we were going into turn six I had worked my way up to sixth position when Eli Edwards tucked the front going into turn seven and I had to check up a little to avoid the carnage. Just four turns later Barry Wressell had a nasty highside in turn eleven, where you don't want to crash, and I really had to dodge his bike to make it by. With all this, I had somehow managed to get into third despite a very large gap to the lead riders. Then, as if things couldn't be any more chaotic, I noticed a puff of smoke from the second place rider as he went down the straight. Sure enough, as he proceeded down the straight the bike exploded into a plume of smoke as his engine spewed its internals. To make matters worse, he didn't initially realize there was a problem and continued to go all the way into turns one, two and three. I had several obvious concerns: with the oil on the track I had to avoid where he went by choosing a different line; also, my visor was now completely covered in a film of oil making visibility virtually non existent (thank goodness for tear-offs). Lastly I had Mike Sullivan challenging me for position. With all this occurring within the first two laps the lead rider, KC Clarke, had gapped us by about six to seven seconds, something that would be not easy to make up within the eight remaining laps. From here, Mike Sullivan and I pretty much worked together by not getting in each others way, and turned the fastest laps of the race. A few laps later we caught and passed KC, leaving it to me and Mike for the glory, or I should say money. It happened to be a Yamaha contingency day paying for first place only. For those that know Mike Sullivan, you know how money can bring out the best in him, so much so that he had just broken the lap record on his 1000 just two races earlier. He was just slightly motivated. :o) We swapped position a few times but Sully held me off to the line. An awesome race!

Race 2- 600 SuperSport
Weather conditions - Dry and hot - strong tailwind
Tires front / rear - soft front - medium rear
Total laps - 10
Best time - 1:30.61
Result - 2nd
Concerns/problems - Mike Sullivan - he's just a damn good racer
Notes: I got a rather poor start in this one but managed to get into third by the start of lap three. By lap four it was just Mike and I for the money, again! I decided to use a little strategy in this race by not showing Mike what we had until the last lap. My plan was to draft right up on him going into turn one and out brake him into turn two as I seemed to be able to get into the turn a little deeper. It didn't work out as I had hoped. Mike had predicted my strategy and put in his fastest lap of the race in the final lap. It was really close, but he held me off at the line to win again. That crafty bugger… :o) I truly had a phenomenal time racing with Mike, as I always do. He is one of the few racers that I don't mind pushing hard with because I know he is always in control even at the very limit. It makes it so much more enjoyable for me when I can trust the other racer like that.

From here I have a few days off and then it's off to Mission for another round.

Stay tuned

Oliver

Please click on image to enlarge

Our 600
Erin Gua	New Suit	New Suit
Rob Burns (Our Painter)	The boys from HDFFC	The "Sullivan Clan"
Dan "Slavin"		TYR SOX
		Mike and I after the race