Ok I have officially decided stock RS shocks are crap. I think Honda makes them with the thought that any serious racer will ditch it, the damper and the forks for some aftermarkets. The dampers fail (been there), the shocks fail (see any of the last three+ of my race reports), and I don't know about the forks but I suspect something unsavory happens with them too. That being said, you can imagine what happend. Yes, my shock leaked nitrogen during the race and I lost rebound. However, I was happy with how the bike ran otherwise as well as being happy with my performace.

Things ran pretty smoothly at Friday practice, we cleaned out the fuel filter in my gas tank and suddenly this problem I had with the bike delaying out of slower corners was gone. Go figure. I only struggled with that problem for 6 months. I also was having a little trouble with instability on the brakes, until we figured out the Ohlins forks were 10mm longer than stock! So I lowered the triple clamp on the forks 10mm and could turn in so much easier, what a surprise. Even before we lowered the forks I was doing 1:29s/1:30s first day of practice which meant I should easily get to 26s in by Sundays race. We had dinner with Derek Dutt and his dad at some tiny casino with old school Vegas prices and great food. I had 1.99 -GIANT- shrimp cocktail and JM had 5.99 steak!

Saturday there was racing since CCS hosted the USGPRU event. I entered two races and went slower than the day before. I got a 4th in the 125 race and I don't know where I finished in a lightweight GP class. Maybe I just came in, I don't remember. We made some suspension changes and I qualified with a 1:29.3 after coming in early thinking I had time to make another change to the bike, so I missed a few laps of qualifying. That put me on row three. I knew there was something fundamentally wrong with my shock, like it was leaking again even though it was supposed to be fixed. We had a great dinner for 14 at the local BBQ joint, showered at Dereks hotel and camped in the van on Saturday night.

Sunday I had one more CCS race and then the USGPRU 12 lap 125 race. I went slow in the first race because my shock had totally failed. We tested it and sure enough, it had NO nitrogen in it and therefore no rebound. This affected the stability of the front as well, when the rear went away. I have had so much experience now with poorly working shocks I know the exact second the shock starts to fail, and what is happening. I borrowed a stock shock from Frank at Infinity racing and put that on my bike, matched the settings up and got on the 125 grid.

The flag guy at this event had been an issue (he was predictable) so I guess he had a talking to. I anticipated the green flag and totally jumped the start but caught myself from shooting more than a couple feet forward. This resulted in missing the real start completely so I was way back into turn one. I passed probably 5 people on the first two laps then set up Phil Krenn and got him, though I don't remember where. I could see Jeff Lim and Deb Kuik battling for 6th place and slowly gained on them until....that shock started blowing through the compression. I should have known better, the shock had sat unused for a long time, probably had never been revalved, and it was HOT out. By lap 6 that shock was done, and I had to wait to get on the throttle mid corner, else I ran wide. Phil got me back and I nearly passed him back on the entrance to the last corner but he really slammed the door on me there and then I stayed behind him for the rest of the race. I still rode my hardest, in case he made a mistake, plus there were plenty of others behind me. I finished 9th, but was happy with my performance. My lap timer showed my best time as 1:27.28. If the shock had held I know I had another second somewhere.

The awards ceremony for the Western Region was held there, with Deb receiving an emotional third place, Tyler Reiswig taking second and Jon Schendel winning it.

Jon and Carlos showed up in matching outfits	Jon needed two hats to accept his Western Region Championship	Tyler can race a motorcycle but he can't match his socks
Deb accepting third in the championships	Deb holding it together	Alex says get away from my cheezits

The dip here isn't fun with no compression in your shock

Gosh, that pavement seems closer than usual

The *ahem* ADULTS in the group were very fashionably attired

Vince had the best outfit I've seen in my life

Brian found his RayBans he lost in 1984