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August
7-8 OMRRA Portland is an 1100 mile drive from our
house in San Diego. You forget this when you normally ride the
jetstream at Mach .85 and land two and a half hours after you take off.
You remember this 12 hours into the drive when you still have most of
Oregon to traverse. We anxiously checked
the
weather and were happy to find a sunny and hot forecast for Saturday
and Sunday. Friday afternoon I installed a Powercommander and couldn't
really tell much of a difference on pump gas. This should have been a
sign to unplug the unit, but no, I'm dumb, and |
 Our pit at PIR. Note Dinky Dog guarding my bike.  My bike was used for a display and got painted. Its good from far, but far from good..... |
| Sunday
morning I had two heat races that would allow me to get a realistic
grid position for the 10 lap races in the afternoon. The first was 750
Superbike, where I would start at the back of the grid, being a
newcomer to OMRRA this year. Of course, I forgot to add fuel before the
race and at third call I remembered as I was heading towards pit lane.
By the time I got it added, I missed the warmup lap. This meant I had
to start from the pit lane after everyone else had started and gone by.
Yup, more rookie action. Luckily it was 750 SB, which I was running to
play with some friends mid-pack and get some tracktime for the Open
Twins race. Think I qualified 13th out of a full field of fourtyish.
Not bad when you give everyone a halfstraight head start and only have
four laps. My Open Twins heat had me gridded 11th out of a 17 bike field, not sure why but I took it. I passed into the lead on lap two, sure that the other fast Twins guy (Scott Ferrell, nice guy and very quick) was sand bagging to check out my game. I slowed down, so did everyone else and I finished on the pole. I noticed that the bike was running pretty warm, but didn't pay a whole lot of attention. It was around a hundred degrees, and I've seen water temperatures above 200, so I wasn't that concerned. I got a crappy start for the 750 Superbike final and spent a few laps going from around 20th to 10th. By that point the leaders had checked out, and even though I could run laptimes to get into the top five, I wasn't going to make up the distance I lost, so I battled with my buddy Tyson for the rest of the race, ending up 9th. It was fun, which was the reason I decided to race at Portland, so yea. Coming off the track the bike was at 204 degrees water temperature, and felt a touch down on power compared to running under 190. I only had one ten lap race before OT, and it felt like I took my helmet off, grabbed some Gatorade, and checked the fuel, then went back out. I was worried during the sight-in lap as the bike was running around 208, not too good considering we hadn't started yet. I lined up on pole and got another crappy start. I think a few nights at the drag strip are in my future. Anyway, I passed an RC51 pilot at the end of the first lap and took over second place, only a few bike lengths behind Scott. I pulled right up on him in turn nine and got a rude awakening. Down the front straight I couldn't even stay in his draft. Ouch. I was able to make time on him in the infield, and could close right to his rearwheel into turn seven, but he'd pull a few bike lengths down front straight and I'd have to do it all over again. Then the bike seemed to slow a little and I realized it was running at above 212. We also encountered the slower riders in the Open supersport class that was the wave before us, and traffic made it even more difficult to stay glued to his rear wheel. I just tryed to keep it close and hope for a small mistake from Scott, but he stayed the course, and after ten laps, I finished just off his rear wheel, surrounded by some of the Open Supersport riders, for second place. Congratualtions to Scott, I'd love to race him again, but probably won't be in Portland for some time to come. It was fun though. Now to find out what I can do to keep the priller running cool. Thanks to California Race Services for the great tires and to Josh Bryan and the Tigershark Racing crew for mounting them for me during the race weekend. Thank you PB for the help driving, thanks to all my friends and family for coming out to support Little,Big Racing. |
We got a
blowout on the long drive home....
I ran out of photos, so here is a picture
of PB's butt.
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