No matter how many times I hear the AFM's Jonn Fosgate belt out his famous race countdown ritual over the paddock loudspeakers, the rush of adrenaline never fails to get my heart and soul fired up!

"Green Flag".....GO TIME BABY! It's magic when you and your bike become one to do battle with a hectic race track that demands your complete respect, attention, and commitment for 6 intense laps. This is the only time i am completely captivated, my mind doesn't dare stray....pure focus. By the time I see the checkered flag I will have had to pull off over 100 gear shifts, flung my knee dragging body from one side of the bike to the other some 90 times in order to negotiate the 15 odd turns per lap while fighting with the boys for every inch of pavement, inches apart, from 50mph to over 150mph! Ahhh....the sickness!!

It all starts up again, this weekend, as over 1,000 crazy AFM road racers migrate to a place just off interstate 5, 45 minutes west of Bakersfield CA in an identity challenged patch of desert that is home to truckers, tired oil wells and the notoriously bumpy Buttonwillow Raceway for the 2008 AFM season opener!

It doesn't seem like 5 months has passed since our first race win at the Buttonwillow finale and the close of the '07 AFM season where we finished 2nd overall in Open Twins. That's probably because we haven't had an off season at all! We've been racing with WERA and WSMC in Vegas, Fontana, and Willow Springs to get our AMA license as we will be contesting the 4 western rounds of the '08 AMA Formula Extreme championship in addition to the 8 round AFM series.

Scott has had to roll off last season and immediately into another "mini season" AND get the bikes sorted for what is going to be two seasons in one!! And, to make things harder for him, we decided to step up our race program by making some dramatic improvements to the bikes (we will be fielding two equally prepared Ducati 749R's). Oh ya, and he has a bike shop to run as well as other racer's to support. The man is an animal!! It's tuesday before the race weekend, and we still have a few balls in the air, but all is good and Scott will make it happen, he always does.

Check out the bottom of our "On Track" page for a list of our 2008 sponsors. We have a great group of sponsors backing our effort and giving us the support and products we need to compete. Special thanks goes to our new title sponsor, Strongmail, which is one of silicon valley's hottest start ups!

Check back next week for a race report. It's time to go racing!!