When we planned the race year, May was going to be our biggest challenge. Every weekend in May was booked beginning with a quick trip to Miller Motorsports Park in Utah for a one day test, followed by three successive weekends of racing (two AMA nationals and one AFM club race). Logistics aside, I was keenly aware that I had to keep the rubber side down so Scott didn’t have to scramble to repair bikes and I wouldn’t have much time to recover if I got banged up. And, given our lack of track time at Miller’s 23 turn, 4.5 mile long course, I was feeling the pressure to qualify justifying the trip to Utah and the team’s effort!

We qualified, we finished, we rode well, the bikes rocked, the team kicked ass and we had fun! It’s funny, at some level I wanted it to be over before it started so I would know if we made it, but now that it is, it all went too fast! It was truly a great time, something that I will never forget.

With a good weekend at Infineon behind us (last blog) we prepared for AFM round 3 at Infineon. Sitting 2nd in the point standings for Open Twins and given Tom Montano would be in the UK at the Isle of Man TT, I had a good shot at moving into the points lead with a good result. I was definitely in “race mode” coming off the prior weekends AMA FX race so I was all business as I sat on the front row in P1 lined up with Brian Parriott, Craig, Schwannie and Eddy and the 28 twins riders lined up behind us.

When the green flag flew, and the four of us lunged towards turn 1, I had to check up a bit to react to a periphery view of someone sawing off the front row going into turn 1! Craig pulled a “Schumacher” and just cut us off to take the lead up to turn 2. I got “pinched” on the inside at the wall (pole sucks at Infineon!) and found myself 4th going up to turn 2 behind Eddy, shit! I could see Brian behind Craig up front which was good as I knew Craig would hold up Brian giving me a bit of time to get by Eddy and Schwannie. By the time we got to turn 7, I was behind Brian who then put a move on Craig so I knew I had to get around Craig fast if I was going to have any chance of keeping Brian in sight. I came up tight inside of Craig going into turn 11 which forced me a bit wide on the exit letting Craig back by, setting up a drag race down to turn 1 where I went up the inside, aggressive but fair (a little payback for his move at the start ha-ha!). Now firmly in second, I set out for Brian hoping he would drag me along. I kept Brian in sight to the half way flags but then he was gone. Brian is amazing. He brakes so hard, so late, still gets the bike slowed, turned, and bolts out like he was shot out of a cannon! He is smooth and consistent and is great to watch! My only option was to settle for second, 5.9 seconds behind Brian and 19 seconds ahead of Craig in 3rd which gave us enough points to take over the lead in the championship. We also had a faster lap time than at the prior week’s AMA race so that was progress.

We left everything in the trailer as we were off first thing the next day for Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. With Schwannie and Alysia chasing us in the Terrorist Van, we pushed through some heavy rain, lightning and wind over the Sierras and across the high deserts of Nevada. We got to the track Tuesday morning, set up, walked the track and got psyched up for Wednesday’s promoters practice.

Wind, sun, clouds, on/off rain would be an issue all weekend and it started first thing Wednesday morning. Scwhannie was already worried about getting enough time on track as he had never been there and to figure out 4.5 miles and 23 turns on a tricky, world class road racing circuit was going to be hard enough without the weather to make it more difficult! And, even though I had one day at this track earlier in the month I was in no way confident that I had things figured out! We went out, followed Ken’s lines like obedient ducklings, went through tires like we went through fuel and methodically got up to speed. I ended the day on the edge of where I thought the qualifying cut off time would be, knowing I had to lower my times by a couple seconds, at least! The World Superbike Teams were busy unpacking and setting up. Seeing the names of the wsbk stars on the garage doors added an element of excitement knowing the big boys would be out there as well. (The sbk boys would ride the much shorter “perimeter course” which Val and Alysia started calling the “kiddy course” ha-ha!).

Thursday was qualifying and the wet/dry, windy weather continued keeping things “interesting”. When 4:30pm FINALLY rolled around, we got ready for our 1 hour qualifying session, put new rubber on and then played dodge ball with the weather that decided to turn wet on us the EXACT F’g MINUTE our qualifying session started! The AMA decided to hurry us up after a delay which forced us to mount and warm tires faster than normal and get out before it started dumping. Schwannie followed me out of the hot pits and down the pit lane and as we rushed to get on track to get some laps in before it got too wet, it all went to shit for poor Schwannie as he forgot to “pump” his brakes after mounting a new tire which meant he had no brakes going out onto the track. Pumping his lever to get the pads on the rotors, the brakes came in but grabbed the rotor just as he had begun to turn in, causing him to lose the front! I heard and felt a “thud” as he hit the ground right behind me! I looked to my right and was stunned to see Schwannie and his bike sliding by me on the ground!! It was a good effort not to collect me in the process, thanks! I had to get out on track, you never stop and I saw him jump to his feet so I knew he was ok. Corner workers were there and on the way to help him out, so with that, I got my head refocused and headed out only to find a soaking wet track by turn 3. With 20 wet turns to navigate on slicks ahead of me, I tip toed around and pleaded with the track gods to see me back to my hot pits without any unnecessary drama!

Safely back in our hot pit, time ticking, our next decision was to wait for the track to dry or go out on wets. We waited a bit as there was sun, clouds, wind and rain but it was moving around and the bet was it would dry out but we were down to 45 minutes left in qualifying and the track was still wet. We decided to take our spare set of wheels back to Pirelli and put some wets on, just in case. 10 minutes later, some of the fast guys were going out on wets to get a couple laps in the books just in case it poured with rain they would have logged a relatively quick time. With that, we elected to go out on our wets and did a couple laps. It was drying fast and with the exception of a few spots it was too dry for wets. The question became, is it too wet for slicks? Back in the pits we put the slicks back on and with about 15 minutes left I went back out. I did two laps just to check the conditions and in the process saw Rapp, Hayes, and Eslick at speed so it was game on! I had two laps at speed before the session ended and just had to silence that voice in my head that was screaming “wet track, slick tires, you F’g 49 year old idiot, what are you thinking!!!” With the voice of logic silenced, I put my head down and clocked a 3:04 ON THE LAST LAP of qualifying which was six seconds below the cutoff time putting us 20th on the grid out of 28 qualifiers. We really only did two laps at speed so all things considered, I was pleased that we made the show in the shape we did. I don’t think it was but 5 minutes later that I was visiting the business end of a Corona as I was a bit edgy to say the least! Val was also a bit frazzled as it was nerve racking for her too and I was thinking when I went out for that last session she must have thought “you better F’g come back in one piece!” Val found the Captain that day (Captain Morgan rum)! Schwannie got screwed. With his bike bent and bruised and very little time to work with, the odds were stacked against him and he just missed the cut off by less than half a second. No doubt if he didn’t have that unlucky mishap, he would have made the grid. I would be gridding up without my brotha and that sucked.

Friday was race day and the weather looked to be good but you just can’t tell in the mountains! Scott got to the track early to sort out a few things and give the Italian supermodel a little extra TLC. We made some big changes to the set up as I was having a hard time getting the bike to turn in and finish the turn so I was looking forward to testing that in our 20 minute warm up. We also looked at some of the data and figured out some ways to attack a few turns that were giving us some trouble. Back from warm up, we were 2 seconds faster which meant our changes worked. We put some new rubber on and waited for our race.

The air horn called us from the hot pit to follow the Alfa Romeo pace car out on the parade lap. Sitting on the grid, warmers on, umbrella up, my eyes roamed the setting. The snow capped mountains, the world class facility; the nearly 1 mile long straight stretching out before me, the fans and the wsbk teams watching from their pit wall was dramatic. This was a big event and it was very cool to be in it!

The 3 minute horn sounded jolting teams into action as warmers and umbrellas were removed and closed. A kiss on the helmet from my girl, a slap on the back from Scott and we were released row by row for our out lap. The out lap is a cool thing. You go pretty hard to get heat in your tires and get your head race ready, but because you’re not racing your mind can wonder a bit. I always kind of laugh to myself thinking that in just a few minutes we will be out here, in anger, going hard, racing, focused, intense, on the edge. The out lap is the one lap that I can feel some nerves. I think it’s because I have time to think! Once on the grid, in gear, watching for the 1 board, waiting for red lights to go green, things slow down and it becomes oddly quiet despite the scream of 28 race bikes banging of their rev limiters! Then it’s “Go Time”, the dogs are let loose and something primal takes over. I bet I held my F’g breath all the way down to turn 1!

I got an awesome start! Scott had the clutch dialed and as my quick shifter allowed me to click through the gears, getting well into 5th by the end of the straight, I was 13th going into turn 1! I found myself around a new bunch of guys, fast guys! Danny Eslick was completely sideways backing it in, inches away from the front runners and I thought “uh oh, I may be in 5th if this goes bad!” but somehow he reeled it in and he got through turn 1! It was amazing to witness how ferocious those boys are at the front! I could see the goings on at the front for the next several turns and am still digesting how hard those guys go, how aggressive they are, but at the same time how smooth they ride…permanent memory.

I rode the best race I could, riding amongst guys that are faster than me and struggling to stay with them. I got passed by two guys just before the apex of turn 7 on lap 2. It was a tight, aggressive, fair, AMA pass. It was tight enough when the first guy went through but when the second guy came through inches behind, I was thinking, “ok, you got your hands full now boy, time to man up!” Then a very cool thing happened. As I hit the apex, just behind the second guy who got me, all three of us nose to tail, knees down, leaned over, I noticed the left hand come off the bike in front to signal “tight pass, no hard feelings!” Wow, in that moment of pure, aggressive, hard, tight racing, the guy had the presence of mind and consideration to acknowledge the tight pass. His name is Nicky Moore, who got a poor start and was making his way back to the front. It was a class act from a true professional and a gesture that I will not forget. It is very cool riding with these guys!

I hung on to 16th place for most of the race fighting with Brad Hendry, seasoned AMA racer and Freddy Spencer instructor. After a back and forth battle with Hendry over several laps, I was in front at the white flag and put my head down, covering my lines and trying to hold on to the end. Coming into the last right hand turn I went a bit shallow to cover an inside move but it wasn’t enough. Hendry went up the inside, very tight, and I thought, “Ok, you got me but you’re going to run wide at the exit and I will get you into the last turn” but he was able to get the bike slowed and turned, keeping me behind him! F*%@ I thought, I’m screwed!! It was a pro move and hats off to him! We were side by side in a drag race down to the checkered and he beat me by a nose! Another 17th place finish but this time we improved 3 positions from the start and were fighting for 16th. We lowered our lap time by over a second getting into the 3:01’s and had a great start. In fact, we had the 8th fastest bike in the speed trap running up with the Erion Honda of Josh Hayes and the Attack Kawasaki of Steve Rapp…impressive! (If it was just a drag race we would have a top 10 finish!!). We sit in 18th overall in points for FX having contested and completed 3 of 5 races. This was our most competitive race to date on a new track with unique challenges. We will sit out the next several rounds as the AMA moves east and rejoin for the last west coast race at Laguna Seca in September.

All in all it was a good show by the team and we could all feel good about our collective performance. The bike was awesome, a weapon pure and simple. Scott and Lucy had her set up for battle and she did everything I asked! Beers were opened, storytelling was in high gear and the transition from racing to relaxing was underway. It was a good day and a fantastic month.