Smokey skies from a burning California and 100 degree summer heat sat heavy on the little farming town of Willows, 90 miles north of Sacramento and site of the AFM’s 4th of July race weekend.

As we unpacked our trailer and setup under the huge metal canopy, I was already in race mode. I was acutely aware that this was going to be a defining weekend in the season. We were leading the Open Twins championship with 3 rounds completed and had a slim lead over San Jose BMW's Brian Parriott (who finished 7th overall at this year’s Daytona 200) while 3rd belonged to none other than Tom Montano who in fairness missed last month's AFM round as he was in the UK contesting the Isle of Mann TT. These guys are great riders and I was under no illusion, these boys were here to win and I would have to step up my game, no doubt about that.

I went out hard every practice session, at the front, with the club's fast guys, and threw down ...quality not quantity. I went out like it was the start of a race, fully intent on burning my rear tire off the rim. We made some minor tweaks to our set-up but mostly focused on being fast. By the time practice ended on Saturday, we had the quickest times in Open Twins and that included Brian and Tom. Fast laps are nice but racing is an entirely different animal. The collective race experience Brian and Tom have is impressive if not a bit intimidating! But, I had a good consistent pace and felt competitive. Scott had the bike going good so my job was to step it up and fight for the win.

Race day was a bit hotter and our races would be after lunch in the heat of the afternoon. Morning warm-up went well and I got up to speed quick, getting into the low 1:54's which was exactly where Tom was. Brian was in the 1:55's. I signed up for the 750 Superbike race to get me in race mode as Open Twins would be a few races later around 3pm. I started on the inside of row 4, position 15 out of a grid of about 40. There is something called the KFG rule (Known Fast Guy) that I used to get the position. Basically, if you don't have any points in a class and you can demonstrate from your practice times that you are within a couple seconds of the last year's winning fast lap time, they let you grid up on the 4th row versus having to start at the back. My practice time was actually a bit quicker than last year's winning time so I got onto the 4th row.

With the green flag flying, I motored up the inside taking 6th into turn 1 and by lap 2 I had moved (aggressively ha-ha) into 2nd and set out for the leader who by that time had opened up a pretty good gap. I closed in a bit but ran out of time by the checkered since we were pretty much on the same pace. We finished about 3 seconds back for 2nd but well clear of 3rd so all in all, it was a good race and I posted my fastest lap of the weekend. A weird thing did happen along the way to the checkered. After taking the white flag, like normal, on the last lap, I thought I was hallucinating when I came down the front straight for the finish line only to see the white flag flying again! I really didn't know what to think (at 150mph!) other than the leader, Lenny Hale, just ahead of me still had his head down and I wasn't about to let up if he was still racing! So, I just stayed on the gas and chased him around for another lap. Once the tower figured out they blew the flag, they got it right for everyone behind us, but Lenny and I raced for another lap. We got our money's worth at least!

Finally, it was time to race OT and it was literally smoking hot, but I was ready to ride. We were in the second wave as Open Production was in front, so after they let those boys loose it was our turn. 1 board up, face shields down and locked, first gear engaged, hunched over, rpm's up, I could feel Brian and Tom on the front row to my right and was laser focused on getting to turn 1 ahead of these "big bore bruisers". When the green flag flew, I got off the line well, and could see Tom's 1098 to my right. Both of our fronts were coming up as we squeezed the trigger so as we clicked 2nd and clawed our way to turn 1, I pulled him just a bit and was able to tip in just ahead of Tom...HOLE SHOT! Yah baby, clear track ahead, head down, I could hear my Irish road racing pal, Arnie Hill, saying "keep it between the hedges"!!

Tom came by on the outside of turn 10 on lap 1 and I let him drop in just ahead of me. For me to hold the position would have meant really blocking him and it was a move that just didn't feel right at that moment. Not that I wouldn't block him, but it didn't feel "safe" so I conceded the position. There is just a split second to make the call...we were close, inches apart, HARD on the brakes, he was quicker, we were right at the tip in point so it just made sense to me to let him go. A lot of this sport is instinct. He got up on me and I backed off. It was a pro pass. In some way I was relieved to be honest. I could tuck in behind him, see where I could attack, and get him back somewhere down the road. Problem was, we caught up to the back markers from the first wave by turn 2 of lap 2! Shit, I was all over Tom and he couldn't gap me on the back or the front straight and I felt like I could hold my own in the turns so I was happy to be in P2 and chase him at that point. But, traffic, and so soon! Jeez, now I had to play that game with Tom, and he is a maestro when it comes to traffic. It's like he's lobbing bombs over his shoulder as he masterfully positions slower riders between us, taking off and building a gap before I can get by. Bastard! I was like a sitting duck as he schooled me with slower riders. I thought I was catching him a bit, but he managed the gap and since we were on a similar pace it was hard to catch him. We stayed like that for the next few laps, I couldn't really get back to him, and he was just there ahead of me, a second up, a few bike lengths! My thoughts shifted to what was going on behind me. I was thinking I should be hearing that big bad 1200cc BMW of Brian Parriott coming up on me. Fortunately, Mikey was on the front straight wall giving me hand signals letting me know where third place was. With arms stretched out, Mikey's fists were moderately separated which meant 3rd place wasn't right on my ass but not out of the picture either. (It was very cool having my son giving me hand signals a few feet away as I raced by!). As it turned out, Parriott had his hands full as Schwannie (on the other Desmoto tuned 749/848) was fighting him for the final podium spot, swapping positions at every turn. Nothing changed much until we came down the straight with a couple laps to go. With Tom just a few bike lengths ahead and me in full pursuit, a yellow flag came out going into turn 1 as a couple bikes had gone off and there was a pretty big dust cloud as their bikes hit the dirt somewhere around 100mph. As we came out of turn 15 and bombed down the front straight on the next lap, I noticed a huge white plume of smoke a half mile up on the exit of turn 1, where the bikes went off. When red hot motors and dry field grass get together they celebrate with flames! There was a full on grass fire raging and by the time Tom and I got to turn 3 causing the red flag to came out as they had to roll the fire truck to keep this from turning into another one of the 1,200 fires that are currently burning California! Because we were over the half way mark in the race, a red flag means the race is over and the final positions are counted on the last completed lap. That meant I finished second to Tom, a bit over a second behind. Parriott took 3rd, 5 seconds back with Schwannie just behind in 4th. Ian also had a solid weekend just missing out on his first top novice finish which we know is coming!!

The result was good enough to not only keep our points lead in the championship but add to it a bit. Everyone felt good about the weekend and I really have to thank Scott Jenkins (again) for keeping me in the hunt with the bigger bikes. No one prepares a bike like Scott, no one. It's truly magic what he does with these bikes and they are a pleasure to ride! Tom and Brian have been running at the front all season long, so it was cool that Schwannie and I got up there to give them something new to play with. It was great fun and as always, the Corona's came out and the stories got more dramatic with each pull of the bottle!