This Just In…

AFM confirms that Bike #35, Desmoto Sport Ducati 749 takes 1st in class and 1st overall in the annual 4-hour team endurance race at Infineon Raceway!

Even though Schwannie and I were called to the podium for the win, the results were preliminary as the AFM's scoring and timing system totally high-sided leaving only the manual scoring system in place which would require careful scrutiny before the "official" results could be announced. It took the AFM scorer's almost 2 weeks to pour through the thousands of laps compiled by the 30 teams. But, in the end, Desmoto Sport was the confirmed winner completing 131 laps in 4 hours, 2 more laps than the 2nd place team riding a Suzuki GSXR 1000. That is well over a 3 minute lead on track! A fantastic result for the entire team!

Scott prepared the B bike with a quick fuel delivery system, an improved quick wheel change setup, a modified (5gallon) tank and applied his general Ducati wizardry to ensure our fire breathing, highly strung, Italian supermodel would last 4 hours! Eric and Ian held station on the front straight with the pit board for lap times and counts (Val kept the boys shaded from the hot sun with her trusty umbrella) and our "over the wall gang" of Scott, Darin, Jared, Drew, Steve and Alysia got us in and out of the hot pits in a smoking fast 30 seconds per stop after dumping in 5 gallons of race fuel and putting on new rubber!

When Schwannie came in after his first 1 hour, 34 lap stint I saw what I was in for! With my gear on and ready for my stint, I went to ask him how the bike was and if there were any track issues I should know about. Schwannie popped his face shield up giving me a view of things to come! His lips were lined with white foam and his face was beat red and dripping wet with sweat. His eyes were steeled and laser sharp from railing on the 749 for 34 fast laps at the front of the field. Jeez, I would be looking like that after my hour on the bike, oh boy that looks like fun! I was totally ready to get out there and put in my hour and extend the lead that Schwannie fought for. Lap after lap after lap after lap after lap we kept the hammer down, passing (not getting passed) and keeping to the lap time and count plan we set out. When I came in after 37 laps (fuel light on!), my legs buckled when I got off the bike! Sporting my version of the "white foam mouth", drenched in sweat, head pounding from the heat, I collapsed in the nearest chair, threw a cold towel over my head, and poured water down my throat as fast as I could! Game on! We were told by race control that we were in the lead but the timing and scoring system went down shortly after and for the 3 remaining stints we had no idea where we stood. We just kept riding our asses off encouraged by the fact that we were not getting passed out there, had a good pace and our pit stops were flawless. When it was all over we were confident that we improved on last year's 3rd in class and 5th overall, but to win the whole enchilada was very sweet! This is a very cool race to win and the whole team felt justifiably proud for a job well done!

After a few beers at day's end I was cooked and ready for bed! The next day was the penultimate round of the Open Twins Championship where we had a small lead over San Jose BMW's Brian Parriott.

Morning warm up went ok but I was a couple seconds slower than my fast times. And, as it would turn out, I would never really find my pace nor my rhythm and consequently Brian kicked my ass. I lost touch with him after two laps and the rest of the race was just a struggle really. I came second by a comfortable margin but it was no consolation as I wanted to hang with Brian. I really thought I had more for him given I was only 1.7 seconds off his pace back in August and with all those laps during the endurance race I thought I would be able to run with him. Maybe all those laps at the endurance pace got me in a rut. Whatever, I couldn't run his pace and that pissed me off. Second place meant I would carry a scant 6 point lead heading into the final round at Buttonwillow. The bottom line is I have to beat Brian to take the Championship as coming in behind him would mean losing it all by 1 point, and that would just suck!

So, as I write this, we are just 2 days away from heading down for the showdown in Buttonwillow! I plan on racing Formula 40 on Saturday to get my head into race mode, 750 Superbike Sunday morning to get my game on and let it all loose for Open Twins which is race 5 after lunch.

I want to beat Brian bad. I also want to beat Montano who is third behind me in the Championship and no threat for second regardless of what happens. But, 2nd isn't good enough and I want to end the season beating both of these guys, that would be excellent.

I'll let you know next week!