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After my crash last race, I only had one weekend and a few nights after work to work on the bike. I got the fiberglass repairs mostly done, and applied good old Bondo several times. Most of the bodywork is ready to be repainted now, but I didn't have time to actually do any painting. (Pictures of the bodywork are in the August report)
While I was messing around with fiberglass, I added some air flow restrictor plates to the inside of the front fairing. I also mounted a piece of aluminum on the front forks. Together, they should help direct more air toward the radiator. Pictures here if you're curious.
I also mounted up a new BT-56 rear tire.
Julie and I spent Friday night at Gustavo and Lizbeth's house, while Whisper stayed with a dog-sitter. We had a nice dinner at an Indian restaurant. There are no Indian restaurants in Tillamook, so we have to load up while we're in the city!
Saturday was sunny and hot. I worked on scuffing in the new rear tire, and generally took things pretty easy because my knee was still sore from the accident.
It started cool and cloudy, but the sun came out mid-morning and it got warmer.
In the 450 Superbike qualifier, I did OK.
I skipped Middleweight Superbike this weekend because my chest was still a little sore from the crash a couple weeks ago. I wasn't in the mood to crash again in a class that I only ride for fun
I asked about Brandon Clark at the SB Motorsports pits. Three of his vertebrae were broken, but he's already on the mend. In fact, they told me he had just gotten into trouble with his parents because he was messing around with some friends and he fell down (which could have injured something).
I didn't take any notes on the 450 Supersport qualifier.
In the 450 Superbike main, I couldn't seem to get past Bardsley Donovan on his RZ-350. Finally, Stuart Johnson passed me and had a few tries at getting around Bard. He thought he had something going around Bard on the outside of turn 4, but couldn't out-drive him and had to slow down to avoid getting pinched off in turn 5. I thought I might be able to take advantage of that and get back by Stuart, but I had given them a bit of room in case they did actually hit, so I wasn't close enough, and I followed Stuart to the finish line.
The clouds started thickening a bit as the afternoon went on, but the rain seemed to be holding off. Julie and I had to get back to Tillamook before 7:00 so we could pick up our dog, so we packed up the truck with everything but the bike and its stand. Then she moved the truck to the outside of the track during a track crossing. The plan was that I would exit the track after the 450 Supersport main on the "old" pit exit to the outside of the track. Then we could pack up the bike and leave without having to wait for the three races after mine for another track crossing.
Unfortunately, during the 600 Supersport race, there were some nearby lightening strikes. Racing was halted because the corner workers use a large cable system for communications. If lightening struck the system, half of our corner workers would get fried! While we waited for the thunderstorm to pass, it began raining. Then it rained harder. There were some announcements made that the 600 racers would be able to have a meeting and decide how and whether to continue their race, then suddenly it was "second call" for the 450 Supersport/650 Twins/Open Classic main. Of course, my rain tires were now a quarter mile away from my bike! Scott Soper, Rocky Sloan, Stuart, and I had all been huddled under a canopy when the rain started. Since none of us were sure how or when things were going to get re-started, we all made a "gentleman's agreement" that we didn't want to risk riding around in the rain without rain tires. Plus, this was the first real rain in Portland for 6 weeks, so we knew the track would be extra slippery as weeks worth of gunk started loosening up on the track surface. We'd just skip this race and wait for the next one to settle the season points standings. We thought we had all agreed on this, but Scott announced that he was going to race "even though he didn't want to" in order to maintain his standing in overall club points. Sheesh! So much for our "agreement"!
So, Stuart (who's car and trailer were also already outside the track) and I went out for the warmup lap, but just used it to cross the track, pack up, and leave. Rocky packed his bike up inside the track, and Scott won the race in the rain.
It was a disappointing and frustrating end to the weekend. PIR forcing us to pit on the inside of the track without providing a bridge or underpass for cars, combined with my needing to leave early to pick up our dog, made me lose a chance to finally beat Scott by using rain tires. Also, if OMRRA officials hadn't favored the 600 Supersport racers over the three classes in our main race, I might have been able to retrieve and mount my rain tires in time, despite their distance. On the other hand, I guess I might have crashed even with rain tires because of all the gunk on the track. I have some real mixed feelings about all this, which is why it took so long to write this report.
Thanks to Gustavo and Lizbeth for letting us stay at their place.
Thanks to all the OMRRA turn workers, registration folks, and other volunteers who made this OMRRA race weekend possible, and who had to stand out in the rain for the next three races, plus the 600 race re-start, as well.
Thanks to my sponsors Inside Line, Bridgestone Tires, and Lockhart-Philips USA.
As always, my most special sponsor is my wife, Julie!
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