Inside Line Motorcycle Racing

Brian's OMRRA Race
September 19, 2004

Summary

  • 1st place in 450 Supersport (of 4)
  • 5th place in 450 Superbike (of 14)
  • No new mechanical problem

 
Photo by, and courtesy of, Shawn Smoak, FZR Photography

Preparation

I switched the plastic cover on the neutral sensor for the one on my old bike to see if that would fix my oil seeping problem. It didn't.

Gustavo and Lizbeth were my hosts again this weekend, although I only spent Saturday night with them because there was no practice scheduled for Saturday. Saturday had a novice race school and several vintage races. It was pretty rainy on Saturday, so I did a little kayak shopping in Portland instead of going to watch wet vintage races.

Sunday September 19 -- The Races

It was cloudy, cool, and a bit damp in the morning. The forecast was for showers, but we were fairly lucky, overall.

I did OK in the 450 Superbike qualifier, I seemed to pretty much sort myself into my finishing position within the first couple of corners and just rode to the finish.

In the 450 Supersport qualifier, I got a good start and led through turns 1 and 2, but Rick Kersey made a nice pass on me on the way into turn 3. I passed him back coming out of turn 5.

Jim Kennedy was giving me "he's close" signals from the pit wall on the next three laps, so I knew Rick was close behind me. On the third lap the turn workers in turn 1 were holding the debris flag and giving us the "it's raining" signal. I took it a little easy, but I was only catching a few tiny droplets on my visor, so I went back up to speed again, and the rest of the track wasn't getting any rain.
Photo by, and courtesy of, Shawn Smoak, FZR Photography

On the last (fourth) lap, rain drops began streaming across my visor and windscreen by the time I was braking for turn 1, so I slowed way down and "tip-toed" around turns 1, 2 and 3. The rest of the track was still dry, so I went full speed to the finish.

When I looked back after crossing the finish line, I couldn't see Rick. Unfortunately, I found him down at turn 1. He had crashed in turn 1 and was going to take an ambulance ride.

Rick broke a couple bones in his hand and may have a hairline fracture in his ankle, and he had a sore neck. I've heard that he was back at home on Monday with pins in his hand and a walking cast. I will update this page when I know more.

The rain eventually made it over the whole track, and it rained for a while, but ours had been the last race before lunch. The rain had stopped by the time racing started again after lunch, but the track was still wet in turns 1 through 3 and damp elsewhere.

Photo by, and courtesy of, Shawn Smoak, FZR Photography
The 450 Superbike main was the second race after lunch, so the track was a little drier, but 1-3 were still wet. I got a pretty good start, but took it easy through the first few corners. One of the leading SV 650's crashed in turn 5 and the race was red flagged. We went back to the starting grid. My second start wasn't quite as good, and I took it easy in the turns 1-3 again, and so was 9th or so on the first lap. I was following Dave Sangster and Jim Gibbons (I think) around on their SV's for a few laps, and we caught up with Eric Koegler, who was riding a bit slowly after falling down twice in the morning. I passed Jim(?) when he had a slide in turn 2. He passed me back on the front straight, but was kind enough to wave me back past.

As the race went on, a dry line developed through turns 1 and 2, but 3 was still very slippery. By about the 6th lap, my strategy had become to ride fast everywhere except turn 3, where I went extremely slowly. Still following Eric and Dave, on the 7th or 8th lap, we all caught up with an really slow-moving SV around turn 5. Dave's plan to go around didn't work out, and when he had to slow, Eric also seemed to choose the wrong direction. A couple of swerves and I found myself in front of all three SV's. I expected to see at least one of them coming back past me on the front straight, but I never saw them again. I finished 5th of 14 and felt like a giant-killer -- 3 SV's in two corners!

I felt like I got an OK start in the 450 Supersport main, but Geoff Ford got a great start, so I was following him into turn 1 when Rocky Sloan came up inside me. He told me later that he slid his front tire while braking, and he pushed both of us out really wide. Squirrel took advantage of this and passed both of us. I should mention that there were only the four of us in this race, so suddenly I was last!

Rocky and I passed Squirrel pretty soon because he is on an EX-500, which has less power than the FZR's. Over the next few laps, we had some fun FZR vs. FZR dicing, and I eventually passed both Rocky and Geoff to finish 1st.

Other than my oil seepage not being fixed and the one rain shower, it was a good and fun day for me. It's too bad Rick missed the dicing in the main race, and I'm not sure his hand will be ready for the October race.

Thanks

Thanks go to Les Green this time for buying one of our excellent ramps.

Thanks to all the OMRRA turn workers, registration folks, and other volunteers who made this OMRRA race and practice day possible.

Thanks to my sponsors Inside Line, Dunlop Motorcycle Tires, and Lockhart-Philips USA. Thanks also to EDR Performance.

My most special sponsor is my wife, Julie!

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