Hey there... My 2nd blog will tell about the round #4 of the AMA Pro Superbike Championship.

I raced in the AMA Pro Racings "Daytone Sportbike" series on my last bike I have right now... A 2007 Yamaha R6 I had built in 07 that was sponsored by Greater Yamaha in Florida (the are at) www.greateryamaha.com they are good people. If you need any help talk to Kevin in parts or Carrington.

Also another 07 sponsor of bikes is Advanced Metal Finishing in Auburn, CA (They do anodizing and powder coating and are great people as well)

Infineon this year was a complete last minute deal with less than 1 months to get set to race.
Most racers train and ride a bunch prior to racing any pro even to give them the best possible chance of a great finish to promote for there sponsors.

But not me I never get enough time to do anything and just jump in the fire. Heck last year we hopped off the couch after 9 months off and with a little help from System 3 Inc (a hydro, wind and solar company based in northern California) rode to a 27th and a 23rd in a field of 40 some racers from around the world. I was excited and proud to do this with as little prep as we had.

This year would be even more time off on the same worn out stock R6. The last time I rode a street bike was last year at the Laguna Seca round of AMA (and that day was not a good day and was when I decided to not race anymore) But here we are going for it again.

I had been talking with some of the board members of one of my favorite sites www.calguns.net that I am on all the time learning about our rights. CGN is on the forefront of keeping us legal and protecting our constitutional rights. The work hand in hand with the NRA and other to keep the antis at bay... Check it out when you can.

Gpal.net is another sponsor that jumped on board. Gpal.net is a friendly way of making payments online and in there terms of service they do not try to take your money like the other online service with the PP letters in there name. Check out Gpal.net when you want to save money and be treated better. It is fairly new and exciting what they have to offer in merchant services as well.

Ok now to the riding and racing. For 2010 I am trying to be less emotional in my racing and trying to work through the mechanics of racing. You know not race the other racers but race the TRACK and beat the tracks. If your doing that the other racers will be racing each other and you will drop them towards the back of the pack.

I rode 1 track day with Pacific Track Time at Infineon as a warm up and I was off my best pace a fair bit... (by about 5-6 seconds in fact so I was a bit worried) I had to test the new Dunlop spec AMA tires (Ntec 211 GPa) Last year rge tires were soo bad that the AMA Pro times were about 2-3 seconds slower than the local expert class so it was embarrassing for the racers I think. The Dunlop tire (the regular race tire) is a great tire so this is not bashing Dunlop at all, they just made a crappy cheap spec tire for the AMA)
This year they stepped up a bit and made the 211 GPa better but still NOT a 211 GP as one would hope.

I raced to moderate success in AFM in a warm up race 3 wks prior to AMA, but the tires DID hold me back a bit with the other racers running high end NON spec tires... I would spin up at times when I did not even have much lean angle. The front tire seems on par with any other spec or non spec tire. It feels like your going into a gun fight with a knife (err baseball bat) :)

I was not at all worried about how my race would be in AMA, I was more worried about my qualifying times as that has always been my issue in AMA. I have struggled in AMA MX, SX, SM and now even in RR.

My fastest lap times at Infineon where low 1:45's so I was hoping to do at least that or BETTER in qualifying.
I knew a low 1:48 would get me into the main but a 1:45 would get me around the top 20 on the starting grid.

The 1:45's are not very impressive but decent for a P/T guy. I know I am capable of 1:43s-1:44s but right now with my equipment and lack of track time I do not yet have the confidence I want.

In practice we were like 26th or something out of 35 racers... Not bad but not good. We had a decent base line set up but my buddy Dave Moss of Catalyst Reaction suspension was busy doing his other job being a commentator on OTT (On the Throttle TV) so I did not want to bug him. (He would have come over to help if I asked but I told him we were doing ok)

Come qualifying time I rode and rode laps but just NEVER got comfortable at all and my lap times showed this. I was not charging into the turns and railing out I was just riding a Friday afternoon cruise... It was actually Friday afternoon but I was not slotted to cruise today. I was thoroughly bummed my fastest lap time was a 1:47.02 I think... I was again bummed but knew I would race better than that as usual. We qualified 28th out of 35 racers I think.... 29 or 30 made the main at that point.

In most races I ride in AMA I get the most racers past in the main events so at least we do that good.

I went out Saturday morning to the 2nd qualifying session and went about the same speed while the other racers actually went faster (that is usually a good plan btw) :P

I got bumped back to 29th out of 30 who made the main and 2 racers were let in as they were sooo close to the cut off and we had a shortened session so they made it in. (This was really cool as the old AMA had not ever done this even at times when it made sense) I can tell you I missed the main by .000004 once and it sucks)

So in Daytona Sportbike there is race #1 on Saturday afternoon and race #2 on Sunday afternoon so we have some mental stuff to work on to make the magic happen.

In race #1 I started 29th as expected and jumped into 19th after a few laps and had a ok race going but I was worrying about what was happening BEHIND me and not dealing with the lead pack. At that point the race is really over unless you can work your head back into racing the track. ( I did not and continued to pass back and forth with 3-4 racers during the 22 lap race.) Shaun Summers got by at some point and rode well to I think a 19th place.
I ended up racing 21 of the 22 laps main event as I was lapped on about lap 16 by the lead pack or about 8 racers. Overall the race was going as planned racing in the top 20 until I let Factory Yamaha backed Melissa Paris underneath me in turn 7 on the penultimate lap. That normally would not be a issue because I had passed her at least 9-10 times in the race but I made a few mistakes that allowed her to pull a few tenths on me. So at the line she got 20th and I was 21st and out of the money also. She rode well and you can tell she has some horsepower on me. I wish I knew Infineon better to use experience but overall I was pretty happy. I talked to a few buddies who were helping me get my on head straight. Tom Short and a few others...

I was bummed but again not terribly as this had bettered my best road race finish in AMA thus far and there was not much I could do at that point and we had another race to deal with now... (Race #2 on Sunday)


Sundays race started off very similar to Saturdays race except I jumped from 29th to 19th straight away in 1 lap and was hanging with the lead pack this time.
For 6 whole laps I was tight with racers I did not normally race with which was exciting to say the least. #7 Fernando Amanatini, #80 Steve Bonsey, and #714 Gabriel Santa Coloma.

Going into the 7th lap the AMA showed the red flag as Russ Wikle #16 had low sided and was hit my #60 Michael Beck exiting turn #2. Russ had some injuries that needed to be dealt with at that point, so we sat for 26 minutes while the track was cleared and I played it all over and over in my head.

I was pretty mad as I was told by numerous people that we in the top 19 had dropped 20th place on back by a little bit. But now the it would all be tightened up on the re-start which did not seem fair but its part of racing. Luckily on the re-start we would all start from where we were 1 lap back, that would put me back in 19th place.

On the re-start I quickly jumped into the top 15 and went back and forth a few times with other racers... On lap 2 or 3 I was 14th I believe. Exiting turn 9 ...I was on my knee and holding tight to get a good drive into 10 when #714 Santa Coloma smashed in my back tire and high sided himself almost into the wall and nearly crashed me out. I went up over the windscreen and when I landed back down I twisted my left ankle in a big way. This sucked because we all at that point lost the lead group because of Gabe sliding across the track and me re-grouping. For the next 3-4 laps I thought my ankle was fractured or broken and kept thinking about pulling in an calling this weekend done.
Even with the pain I kept going and was doing ok racing from 16th to 14th then 16th then 15th, I had a decent race going at this point and felt confident a top 15 was in my grasp.

I tried to keep focus on the lead group and moving forward but mentally at this point I was a bit tired and that is not how I like to feel.

On lap 21 we got lapped (better than lap 16 yesterday) by the top 5 this time and I was still running consistent lap times so wherever I was in the top 15 I thought I could keep it upright and finish well.
On the final lap I wanted to get a good drive out of 11 to the finish line and took too wide of a line and the racer behind me #121 Pinkstaff came into 11 very deep and took us both wide. (we nearly got passed by Factroy Yamaha backed Melissa Paris) He and I went down the final straight and he swung over pretty hard at the finish so I had to check up hard. But I ended up 14th at the line. (Bummed as we were 13th the last 9 laps)

The weekend ended up ok with me bettering my best AMA finish of a 21st with this 14th.

I want to thank everyone who help me get to this race.

Gpal.net / Calguns.net, Fast50s.com, Slide Motorsports, Greateryamaha.com, Advanced Metal Finishing and Powder Coating, Tech-Spec USA, Motion Pro, Leo Vince, NJK Leathers, Bell Helmets, GPR Stabilizers, Maxima Racing Oils, Vortex, Sportbike Night Racing, Catalyst Reaction Suspension, Bickle tire warmer and knee pucks, Affordable RV in Auburn, CA, Mike Wymer Performance, Axial Video, Kevin Green Tuning, Mike D & Cytomax