Racing in January is strange. Feels too early to be race season already? Here's updates...
I forked my twitter profiles and broke off motorcycle related tweeting to a new profile. Follow me there for more timely updates, we'll see how much I can keep after this blogging thing this year:
Clicky, Click!
Scrambling to get the new bike together by January for WERA round one, I was driving down to Los Angeles calling every Yamaha dealer from San Francisco to LA on the way hoping to find someone with a clutch lever bushing for a 2008 Yamaha R1. Fortunately Yamaha motor america is located in Cypress, California and I'm only a couple degrees of separation away from someone who works there. Made it to the track in time to race, with a bike that was race ready. Most of December was a sprint to get the bike together, so fairly amazing that I even got down there ready to ride.
Suspension is installed but not tuned, it might take me half the season to really get my suspension behaving like it should. It's a game of millimeters. Still, with a net new bike, all my handiwork in December putting the bike together in question, and no familiarity with the glitches of this particular machine... I was able to muster a 3rd place and a 6th place at Fontana for the WERA West season opener. This is my first season racing as an Expert - so competition will be much more fierce this year. To calibrate, the fastest guys on the grid in my races are pro, former pro, or about to be pro. All in all, couldn't have hoped for better. Not a bad start to the 2011 season!
Then round two at the end of January took place at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I didn't place as well, but had fun, kept the bike upright, and got to be on the track at the same time as one of the fastest guys in the world... Jason DiSalvo (#40 below, me following... well trying to follow... ha!)
Also, I got a couple sponsorship offers at the start of the season, some formal and some informal. I got a great brake sponsorship offer from EBC, they are already my favorite brakes but now they're paying me to ride with them?!? w00t!. Mission Motorcycles is my Yamaha shop of choice, they do great work and are awesome people. Keigwins and Pirelli also help me a little, and are generally great to work with.
Also got some on board video from the Las Vegas round I'm still trying to find, hope to post it up here soon...
