Some Pics from Margaret Oliver from Round 5 @ HPR.

Picked up some pics from Margaret Oliver of me at High Plains Raceway Round 5  of the MRA season out here in Colorado. Check em out!

Had some good battles and some off track excursions and everything! Good stuff!

MRA Round 5 @ High Plains Raceway

Last week we decided to sign up for some racing out at High Plains Raceway with the MRA our roadracing organization here in Colorado. The Supertwin was pretty much ready to rock and roll so prep was minimal and we got everything loaded up after work on Friday. We arrived to the track Friday evening and got unloaded to find out they had karaoke going on and oh my do some of these guys and gals get going! Hahaha, Great times were had and the morning came WAY too early and my first practice session on track I might have needed at least an hour or two more sleep I think!

Practice went well and we got the bike ready for the first race of the day, LWGP. Since I was so late in registering I was the very last bike on the grid... I loaded up the first lap to show you what it's like starting from back there:

Lets just say it was a blast, that was my first real race back since I quit racing back in 2004. I ended up 5th and was pretty happy with that!

Next up was Lightweight Endurance, I unfortunately had the GoPro on photo so I got no video footage from this race but man it was an interesting race to say the least! 

I got another great start and ended up 3rd into turn 1, I ended up getting passed by my buddy Chris Weed on his TZ250 framed XR650 contraption and was not able to reel him back in. On the second lap a novice rider cut across the track and almost blew me off the track and then jammed on the brakes for no reason causing all sorts of chaos and I lost all my drive onto the back straight so I lost a few more positions... Got my head back into it and focused on getting back up to the two guys in front of me and made a solid pass a couple of laps later on one of them and then reeled in a quick guy on an SV650 that I had a Great battle with for the rest of the race! Had a little off track excusion at the top of the corkscrew when I was just getting ready to turn in and a green fairing piled into me on the left side and we both went off into the gravel. His bike hooked me and I was able to kick it away and unfortunately he went down but was alright. I looked back and the SV rider and another had also went off so I high tailed it back on track and kept it lit! A quick check of the fairings on the straight and the bike seemed alright so we kept pushing hard. So much fun! Unfortunately on the last lap the SV guy attempted to go around on the outside a few turns to the finish and he lowsided out of the race and I secured a 3rd place podium finish! 

So Saturday was done, a 5th in LWGP from the absolute back of the grid and a 3rd in LW Endurance, not a bad days riding! Another crazy late night with less sleep than I should have had and we were ready to go again... 

I skipped practice hoping to run the rest of the 3 races I had left on my rear tire, first race up was Supertwins GTO... Oh man is it interesting racing against the BIG bikes! Holy crap! Needless to say I ended up in the back with a 12th place finish in an uneventful race. Looking at my rear tire we figured I was gonna have to replace it at lunch time after one more race, Thunderbikes. As I was lining up in pre-grid I rolled over to my Michelin Tire guy and had him look at the tire and he looked at me and said to be careful... Always good words to hear right before you go out on track right? Took off at the start with a good start again, all the big bikes were out there again so it was just a go out there and have fun race and we ended up finishing it off in 10th. Then off to the pits to get the rear wheel off and put some new rubber on... As you can see this rear was totally shot on the right side:

Half hour later and we were set:

I do have to say I am really impressed with how well these Michelin Power Cup race tires stick, I have always been a Dunlop guy before and these tires have changed my way of thinking entirely! Really good stuff, both in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb on cold mountain roads and really amazing amounts of grip on a super hot track surface last weekend with good predictability and I never felt uncomfortable on them even sliding the bike around a little coming into corners.

Next up the final race of the day, Supertwins GTU. My previous best lap time was a 1:25.4 and my whole goal going into this race was to try and break into the 1:24's and try to focus on getting a better drive out of turn 3 and work on holding the throttle on longer going down the hill in the back. 

Got the green flag and took off to end up about 5th going into turn 1 behind a guy on a TZ250 (Did I mention I LOVE the smell of 2-strokes?) I rode around the outside of him in turn 2 and moved up to 4th place. Focused on a good drive out of turn 3 and hoped to stay ahead of the TZ... Not going to happen, he buzzed by me about 3/4 of the way down the straight and then held me up in turn 4 so I lost some drive. On the front straight going into turn 1 the TZ guy flipped his foot off the peg and I went up the inside of him and moved towards the SV in 3rd place. Caught up to him not knowing what had happened to the TZ and a couple of laps later the TZ goes buzzing by both of us on the back straight again! I was holding off on passing the SV as I knew I could get him towards the end of the race but then the game changed and I put my head down and passed the SV on the front straight and chased the TZ down as fast as I could. A couple of laps later and he was not too far off when he ran wide in turn 4 and went off in the dirt! I didn't know where the SV guy was so I put my head down and freaking went as hard as I could for the next few laps waiting for the TZ to come up on me but I got to the checkered flag and I was still in front. 

This was pretty much a win for me honestly. I got back to the pits and couldn't believe this bike has worked as well as it has! I was and still am over the moon with this build. It is an absolute blast to ride, easy to maintain, and I built it from pieces.

So I got all loaded up and headed off to say bye to all my MRA friends and drove home. Got unloaded and am still amazed at everything in general with this build. All in all a Very successful weekend after being out of it for 9 years I had no idea I would be on pace this quickly.

A HUGE shout out to all my friends and family who have supported my crazy lifestyle over the past year getting this bike up and running and to all my sponsors that have helped make all this happen. I couldn't have done it without you guys and gals! 

Cheers!