My first Export Race Weekend

Summit Point, West Virginia, the place where it all started five years ago.  I was taking the MARRC (Mid Atlantic Road Racing Club) school trying to get my license.  My wife and three year old son were standing trackside in the rain watching me trying to negotiate an unfamiliar circuit.  I earned my racing license that day and then spent the next couple of years trying to prove to WERA (Western Eastern Roadracing Association) that I was fast enough to be considered an expert.  I finally did last year, finishing second in the Northeast Region in the 600 class on a 2001 GSXR600.

Now here I was again, back at Summit Point trying to match skills against the Experts in CCS (Championship Cup Series).  My teammate Ed Bishop was there for the weekend as well.  I signed up for the 25 minute GTU race on Saturday but was gridded toward the back since I had just registered for it that morning.  The green flag waved and I got off to a good start.  Drag racing has helped my starts out a lot.  I passed a couple of riders and then tried to settle into a rhythm.  By the end of the 25 minutes I was in 13^th place but two seconds off my best time.  I felt as though the forks were too soft under braking so I added some clicks of compression damping and went to bed looking forward to Sunday’s races.

I signed up for three races on Sunday, two were 600cc only and one was a 600/750cc race.  My two 600cc races were up first and I finished in 9^th place in both of them.  I was happy to be in the top ten but the 750cc race posed a slight problem.  It was right after my last 600cc race.  I had Ed meet me in the hot pit with gas and some Gatorade and I was preparing to go out on my warm up lap when Ed stopped me.  He reasoned that I had just raced and did not need to warm up, that I should take a short break.  I agreed and decided to just go to my grid spot when everyone returned from their warm-up lap as my tires were already warm from having just raced.  As the riders returned from their warm-up lap I proceeded to my starting position, only to be stopped by a race mashall, saying that it was too late and I would have to start from the very back of the grid.  This was particularly bad because this was an Expert/Novice combined race and the Experts started first with the Novices going in the “2^nd wave”.  I was starting dead last.  I was pretty upset about my starting position so when the marshall tapped me on my back to turn me loose I was determined to make something good out of something bad.  I passed a couple of Novices going into turn one and worked my way through the field.  Everyone I passed, I passed cleanly since that is the way I like to be passed.  I worked my up through most of the Novices and Experts before the race was over.  I ended up finishing 7^th in the Novice race and 4^th in the Expert race.  I also ran my best time ever at that track.  I was a little upset at just missing the last podium spot and my first Expert trophy but not as much as you would think.  I  always take pride in being recognized around the paddock as one of the riders who, “Go good”.

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