Mike's Race Report from Buttonwillow, CA

7/11/04 Buttonwillow Raceway

Thursday July 8, 2004

We all showed up to load the bikes up in the toy hauler which went pretty smooth. Pat and I were loading up one of the bikes when he asked me if I would like to join the team, I was overcome with emotion. Fighting back tears I accepted (It was a cool thing, these are really nice guys). When it got close to thinking we were done the BEER came a calling. I had to go home to do my payroll while they stayed to talk about Super Fast Toms house (which looks nice by the way). Brian and I left with a few things to do on Friday.

Friday July 9, 2004

Yea, I was Late! But what everyone needs to realize is that I have a real demanding job; I mean I don’t even have time to think. Buy the time I got there the team was ready to leave. What is with the dirty looks anyways? Thank GOD that Tom ran out of gas so we could all focus on that instead of me being late. Once we got back on the road it still felt like forever. That was a long trip!!!!!

Saturday July 10, 2004

Riding the track on Saturday was a lot of fun. I should probably take more advantage of the track time to work on things, but with just starting out I am not really sure what to work on. I will just learn as each race comes and goes. I like to listen to Tom and how he talks about each and every corner and what is going on. He says all the time that you have to go slow to get fast. Well I think I have the going slow part, now I will work on the going fast. Buttonwillow is the fastest and the most fun track I have been to yet. On Saturday I think I got my times down to 2:09. Not to bad for a rookie.

Sunday July 11, 2004

The first race for me was Heavyweight Superbike. I did not get a great start for some reason, the 999 is usually pretty good at the starts. It was crazy through the first couple of turns. Pat ended up going down in front of me. It was a strange crash. It was going ok for me then I got passed with a couple laps to go. At first I thought oh well then I ended up catching and passing the guy on the last turn, I didn’t even know I had it in me. I ended up with a 6th place finish. The second race of the day was the Unlimited GP. My Start really sucked. Some guy was 5 feet directly in front of my line and totally screwed up my line. It was really hot by this race and I was feeling pretty bad at this point. The only thing that kept me going was Pat and Brian with the pit board. The last few laps I would see +15 ... +20 – then they showed me the +JOE sign. I almost crashed after seeing that! I ended up with a 10th Place finish. I pussed out of the Supertwins Race. I think I was going to have a heat stroke. Next time I will start to drink water a couple days before the race (thanks Brian). That is it for now, see you at the next race.

Mike #632