Mike's Race Report from Firebird East

03/06/05 Chandler, AZ

It sure seemed like a long time to get the race season underway but Sunday came and it was GO TIME!!!

I had a pretty good off season with bike prep and loading up on as many spares as I could get my hands on, because you never what could happen. Last year I missed the last three or four races do to problems with the Ducati. Turns out it was just the battery. Thanks to Jason at Section8Superbike and a new battery it was good to go.

Saturday March 5, 2005

I got up pretty early Saturday morning to head to the track and looked outside to see the ground covered in this weird glossy coating. I later found out it was called rain. Not the best stuff to start the race season on. I decided to ride most of the day on the motard bike, or at least until it dried out a little bit. It was nice to have Brian Short there because he had brought his CRF450 motard also. Man was that fun! We were sliding those things all over the track. The best part was just getting a lot of track time when no one else was really riding.

It finally started to dry up and I decided to take the Suzuki out for a session. I was a little worried about jumping on to a different bike but it was the best first session I have ever done. I just felt really good!

Sunday March 6, 2005

Ultra Light Superbike (Am)

This was the first race of the day for me and I didn’t no what to expect. The track was still a little wet in some spots but not to bad. Lined up on the grid flag dropped had a great start and won the race. It wasn’t the biggest grid but it still had other racers. After the race was over I remember coming into the pits and Pat saying “where were you”. No one even knew I was racing, oh well!!

Supertwins (Am)

This race did not start at the time it was supposed to. CCS decided to skip the lunch break and I must have missed the call because I was not prepared at all to go out, no tire warmers, tire pressure, fuel ect…I was pretty mad at not being prepared and was going to skip the race to avoid maybe crashing. Pat told me to just go out and do a couple laps than come in for points, so I decided to try that. Once I got out there and did a lap or two things were feeling really good, next thing I know I started to pass a few people and ended up winning the race. I was a great feeling to win my first two races of the day but I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy in the other races.

Heavyweight Superbike (Am)

This race had quite a few more riders on the grid than the previous races, which was nice. I had not been doing that well on my starts all day and this race was no exception. The cool part about racing in any race is going into the first turn. You never really know what to expect. If there are any nerves, they are usually gone by the first turn. This race was on the GSXR 750 not much really happened other than the tremendous amount of wheel chatter I was getting at every turn (not good). I ended up with a 4th place finish. Need to work on getting smooth.

Unlimited GP (Am)

Again it seemed like a thousand people on the grid, which was cool. Another bad start didn’t put me in a great position, so I just put my head down and started to catch and pass people. I ended up with a forth place finish which won me some money!!!

Heavyweight SuperSport (Am)

This was the last race of the day for me. This time I had a really good start. I was actually first going into turn one. I was super tired from the long day and wasn’t going too fast. Coming out of turn 3 I missed a shift and got passed, the guy who passed me was pretty quick. Tom Savoca told me that he was a little quicker than I was going and that it wasn’t a bad thing that he went buy because once he did we just pulled away from the group behind us. I thought that was a good observation. Next time I will try not to let him go so far away from me. Maybe working out once in a while will help. I ended up with a 2nd place finish, I was very happy!!!

Well I can say that the best thing I did was attend the Fast Freddie School. I just feel safer and faster. They are a great group of guys with a lot of good info. I am definitely going to go back and learn as much as I can. Thanks to all the guys that came out to help on Saturday and Sunday. Thanks to all our sponsors and great friends and family out at the track. Last but not least thanks to Tom, Pat and Brian - you guys are the best.
 

Michael Coberly

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