Mike's Race Report from Firebird East

2/18/2006 - 2/19/06 Chandler, AZ - with CCS

 

 

I was very exited to get back to racing after a long off season. I had made a few changes to my bike situation. Like selling my 04 Suzuki 750 to Allen Ankney #313 and buying a new 06 Ducati 999s from Section8Superbike, which is a much better bike than my 03 999. Friday started off with me waiting for the 27mm offset triple clamps that I ordered from Mark and Wendy at DucShop. With a Phone call to Mark and some advice on how the heck to get the steering stem off the old ones I got them put on with no problems. I decided to go down to the track that night and just sleep in line in the motor home. Got there about 10:30pm and secured my spot in line.

Saturday Feb 18th 2006

Saturday morning started off with the usual pounding on my window from Tom Boge (the guy has got some serious sleeping issues). After waking up I went over to Dave Stones trailer were he had some coffee waiting, he is always good for eating and drinking stuff (especially the tortilla soup…mmmmmm). Next thing I know Tyler and Greg came in and said John Jewitt ripped my mirror off the motor home, not a good start to the day. But like most everything it can be fixed, plus I get to mess with him all weekend, HA HA!

Tom Savoca and I finally got in and reserved a spot and set everything up. It’s a little strange how Pat and Brian seem to show up after all the bikes are unloaded ;) Once the practice sections started it was time to go to work. I could not believe how good the bike felt after I installed the triple clamps. It turned in so much better than when I rode it at California Speedway. I was very exited and it gave me a lot of confidence. I think the highlight of the day is when Mark Ladesma stopped at our pits after the session and complimented me on my riding. I just thought it was cool that the fastest guy at the track would take the time and say those things to a scrub like me. He is a very nice guy!

Sunday Feb 19th 2006

Well this was it, the start of my first expert race season. I’ll admit I was a little more nervous than usual. My first race of the day was EX Supertwins. I was looking forward to be racing with Pat but right before the race his bike wouldn’t start. He decided to run the race on his new Kawasaki 650 twin which I thought was cool. Got a good start and passed a lot of the AMs going into the first turn which was good because I didn’t want to get stuck behind the slower riders. After a few laps I would look behind me and not see any twins there. I saw Patrick Bertinelli #93 who was in the AM UL Superbike race and had a little fun racing with him. The outcome of the race was a first place finish in SuperTwins!

Next race of the day for me was Heavyweight Superbike. It was awesome getting to line up in the front grid. The flag dropped and I went into the first turn in 2nd place behind Ivan Garza, I was waiting for people to start passing me left and right but it never happened. I tried to keep up with Ivan but that guy is really fast. It was all I could do to hold off the guy behind me (I think it was Brian Long). Anyway, the race was red flagged and called with two laps to go so I ended up in 2nd place.

Last race of the day for me was the Heavyweight SuperSport. There were a lot of fast guys in this race. I got another good start and ended up in third place behind Kane Laski and Ivan Garza. I felt extremely tired in this race and was riding a bit sloppy. It seemed like I kept up with the leaders for a couple laps and then they just took off (probably because I am slow) I missed a gear on the lakeside turn and I guess Brian Kirkland and Brian Short were right on my butt when I coasted thru the turn. Kirkland said he had to check up and that’s when Short rear ended him. Short ended up going down and Kirkland’s pipe was bent up. I felt bad but that’s racing I guess! I ended up with a 4th place finish in that race.

I think it was a good start to my first expert race season, I had a lot of fun. I would like to thank Tom, Pat and Brian for all their help during the weekend also like to thank Section8Superbike for getting me my new bike and Ducshop for the awesome new triple clamps, and all our sponsors for their support.

Mike
#632