Well the season is over for me and it was really an exciting one at that. I went from winning every race i entered to being taken out not finishing, back to winning everything i entered the next week with a broken foot, cracked collarbone, and nerve damage in my hip from that one crash.



The season really started off well as you can read from the first entry. My Kawi was getting old and needed a lot of work to get it where i wanted suspension wise and with the motor even. So i deemed it a lot better investment going to the new Honda CRF250R and it was definitely a good thing. I rode another guy's 05 CRF250 and really liked that one after winning both moto's on it uncontested, i knew that i could use a new one. So the next week i went up to Clawson's in Fresno and they really hooked me up with a nice bike.



It was a quick break in period for the bike, considering i had a race that very same weekend back at Little Okie. So we did what we needed to do to break it in and make it race ready for Friday. I almost instantly felt comfortable on it from the very first practice and i was already hitting faster lap times on that than what i was on my KXF.



I went through 3 weekends without loosing a moto and then in the 4th week of racing in the series, a no-name with more takeout skills than actual riding skills showed up. In the first moto, he got a good jump on me and i was back in about 5th place from the start. I was able to catch up to 2nd right on his tail after 2 laps and then made a pass going into the woop section on the 3rd lap. I help that lead for about 3 corners and he came hot into a tight 180 left hander and T-boned me right off the track. I was able to get back up and get the bike started fairly quickly and only lost a few positions. I was really riding well that not, however, and was able to catch 3rd with no problems and then 2nd place was a bit harder to get around, but after coming over a small step up close to the finish, you have two options around a corner; either jump into the inside corner and rail it or stay on the gas on the outside and try.  the 2nd place rider took what he was taking all night on the outside, so i then jumped to the inside and didn't even touch the brakes and by the time we got to the next corner i already had a bike length on him. So, i was able to finish 2nd, which is just as good as 1st in the 1st moto. I pretty much wrote it off after being taken out the first moto. I said that it could have been an accident and I'm not going to go out in the 2nd moto with a vendetta, just a bit more aware of his riding style when it got time to make a move. In the 2nd moto, we both got into the lead; him in first me in second. I decided to just dog him for a few laps to see where i was faster and able to make a good move. So at the beginning of the 3rd lap, i decided to start showing him a wheel here and there to try to pressure him into a mistake to open up the door for me. I knew i was a lot faster at that point and knew where i needed to make the   moves at to get the lead and then check out fast enough he couldn't pull any crap. The first try was in the 2nd tight left hander where i was faster on the inside when he went outside so i made a move there at first. He then saw that i was making the pass and immediately cut down into me knocking me off the track once again, but not taking me off the bike. Now, i knew that this guy was either going to win by taking me out or needed to be block passed hard enough to where i could get away to where he wouldn't have the opportunity to try to take me out. That time came in a perfect position on the widow-make of the track where i was hammering to the top and then jumping all the way out to where he was holding the outside not jumping out. I had the pass made on the inside, but then he really surprised me by actually taking his foot of his bike and KICKED my bike as i had the inside! This obviously really messed my rhythm up, since that kind of thing has never happened before and i almost lost the front end going out of the corner. This set us up for the final lap and two more chances to pass without being taken out. One was in the 2nd tight left handed corner and the 2nd was on the widow maker again. The first try i made was clean, but yet again he cut in to try to ram my bike, so at this point, i just got on the brakes and he just tagged my front end and wasn't able to knock me down. Then, i got back up on him after 2 corners and had a good pass set up going into the widow maker. I had a lapper in the middle and me on the inside to scoot both of them over so I would have a traffic buffer between us. However, this didn't work and as i jumped over the top he crossed over into me as i was still in the air over the widow maker, taking my front wheel out from under me (purposefully or not) and sent me just slamming on my right side, which broke my foot(3 places), my shoulder, and caused a bit of nerve damage in my hip. But, then it just got ridiculous. In this whole scenario he wasn't even able to make the corner and rode over it. he never fell down, but he decided that he didn't want to ride anymore for some reason (even though we were about half a lap ahead). He puts down his bike and climbs back over the berm to where I have EMT's around me, while I'm knocked out and starts hitting and kicking me! I didn't even know he did this until the EMT's told me after i came to and the track owner had to actually restrain one of the EMT's so he didn't beat up the moron. To say the least, i was in no shape to get up and on the bike to finish, so a very cute EMT girl helped me off the track and bandaged up a very raw arm and hip and i got my wits about me. In the aftermath of it all, this guy was banned from the track and suspended for a year from CMA racing. I hope he learns his lesson and comes back a lot more mature.



Now, i was on the mend, but no break between to let me really relax. I had two more races in the next two weeks. I'm not going to be brash and say I'm some really tough guy who can take pain like no one else, but i do have decent amount of tolerance for some pain. So about mid-week i deemed it was going to be possible for me to race the upcoming weekend if i tapped up my foot and took a few advil. Luck was in my hands, this weekend too and it rained all night. Me being from northern IL, i know how to ride mud. So going into the first moto, i just wanted to score points and keep my present lead of 6pts. I was able to holeshot and never look back. I was the only one doing the jumps comfortably and after i noticed i had about a lap lead on everyone, i slowed down and relaxed to the finish. Then, in my favor again, they canceled the second moto due to the increasing amounts of rain.



The final weekend, or this past weekend, was our final race for the series. I was feeling much better and able to ride a lot better. The first moto, i had a so-so start in 5th, but i was able to catch 1st within 2 laps. The in first and i are friends on and off the track so needless to say i am comfortable riding next to him and I'm not worried about him making cheap shots to take me out. He still puts up a good battle and isn't afraid to be aggressive which is fine with me. But, after i made a good pass on the outside he tried to come back inside to make a block pass, but he just couldn't hold his line and slide out underneath me. So after that i only had a couple laps left and i relaxed to the finish. We caught up after the race and shook hands on it and decided it was racing and no one took the other out. The 2nd moto, was us again in 1st and 2nd. This guy has never lost a holeshot since I have known him. So i once again just hounded him for a good few laps and then it was pretty much given to me when he made a big bobble in a corner and i went right by. Then, it was just a game of keeping tabs on 2nd and kept him about a straight away behind.



That was it then, I finished the last race in good fashion going 1-1 and brought home the race win trophy along with the championship trophy. Now i have a nice 2 weeks off to heal up and get ready for the Dealer Dollar series and moving up to the next class to see how i do.



Until next time...

Well, i just got off a short deployment with my squadron and i came back and right back into the swing of things with riding. I think the time out there for that short of period made me want to ride even more than what i do now.



Unfortunately, my Kawasaki kind of took a dive on me and it was going to cost more money to take it to where i want it whereas just buying a completely new bike that's good out of the box. So i went up to Clawson Honda in Fresno and i was able to get a brand new 06 model CRF250R for 5 grand out the door. Not too bad and after only riding the bike once and breaking it in, i was able to get another win out at Little Okie. I am going to set up the bike a bit more today so it's a bit better the next time i ride it and so i can get through the corners a bit easier. I was instantly more comfortable with it over my KXF though. I felt like i was about one of the fastest through the woop section compared to anyone out there and the only places i need to work on are the corners. If i can get those down I think i will be very hard to beat at all.



We have this coming Friday off from the LIttle Okie series so I am thinking about going up to the final Bounty Hunter MX in Madera since I have never ridden that track before and see how i do there. We'll see how the week shapes up. Until next time...

I have moved from my old barracks to a new one, the only problem now is that i have no internet connection there, so I have to go down to the local bar/hang out place to use the internet. It's not bad, but I don't get to check up on this stuff as much as I would like to.

Anyway, this past weekend went well i feel. It was the 4th time i have been on the bike in almost 2 years and i came out with a 5th in the Novice class and 2nd in the sportsman. But man was i out of shape all the time on the track. I learned the jumps pretty quick. I think it took me about 3 laps to be able to do them all and i was one of the quickest through the woops. But, i don't think there's much to those. For me, it's always been turn it on and hope for the best and my tallness gives me a bit of an advantage to handling the bike trying to  buck me off. My MAJOR problem is my cornering. I cannot take a corner fast at all, so this past week i have only been hitting the corners pretty much and that's about it. I feel i have made a bit of improvement and I've been trying to be conscious of my errors in entering and exiting the corners. I think i just need to have more confidence in myself while coming in and turning it on when exiting. Then, during the corner my form was not even close to being fluid so i have taken that into consideration and tried to fix it the best i can with my limited time. We'll see how everything turns out this weekend at LIttle Okie.

until next time...

I just practiced for the 3rd time in 2 years today, and man am i feeling good on the bike, well starting to feel good anyway. Check out some of the pics i had taken and see what you think and leave me some comments on them. I will be racing here VERY shortly, until then...

Well the bike is all set up, but I'm being screwed over by this guy i bought a trailer from. So, i saved up some money and if anyone knows a cheap trailer for about 1000 bucks that would be awesome. I got to ride for the first time in a year and a half last weekend and it went pretty well considering i hadn't ridden in sooooo long. within the first 30minutes, i was doing all the big doubles and a few triples, but i was pretty darn squirrelly .... everywhere haha. But, i really didn't want to ride over my head and i took it very easy and rode some corners trying to get my outdoor speed up since i rarely rode outdoors before. Then, this weekend I have been on duty the entire weekend, so i have not been able to ride. But, If i can get the bike out to the track this week and do some real hard practice all week and feel good before the weekend I'd really like to race at hanford, for another local track.



Not too much to write about, i changed out the fork seals in the bike and it's EXtremely clean after not being able to ride or get to the track. Now, it's just a slow waiting game unfortunately.



Until next time...

Well i Finally got my bike! the thing came pretty darn dirty from being shipped across the country, but i started on the first kick! I think it's ready to be raced again instead of sitting in storage wondering where i am. Dan Sedowski, the track president out here, hooked me up really well since I don't have my trailer yet and gave me a lift back from where i had the bike dropped off and and not only that gave me some decent tires to practice on since i have brand new bridgestones on mine that are for indoor soft terrain. Then, he even gave me stand since the shipping company kind of got me and didn't give me mine. Oh well, i guess...



He also is introducing me to the CA racing scene. it sounds like a really good place to ride especially since you can year round. My first race is going to be in 3 short weeks, which isn't much to get ready, but it will have to do. Then I'm planning on hitting every race i can and getting my name back out there in the mess of things and ruining a few people's plans on cake walking the pro class after a while. No one really knows me out here in CA, which is really nice, since i will be flying under the radar until i start racing. Well here's to a summer full of hard riding and racing and inevitably crashing a few times haha.



Until next time...

My bike went from being almost 2000 or so miles away to only 120 miles away. JCmotors, the people who shipped the bike, are delivering it to my local motorcycle shop this coming Tuesday. I am also taking my car in today to have a receiver hitch put on it so can later have a trailer. So my only hurdle to get over now is to get a cheap trailer and then a 5inch wheel guide for the trailer. I have found some wheel guides on Ebay for a decent price though, so that's not too bad. I just can't wait to get it here and start riding and wrenching on the thing to get ready and in racing shape. Physically I'm in pretty good shape. I run about 30 or so miles a week and lift 4 times a week. Now I'd just like to get my nutrition on track.



Speaking of tracks, it seems like all the big guys at my local track here are leaving. They have told me of a "good deal" in the emails they have been sending me and I'm beginning to think they want me to hold some type of position for the track. The track's editor/maintainer and also the vice president are getting out of racing for injury reasons so that kind of sucks. I just hope the track doesn't go under all together. We have a beautiful track that RacerX built us so that would be a real shame. I will do what i can to help, I'm a pretty decent track builder when it comes to supercross styled tracks and with the equipment we have out here i think i could improve it a lot and possibly even add a track for more advanced riders with some triples and big woop sections instead of the small to medium table tops we have presently. We'll see what happens after I get out there this Tuesday/Wednesday and see what needs to be done. I'm now off to get a receiver put on my car so until next time...

Well, it's almost time now. Bike is being shipped this coming week and hopefully it will be here the following some time. The only problem i have now, is that my car needs a trailer hitch! I found out the 98 Mercedes E430 is the only Mercedes in that year that does not allow a receiver hitch. Sooo, what i did is say it's a 99 and U-haul is going to install the receiver and the electronics for it for 330.00. It's pretty expensive, but i also need to find a way cheap trailer to go along with it. So far I've found a trailer "kit" that i have to build myself for 160 bucks, plus 70 dollars shipping too... oh well. That is pretty cheap for a trailer so whatever.



Finally, it should be all done after that. Everything is pretty much in place and waiting, now i just have to pay for it! But, i managed to find a few sponsors to help out and SoCal/DeCal works were quick to jump on board along with Myers Racing so that helps tons. Thank you to those guys.

First riding Update April, 15th:



I'm here at my ultimate duty station finally so i can get back on the bike and riding. I found out that I am at the base where RacerX came out and built our track so i have a really nice supercross styled track about a half a mile away from my barracks. I just got all my gear together for a pretty good price considering i had no more gear after i entered the Navy. Now, my bike should be delivered out here in the next few weeks, and then i can start hitting the track again. The track on base even sponsors a rider, if they have the speed to be competitive on the track. We'll see how my riding skills come back after a while not being on the bike. Should be good, lately I've been DT'ing from not riding haha. And now that i have an excellent track to train on i should be way better than i ever have been in the past.