The start of any race season proves to be a time of change, excitement, stress and anticipation. What classes will we run? What will the weather be like? What new gear will work? What won't? Many variables which any racer tries to answer and deal with over and over in his or her mind. Along with the never ending list of parts needed (2 more brake levers, replace that broken subframe, fix the rear brakes, repair bodywork, get new bodywork, on and on). It goes through a cycle of overwhelming chaos to organized control, with a bit of panic strewn about, and it all completes that first Wednesday night when the trailer gets loaded to head out to the first weekend of the year.

What's new for 2004?
Sponsor renewals and new sponsors lined up:
a) Lake Country Powersports sponsorship remains in place
b) Moto Liberty / Silkolenestore / Sliderwoman sponsorships remain in place
c) Moto-Heaven sponsorship RENEWED!
d) Revlimiter Racing sponsorship remains in place
e) Hi-Side Racing sponsorship remains in place
f) Scotts Performance sponsorship remains in place
g) Martin Racing Products sponsorship SIGNED NEW!
h) MD Racing sponsorship remains in place
i) Trackside Engineering sponsorship remains in place

What new goodies will we grace CBR600RR.com Racing this year?
a) New Shoei RF-1000 helmet from Lake Country Powersports with fresh custom paint job from Katewerk
b) Custom Team Leathers from Moto-Heaven
c) Chassis alignment / optimization from MD Racing
e) New Race stands from Martin Racing Products
f) M4 full race system from M4-Exhaust
g) PD Warmers from tirewarmers.com

What's left to be decided on?
a) Tow vehicle! The 23' trailer loaded REALLY needs a diesel motor in front of it. Now it's just deciding whether it will be in the form of a used quad-cab truck or a used bus.

In 04, we've also decided to move away from the "JeF4y" branding, to simply CBR600RR.com Racing. In the grand scheme of things, CBR600RR.com Racing is an interim name until we can come up with something that sticks ("My Wife Lets Me Go" Racing ??? LOL). Ideally we would be adopted by some large (or small) corporation (or individual) with deep pockets and we could assume their name! However, the odds of that are pretty slim, so we do what we can...

As of yet, it is undecided as to which events we will run each weekend. On the 600RR, we qualify for the following events:

Middleweight GP - SAT
Unlimited GP * - SAT
GTU * (30 min) - SAT
GTO * (30 min) - SAT
Middleweight Supersport - SUN
Heavyweight Supersport - SUN
Unlimited Supersport - SUN
Middleweight Superbike - SUN
Heavyweight Superbike - SUN

* events are purse paying classes and cost $70 each for registration. Entry fee structure is $70 for the first non-purse paying event, $50 for the 2nd non-purse event, $35 for all subsequent non-purse events. Purse-Paying events are $70 each, regardless.

Ideally we would be in 3 or 4 events each weekend. Running anything Unlimited is not really an option. However, heavyweight classes are extremely attractive as the fields are usually much smaller, and on all midwest tracks except Road America, a 600 can easily compete with a 750 or big twin.

Typically we had run GTU, MWGP, MWSS and MWSB or something like that. It gave us 2 races per day, with the longer GT race for more "practice". The entry cost on this is $225/weekend.

Looking at dropping the GT class which we've never really done that well in to begin with, and moving to non-purse paying classes only, we could save $35 ($190/4 events) or add another event. Adding a 5th event would put us at 4 races on Sunday with 1 on Saturday. This is a bit much on the body (well, MY body anyhow) and gives little time for repairs should we fall down. So cutting back to 4 events, we KNOW we're going to do MWGP on Saturday. I've also done very well on HWSB in the past, so let's add it in the mix. Now add Heavyweight SuperSport, and we're left with only one to figure out... Time will tell...

If you have an opinion, email me!