The grand Finale! - for Blackhawk that is!

Greetings Race Fans and welcome to the final race report for Blackhawk Farms for the 2004 CCS season!

I don't know that we could have asked for better weather or a busier turnout. Arriving at the track at around 4:00PM on Friday, I was shocked to see just about every square inch of space taken. There were huge big-rig setups from AMA and Formula USA teams which were basically stacked on top of each other. It looked like a full AMA professional weekend!

We set up pit the same place as our last weekend here, down by pit-out which normally is uninhabited, but this weekend had 7 race teams (me included) there. With Vesrah Suzuki, Young America, Jordan Racing, and Safety-First Racing to name a few, it was obvious that we would be fighting for mid-pack at best.

All the big teams turned out for the Manufacturer Contingency money which was available, and there was extra purse money put up by Voice Eclipse CEO Russ Intravartolo.

Saturday 9/18:
Good friend, colleague, and fellow Honda Rider, Mike "Hammer" Hammernik showed up today to cheer me on. It was great to see Mike out at the track and be able to have him see me race.

My only race for today was Middleweight GP. Typically this is a grid of about 15-20 people. Today there were 40+. I was on row 6, and the spacing for the rows left extra space between rows 5&6. This was bad in that I had an extra 10' to try to gain on people, but good because I could launch the hell out of the bike without fearing packing the guy in front of me.

I launched the bike fairly well, and off we went into T1. Going 6-7 wide through T1 was fairly interesting. Leaning on and being leaned on by other riders was nothing new to me, but knowing that there are another 25 bikes behind you to run you over if someone makes a mistake gets a little scary (although I only thought about it now!).

I figured traffic would thin out, but noooooooo. The first 6 turns were all at LEAST 3-4 wide through each turn, trading paint over and over again. By lap 2, we formed 4 or so packs of riders. I was in one of the middle packs, and I gotta tell you, it was like flies on a cow-pile. Not an inch for error in any direction, as someone was THERE. I couldn't carry any real decent corner speed because the lead guys would park it in the corner, and it would ripple back through the group. Very frustrating running 2 seconds off pace, but I survived the race.

I finished somewhere mid-pack, but the big win was that I came through it in one piece.

Saturday night, we attended the 18th annual Wegman Benefit Fund raffle. The Wegman fund is a charity which helps injured racers, so it's something that always draws a crowd. We stayed through it all, until about 1:00 AM, and managed to donate a bit which helps everyone out. This year, at the auction, Wegman raised +$28,000!

Sunday morning came way too soon... The weather was gorgeous again. Today I had 3 races.

Heavyweight Supersport was up first, and I was AMAZED to find myself gridded on the 9th row!!! 9th row?!?! My starting position was 32nd, and my goal was to finish 23rd against the bigger 750's.

My launch was interesting to say the least. The front end came up as I got on it. It climbed about 2' as usual, and I clicked 2nd gear figuring it would come back down. No dice. It kept climbing. I leaned myself as far forward as I could with my front tire about 3 1/2' in the air, and finally had to back off to drop it back down. It wasn't that bad though since that was about the time/place to back off for T1 anyway. I threw it into T1 and took off!

Again, the crowd on the track was THICK. I spent time trading places with Lonny Michaels, an old race buddy of mine. He was on his 750 with me on my 600. We traded places probably 5 times in the race.

Lonny coming up the inside of me in the carousel

By lap 2 I was hung up behind a guy on a 750 who would easily take me on the straights, but he would slow down WAY too much for the corners. A mid-corner pass was the only option, but his lines were VERY defensive. After nearly clipping him 3-4 times, I finally decided that turn 5 would be the spot. The setup of T4,T5 would be perfect since they're two left-handers close enough together that you can make a single turn out of them. I gave some space going into T4 and ran in HARD. I stayed on it through T5, and came up on the outside of him. Well, at the exit, he drifted WAAAAAY wide with me right there. The outside 18" of track always collects tire bits from bikes & cars exiting the turn, so getting onto them I was dancing around like crazy. Realizing I had nowhere to go, I stood the bike up and hit the grass.

I was doing about 90 when I hit the grass. I let off the gas, but didn't dare touch the brakes as it would instantly put me down. I had plenty of room to shave off speed and get back on without hitting anything, but I hit a MONSTER dip/bump in the grass. The bike and I launched about 2' in the air! I landed back on the bike (singing a few octaves higher), and gave a wave to the crowd as I made it back onto the track behind the group I was in.

I finished out the race right back where I started, in 32nd place!

Back into the pits for a quick gulp of water and a few breaths of air before my next race a mere 15 minutes later.

Middleweight Supersport. This would be a crazy race for sure. I moved up a few spots on the grid, in 7th row (around 24th position). This race went VERY well. The bike handled like a dream, and I was tired enough that I was relaxed and not nervous. Looking at my lap timer at various spots on the track, I saw I was running an excellent pace. Moving through traffic relatively easy, I held a good solid mid-pack finish (not sure exactly where).

I looked at my lap-timer after the race and found that FINALLY I had beaten my fastest lap at Blackhawk Farms. I ran the whole race in the 1:15's, with my fastest lap being a 1:15.117. My previous fast lap was a 1:15.2. Naturally I'm disappointed that it's not a 13 or 14, but hey, it was at least faster than I'd ever been before, and ABOUT TIME!

Heavyweight Superbike was the last race of the day and season at Blackhawk Farms. With a new personal lap record waiting to be beaten, I mounted up and set out to do just that.

The race was again tight with traffic, and the 750's had the power on me for the straights. Corner passing was the name of the game and I had been getting pretty good at it. About lap 3, I followed a rider through the track, and figured I'd get him on the brakes in turn 6. I flew up the inside, JUST as he was entering the turn. I was already committed, so there was nothing I could do but pray for an inch. He gave me that inch and I held a tight line so as to not push him off the track on the exit. I realized then it was Jason Knupp. I raced with Jason for a number of years, but then he went off to the AMA to race with the big guys. After getting married and having a baby, he had taken almost a whole year off, but came out for this weekend. I gave a quick "sorry dude" wave and led him through a couple laps before he passed me back.

When all was over, I didn't beat my 1:15.1, but hung in the low 15's and had a blast. I went over to talk to Jason and apologize for the tight pass. He laughed and said "It's okay, Matt Mladin (working on his 5th straight AMA Superbike Championship) does it to me all the time!". LOL... I've never been compared to Matt Mladin before. Even in reference :-)

Leading my buddies Ike (40) and Anto (65 - yellow helmet) (yeah, they got me back)

We packed up and had an uneventful ride home. I retired to the hot-tub for about 20 minutes and then off to bed.

This week, I'd like to thank Hammer for coming out to cheer me on, and I want to thank all my other friends, family, sponsors and fans who continue to make this happen for me.

Last CCS Midwest Round - Gingerman Raceway 10/9-10

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