It's been a little hectic lately, hence the column not being done straight after Brainerd. From Brainerd we headed to Mid-Ohio for a two day test with all factory teams participating.

Brainerd was a fun race. I don't normally describe races in that manner, but I rode as good as I ever have and came up short. I was in the race until two laps to go, it was then that we came up on a pack of those guys racing for prize money and put an end to our chances. I won't complain about it to much because our result was good and I was fairly happy about it. To be honest, I wasn't sure going into the weekend if we could make a race of it. Luckily for us, both Miguel and Jake weren't getting through the first two turns very well, which allowed us to be in the race.

Brainerd is funny like that. There are only two spots on the track where acceleration and speed help out a lot, very different from Road America. If you get your bike set up good and can get through the fast turns, one and two, you can keep yourself in it. I almost ran into the back of Miguel one lap when he looked over his shoulder in between one and two; I had so much momentum that I struggled to swerve to the inside to miss him. We didn't have the luxury of looking around in that part of the track. My plan was to out-brake anybody in front of me going into turn three and hold on to the front straight where they would pass but we could pick up a bit of there draft and stay close enough to do it all again in turn three. It worked pretty well on a number of occasions and I was feeling good about it for the last lap. Obviously when you have that type of a plan everything has to go well for it to work out. As I said earlier, a few things didn't go our way and I wasn't close enough at the end to get it done.

Congrats to Jake on his first win. We have taken a few off him this year, but he was determined to get to the line in front of his team mate. Miguel wasn't happy at the end as he felt he should have won the race, and may have if he didn't run off the track exiting turn two. With the rain debacle and the apparent professional corner workers running across the race track in front of us, Jake was the first to greet the checkered flag and deserved the win.

I also was not overly ecstatic about the blunders of the last lap at Brainerd. But if taking it back a lap meant that I would have won, then I would have really been pissed. The race winner greeted the checkered flag, so as far as I'm concerned he is the winner. Anyway, enough on Brainerd.

The points have closed up a bit more and it's gettin' good. My adrenalin is running hard and I'm hangin for the next lot of races. One other thing I should mention is the that Jay from the AMA came over to see what I thought about the whole last lap situation. It's the first time it has ever happened and I was happy about the fact that somebody was asking our opinion. There were other discussions over the weekend also that made me realize that if leaving track safety issues and fixes up to people who are not out there competing at an absolute top level, then they will never be done or fixed adequately.

After Brainerd I jumped in the motor home and drove until about midnight towards Ohio. It was Johnny's birthday on Monday so I had to get there in time for that. The drive is about nine hundred miles and I made it by Monday evening. We had a good night and went to bed knackered. Of course I get a phone call from Don (team manager) and said we should golf in the morning. I said yes and went to bed. The next morning I felt I had done ten rounds with Tyson, but golf beckoned and I was there. It was my third game for the year and it wasn't pretty. It didn't help that the greens were faster than number seven at the just played US open.

Jason Pridmore and myself made this rule that if we ever shoot ninety or higher we have to retire from the game. He can shoot better that ninety with his arms cut off, but I'm a different story. Half way through the round I was telling Don that this may be the last time he sees me on a golf course. Standing on the tenth, I said to Don that I really need to concentrate and stop having such a good time. Weird, I know, but you don't have a good time when you are trying to play some decent golf. I got it together, made a couple birdies, butchered the par fives, but brought it home and lived to play another day. Pheeew. By the way, the greens keeper at that course could get a job setting up the US Open greens, he must be a nasty man.

The test at Ohio went pretty well. We got the bike very comfortable after lunch on the second day and laid down some good lap times. Our quickest times came from a potential race tire, which was nice. There were a lot of crashes at the test, the worst being the Superstock points leader Jamie Hacking breaking his right clavicle. The concrete surface that is present in most corners had been shaved or ground down to meet the level of the normal racing surface. For sure they met their criteria in this department, but opened up a whole new can of worms in the process. The concrete now has grooves in it running in the same direction that the track runs. When on the concrete, the front tire follows the grooves and gives a very mushy feeling. Also, the section of track where Jamie crashed has to be the roughest section of racing surface in America. I'm not one hundred percent sure how he crashed but I would bet money on the fact that he broke bones when hitting the foot high kerbing on the outside of the track or after launching off it and landing on his right side in the gravel trap.

I feel the racing surface is worse than before. All I will say is, this racetrack needs a serious overhaul. More people are going to get hurt if it is not done.

If we weren't busy enough we decided we needed to get some paint ball guns so we could inflict a bit of pain on each other. For a hundred bucks we got everything needed for the job. We found some woods way out back of the racetrack and had some fun for a hour or so. The game ended when Johnny started making funny screaming noises and started turning green. We got him settled back down just as his buttons popped. Yes, we all ended up with some good sized welts on our bodies. It didn't help that were playing with shorts and tees.

As a lot of people may already know, Reg had to hurry home to Australia after the unexpected passing of his dad. Reg and I have worked together now for ten years and it is the first race he hasn't been to. We all look forward to his return as it surely was strange not having him there at the track. Reg has this way of lifting people at the right time and I'm sure he held everybody together at home.

Daddy, where are the keys to the motorhome? image by dad

To end on a happy note, Emily started crawling last week. It's amazing how quickly they go from not crawling to pulling things off the shelves. The house has now been fairly well baby-proofed, but I'm told we only think it is baby proofed. Let the fun begin.

Stay safe and ride smart.
cheers
Mat