Am I happy with a second and a third place? The answer is NO.

A lot of people believe that because of the huge speed difference between the bikes, it's a great result to come second or third. I could not disagree more. A lucky second is what it was anyway on Saturday. It is pathetic that we are so far behind.

Yes the rule change has a lot to do with it but the lack of doing what needs to be done on our side also has a lot to do with it. I hate excuses. I hate hearing about the rule changes, because we could be doing more. The GSXR 1000 Superbike in it's current state of tune is not close to our competitors bikes. The rule changes hurt us for sure, but we did not get to work on things that could help us close the gap. Am I annoyed? YES. Is anything going to happen about it? Probably not. It comes back to the "You should be happy with that because you rode the wheels off it". I see it as you win or you lose, and we lost, big time.

Entering Saturday's race I thought there was a possibility of winning. Yes, I was being optimistic and I didn't want to believe the AMA speed trap sheets. I was hoping we could just stay in the draft and see what happens. After Friday morning's first practice speeds were posted I really didn't see the point in looking at them anymore. The AMA speeds are taken at the start finish line and our average for Friday morning was 170 mph compared to the eventual race winners, 180 mph. You can understand why I didn't look at them after that.

I'm sure in the draft we picked up a lot of speed but that doesn't help if you are trying to win, because at some stage you have to lead. We worked a lot on getting my body position better on the bike and trying to get tucked in better.

It seemed to help as I was able to keep in the draft of a couple of bikes better on Sunday. I made a good charge towards the front and crossed the line with two laps to go just 0.5 down on Miguel. That's when we made it to two lapped riders who Miguel passed half way down the back straight and the same two lapped riders who didn't care to think that there may be a race going on. Of course they continued their race, if that's what you call it when you are getting lapped, and my run towards Miguel was ended.

If everything went perfect there may have been a slim chance for the win, but as the saying goes, "if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle". Miguel did his fastest lap of the race and I got caught behind the dueling duo. Jake handed second to me when he ran straight at turn five so we got a few more points there.

At every race we have a riders briefing just before lunch on Friday. The briefing is to tell you if there are any special rules or different things happening that weekend compared to normal. After that Ron Barrick tells all the regulars they can go and the not so regulars to stay and listen in on what all the different colored flags do, etc. I have said to Ron a couple times this year that we need to have an etiquette class for all the riders to teach them how not to be dangerous on the racetrack. I was exiting the new hairpin on Friday, closing quickly on some guy maybe doing 2:25's, which is ten seconds off the pace, when he decided to put his left hand up and signal he was going to pit. Never mind he was still one mile from pit lane entry and never mind that I was two feet from his back wheel. I took to the grass and had a close call with the guard rail, but thanks for signaling that you were entering the pits.

If you spoke to all the faster guys they could tell of similar stories. The lines you take when you are that much slower are totally different to the lines of the faster riders. This is the reason for some of the get-togethers between front runners and lappers.

There has been a lot of talk since Daytona about this subject and unfortunately it will not improve when you have novice riders on the same track as the pros. Ignoring blue flags is just ignorance.

Sunday's race wasn't looking real good for the first few laps of the first green light. Our Infineon problem came back and went away four laps into it. The red flag was out not long after that. The boys worked frantically to change as much as possible before the re start. A clutch was changed and as much electrical stuff as possible. We missed the warm up lap and had to ride backwards down pit lane and straight to the grid. I sat there with two nice shiny tires that were warm not hot. The first lap and a half were interesting, especially turn five for the first time. If I couldn't get behind Miguel or Jake early then we had even less chance of staying with them.

Anyway, by the time I got myself comfortable we were a long way behind and had switched modes to get as many points as possible. When I got into fourth I think I was about six seconds down on Ben. I thought it was a tall order to catch him, but I kept pushing. I ended up catching up with a few laps to go and made the pass.

It was pretty funny whilst I was catching him and after I got past because I didn't pull away too much from the guy behind me, Aaron. He ran his fastest two laps of the whole weekend on the last two laps of the Sunday race.

We are past half-way (in the championship) and hanging onto the points lead. Brainerd is next and should be fun.

Before I go, we did play the Griswalds for a few days in the south west corner of South Dakota. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Custer State Park were a few things we took in before heading to Elkhart Lake. It was fun but I've done it once and will probably be a long time before it happens again.

Next week we get a look at Suzuki's 2005 model line-up at the Suzuki Dealer Convention in Las Vegas. I'm looking forward to that because I get to see them early and I always have a joke with some of the Suzuki boys back in OZ about how nice the bikes are before they get to see them. Ride smart and stay safe.

Cheers
Mat