2025 OMRRA Round 2
Track:
Portland International Raceway, Portland, OR
Date:
June 7-8, 2025
Results:
| Class | Result | Video |
|---|---|---|
| 450 SBK (Saturday) | 8th | Video |
| MW SBK (Saturday) | 10th | Video |
| MW GP (Saturday) | 6th | Video |
| MW GP (Sunday) | 7th | Video |
| MW SBK (Sunday) | 6th | Video |
| 450 SBK (Sunday) | 7th | Video |
Summary
I showed up to Portland with some very freshly painted bodywork and was going to race for my first time with the chicane on my Aprilia RS 660. My results were solid, though I have some work to get higher up the order at a track I’m a bit less familiar at.
Oh, and it was hot. Very hot.
Saturday
I spent the morning trying to sort out the chicane and realized that, far more than the Ridge, this chicane altered the laptime a good deal. It also changed turn 1 a lot. To make matters more complicated, I ended up with an electrical gremlins. On a hot lap in Q2 the bike began to cut in and out, pumping, and alerting me “ALERT SERVICE”. The motorcycle then went into limp mode and I very slowly went around the edge of the race track until I could enter the pits. My first race was about 90 minutes after qualifying and that worked out, because it took basically the whole time to figure out what was going on. While I started by checking fuses, running a diagnostic on the ECU, cleaning the wheel speed sensors, and going as far to reflash the ECU, none of that made an impact.
Louis Stevenson, pitmate and the person who takes most of the photos you see here, had found I can unplug both front and rear sesnsors. And while that would cause me to have no traction control, the bike would work at least. When I went to remove the front sensor I found the problem. Somehow the cable had rubbed against the front tire, abraded, and was barely connected. This was great news though. We then field spliced the two, far more complete ends of the cable, tested with a multimeter (thanks Delaney from The Fix for loaning us one, and for Zlock Racing for loaning one for my earlier testing) to verify connectivity, and crossed my fingers. It worked great!
The bad news is all of that meant I had an unsuccessful qualifying and would start all races for the weekend further down the grid order as I didn’t set a true pace lap.
My races all went well enough on the day. I was able to stay in or near the top 10 for the races. I also improved my laptimes each and ever race on Saturday.
Saturday was warm, in the 80s, but Sunday would make that look pleasant…
Sunday
Sunday was an opportunity to pickup where Saturday left off and bring myself higher up the order in races. I was able to do this. The best bit is my laps were generally consistent. My pitmate razzed me when they saw my top 4 laps were within a couple hundredths of each other. And while I had room to grow, I was clearly repeating my laps, hitting my marks. Those marks aren’t quite right, but hey, at least I was executing well.
The biggest issue Sunday was it was hot, like, 95F Atmospher, 135F Track Temperatures hot. A decent amount of energy went into hydrating and setting up fans in the pit space to keep as cool as possible.
Reflecting
While I always want to do better, I am proud of my results. Portland is still the track on the calendar I am the underdog. And much of the competition in front of me are regulars. Being “the best of the rest” is a badge I’m going to wear with honor for now. But I want to find my way to the gaggle in front (had to make a Goose joke, the #1 wildlife at the track) of me and dice it up for the podium.
Thanks to all y’all
Thanks to all of those that sponsor me. KYT makes amazing helmets. The new model has a simply outstanding eyeport, it’s low noise, light, and comfortable. Sage at CT Racing Services for KTech and Pirelli support. Track Time track days for giving me a place to hone my own craft and instruct others. StevensonFoto makes me and my bike, even when rashed, look sharp. And Short Circuit Racing for the support trackside.
Special thanks to my wife Anna as well. Getting the bike pretty again took a lot of time. She spent a lot of it sanding random bits with me on our garage floor. The bike really looks 100% better now thanks to the effort.
