Not a very good year as you can see from my results table below. I decided to give the 600 class a try. I bought a wrecked 2003 CBR600RR this past winter. Man I had a heck of a time getting parts. Wheels were the hardest to come buy. I ended up going through about 4 deals on ebay trying to get one front, then another complete set as a spare. Actually I had no issues getting the front. It was coming up with a spare set. I was sold bent wheels that were suppose to be straight bla bla bla. This happened to me twice. Luckily I was able to send both sets back and get my money back, but all said and done it cost me a few hundred in shipping. One fork was bent, so I sent the set off to Traxxion to be fixed, reworked with springs and valved. The one tube was too bent, so they replaced it. After some work, I finally got all the parts I needed and the bike was ready to go.

I did a track day at Barber early in March. Before going on the track I noticed the forks were not springing back up like they should. I thought maybe it was maybe just because of the cold, so I went out for a session to warm everything up. The front end was just not responding and seemed like it was sticking. After about five laps I lost the front in a turn on the back straight, fast left hander before the uphill right. It was bad. I was ready to give up there after seeing the bike once back in the pits. Caked in mud and all torn up. I just didn't think I had the money to fix it again. Plus I was hurting pretty bad. I either fractured a few ribs or bruised them pretty hard. I never actually saw any bruising, but they hurt for a few weeks after. Luckily I brought the SV with me just in case the 600 broke down on me. Well it broke alright. I took some pain medicine and sat out the rest of the morning. I rode my SV in the afternoon. I hurt when off the bike, but when I was out there I forgot all about it.

After getting back and tearing it down, it was not as bad as I thought. Sub frame was toast. Exhaust was bent pretty bad, but I was able to bend it back. Replaced and repaired some plastic. Straightened some pegs and handlebars. The forks still did not seem right. Since I crashed on them, there was no chance in Traxxion fixing them for free, so I bought another set off ebay and switched the internals. Mounted them up and much better. I think that was about it.

I did another track day in April I think at Putnam. I knew I had to get the bugs worked out before any races. I had always run Pirelli's on my SV, but decided to give the new Dunlops a try. They weren't too bad, but I just didn't like the feel, too squirmy for me. Anyway, under hard breaking I kept feeling a weird vibration. I knew my wheel was straight and the rotors looked fine too. A friend of mine had a 600rr there too, so he let me swap out his front wheel with mine. It turned out to be the rotors. It must have been an uneven thickness problem, because his wheel had a bent rotor that you could see, yet it felt fine. Rotors don't have to be perfect these days with the way they float. So, the rest of the day went pretty well.

First race was at Beaverun. The weekend called for very cold temps and rain/snow. Yuck, but I went anyway. Sat. was the solo and it was in the high 30s and wet. On lap 12 of 20 my bike just quit on me. Electrical problem. I got it running again, but decided to pack up on go home on Sat because of snow. I wasn't chasing points this year, so not worth it to me.

Next race was Cycle Jam at VIR. I did the 4 hr endurance race with a couple guys on a 2005 600RR. Man what a difference and it was not even setup for me. It was GP shift and setup for a heavier person. But it had inverted forks done by Traxxion and a Penske shock and Arrow exhaust. I went faster on it than I was able to on my own bike. Wish I had the cash for a new one, oh well. To sum up my races, big track, multiregional, double points round, lots of fast guys and I got schooled. I managed a 30th and 31st. We did get 7th or 8th in our class in the endurance though and I was the fastest rider in our group :).

Next race was Grattan. I was running pretty good in practices. In the solo the little video camera I run on my front fender fell off and put a hole in my radiator. No one had an extra. My repair job did not hold so I was done for the weekend.

Beaverun again. Again I was running well. Got 6th in the solo. I was in the top ten in B SS and my chain broke. Scary but I did not crash. I missed my next race because my bike was out on the track and I had not chance to fix it. I brought my SV this weekend too since my luck with the 600 was not so good. Started on row 5 and got 2nd. Actually I got 1st because the guy that crossed the finish line first had a built motor and was DQ'd. Long story but this guy also cheated last year and got caught, but I guess was not concerned about it this year.

Mid Ohio, a huge weekend and a favorite track of mine. Got 8th in the solo. This was a first year for qualifying for my class and I qualified 25th. I only ran one race on the 600 and got 22nd. Pretty good I think since I was racing in a class with 750 and up machines. I also raced my SV. The bad was I had back to back races. So I staged the SV in the pits, rolled in off the 600 and jumped on the SV. I had to switch my steering dampner and transponder and almost did not make it out in time for the warm up lap. Luckily they waited for me to get around. Riders were gridded on points. I only had one race under my belt and was gridded on the 3rd row. I got in the lead for a short stint, but ended up settling for 2nd. Not too bad for jumping from a 600 to a SV, rushed, tired and having only run one race on SV this year. Plus the guy that beat me was on a new SV. I was happy with my results.

That was to be my last race weekend. With gas prices, the added expense of the 600 race bike, fixing it twice, I ran out of money. So my plan right now is to sell the 600 and race my old '99 SV650 next year. It will be seven years old, and guys on the new ones will give me some trouble but I think I can still be competitive and maybe even pull off an Expert regional championship. With only two races on the SV, I finshed 7th overall in points. Not too bad. My preferred option would be to get a new SV. Even with selling both the 600 and my current SV, I doubt I could afford a new one, plus the added aftermarket performance upgrades that would be necessary. Then on top of that all the other fees, tires, gas, travel, entry fees etc. If I could just find a dealer to hook me up ...... :)