Springfield TT and Mile Race Report
This was my first race since returning from Australia. I went home avoid immigration issues and arrived back in the US the week before the Springfield event. Just because I was out of the country, don’t think that I wasn’t working hard on my AMA Pro Flat Track program. Working with Nicely Motorsports, I have secured a new 2010 Yamaha Singles machine.
I want to give a huge thanks to Jamie for building a super machine! When I picked the bike up it was ready to go. The suspension had been lowered, new adjustable triple trees installed, graphics with my numbers were on along with tons of other small details. Jamie builds some super bikes and this was built in his typical style.
The only problem was time! My mate Glenn came over with me for two weeks to help out and hit the states a bit. We got into LAX and went up to Steve Bergs place where my van was parked and barely had time to hang out when we had to hit the road! (Note to self: take all the food out of my van before leaving it in the hot desert for more than a month!)
From Steve’s we drove up to Jamie’s place in Reno to pick up the Yamaha and leave my Honda. Then we had to head straight off to Davey Durelle’s place in Colorado as he had some last minute suspension updates to perform to the Yamaha.
Once that was done we were on our way to Springfield, IL. It was a good trip and we were there in plenty of time. Right out of the van the new Yamaha was a bit off. After so many years on a Honda, the handling was a bit different and I spent all my spare time trying to make adjustments and bring it more around to my style.
I did not make transfer out of the heat race and went to the Semi where I was still two positions short of getting into the Main. Not the kind of results I wanted for my inaugural event on the new bike.
Springfield, day two. This was not a great weekend. The Mile did not go much better than the TT on the previous day. Right off there were some issues with the Suzuki, it did not want to shift. The bike felt good and practice went well, but it would not shift up well at all and that was hurting me coming off the line.
In the break between practice and the first heat race, we tore the bike down trying to cure the shifting woes and we found a small support that had broken inside the cases – nothing we could fix at the track that was for sure. Decided to button everything up and just do our best. Well, a hurried repair often causes other problems and sure enough we didn’t get the clutch back together quite right and when I lined up for my heat, it would not work. I managed to finally get started in my heat, but I was dead last off the line and decided to just pull in and take my chances in the Semi.
We tore the clutch back apart and found our error and corrected it. With the clutch back to normal, I lined up for the Semi to see if I could salvage the day and get into the Main. With a DNF in my heat, I was lined up on the back row for the Semi and that hurt. With the shifting issues, it took me almost a half a lap to get through the gears and up to speed. Even with that, I ran the fastest lap time of the race, and climbed my way back up from 18th to 10th, but quite a few positions short of taking a transfer spot.
Met some great fans in the pits after the races. Always fun to meet folks who love flat track racing. After the races Glenn and I joined the after race party in honor of long time AMA announcer JB Norris. A good time was had by all swapping stories and telling racing lies!
The week after the race, we hung out with fellow racer Steve Murray and he was good enough to show Glenn around a bit sharing some of the finer points of the US with him. After that we just had a few days before Glenn had to be at the Indy airport to catch his flight back to Oz.
Thank you as always to my sponsors. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for everything they have done and continue to do for me.
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