MRA Last Round – HPR Full Course – Round 7 – 2023 Championship Points – Season Recap

Job Done

My major RACING GOALS this year were to

• Finish in the top five for at least one class
• Run under 2:03s on HPR’s full course configuration

I wanted a plaque at the banquet and to see a “2 handle” on one of my laps. I figured not crashing would help, too.

I based my lap time goal on what fast guys in the twins classes were running in 2022.

I crashed twice, top fived two classes, and ran 2:02.299s on my last completed lap of the season after running a 2:02.9XX in practice. My lap time goal came right down to the last day.

Saturday Racing

My points position in Lightweight2X, a race with twice the number of laps as a normal sprint race, came down to the last race, too.

Jose #12 was ahead of me by one point going into the last round. All I had to do was finish in front of him. I’d been beating him all year long, but I crashed out at PPIR because I saw an opening, got excited, lost my cool, and threw my bike into a jersey barrier going way too fast through turn 6 on cold tires during the opening lap of the race. Learned my lesson. Jose and I ended the season tied for points in 2X because I did finish in front of him, but the tie breaker goes to the racer with the most podiums.

I had him beat on podiums, so I took 3rd in the 2023 MRA Lightweight2X Championship. I finished the season 4th in the points in the LightweightGP class.

Luck always plays a huge part in racing. It’s massive. Its influence cannot be overstated. Sometimes racing is a bunch of gearheads spending exorbitant sums of time and money to figure out who can catch the most lucky breaks in a row. All other things being equal, racing comes down to luck. The game is figuring out how you can make things as unequal as possible for yourself, how you can swing the odds in your favor. We do this by making our bikes faster, making them easier to ride, and when the time comes, having the skills, experience, and confidence to stuff it deeper into the next corner than the racer in front of us. We can say it all comes down to luck “all things being equal” but things are never equal in racing.

Racing anything is a war on multiple fronts. Racing requires preparation and execution mechanically and athletically, all while you’re spending tons and tons of money. There’s a massive financial component to it. A huge part of the preparation is financial. You have to have your money right or at least right enough to go racing, which are two different things. Then after you’ve put all of the preparation pieces together, the execution part requires you to go out and prove you have what it takes to go faster than the next guy. The nature of the beast is that the majority of racers spend a lot of time and money to find out they don’t have what it takes to beat the next guy. If you fall short on any one of these fronts, at worst you don’t show up to race at all, and at best you get your ass kicked.

The thing about getting your ass kicked is it sucks, and for a certain type of person figuring out how to kick other peoples’ asses at the track and putting those pieces together becomes one of the most compelling and fulfilling things they’ll ever do in their life.

Sunday Racing

The last race of the season, SuperTwinsGTU on Sunday, was the most entertaining, bestest, most awesomest race of the season for me. I’d already run a 2:02.9XX lap in practice earlier in the day. My goal was to beat that time and if I crashed trying so be it, hope I walk away unscathed.

I started in P5, second row middle. Three faster riders in front of me on the front row. Pull up, put the bike in neutral, raise my hands for the second wave start. Starter walks away, bike’s in gear, the lights come on, throttle’s against the stops, engine’s bouncing off the rev limiter. The lights go out, and I get the clutch off just about perfect with the throttle WFO, shoot through the two racers in front of me on the front row, and charge turn 1 with one of Aprilia Gang just in front of and to the outside of me. I fold into turns 1, 2, and 3 glued to his ass to prove I’m just as fast as he is through the first 3 corners knowing he would start putting distance on me the second the track straightened out. Then the track straightened out, and I got passed by all of Aprilia Gang. So I tipped it into Turn 4 right behind the slowest among them, racer by the name of Seth, and gave chase. I wanted to pass him. I had something to prove.

Seth had me beat on horsepower, but I had him beat on skills, at least in that moment I sure as hell thought I did, and I was going to prove it. Club racing at its finest, this is what it’s all about folks. Real David and Goliath shit, a little tempest in an Arai-shaped teapot on a Sunday afternoon one late September day.

I amused myself chasing him for a few laps, noticing where he was slower and I was faster. I wondered if he was going slow on purpose trying to pull me to the promised land of sub-2:02 lap times, so I followed his lead and stayed with him. The thing is I was quite a bit faster than he was in quite a few places, and he ended up holding me up in a few places, so I did what any racer would and found a way around him.

Coming out of turn 8, I was right on him. I stayed on the outside and pointed the bike towards turn 9A knowing I could swing wide for 9B, take the inside line into turn 10, and slam the door in his face. And that’s exactly what I did. Case closed. Gotcha! In Seth’s own words, “YOU SUCK!!!”

He passed me back as soon as the track straightened out, so I figured I’d stay on him and do it AGAIN just to DRIVE THE POINT HOME. And that’s when I crashed, tucked the front scooting the bike into turn 6 during the second to last lap of the race. Went from having fun, feeling the rush, the living embodiment of a shit-eating-grin on a motorbike to “shit, crashed it” to “that was my fucking head goddammit” to “that’s my bike sliding across the track, and it’s still running lol” to “awe shucks, I’m going to be fine” when I stood up and started putting distance between myself and the apex of the corner, on foot.

Second crash of the year, and I did it when there wasn’t anything at stake. I didn’t care about points in STGTU, and I’d already run my bike into the :02s. If ever there was a good time to crash, that was it. Not crashing wasn’t a goal at that point, going fast was more important.

Going fast was the most important thing in the world to me in that moment. More important than life and health. If that’s not certifiable, I don’t know what is. When I look at it critically, this is a profoundly stupid thing to do with my time and money. But it’s also the thing that makes me feel the most alive. It does kind of suck that this is what it takes, that it takes this level of risk and shenanigans to feel something this profound, to experience something sublime. If not this, drugs and alcohol. Oblivion. I’m not sorry, and I don’t get to choose to settle down, sit still, work hard, and live life in the slow lane, keeping myself safe at all costs and for what?

That’s not something I’m capable of choosing. My body and mind physically, chemically rebel against any attempt at that kind of a life. I know. I’ve tried. It does not work for me. Life is short, youth doesn’t last forever, and I’m going to turn 40 next year.

Looking Forward to 2024

I can say this, too. I really did, well and truly give everything I had to racing this season. I didn’t hold back. I have no excuses. I did my best. The results are what they are, and it turns out they’re pretty darn good. Something worth sharing, worth being proud of, worth talking about for years to come no matter what.

My only big goal for next year is to run 7-14+ laps in a row at HPR Full Course all within 1/2s of one another and in the 2:00-2:02 range WITHOUT HURTING MYSELF. As soon as I do that, I’ll buy a faster bike and chase a championship. Consider this the opening salvo, shots fired. Racers who read my shit, and I know you do, you’ve been warned!!

…it’s all in good fun y’all, see you next year!!!