Two twos.

Another very eventful yet successful race weekend in Calgary has come and gone. Saturdays practice was a practice that meant having to ride through the delusion and after effects of food poisoning.

In my first session that morning I cruised into the first corner at 200km/h wondering..."why am I cruising into a corner at 200km/h when I can't even stand up properly...?". I cant think of a better activity to do in that kind of 'relaxed' state then go racing...

Sunday rolled around and my practice times we not as fast as I had hoped . . . the butterflies set in . . . and I new what I had to do. Go faster! In the first race I made 4 passes in the first 3 corners so I could sit in 2nd place by turn 4 . . . on the first lap. That was fun. After a red flag and restart we fought it out for 4 more laps and I was able to grab 2nd again.

During the second race of the day, Middleweight Superbike, I had to work a little harder. Sitting in third for the first lap I had to push hard and was able to grab 2nd again. The heat was very tiring, and by mid race I found another bike right beside me on the straight away. A little game of chicken into turn 1 and 2nd was still mine all the way to the finish.

The most encouraging moment was during the dyno run after the races. My bike puts out 100hp. The 1st and 3rd place bikes were putting out 111hp and 116hp! Considering that Racecity has the longest straight in Canada . . . I'm glad to be running lap times only 0.16 seconds slower then the leader. What a sweet day!

The start of a season always looks good.

I have to say, in the beginning, what a beautiful looking bike. Almost not worth racing, you could just park it and stare at it...and never really ride it. Just appreciate it's... shininess. Perhaps in front of a coffee shop... But I could not, Suzuki made too fast a bike to let it sit.

Thanks to Terry and Kurt at Irwin Collision, who did an awesome job on the paint and matched the colour perfectly. Greg Bellavance also helped a lot with his mad welding skills. I've never seen such a good, fast job. And thank you to Mike and Morgen Quesnel for making the bike a tangible object and not just an idea.

So the 2009 season is off and rolling, sorry for any puns...not intended. It came a lot quicker then I expected, it always seems to do that! So far I have done 3 race rounds at Mission Raceway in BC and 1 race round at Racecity in Calgary.

I'm happy with the top 5 finishes in BC. What I'm most excited about are the two 2nd place finishes in Calgary. Middleweight Supersport & Middleweight Superbike were two fun classes, with a lot of fast riders. After a hard day of practice, my nerves finally settled when the flag dropped and I found myself up front in the first corner. What a fun day.