In 2009, we managed to learn a tremendous amount about the racing industry and how exciting and emotional an AMA National weekend of competition is.  We went out at the beginning of the year in anticipation of challenging ourselves with an entire season of competition in up to three different club and pro series.  Professional crew chief Jeremy Daniel was on board through the season from the first weekend of racing at the annual "6 Days of Summit" at Summit Point, WV over the Memorial Day weekend.  He would be joined later in the year by Nigel Alsopp, another great technician and valued team member.  Over the first weekend we encountered things that would send other racers to reconsider their years early; a blown motor and a crash on a wet track, but we also achieved our lap time goals and gained a lot of valuable set-up info for the two professionally prepared Suzuki GSXR600's that we were going to be racing all year long.  We also managed to bring about a closer team environment through the hard work from new-to-the-team racing enthusiast and friend Mike Clark, who provided his RV as a base of operations and managed to feed all of us over the time we were all at the track together.  Not a small feat! Mike would end up coming along to all of the events we attended in 2009, including piloting and operating a rented giant diesel pusher RV to the AMA event at VIR. Mike was a big part of taking care of the entire behind the scenes operational stuff that makes the race weekends so much less hectic, and we were fortunate to have him onboard.

At VIR in the late spring, we all ventured to Alton for a club weekend that was full of firsts for us.  I managed to crash a bike in almost every race we had entered on Saturday as we struggled to find the speed and setup we needed with the AMA Spec Dunlop tires we were using.  We decided earlier in the year that staying on the Dunlops for all of the club races would allow me the comfort and to develop the consistency that I would need later at the AMA events I was planning on attending.  Switching tires was not something I was ready to do with having so little experience with the series Spec tires. Looking back it was probably the right decision, but I should also have spent more time on the bike on those tires.  I was also violently crashed into by another rider during a race in a very fast section of the track on the Sunday of that VIR event, which almost destroyed a bike and pretty much ended my weekend.  Thankfully I was not terribly injured and had expert support in the form of understanding sponsors and professional technicians who managed to get things repaired and get us ready before the next event. <Read More>