Buford, GA.- This is the first time I have ever done anything like this. I went the whole season and collected enough points to come out Motorcycle Track Champion.  

It was a very well done presentation, with good food and friends.

I won some very cool items. A 4' tall trophy, a nice leather jacket with my name embroidered in it and Atlanta dragway's logo, a 2500.00 Snap-on tool box and some cash.

I also won a best looking Motorcycle plaque and my parents gave me the items they won in the door prize raffle, my girlfriend Stephanie also gave me the door prizes she won.

All in all it turned out to be a good season. Hopefully I can repeat it next year.

Gainesville, FL. I came to the PROSTAR World finals to try and hold my 4^th place position in Street ET. As I have stated before, somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 bikes have entered this division across the US. I was feeling pretty good being in 4^th considering I missed 2 races in the series.

Saturday 11/4 was my first PRO ET race. This division is tough in the fact that largely any bike can enter in it. Turbos, electronics, NOS, Wheelie bars, etc. A lot of the riders from the higher classes come to race in it for practice. I like to race in it because it gets you in game mode. These guys typically cut tremendous lights and run within hundredths of their dial in.

I was in the front of the line in the staging lanes when our group was called. In order to find out whom you have to race, a track official has a hat full of colored chips for you to pull. I pulled a gold chip. (Not that gold holds any special signifigance.) Next you have to find the person with the matching color chip. As I was walking through the riders I came upon Bruce Hampton, I had not seen him since the April PROSTAR race in Atlanta. Bruce has a dry sense of humor and the first words out of his mouth is, “You have Andy Baumbach.” I immediately thought he was joking with me. He wasn’t, Andy was standing right behind him with the other gold chip.

Andy Baumbach had two divisions locked up already by this race, Super Comp and PRO/ET. He was 10^th place in Top Gas. He is deadly consistent and his bikes never seem to fail, although they look like they can at any given moment.

I was all over the place in my time runs prior to the race, so I really had no clue as to what to dial in at, I chose 9.98. Andy never seems to have that problem so he dialed in at 8.20. I left the line with a .010 reaction time and Andy left with a .048. I felt like I was on a very strong run and was afraid I might break out so I let off the gas about 5 feet before I crossed the line. That turned out to be a bad move. I lost by a hair and that hair was.0105 of a second thick. If I try to look at something good out of the race, I can rest on the fact I beat him out of the hole. (Huge consolation.)

That ended my racing for Saturday.

Sunday 11/5 was my Street ET race. This is the division I like. It is mostly comprised of street bikes. You can run NOS or a turbo but you can’t use electronics or wheelie bars. Most of the participants are local street riders, although some of the riders from Supersport 1000 will enter in it for practice.

When the track official came by to pass out the chips I pulled a gold one again. I looked over at the rider next to me and asked, “What are the odds of pulling this chip 2 days in a row?”

About this time a yellow GSXR 1000 pulls up to me with the rider holding the other gold chip. He introduces himself to me as Vince Woska.

Now I am beginning to wonder if there is some kind of significance in drawing a gold chip. Like pulling the gold ticket out of a “Wonka” bar, except I win the privilege of racing professional riders instead of getting a chance to possibly run a chocolate factory and fly around in a glass elevator.

Vince Woska is a full time racer for Velocity Racing. It is my understanding his full time job is racing and he has been on a motorcycle since his father installed one in his mother’s womb. He won the Supersport 1000 division.

I kept my dial in at 9.98. Vince dialed in at 9.18. Once again I cut a fantastic light of .011. Vince cut a .084. At the end of the track I looked over my shoulder and saw him flying up on me. I felt like I was on another great run and may break out so I let off about 25 feet from the line. Then the Yellow blur flew by, along with the win light. Vince beat me by .0205 of a second. No consoling factor in this race, unless you like being called an idiot.

That race was hard to get over. I gave it away.

All in all it was a great weekend, my girlfriend Stephanie came along and watched Jimmy “The Hulk” Brantley knock off a 5.800 ¼ mile. He was not able to back it up within 1% unfortunately it will not stand as a world record. All the same Stephanie gave him a hug and got him to autograph her shirt.

Oregon Scientific came out with a new, small self-contained video camera. I thought it would be cool to buy one so I can put it on my motorcycle while racing. It has 640 x 480 resolution at 30fps. You can use an SD card in addition to the built in memory it comes with. The built in memory is only good for about 1 minute of recording time at its highest resolution. A 2 gig SD card will bump that up to an hour.

The kit comes with all kinds of straps, velcro and clamps so you can put it just about anywhere. Amazingly enough, I do not think any of it will work on my motorcycle. It seems to have been designed more for MX than drag racing. I'll come up with something.

I'll be posting videos from my Prostar World Finals race in Gainsville, FL this weekend.