Race Report May 27th 2009
Some people think that going around chasing money has got to be easy. I think that probably three years ago it might have been easier than it is now in 2009, as long as you were able to stand being on the road for weeks at a time. Now, there is certainly more competition at these races. Some weekends you show up and there are 4 or 5 guys racing for money.
I just finished a five week plus road trip that had me racing every weekend. It had its ups and downs, I won some I lost some, and I drove some straight to the ground. I made mistakes and had triumphant passes that shot me into the lead at the right time. All in all I had fun and learned some things on the way. Yes, that is right I still learn things about my riding.
I showed up at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit on Thursday May 15th to compete in my first CMRA race this season. I haven’t been to Hallett since 2003 when I was novice racing in the WERA National Series. CMRA was running the track backwards than the track that I had ridden on 6 years ago. So, I figured that I needed to get a little bit of seat time. The weather was going to be a little dicey and thunderstorms were predicted for the whole weekend.
I got through Friday and got kind of a basic set up for my races on Sunday; so my mechanic for the weekend Brian Stricker and I decided to go watch a movie to kill some time.
Now, I thought that Hallett was going to be kind of an easy weekend. I didn’t think that that many people would show up, I was way out in left field with that thought. Quite a few of the local CMRA hot shoes showed up. I of course did not have any points so would be staring in the very back of all my races. This made for a challenging race weekend and I ended up with only two 4ths, one 1st and a DNF. In my last race I was getting a little impatient with a rider that was parking it in the corners; I tried to make and aggressive pass on him going into the “bus stop” and ended up getting the raw deal out of my attempt. My front wheel contacted his back and well I ended up hitting the deck. It just wasn’t such a great weekend for me, but I guess you are going to have those every once and a while.
My next race weekend was at Barber Motorsports Park, with the WERA Southeast region. I was excited to get on the road and head back to the southeast. I knew that I was going to have at least a few nights in my own bed and a few days to get the ZX6R back together for the race weekend. I showed up on Saturday the 23rd and decided that I would enter the Solo 20 for some seat time; I wanted to get a basic set up for Sunday’s races. The weather was pretty much going to be crap for the weekend with rain expected every day. I got through Saturday without getting wet and won my Solo race, also got my basic set up for Sunday.
When I woke up Sunday morning I knew it was going to be wet by the sound of the rain on the trailer roof. I decided not to go out in the first practice but go out in the second one instead, what a bad idea. The track just couldn’t handle all the water that was coming down and there were little rivers running across the race line everywhere not only that, but there was standing water too! When you hit a puddle straight up and down and your handle bars go full lock, it is certainly eye opening!
The track dried up a little for the first race, it was almost to dry for rains in some areas but to wet for DOTs in some areas. I lead the A Superstock race for almost the whole race, then Lee Acree got by me going into turn 5 on his GSXR 750. Lee was riding really well and I just couldn’t get back up to him before the checkered flag. In the C Superstock race I went back out on the rain tires I had raced on earlier. It looked like a storm was going to come; light rain fell for a second or two. Then as we lined up the sun came out. I knew I had made a bad decision to race on rains with a drying track. I battled for the lead with Stokes and even lead a lap or two. I burned the rain tires up by lap 4 and just held on to finish third.
C Superbike was the next race. I put on Michelin DOTs for that race and was ready for some action. I grabbed the lead by the end of lap one and put my head down. Daniel Parkerson passed me on lap 4 going into turn 5. I was right on his rear wheel coming out of the back chicane, my front brake lever hit his leg at one point and locked my front wheel up. SCARY! I passed Daniel going into turn 1 when he made the wrong choice trying to get by some lappers. On the last lap he stuffed me pretty big going into 14A, it kind of set me off in my helmet. Turn about is fair play, I rammed it up underneath him going into the last turn. I don’t think he was expecting a last ditch effort by me, I had the advantage going down the front straight and won a very close race.
750 Superbike was the last race of the day for me and well was way less exciting than the C Superbike race. I just rode smooth and took the win.
All in all, I know that doing this is pretty tough. I have ridden every weekend for like the last 6 weekends or something like that. I have had a lot of fun but am looking forward to a much needed weekend off. I have to get some maintenance done on the bikes! I am at home now which is nice, and am heading down to Jennings GP to do a Florida regional race with WERA this coming up Sunday. I will let you guys know how that one turns out!
Matt Lynn
Matt Lynn Racing would like to thank all of our sponsors:
Arai Helmets, SIDI Boots, RM Racing, Michelin Tires, Ohlins USA , LeoVince Exhaust, Performance Friction Brakes, Offbeat Productions, Fuji Bicycles, Sportbike Track Gear, OCD Designs, Spiegler Performance Brakes , Attack Performance , Marietta Motorsports , Vortex Sprockets
Some people think that going around chasing money has got to be easy. I think that probably three years ago it might have been easier than it is now in 2009, as long as you were able to stand being on the road for weeks at a time. Now, there is certainly more competition at these races. Some weekends you show up and there are 4 or 5 guys racing for money.
I just finished a five week plus road trip that had me racing every weekend. It had its ups and downs, I won some I lost some, and I drove some straight to the ground. I made mistakes and had triumphant passes that shot me into the lead at the right time. All in all I had fun and learned some things on the way. Yes, that is right I still learn things about my riding.
I showed up at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit on Thursday May 15th to compete in my first CMRA race this season. I haven’t been to Hallett since 2003 when I was novice racing in the WERA National Series. CMRA was running the track backwards than the track that I had ridden on 6 years ago. So, I figured that I needed to get a little bit of seat time. The weather was going to be a little dicey and thunderstorms were predicted for the whole weekend.
I got through Friday and got kind of a basic set up for my races on Sunday; so my mechanic for the weekend Brian Stricker and I decided to go watch a movie to kill some time.
Now, I thought that Hallett was going to be kind of an easy weekend. I didn’t think that that many people would show up, I was way out in left field with that thought. Quite a few of the local CMRA hot shoes showed up. I of course did not have any points so would be staring in the very back of all my races. This made for a challenging race weekend and I ended up with only two 4ths, one 1st and a DNF. In my last race I was getting a little impatient with a rider that was parking it in the corners; I tried to make and aggressive pass on him going into the “bus stop” and ended up getting the raw deal out of my attempt. My front wheel contacted his back and well I ended up hitting the deck. It just wasn’t such a great weekend for me, but I guess you are going to have those every once and a while.
My next race weekend was at Barber Motorsports Park, with the WERA Southeast region. I was excited to get on the road and head back to the southeast. I knew that I was going to have at least a few nights in my own bed and a few days to get the ZX6R back together for the race weekend. I showed up on Saturday the 23rd and decided that I would enter the Solo 20 for some seat time; I wanted to get a basic set up for Sunday’s races. The weather was pretty much going to be crap for the weekend with rain expected every day. I got through Saturday without getting wet and won my Solo race, also got my basic set up for Sunday.
When I woke up Sunday morning I knew it was going to be wet by the sound of the rain on the trailer roof. I decided not to go out in the first practice but go out in the second one instead, what a bad idea. The track just couldn’t handle all the water that was coming down and there were little rivers running across the race line everywhere not only that, but there was standing water too! When you hit a puddle straight up and down and your handle bars go full lock, it is certainly eye opening!
The track dried up a little for the first race, it was almost to dry for rains in some areas but to wet for DOTs in some areas. I lead the A Superstock race for almost the whole race, then Lee Acree got by me going into turn 5 on his GSXR 750. Lee was riding really well and I just couldn’t get back up to him before the checkered flag. In the C Superstock race I went back out on the rain tires I had raced on earlier. It looked like a storm was going to come; light rain fell for a second or two. Then as we lined up the sun came out. I knew I had made a bad decision to race on rains with a drying track. I battled for the lead with Stokes and even lead a lap or two. I burned the rain tires up by lap 4 and just held on to finish third.
C Superbike was the next race. I put on Michelin DOTs for that race and was ready for some action. I grabbed the lead by the end of lap one and put my head down. Daniel Parkerson passed me on lap 4 going into turn 5. I was right on his rear wheel coming out of the back chicane, my front brake lever hit his leg at one point and locked my front wheel up. SCARY! I passed Daniel going into turn 1 when he made the wrong choice trying to get by some lappers. On the last lap he stuffed me pretty big going into 14A, it kind of set me off in my helmet. Turn about is fair play, I rammed it up underneath him going into the last turn. I don’t think he was expecting a last ditch effort by me, I had the advantage going down the front straight and won a very close race.
750 Superbike was the last race of the day for me and well was way less exciting than the C Superbike race. I just rode smooth and took the win.
All in all, I know that doing this is pretty tough. I have ridden every weekend for like the last 6 weekends or something like that. I have had a lot of fun but am looking forward to a much needed weekend off. I have to get some maintenance done on the bikes! I am at home now which is nice, and am heading down to Jennings GP to do a Florida regional race with WERA this coming up Sunday. I will let you guys know how that one turns out!
Matt Lynn
Matt Lynn Racing would like to thank all of our sponsors:
Arai Helmets, SIDI Boots, RM Racing, Michelin Tires, Ohlins USA , LeoVince Exhaust, Performance Friction Brakes, Offbeat Productions, Fuji Bicycles, Sportbike Track Gear, OCD Designs, Spiegler Performance Brakes , Attack Performance , Marietta Motorsports , Vortex Sprockets
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