Home field advantage
Oak Hill Raceway - Henderson, TX
September 9-10, 2006

This is it, the last round in the SE division of the USGPRU National Championships. Although I missed the second round at Summit Point, I can still salvage some points and finish in a decent position. Stu picks me up at 6:30, Thurs after work and we head down for the long 16 hour drive to East TX.

The drive goes well with no issues and we drive straight through the night. We arrive at Oak Hill Fri morning at 9:30a CST. We weren't planning on doing the practice/track day today, but don't feel too tired and decide to do just a half day.

We get camp setup and head out for the first session after lunch. Damn, this track is hard and tricky. The locals have a definite home-field advantage. The track is tight, and technical, and very bumpy. After a couple sessions we figure out which way the track goes and start fine-tuning our lines. Man I'm glad we decided to do the practice day today. We head back to the hotel after some dinner and sleep as soon as we hit the bed.

Sat, we get up and head to the track. We get a couple practice sessions today then head out for qualifying. Shit it's gonna be a tough race.. all the top 3-4 fast guys from each coast are here, as well as the fast locals. Taking inventory of who's here, I size everyone up and my prediction is that the best I could do is 9th-10th. We head out for qualifying, and sure enough... I turn my best times so far for the weekend, but only good enough to grid in 10th position. Oh well.. It's what I expected, realistically.

Sun, we pack up and check out of the hotel and head to the track. We get a round of practice in and wait for the local sprint races before lunch. Lunch comes quick and we're the first race after lunch. Here we go.

3rd call sounds and I head out for the warm up lap with my strategy in my head. We grid up, I'm in the 4th row. The green flag drops, and I get a decent start along with everyone else. Heading up the hill, I've got a slew of riders in front of me. I'm guessing I'm somewhere near 10th or so. The line starts to form and the lead group start running away. There's no way I can keep up, or catch up, so I focus on the rider in front of me. It's a local rider, Brandon Warren. he qualified 1 second faster than me and I knew it'd be tough keeping up with him, but I'll try. After a couple laps, he just keeps slowly walking away from my. I try but I just can't keep up, and I don't have enough confidence in my stock suspension to push the bike harder through the bumps and patches Oak Hill has to offer. So I look behind me and I don't see anyone in sight. OK cool, I'll just hang here and maintain my position.

As the race goes on, I go on cruise control and hold my position, and as I predicted, I finish in 10th. Not bad, considering the majority of the racers this weekend consisted of the top fastest riders from each coast trying to chase the championship, as well as the local favorites. The track was fun, but I won't be going back there. It wasn't worth the drive for me.

I'm happy with my results, as coming home safely and getting a good finish in the SE division was my end goal, which I did. I end up 6th in the SE division of the National Championship, and currently sit in 17th in the National Championship. Only 7 points separate me from 13th position, and 24 puts me in 10th in the Nation. With any luck at the final round in Utah, I could move up and finish 10th or 11th in the Nation.

My next race is the last CCS SE regional race weekend, Sept 23/24. With it being a double points weekend, I should hopefully be able to finish out the regional series in 1st or 2nd in the 125GP class. Then it's off to Miller Motorsports on Oct. 20 for the USGPRU National Championship final round.