Sea Otter Report

This was a long time coming at least as far as a write up goes, but a sudden illness kept me in recovery for quite some time in fact right now I should be riding Trans Iowa, but I had to bow out as I was certainly not feeling well, but getting better.  Good luck to fellow EVOMO team member Tim Ek on his 300+ mile of gravel goodness.

So about that Sea Otter deal.

Flight departure from Milwaukee was at 5:05 so that meant getting up at 3 am. Good thing about having to go to the airport so early was the lack of traffic and I would be in California before 2pm. I found that regardless of the lack of sleep I've had I still will not sleep on the plane. I had a few connections, Chicago, Los Angeles, and finally Monterey before Bryan stopped by to give me a lift to Laguna Seca Raceway.  I got all situated at the EVOMO booth and headed over to get the first of many burritos.   After stuffing my face, Bryan and I went around to check out the booths.

First stop was at the Tifosi booth to say hi and thanks to Matt and Shannon.

From there we stopped by the Ergon booth and chatted up Jeff Kerkove and Sonya Looney two very cool people in which is truely great that we get to represent Ergon for 2009.  Sonya later stopped back to check out the threads and drop off a couple of dh grips that are new for 2009.  

Greg from MotorTabs set up his HQ at the EVOMO booth he is the man with the plan and hooked us all up with Motortabs for the weekends hot weather at times getting very close to 100 degrees.

We also made a stop at the Simbree booth to try ALL of their creations and they are All good.   If you have a chance to try some Simbree energy bites I am sure you'll enjoy them.

As far as the race goes, I started off great getting a front row start I took off like I was blasted out of a cannon.  I maintained 2nd wheel for the better part of the Laguna Seca leadout.  I could tell right away that this was going to be a blood bath with all the climbing in the wide open sun so I put down hard on the climbs and relaxed on descents.  The course was comprised of a lot of sand and maybe about 10% was tree covered if that and wide open easy to pass for around 19 miles for each lap.

This would not be my day though as I would lose my front tire in freakish way and do down on a descent as the tire was about ready to roll off the rim.  I ran/walked the remaining 3 miles for lap one and turned in my timing chimp.  Race ending in DNF.  I will say though that despited my early withdrawl from the race It was a great weekend and met a lot of amazing people.  Thanks to Bryan and Mike with Evomo, Tifosi, Motortabs, Fluid, Ergon, Simbree, and it was great to meet all of you.  

Next Race?  WEMS Series Opener at the Stump Farm 12 Hour.  Where I will be looking to defend my 2008 solo win!

The Turner is ready...well after I get some shifters!  I can't wait for the season to begin.