South Carolina Flat Track Tour!

Orangeburg, SC
This was another beautiful facility. It was located out in the middle of an amazing sea of green grass. It had rained earlier in the day leaving the track in moist and perfect - just what I was used to. It took no time to dial in the C&J RMZ450 Suzuki and have it running like a kangaroo across the Aussie desert. I got the gearing settled in and practice had gone well and I was feeling really good for the heat races.

The first heat race was the 450 Pro class and I got a perfect start, straight to the front. Once out front, I rode like a scalded dog and just wanted to stay out front. The course marshal on the inside of the course kept holding up his hands wider and wider letting me know that my lead was stretching out all the time.

When I finally looked back I could see that I had an entire straightaway lead over second place. After the race I was told I had set a new lap record! I was pretty stoked about that for sure!

For the second heat race, the Open Pro class, it was about the same as the first race except that the gap back to second was much less. I won, but not by nearly the same margin. These guys were not far behind me at all. Still, I was thankful for my second win of the night.

The first main event, 450 Pro class went pretty well. I got off the line in first again and took the lead going into the first corner. I held that lead for about half of the race, but made a small slip and that let second place by. Being smarter than the average Koala bear, I learned from this little mistake and set out to get my lead back.

I tried the inside line and could not make that stick, so I tried the outside line and that didn’t get me anywhere either, so I had to just take the second place finish and be happy with that, though I really wasn’t. Like any racer, I was a bit disappointed in myself for making a mistake that cost me the win. All I could do was go into the next race and not make the same mistake.

Open Pro main event. My start was not as good as my last three races and I came out of turn two in third place. I moved up to second quickly and then took off after the leader. Though I gave it my Aussie all, I just could not make a pass stick and had to take another second place main event for the night.

Though I came away with two seconds in the mains, my heat race wins, lessons learned and new lap record made it a really good event overall.

Neese, SC
Just like at Orangeburg, I had great heat races at this track. Starting with 450 DTX class and then in the Open Pro class, I smoked both of my heat races and started the evening with a couple of wins. That was a great way to start things out for sure. Almost too good sometimes as it just leaves you one way to go the rest of the night. It can also put the pressure on just a little bit.

Moving on to the 450 DTX main event, I got the holeshot again and towed everybody else around the about half the race. I was eventually passed for the lead, but held that position to the flag. I didn’t feel too bad about the winner just had a better faster motorcycle than me tonight. I didn’t make any mistakes and was very happy with my riding.

The Open Pro main event was quite the fiasco. We had a number of red flags and four restarts. On all of the previous restarts, I had good starts and went into the first turn in second place. I would have loved for them to keep any of those starts alive and gone green. When the final start was finally waved green, I had gotten the worst start of the past few races, getting away in fifth.

I moved up a spot, but this was a really difficult track to pass on. I worked my tail off, but could not move up and none of the guys up in front of me made any mistakes, so fourth was where I took the checkered at.

Once again, it was a good weekend and had a ton of fun, learned more about the new framer and met some really nice folks. I just really want to thank Mike Hacker for all the help, Harold at Johnson Cams and Drum at FlatTrackStuff.com. Of course I couldn’t be doing any of this without the heaps of help my folks have given me over the years. Thanks mates!