I had been on the fence about riding at Putnam Park in April, but after uncovering issues with the new R6, I was certainly glad I had. Had I not made that trip, I would have found those issues at the first race event of the season. Instead, I had just enough time to order the triple clamps and get my bike over to Jerry at WFO Motorsports for some much needed tuning between the Putnam event and my first ever WERA race weekend.
 

I have been to a few WERA events in the past as a spectator, and at every one, I was extremely impressed with the event and with the talent of the racers participating. I first attended a WERA race as a spectator in 2008, and since then have been trying to come up with a program to race with WERA… and this is the year. To help mitigate travelling expenses, Ernie Miller and I decided to travel to these events together. Ernie and I are racing in different classes this year, but being able to practice together is a very beneficial to both of us, as we are similar in overall lap times, but we usually approach the track and race lines in very different ways.
 

Denise, Ernie, and I depart out of St. Louis at around 4pm on Thursday, and make our way towards Belding, MI. The trip took us right around 8 hours after stopping for food and fuel, and we arrived right around 1am local time. I had planned to meet an old buddy at the track for his first track day, he and his fiancé pulled in to the track right behind us. We pulled a bike out of the hauler to accommodate the extra sleepers and hit the sack for a quick few hours of sleep.
 

Friday was a practice day for Ernie and me. I have been to Grattan before but have never ridden it in the counterclockwise direction, and Ernie had never been to Grattan at all, so both of us are essentially learning a new track. We did a limited endurance day with STT to get a ton of seat time on the new track, and by the end of the day Ernie was in the 1.27’s and I was in the 1.28’s. I was a little disappointed with my times, I had given myself a goal of getting into the 1.26’s and came up short, but I felt like I was making good progress. I took some time to dial in the R6 in between sessions, and came up with what I thought was a good set-up for the races on Sunday. Friday was also my friend, Brett’s first track day. Ernie and I gave him a few pointers throughout the day on how to ride safely and quickly, and he and his bike finished the day in one piece with a big smile. The track was very green in the morning, but by the afternoon it was apparent that his motocross racing experience was translating very well in his new found hobby.
 

Saturday was a day off for Ernie and I, and a well appreciated one at that. We decided not to race on Saturday since we had gotten quite a bit of track time on Friday, and our bodies thanked us for it. I was certainly sore on Saturday, as it was really the first day of the year I had pushed the bike or myself that hard. Instead of riding we registered for our races, tech’d our machines, and sat back and relaxed and watched the races. We won’t have this luxury at many events, because many of them are double headers, meaning we will be racing for points on both days, but the racing on this Saturday were only for fun, no points were given for participating. Denise prepared us a great, carb-filled meal on Saturday, and we went to bed pretty early to be well rested for our races on Sunday.
 

Sunday was something I have never experienced before. WERA runs a very tight ship, and I just wasn’t used to the pace at which they get their sessions in. I missed my first practice session in the morning because I just didn’t have my gear on in time. Luckily, because I’m running in C (600) and B (750) classes, I got to practice with the 600’s and the 750’s separately, so I really didn’t miss any practice time.
 

My first race was CSS (C Superstock). I started in the 12th position, which was completely new to me. I have only ever raced with 12 people once before, and I have certainly never started that far back. However, there weren’t only 12 bikes in this race, there were 25 registered to race. I got a good start and was up in about 6th place by the time I was through turn 3. I was keeping a good pace, doing my best to keep up with the front group. I made a couple more passes and was hoping to finish on the podium, but about 6 laps into the 8 lap sprint race, I started having brake fading issues. I sacrificed a little time on the front straight to adjust my brake lever for more lever travel, but quickly found out that the adjustment I just made had given me less travel than before and that I was already at the maximum amount of travel. Luckily, I was able to get the bike slowed down going into T1 just enough to not run off track, and was able to fumble the adjuster back the other way. However, now I have not only sacrificed some time, but also about 5 places. I continued to run my race, but the damage had been done and I finished in 9th.
 

My second race was BSS (B Superstock). I started this race in 7th, and felt more comfortable from this spot compared to the previous race. However, because of some changes in the schedule and having to bleed the brakes to fix the fade issue, I wasn’t able to get out on the grid in time to take a practice lap, so I would have to report directly to my grid position without that sighting lap. This made me a little nervous, but by the time the green flag dropped, it was just time to go and beat the guy ahead of me. Again, I got a decent start and found myself running in 3rd in no time. I did my best to keep the 2 guys ahead of me in sight, and caught up to the 2nd place bike by lap 7. I had worked really hard to get within striking distance to him, but he looked back on the last lap to see me stalking him, which gave him the motivation to put his head down and pull away from me. I did my best to run him down, and did a 1.25:5 lap time in this race, which was my best for the weekend and half a second faster than my personal goal.
 

My third race of the day was CSB (C Superbike). I started this race in 10th, and with 24 registered to race, I knew I needed to get out in the front pack early. I did just that, I got a decent start and was up to 4th after a couple of laps. I ran in 4th until about the 6th lap, when I was finally able to make a pass for 3rd. By this time, the leader and runner-up had created quite a gap while I was battling for 3rd, so running them down wasn’t likely, so I decided to just do my best to keep the pace I was running. In the 3rd last turn on the final lap, I lost traction and was bucked out of the saddle, but I was able to reign it back in and continued with my race. Luckily, I had put a pretty good gap on the bike I passed for 3rd, so as long as I could maintain a respectable speed through the last 2 turns, I would have another podium. I did just that, and was able to bring home some more hardware as a result.
 

My fourth and final race of the day was BSK (B Superbike). With my best starting position of the day at 6th, I was optimistic that this was going to be a good race. I got a good start and was running in the lead pack for much of the race, but towards lap 4 I found myself falling off just a bit due to fatigue. I was running in 3rd most of the race, but lost a position because the other rider was just faster than me at that particular time. At the 6th lap or so, the lead group had pulled away, and I wasn’t able to fight for a podium, but I found myself fighting for 4th as someone tried to make a pass in a tough spot. I closed the door and put my head down. As I did, we came up on a lap rider, so I took a little time as we approached to decide how I was going to get by without losing my place. I decided to set up the lapped rider on the outside of the entrance of the esses, which would then put me on the inside line at the next s. However, the lapped rider had his own ideas and closed the door on me pretty hard, not only allowing the rider I was battling with to take my position, but he also put a 10 bike length gap on me as well. Later in the lap, the rider that passed me for 3rd crashed out, putting me back in fourth place. I did my best to make up the ground that I had lost, but I just didn’t have enough time and I had to settle for 4th. I was certainly disappointed I wasn’t able to podium again, but I can only be disappointed that I made the wrong decision when I tried to overtake the lapped rider. I can now only do my best to learn from that situation, and use that experience for future races.
 

Ernie did well in his races, placing 3rd in ASS (A Superstock), 2nd in ASB (A Superbike) and 2nd in F1 (Formula 1). However, Ernie was disappointed to find out that my fastest lap of the day had surpassed his by .2 seconds. Mine was a 1.25:5, his a 1.25:7. Sorry buddy, better luck next time.
 

The weekend as a whole was tremendous, the weather was great, the races were great, no one got hurt, and everyone had fun. Denise was a registration girl on Saturday and Sunday, she got to meet a bunch of great people, and we were lucky enough to have Charles Miller announce the races for us. Our journey home was easy, and we made it safely home just in time to go to bed and rest up for work in the morning.
 

I want to thank all of my sponsors, your contributions have made this year possible. I also want to thank my family and friends for their support, and my beautiful wife for all of the random things she does to help make these weekends go well. I’m looking forward to the next event, hope to see you there!