Race Report
Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit · charity endurance · Spiva Racing · 2024 KTM 450 SMR #101
9 hours · 351 laps · 3rd of 17 · best lap 1:23.996
Spiva Racing, with Hannah Johnson, Alex Taylor and Ben Freiberger. We ran Ben's 2024 KTM 450 SMR under Ben's number, 101. Not the Desmo450, which I bought late last year for this race and for supermoto at Oregon Lightweight Moto. Flat track was the winter distraction, the build started in early February, and an oil leak and a cooling leak parked the bike before I could leave.
Left Friday afternoon a little flustered. Work ran long, and I still had to sort what the van carried, because the following weekend was track days and then a quick turnaround for the next round at The Ridge.
Uneventful drive to Mount Vernon. I wasn't in a rush until about an hour out, and then the usual going-racing feeling showed up.
Mark Skodje has a great garage and we used it. Tires, safety wire, sprocket, and a power lead for the Solo 2 so it could log all nine hours. Bed around nine for a 4:30 alarm.
Early run to the ferry and over the border. Stopped at Smør Scandinavian Bakery in Sidney, which I will go to again. Open-faced salmon sandwich and a waffle with Nutella and banana.
Mark Higginbottom, who runs the org and the event, gave us a fair price to run a few afternoon sessions in advance so the team could learn the track.
Oliver Jervis led Ben around, then Hannah and Alex later in the day. He also brought a track map over and walked our team and the Encompass crew through a few key sections once the track had gone cold.
I got a quick twenty minutes and the track came back to me faster than I expected.
Camped at a spot Alex found, ordered pizza, talked about motorcycles, in the vans by nine. Then a thunder and lightning storm the locals told us is not normal there. I kept getting woken by thunder and falling back asleep in time for the next one.
Woke up to a very damp British Columbia. Tim Hortons for breakfast, which is mandatory, and good people-watching.
Gate at seven. Generator on, tires warming, and we helped the Encompass team get sorted.
Then the decision. Most of the field was on DOTs or slicks. We had rains with us, but more rain wasn't expected and you could see the asphalt drying by the riders' meeting. The team voted me the brave soul to go ride slicks in the rain on a 450 supermoto.
The riders' meeting was good. Hearing the charities talk about what the money actually did for them is a good way to start a race.
No transponder practice this year, we just went. We hadn't fundraised enough for a top three slot and went out fifth or sixth, which suited me. In those conditions I wanted to be near the front or far enough back to see what was happening, not stuck in the middle.
Better than it had any right to be. The first few laps were tippy-toes. Once I had a sense of what was there I added pace slowly.
One moment where I asked too much and got some feedback, and it was entirely on me. I put myself far too close to a rider who was paying a lot of respect to the track conditions, and then he decided to pay them even more respect. He was within his rights and I had no business being there. Got on the brakes, turned quicker than I wanted, had to get to the gas earlier to make it work. Small rear slide, nothing dramatic. Filed it and kept going.
My lap the day before was around a 1:29. I opened the race with a 1:49.8 and finished the wet stint at 1:31. Got passed once or twice and did a lot of passing.
One thing we got wrong. We'd agreed umbrella signals and I hadn't locked in what they meant. Crossed meant five minutes, single meant last lap. My first thought on seeing the crossed umbrellas was that my stint couldn't be over already, and that maybe crossed meant halfway the way crossed flags do. By the time the single came up I had it sorted, and came in, surprised at how fine I felt.
The middle of the race was about building confidence in the bike and the track. We worked our way to fourth, then third.
A river ran across one section of the track all day, shrinking as it dried. By the end you could be wide open through it as long as the bike was stood up.
The last rotation was the best of the day, and not just for me.
I got in behind another supermoto rider at a similar pace and he showed me the fast section through two and three. Oliver had described it and I'd been attempting it, but I couldn't get there without someone in front to show me. With him a bike length ahead I got it, and then I was wide open through the whole section, using a small roll-off when I wanted more direction. More trajectory, as Oliver would put it.
First few laps I thought he might slow me down, stuck in traffic with my lap timer reading higher than I wanted. Once we had clear track we both threw down and started dipping into the 1:24s.
I got a 1:23.996 on my final lap as Hannah showed me the board to come in. Personal best at VIMC, and about a third of a second quicker than anyone else on our team had gone to that point.
I'd like to think that gave everyone permission to give it a bit more. It's also entirely possible the track was just officially dry by then and they'd have found it anyway. Probably some of both.
Alex went out and threw down a 1:22.780, the fastest lap anyone on our team turned all day. Hannah's 1:24.301 came on her last stint, quicker again, the way she had been all day.
Then Ben, planning to bring it home and lay down simple laps, did exactly that and turned his best lap of the race anyway, a 1:25.006. He didn't just bring it home, he secured us third. Watching him do it was the best thing I saw all weekend.
Something I only noticed looking at the charts afterwards. All four of us set a quicker best lap on every stint we ran. Twelve stints, twelve improvements.
I'll take one small piece of credit. I set a faster lap than Ben on his own bike. I'll also note the unfair advantage, which is that I knew the track and have far more time on big circuits. He will murder me on a supermoto track on a 450 any day of the week.
P3, 351 laps, 11 pit stops. Tino's Handmade Riders won on 357, Promac Moto second on 355.
Ben Freiberger. Your bike and your number carried the whole thing when mine didn't make it, and you handed it to three other people for nine hours without blinking. Supermoto is your world, not big circuits, and you got quicker on one all day anyway, your best lap creeping down stint after stint without you ever reaching for it. You went out for that last one as the anchor, with third ours to lose and one job, not to crash it away. So you were metronomic instead, and the best lap of your race fell out of it. You were the most consistent rider on the team from first stint to last, which over nine hours counts for more than one fast lap. Thank you for the bike, and for bringing it home in third.
Hannah Johnson and Alex Taylor. I learn something from the two of you every time we are at a track together. You turned up to a circuit neither of you had seen before, on a machine you'd first ridden the day before, and got after it anyway. I'd do another nine hours with either of you tomorrow, or 24 in October.
Oliver Jervis, for helping our team and for being who you are. Kind, understanding, fast, and a genuine pillar of the community in the Northwest and in Canada. When I think about the riders I want to be like when I grow up, you're one of them.
Gen and Gina, for being there and supporting this stupid endeavor of ours. Neither of you could ride this one and your help was still enormous.
Laura, Ben and Gen's friend. You came out to support us and asked all sorts of great questions about this crazy sport I love.
Mark Skodje, for the garage, the accommodations, the friendship, and for being my blocker.
Mark Higginbottom and the crew, for an event that raises real money for real charities. This year that money goes to the Cowichan Therapeutic Riding Association, the Cowichan Brain Injury Society, and the Cowichan Valley branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.
And Team Encompass. Ninth, up from twelfth last year. Tim Wright funded that effort, and Mark Skodje, Euan Cameron, Madison Hayes and Nick Newton rode it. Thank you all for being excellent pitmates and for sharing the weekend with my team and me.
No pomp after the flag, just a photo for the winners. We went to Bar Burrito, I had a falafel burrito, and we sat and debriefed. Most of us caught the ferry that night. I drove back to Mount Vernon and then to The Ridge, because that's what I do.
