Oregon Lightweight Moto Round 5 — Mac Track

Round 5 at Mac Track ran as a single day on Saturday. It was my first time riding since the crash at Cascadia on September 6, and my first time on my own Desmo450 at Mac. Four 10-lap races were on the schedule: two mini races on the Honda CRF150R #711 and two supermoto and lightweight sport bike races on the Desmo450.

The mini races never happened for me. Earlier in the day I let a kid sit on the 150R, and they gave the throttle a good workout before I realized what that was going to do to starting it. It would not start in time for either race, so both went down as DNS.

Coming back from the injury, I started both supermoto races from the back on purpose. I had no qualifying time and did not want to be part of the fun going into Turn 1 off the start, so I lined up sixth of six, a mixed grid of supermotos and lightweight sport bikes. It took me a few laps to build my pace, but I caught Nolan VanderVoort (#77), who was running second, and probed him a few times. I did not quite have the confidence to get around him and finished third. I still ran the fastest lap of the race, which was pretty cool, though several of our regular fast supermoto riders were not there this round, so I would not read too much into it. I have no real benchmark for my own pace here, since it was my first time on my own 450 at Mac. Considering where I am in my recovery, I was happy with it.

The second race went much the same way from the back, except this time I got around Nolan and started making progress on Corbin Porter (#44), who was riding great. I finished second.