Jam On It!

If you’re not a follower of or participant in WERA road racing, you might not be familiar with Cycle Jam. WERA is made up of several regions (Northeast, Mid-Central, Southeast, etc.) and through out the season folks race at events in their respective regions competing for regional championships. If you’re a reader of this blog, you know that I was fortunate to have won two such championships last year.

Cycle Jam is a once per year event that is on every region’s calendar. This means that about a zillion people enter each class. For some classes like C SS / C SB, this is normal. For others like the D classes, Heavyweight Twins, etc. it’s a bit of extra fun to have a full grid.

In addition, the WERA National Challenge series also has a full weekend of racing at the same event. This means that there is a round of the National Endurance series on Friday, regional sprints on Saturday, and National sprints on Sunday. That’s a full program of racing fo sho!

My plans are to run the sprints on Saturday and Sunday on the TL (as long  as its new motor is good…go Matt!), and also I’m going to be doing the endurance race with Gil Cutchen, Ryan Nelson, and Scott Padgitt on Gil’s 03 R6. To add to the fun, lots of folks will be coming to town to hang out at the track, watch me race for the first time, and participate as pit crew. My Step-Father George, my brother Seth, my Father In-law Jerry, and several of my best friends will all be there.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my amazing sponsors who have really stuck by me this year, even though it’s been a bumpy ride so far.

EBC Brakes : Garry at EBC has been great to me, supplying the latest in brick-wall stopping power in the form of HH Kit pads. If you haven’t tried these, do it.

Sonic Springs : Rich is another guy who didn’t’ know me from a hole in the wall before this Spring, but has always treated me like a valued asset…I won’t forget it. Great springs, low low prices (how about 35% cheaper than Race Tech?), great guys.

Cycle Therapy : If you need parts in a hurry, there’s no place better to call. How do I know this? When I stacked my R6 this past February, Mike K. called me to ask how I was doing (really…cool eh?), and when I told him about the bike’s smashed tank and other bits, he assured me I needn’t worry. By the end of the week, I had a garage full of replacement parts. Mike rocks. End of story.

VHS Photography: Vicky and co. take some awesome snaps (look around in this blog for many awesome examples), but that’s only the beginning of the story. Very few people in ‘the scene’ do so much so often to help racers out. She knows everybody, and if you need a part, or advice, or whatever, she knows how to get it…and she’ll stop at nothing until you’ve got whatever you need.

www.StickboyRacing.com :  We all know that Bridgestone tires kick maximum ass. What you might not know is that Stickboy and Honey (Derek and Lori) treat every one of their customers like royalty.  If you want the best tires going, and you want to feel like you’re the only customer who matters, you need to start buying your tires from Stick.

www.314Racing.com : Darrin’s ability to find just the exact deal you need, exactly when you need it, is legendary. If there’s any such thing as a ‘go-to guy’ when it comes to buying bike parts and racing gear, Darrin is that guy.

Scorpion Helmets : Joleen at Scorpion has been nothing but supportive all year. The helmets are the best available at the sub-$400 price point…and they start at under $150…no kidding. Joleen didn’t know me from Adam at the start to this year, but that hasn’t stopped her from taking a chance on me, and for that I am very grateful. Stop by my pit at Cycle Jam to see my latest custom Scorpion lid…it’s Bad Ass.

Fasttrack Motorsports : At risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to thank Mark personally for his above-and-beyond help this year. The season started out with my completely destroying the graphic job he spent hours creating, and went from there. I don’t know why he stuck with me after that, but I sure as heck am glad he did. I owe everything good about this season to Mark, and I’m going to do my level best to earn that support in the coming months.


I started out this season with high hopes, and higher expectations. When I approached my sponsors for this year, I regaled them with tales of C class dominance and huge exposure on the track and off. Between my crash and my late decision to change classes, some of these promises have not come to pass. My lack of enthusiasm stemming from racing in the C class had a negative impact on my ability to properly represent those who are so generously helping me out, and that’s not cool.

And yet, here I am approaching Cycle Jam, about to race a bike I’ve yet to ride (assuming Matt was lucky and found me a good motor), and every one of my sponsors has stuck by me. That, friends, is cool. Way cool.

So now, it’s on me. It’s on me to demonstrate that I’m worth the effort, and it’s on me to bring back the level of fun and performance that got me all of this great support in the first place. Can I do it? Hell yes I can.

See you next week!