After testing at Miller Motorsports Park, our next concern was the races at Infineon Raceway, a track where we were pretty much struggling at this point last season. But I was not too worried about going back there, because I knew the situation we were in this year was a lot better. Right off the bat we were very competitive, right there in the top three all weekend. So I was real happy about that. The first qualifying session came around Friday and we were right there flirting with the front row, but my main concern was getting the bike working more than getting on the front row. We did some adjustments and I was able to pick the pace up a little bit in final qualifying on Saturday, but so did everyone else and we came up just shy of getting on the front row. Fifth isn’t a very good grid position to be in at Infineon because they have the starting positions backwards, I think. Pole is on the inside there, but the wall comes out pretty far and the guy on pole pretty much has to get out of it. Luckily, I had Spies in front of me, and I knew he was gonna be trying to get a good start and get going. That was one positive I had going for me. I didn’t really get a good start in Saturday’s race, so I had to make my way up through the pack. I followed Jason [DiSalvo], and when he made a mistake I went on about my way. I had a much better pace than anybody else that was running for third, so we got around those guys pretty easily. After I got clear of everyone else I was kind of keeping the distance to Mat about the same, which was encouraging and good to feel. We ended up about six seconds behind Mat, which kind of blew us away. We’d never been that close to him. It had been so long since we had been on the podium, since last season, so for me to get third felt almost like winning a Superbike race. The team was so pumped up, and it was good to see the smiles on their faces. The race before that was one to forget at Cal Speedway. So to come from a disappointing race at Cal Speedway and get those guys on the podium it just boosts everybody up. We all worked hard at Miller and it really paid off at Infineon. We made some really small changes on the bike for Sunday, and in the warm-up we were right there in the top three again. I concentrated on getting a decent start. I didn’t get quite the start I wanted, but it was better than the day before. Then I made sure I got around the guys who held me up in Race One really quickly. I was a little bit more confident with the set-up on the bike, which enabled me to be more aggressive on my passes. I got around those guys, kept the two Suzuki guys in sight for a little bit but from then on out it was pretty much a boring race. We had a clear third place finish again, and again it was a really good result for the team. We had a little break between the races at Infineon and Miller. Usually after Infineon we drive to Monterey to ride bicycles down there, but we decided to change our plans this year and went up to Lake Tahoe. We were planning on staying in the RV park, but for some reason they had given all of our 50-amp hook-up spots away and we had no good power to hook up our motorhome. So we found a really nice home right on the lake that we rented for the week. This house was incredible! It was like 6000 or 7000 square feet with four different levels so four different couples could live there. It had a big deck out back looking over the lake. The house was superb and we were really looking forward to getting some good altitude riding in to get prepared for Utah, but the weather was pretty crappy. The first day was really hot and we got some decent riding in. Then the next few days it got dramatically colder and colder. One day we went for a ride and it started snowing on us! My fingers and my toes were freezing. So we went back down to Sacramento for a couple of days and rode around down there. I was really looking forward to the races at Miller. I thought it would be one of our best races of the season. We didn’t really change anything from the test, just rode the bike like it was, and the weekend started off right for us. In the first session we were fastest. It was like, ‘Wow! This could be the weekend when I get my second Superbike win.’ We just kept our heads screwed on straight and kept working. We tried some different fork springs but that was about it. We pretty much left the bike alone. Being at altitude kind of tamed the power down a little bit so it wasn’t so aggressive, and Miller has a lot of grip, so that helped us out tremendously. So pretty much the whole weekend we were first, second or third in every session, so it was very encouraging for us. Everyone was pumped up, and I was ready to go. We ended up qualifying third. I couldn’t get close to the Suzuki guys in the qualifying session, but I wasn’t too worried about that. Those guys have been on their game for a few years now, and I know trying to get close to them in a qualifying session is asking a lot. In Race One I got a little excited. I was right there with those guys when they usually pull away from me a little bit. We got into Turn Three, and they got turned in there a little bit faster than I could. My bike drifted on me a little bit. I probably could’ve saved it from running off the track, but it was going to be too close. The curb was coming up, and I probably would’ve lost the front or something silly like that. There’s a lot of run-off room there, so at the last minute I decided to wing it off through the dirt. I knew there was nothing out there that would get in the way, so I stood the bike up and concentrated on getting it back on the track. But I was pretty pissed off because I thought that mistake would probably cost me a podium position. I came back on the racetrack and across the start/finish line I was pretty far back. I was so aggravated at myself. I just put my head down and didn’t make any mistakes and ran the lap times I knew I could and started reeling in those guys. I reeled them in like Ben and Mat normally come by me. For me, that was fun, getting in there with Aaron [Yates] and Neil [Hodgson] and actually getting to race some guys. I made some really cool moves on Neil, and then he came back on me. From what people told me the crowd was going crazy when we were dicing. That’s something our sport’s been missing for a while is getting the crowd into it and getting everyone pumped up. I was glad to provide some good racing for them like that. I chose a different tire than everybody else in the race. I don’t know why nobody else chose it, but I chose a tire that I knew would work for me. I saw Ben up front there, and I knew the tire he was on and I knew it wasn’t gonna make it. So I was charging as hard as I could, but I gave him so much room at the beginning of the race by running off. If I hadn’t done that I could maybe have won that race. I came within 1.6 seconds of Ben at the finish. I wanted to be mad, but I was pretty happy with what we had done. To come from 10th place to second was amazing. I was more disappointed to not get my guys the victory. But they were super happy. Everybody was happy. I knew everybody would change tires for the second race, especially Ben, so I knew it was gonna be tougher on us. I got the start out of the way. I didn’t get the greatest start. I’ve been having some problems on the starts. I definitely need to start working on those. But I got away with the top three. Then Neil got by me, and I was fourth. It was really windy that day, and I got into Turn 16 or 17 over there, and the wind blew me really hard as I went to throw it into the left hander. Once again the bike drifted wide on me. Luckily, the edge of the track was paved extra for run-off so I didn’t lose too many positions, but I fell back out of the top five. So once again I gave the front guys a second I couldn’t really afford. I had to put my head down, but the bike didn’t feel as good as it did the first day. I don’t know if it was because the track temp was a little hotter, but we managed to charge back up. We caught back up, passed Neil, set my sights on Mladin, passed Mat. I knew Mat would be a little tentative after falling the day before. Then I actually started pulling in on Ben [Spies] a little bit, maybe a second or two, but then Ben responded. He could see me back there. He managed to pull the gap back out, and we stayed the same distance apart the whole race and I finished second. So we left Miller with a pair of seconds and our hopes really high heading for Road America, a track we felt would benefit us because our bike is so fast and it’s coming around in the handling department. The weather for the weekend was looking like it usually does for Wisconsin that time of year — thunderstorms. That mixes up the practice sessions. Over the last few years we’ve really been cut short on dry practice sessions, so when you get a dry session there you better be on your game. I got right to business on Friday. All we changed was fork springs. That was it. You know you’re in the right area when you’re just changing little things like that and you’re not changing the steering head and shock links. We looked really competitive Friday, then the rain came in. I wanted to get some wet time in because Road America is really tricky in the wet. And even though the track has done a lot of improvements for us, it still should be a track we do not race on in the rain because of that back straightaway. It gets pretty dangerous in the wet on these bikes doing 180 mph back there. The wet session went really good for me. We were fastest, and the bike worked really well. Saturday started off wet again, but it dried out right before our qualifying session. So the track was in pretty crappy condition. We were top three pretty much the whole session, but right there at the end we got bumped to fourth by Eric [Bostrom]. But we were happy with that because we knew we had a good race set-up. I got a decent start into Turn One. I was on the inside of Mat. Then Mat realized it, let off the brakes and got back in front of me. Then Eric got by me in Turn Three. I made it back by Eric going down the middle straightaway there and just put in a solid ride. We pulled away from a battle with Neil, but the Suzuki guys got a head start on me and gapped me pretty good right at the start. There was nothing I could do. I felt like I was riding as hard as I could, but there was nothing I could do but finish third, 12 seconds in front of fourth. The bike worked pretty decent, though. We wanted to do a little bit of adjusting on the bike to try and get the bike to steer a little better, but when Sunday morning warm-up came around the skies had pretty much opened up. We went out on some rain tires. I had a hard rear tire on my bike, which I don’t really prefer but for some reason we had a shortage on tires. The tire ended up catching me out. I came out of Canada Corner. I spun the bike out. I did a donut, crashed the bike and slid forever. If the old bridge had been there I would’ve hit the bridge pretty hard. Thank God the bridge wasn’t there. I managed to pick the bike up and ride it in, but that ended the session. I was pretty disappointed with the situation we had with our tires, but I knew everything was good with the race tires and we were ready — wet or dry. It continued to rain up until lunch time, and then it quit. The races in front of us were run in damp conditions, and the track dried out fairly fast. Right before the Superbike race it cleared right up, and the track was dry, but obviously it was gonna be green. I got me a good start this time, a better start. I ended up third and charged right up there with those Suzuki guys. I chose a different front tire for the race. I’m not sure if the tire was allowing me to run with those guys or if it was the track conditions not being that great, but it was good to run with those guys for six or seven laps there. I felt like I was very competitive with them and could maybe make some passes, but I didn’t think it was time for me to make passes on those guys yet. I just wanted to run with them comfortably, stay there and get used to things. It’s a little bit different. Those guys ride at a hard, fast pace, and I don’t want to get in there and start being Mr. Dumbass and start diving in on the brakes and acting like a fool. I just chose to stay there, but there was a couple of places I was stronger. There was pretty much one wet corner on the racetrack that had a lot of water still running through it. I was struggling getting through there. I came through there one lap and lost the rear pretty good, and those guys gapped me out about two seconds. Man, I couldn’t pull it back. Once I lost those two seconds they picked up the pace a little bit and gapped me some more. I wish I could’ve stayed with them a little bit longer and maybe stayed there the whole race, but I made another mistake and I can’t give these guys anything. They don’t make mistakes. They’re on top of their game. As soon as we stop making these little mistakes we’ll be better off and maybe give these guys a run. Maybe next time I’ll feel comfortable enough to make some passes on those guys and do something with them. I’m just real proud of my whole team getting the chassis set-up and working on my electronics and my motor runs great. It’s making things good. I’m really enjoying these two years I’ve spent over at Kawasaki now. I feel real comfortable over there. Those guys do a lot for me. They listen to me and what I have to say about the bike. We work really well together. We left Road America with two more great finishes. Now we’re trying to make our way back up the point standings in the top three and trying to catch Neil. Neil’s really stepped up his program here, been finishing solid in fourth and fifth. We’ve been trying to make up some points on him, but it’s like pulling teeth, one at a time. Our whole point system is stupid. It’s crazy. A guy doesn’t get rewarded for finishing well. We’ll just have to keep pulling one and two points a time back on Neil. I think we’re one or two points out of third place right now. That’s not too bad halfway through the season, and we’ve had one mechanical DNF at Barber. We’re looking strong. My goal is to finish the season in the top three, and who knows what could happen with the top two guys. Maybe we can get closer to them. But my main goal is to keep the pressure on and keep the focus and the drive, like we’re doing. After Road America we headed to Mid-Ohio for a test. I wasn’t really looking forward to the test, but after the announcement that we were racing there in the rain I was really looking to all of the improvements they were supposed to have done. I was like, ‘Wow, they must have started all of these improvements when we left last year.’ When we got there I rode around the track. I don’t think I got out of first gear because I was looking so hard trying to see something, some sort of dirt moved, something. I couldn’t find anything, and I wasn’t surprised to find nothing had been done. So we commenced with our testing program. We had some new pieces to try for our suspension. The track was pretty much in an unrideable condition on the first morning for some reason. The track in the dry had less grip than when we raced in the rain at Road America. You couldn’t even ride it. It was like you were on a slimy, wet racetrack wherever they put sealer in the corners. You probably couldn’t stand up out there in the rain nevermind race on it. We tried to circulate as much as we could to try and get some rubber down. The track was garbage and the times were way off. I pretty much wasn’t looking for a lap time, just testing some new parts and trying some things out. Then I told my guys one of the things I wanted to work on was improving my starts. Since we’re getting on the front row now I think a key to me doing better is getting good starts. Kawasaki has probably got one of the best clutches I have ever seen in my entire life. I did six starts in a row and 15 over the day on one clutch. On the second day we were close to the times Ben and Mat did, very competitive and nothing like we were last year when we were over a second off the pace. That was real encouraging. So now I’m just looking forward to getting home (we were on the road since Barber), continuing my training program with these hot summer months coming up on the East Coast, continuing to improve our bike and moving up in the point standings.